Generic term for a type of god or spirit

[Dannyalcatraz]

Q: What do you call a Japanese Ice-demon?

A: A Zamb Oni!

And of course, the demon who broke up The Beatles was Yoko Oni...

 

[Brimshack]

Lots of good suggestions. Mine would be

Spirit Keeper

 

[PallidPatience]

The Mandarin word, Shen, is a generic term for anything with supernatural power. It's been used to refer to vampiric beings, lycanthropic beings, ghosts, gods, etc.

 

[Jolly Giant]

I thought vettir was more akin to a gnome (in the elemental sense) or an earth spirit?

Come to think of it, I guess that would be appropriate for a guardian spirit of a place. But I associate vettir with spirits of the land and earth.

According to the old Scandinavian folklore, there are a huge number of different types of vettir. Some live down in the earth; others inside mountains. But there's also vette variants that live in water; one of which lives only in rivers, another only in lakes, and several that can only be found in the ocean. There are also vettir that lives inside plants; such as the askfruer ("ash wives"), which live inside ash trees (much like dryads).

 

[Pbartender]

Q: What do you call a Japanese Ice-demon?

A: A Zamb Oni!

And of course, the demon who broke up The Beatles was Yoko Oni...

Don't forget the Japanese demon of sliced lunch meats... Bal Oni.

 

[GreatLemur]

The definition fits very well, especially the protective spirit aspect... the only thing I don't like is the name. I was hoping for something more exotic sounding to the player's English speaking ears ('genius' being an English word with a different meaning from the latin, of course).

Well, you could go with another Roman term, numen. It refers to either a spiritual being, or a general quality of sacredness abour an object or place. So it's nicely indistinct in meaning, and--because it's related to some words that made it into English--sounds somewhat culturally neutral.

Alternatively, there's also lares, which were little house gods or protective spirits. Maybe a little closer to the meaning you're looking for, but it feels a little less culturally neutral.

Since you're talking about animism , why not use anima?

That sounds pretty perfect, too. Alternatively, you could use the Greek equivalent, pneuma. Oh, and logos can have some similarly approriate conotations.

It seems that, according to some people at least, Deva might be an acceptable term. Kami, of course. Orisha and Ancestor, too. And yeah, Manitou might work.

Yeah, those are good. Also, there are the devas' opposite numbers, the asura (who were demons to the devas' angels, or angels to the devas' demons, depending on whose scripture you're reading).