/lit/ - Literature

>>18881722
I've been working on a setting where everything has a spirit representing its true essence, a bit like a mix between Shintoism and Platonic ideals, with the smaller the thing that the spirit represents, the weaker it is, with most weaker spirits being non sapient (for instance, only the largest and oldest, or at least otherwise significant, trees would have a sapient spirit, just for starters).

I was thinking that magic would involve manipulating this spiritual underlayer of reality to achieve a supernatural effect. It would have started out as just trying to do things to get the attention of powerful spirits in certain ways, which would eventually evolve into directly making deals of mutual benefit with spirits, like offering something to the spirit of some fields to help ensure a plentiful harvest. Then someone would eventually find a way to directly manipulate spiritual energies through arcane means and rituals, getting an effect without a middleman (it probably helps if one has some spirit ancestry, since more powerful spirits can take on truly physical forms separate from their source, and I'm certain that the first to use magic this way had a spirit as a parent). The third method I was thinking of would have someone either merge with and/or consume a spirit via either a particular deal or a ritual, effectively making them part spirit and giving them some of their powers. What do you think? Can you think of any other ways to use magic, or any pros/cons to the three methods I listed above, please?

>>18886585
I've been working on a setting where everything has a spirit representing its true essence, a bit like a mix between Shintoism and Platonic ideals, with the smaller the thing that the spirit represents, the weaker it is, with most weaker spirits being non sapient (for instance, only the largest and oldest, or at least otherwise significant, trees would have a sapient spirit, just for starters).

I was thinking that magic would involve manipulating this spiritual underlayer of reality to achieve a supernatural effect. It would have started out as just trying to do things to get the attention of powerful spirits in certain ways, which would eventually evolve into directly making deals of mutual benefit with spirits, like offering something to the spirit of some fields to help ensure a plentiful harvest. Then someone would eventually find a way to directly manipulate spiritual energies through arcane means and rituals, getting an effect without a middleman (it probably helps if one has some spirit ancestry, since more powerful spirits can take on truly physical forms separate from their source, and I'm certain that the first to use magic this way had a spirit as a parent). The third method I was thinking of would have someone either merge with and/or consume a spirit via either a particular deal or a ritual, effectively making them part spirit and giving them some of their powers. What do you think? Can you think of any other ways to use magic, or any pros/cons to the three methods I listed above, please?