Spirits And Dregs
- A Dreg
Contents
Overview
There are two different classes of Spirit on Atharen: Noradac, sometimes called 'Adac' like the Gods, and Dregs. Unsurprisingly, these two classifications are two sides of the same coin: creatures made of and from the same species of beings, the Adac, or Gods. Creatures that are often made for the same general purpose: to serve as eyes and ears for the Gods who created them, to communicate with followers, to guide and preserve, and to maintain the world. Spirits fulfill Domains for the Gods who made them. They act almost like dutiful worker-bees for their King or Queen, the Adac that guides them. Though, over time, this function has begun to shift for many, and in some ways it shifted long ago.
Creation
All Spirits were originally called Noradac for a reason. Every single spirit, without exception, is a fragment of an Adac, or a Creator-God of the Path. For this reason, calling the Spirits themselves 'Adac' is commonplace and equally understood. As Spirits are fragments or extensions of the Adac, the Gods are capable of freely assimilating their own Spirits back into their Divine Spark, and can take total and seamless control over spirits they have created. While there are exceptions such as the Patrons - who slowly acquire true free will, maturing into independent beings - this remains the rule for the far majority of them.
Spirits are created in a way similar to that of mortal beings. As they predated mortals, the Gods originally practiced the techniques of 'creating life' on Spirits, and from their learnings applied these and other methods in order to harbor mortal sentience. Spirits are formed from the smallest shedding of an Adac's Divinity into the ether around them, which they will then crystallize and manipulate into a fully realized form. They are created whole, though some may actually develop over time in different environments, or as they experience the world. Given the near-infinity that is the Gods' providence over their own Domains, spirits they create can be truly vast and diverse.
The creation of a Dreg occurs similarly, if a God wishes to create one anew. In the case of many Dregs, however, they were reforged into Dregs by either the Bleeding, the leaking of Corruption or by their connection to their Adac. Dregs are often the result of tethered Corruption between a Noradac and their creator. This means that the more corrupted a God, the less of their original spirits remain, more and more of them transmogrifying into Dregs over time.
In all cases, considering a God must create Spirits by shedding a small aspect of their own Divine Spark, a God is limited in how many Spirits they may muster to the amount of Divinity they carry. Throughout time, the Gods of Atharen tended to grow steadily stronger due to the harvesting of souls, allowing for the creation of more Spirits, and therefore a widening extension of themselves and their Domains. As of the Bleeding, however, the Gods have been forced to cull many of their Spirits due to Corruption, and have not been able to reassimilate them for fear of corrupting their own divinity. This has led to a decrease of Spirits in the world. In addition, the growth of anti-Path rhetoric and even religions has led to the advent of Spirit hunting, a prestigious or sometimes ideological task to weaken the Living Gods' grip over the world.
As a result of this, while Spirits were once seen all over Atharen and would frequently interact with mortals, they now tend to hide and evade sight in those nations that view them with disdain, such as Daravin, Grisic and Lorien.
Differences
In many ways, the Noradac and Dregs are similar. They are both crafted from Divinity, both tethered to their God who may reassimilate them, they are both fragments of said God, and they both exist to fulfill their Domains and other objectives. However, there are a few distinct differences that separate Noradac and Dregs.
The first is the obvious: they appear vastly different. Corruption has a tendency to 'corrupt' the appearance of a being it inflicts. Skin will grow greyer and might wrinkle or sag, or may appear more like hunks of stagnant flesh lingering over corded muscles. Light colors become darker; metal aspects alter into rust. In many ways, corruption is synonymous with decay. The decay of one's mind, the decay of one's body, the decay of one's ability to safely harness Raw Magic or Divinity. For the Spirits, this is the same.
Regular Noradac vary widely in appearance, but do not appear too dissimilar to organic life. Often, they will have glowing or ethereal characteristics, though sometimes they may instead appear as magical animals, such as a bear with strange Runic markings or semi-transparent bird who can sing opera. There are distinct characteristics to each of them, and their appearance largely depends on the Domains and overall aesthetic manifestation of the God who created them.
Dregs tend to appear more menacing, even horrific. They tend to be more violent, and even though they follow their Gods' objectives, the Corruption within them can often momentarily set their focus awry, as if clogging their connection to them. This can lead to them doing arbitrary things, veering off-focus, and expressing random acts of aggression or purposeless wandering. Noradac are far more orderly, purposeful, and benign. They are rarely aggressive, only acting in the most egregious cases of self-defense. They may even interact with mortals in a friendly manner, though as mentioned, over time this has significantly changed.
The differences between Noradac and Dreg are effectively that of day and night. While their function may be similar in nature, the way they act and manage their objectives is vastly different.
