Spirit World

The Spirit World is a world parallel to our own. It appears to mirror our world because it is, in essence, the soul of our world.

Interesting Traits
The Spirit World looks almost exactly like our world, except colors are distorted. The Spirit World is a reflection of our world, and by peering into our world from the spirit world, everything appears as it truly is. For instance, a large, muscle-bound man with a lot of bravado may actually be a coward. If viewed from the spirit world he would appear small and weak. Illusions are unable to hide this.

There are also a few places that exist solely in the spirit world. Perhaps a riftwalker brought supplies from the mortal world to build house. Or, some places that were loved or mean something very special will live on in the spirit world even if the landscape should change or the place be demolished.

The most interesting place is the Chasm of the Sword. This is where the Spirit King's sword was sheathed. It goes straight down through the center of the planet out through the other side. This chasm is why the spirit world suffers from a difference in time to the mortal world. In the spirit world, time moves much faster. However, the difference varies greatly from place to place and depends a lot on how much of a connection to the spirit world a place has. A monastery or the site of a great war would be places where the times of the two worlds are mostly in sync. The Chasm has possibly the greatest amount of dissonance between spirit and mortal world. What might seem like hundreds of years near the chasm would likely only be a few seconds in the mortal world.

Riftwalkers
Riftwalkers are those who can travel between Spirit and Mortal worlds via rifts. Riftwalkers are descendants of those who received a fragment of the soul of the Spirit King many centuries ago. Because it has been so long since the death of the Spirit King, riftwalkers come in all shapes and sizes, and there are quite a few of them, although many can go their whole lives without knowing they're a riftwalker.

Riftwalkers sort of have two lives. When killed, their ghost retains the ability to riftwalk, which means they can become physical in the mortal world, yet will not age nor need to sleep, eat, or drink. However, should this ghost be "killed" they will be forced back into the spirit world and lose their powers, becoming true ghosts. This is why there are reports of riftwalkers who seem to have been alive for centuries.

The current king of the spirit world is the riftwalker Viktor Korsakov. Therefore spirits will ultimately have to serve him, and many riftwalkers choose to do so as well. Viktor creates the laws of the spirit world and also attempts to keep the mortal world safe from Betrayers.

Spirits
Spirits are generally ancient beings. Most spirits have simply always existed, while some are born from the soul of someone who has done many great deeds in life. Spirits each have a category into which they fall. There are spirits of love, spirits of war, spirits of happiness, even spirits of harvest. Spirits also tend to differ in appearance between the mortal and spirit world. Spirits can appear as just about anything in the mortal world, although most spirits prefer to appear as an animal with odd coloring. In the spirit world their true form is revealed. This varies wildly and isn't necessarily humanoid nor a shape that could sustain life under normal circumstances. Of course, their true form usually ties in somewhat with their category.

Many spirits want to have influence on the mortal world. To do so they require riftwalkers. Should a riftwalker accept a spirit, no other spirits can lay claim to that riftwalker. The spirit forms a special bond with their riftwalker that will cause magic that falls under the spirit's category to grow stronger with each passing day but also influences the personality of the riftwalker. Due to the lineage of riftwalkers, all spirits must obey their commands.

Betrayers
Since times long forgotten spirits have been under a covenant. They are unable to change their nature, and they must always serve the Spirit King. However, the spirit of loyalty, Brutus, managed to find a way to break that covenant and attempted to kill the Spirit King and take his sword. Brutus failed and was turned into a spirit of betrayal and then locked away. Voyna's recent attempt to merge the spirit and mortal worlds has weakened the covenant. Spirits may now attempt to ignore the covenant, but there is a magical backlash that causes the spirits to become twist into horrid creatures known as Betrayers. These beings cause havoc in the spirit world and are constantly trying to break into the mortal world.

Ghosts
Of course, there are ghost as well. Ghosts are the souls of people who either haven't or can't move on. Most appear as they did in life. Some become more twisted. There are several kinds of ghost. The most common type are normal ghosts who cannot interact with the mortal world in any way. There are some poltergeist, which are able to move objects in the mortal world with varying degrees of success. Possessors are able to possess living beings, although very few can possess sentient beings. Some ghosts are reincarnated as powerful weapons in the mortal world. Most forget who they are when they become weapons, but a few manage to hold on to their memories.

History
Ages ago the spirit world was ruled by the Spirit King and his sword remained sheathed through the center of the world. Spirits obeyed his commands and he kept the balance between the mortal and spirit worlds. However when Brutus, his most trusted spirit, betrayed him, he grew saddened. He split his soul into seven and placed those fragments into seven newborns. These newborns were still considered to be the Spirit King, and so the covenant still had to be upheld by the spirits. The Spirit King's sword also split into seven smaller swords. Due to fighting over the Seven Swords, they have been split many, many times and can be found all over the spirit and mortal worlds. In their current state most of the swords are worthless, but whenever seven of the swords are brought together they combine to form a larger and more powerful sword.

Things remained mostly the same in the spirit world until the day when Voyna, a spirit of war, attempted the Convergence using the Seventh Sword of the Seventh Sword in order to free the spirits from the covenant. This would have merged the spirit and mortal worlds, ending death forever. Jack Adder brought Tak and Aero to stop her and they succeeded. However, the Convergence loosened the bonds on Brutus' prison as well as causing damage to the ancient power that upholds the covenant. Soon after the Convergence betrayers began appearing. So Viktor took the throne and united many of the riftwalkers and spirits against the threat of the betrayers. Under Viktor's rule the spirits and riftwalkers have also been attempting to work against ressurections and necromancy, as such things cause harm to the spirit world.

Final Notes
Obviously you know, if you have questions or want to make a riftwalker or a spirit or whatever just hit me up with a comment on this page.