Function
Spirits are made for one, specific function called their Purpose. They tend to be neatly organized by their Purpose, and it is often clear immediately upon meeting a Spirit what their Purpose might be. One example of a Purpose is to serve as a weapon for a God; perhaps to tag alongside their faithful and hunt a dangerous apostate, a violent blasphemer. This is less and less common as the Gods have become increasingly non-interventionist, almost never interacting with their followers, or the world itself.
More commonly is the Purpose of maintaining Domains. Atharen is unique in that it is formed and surrounded by vast magical barriers made of Divinity, and within it are subsects of the world assigned to individual Gods. As with all things, decay and volatility exist within the elements of the world itself, which is not always completely stable. The laws, boundaries and structural order of the world and its many facets must be maintained in order to continue functioning, and this task is performed by Spirits.
The Plane that separates Atharen from the Outlands, for example, occasionally manifests irregularities as Venadak's ether grows volatile or weaker in one area, becoming less reinforced. As a result, one of his Noradac (because not all Corrupted have exclusively Dregs) will go to the barrier of the Plane and will repair this irregularity, interfacing it with their Divinity in order to perform the function assigned to them. Another example for a more abstract Domain is that of Courlan's Domain of 'Truth'; considering Truth relates to objectivity or 'Objective Truth', a Spirit will interface with blips and exceptions that form within the laws of science or reality, ensuring that the integrity of this 'Objective Truth' remains. Similarly, a mortal may suddenly at times experience that they no longer experience hunger or pain. Not a genetic defect, this is actually a manifestation of Valteran's encoding within their soul manifesting an anomaly. A Spirit may visit them in their sleep and fix this irregularity, before disappearing to work on their next assigned duty.
Considering Dregs are locked in Bel, their purpose tends to be far less related to maintenance, and more focused on warring. Most Dregs are designed to be violent, acting as small proxies of the Corrupted God within the Endless War. When they are found on Atharen, they are often hunted by the combat-focused Spirits of the Living Gods, or by the few followers of theirs who may have connection to them, as any Dregs on the mortal plane are viewed as an incursion and a threat to stability.
Of course, this means that as Gods become increasingly corrupt - particularly Y'shendra, Valteran, Quarae and Jaxkael - they manifest less and less Noradac, meaning their Domains have become more unstable through time. While it was originally extremely rare to encounter a human who suddenly lost the ability to experience rage, occurrences like this are increasingly frequent.
Divinity
All Spirits are composed of Divinity, though most Dregs have a considerable degree of Raw Ether within them, synonymous with Corruption. Regardless, for the most part, Divinity is primary to their composition, and results in their abilities and characteristics manifesting in a few ways that would be expected of creatures that wield Divinity.
To begin with, Spirits are capable of wielding powers assigned within them by their Creator. In the case of the Eldashan, for example, the power instilled within them is to convert Raw Ether into Divinity, to be able to wield it to perform their own strange Domains (such as 'Brine'), and to shed their own Divinity to create more Noradac. In this way, they are akin to Lesser Gods, capable of performing the same function as the Gods but to a more minimal degree.
Most do not have so many abilities. A Noradac of Venadak, whose assigned Domain is light, might be able to shoot a scorching ray of light from a central crystal within their anatomy. A Noradac of Malek might be able to cause disease to swell or decline, if their assigned Domain is Disease. Considering these deeds are all performed by Divinity, they may perform them without risk to themselves or worry of decay, though they have a limited capacity until recharged, and will begin to weaken and wane - and typically try to escape - once their reserves run low.
Dregs are strange in that they possess an abundance of Raw Ether alongside their Divinity, akin to the Corrupted Gods. One of the reasons Gods are Corrupted is that their ability to convert Raw Ether into Divinity has been compromised. Dregs are particularly pernicious in this respect, as they must be assimilated rather than converted or cleansed. This means the God, who already has a difficult time converting Raw Ether into usable Divinity, will begin to exclusively produce Dregs (due to their own corrupted composition), which then must be reassimilated with their Corruption included, which then increases the Corruption of the God upon assimilating them.
For this reason, Dregs tend to become more corrupted over time, and over generations have become more monstrous. Additionally, and uncommonly, their vast sources of Raw Ether have actually allowed some of them to gain access to Raw Magic.
Subtypes: Noradac
More to come. For an example of a Noradac Subtype, please look at the Elven God Archetypes, or archetypal families, in the Summoning article.
Subtypes: Dregs
More to come. For an example of a Dreg Subtype, please look at the Choir of Fog Archetypes, or archetypal families, in the Summoning article.
