"Giants rarely care for the ants under their feet."
Gods and Spirits
Everything. Whether it be the Greatest Dreadnaught to the lowliest spec of sand. The term god and spirit are used interchangeably by the uneducated. Even concepts have gods that claim them. Anything you can think of, there is a spirit for it. Sometimes, multiple spirits. They are immortal and composed entirely as patterns of essence, making all of them inherently magical. All of them have powers that are related to the purview. A god of pain can cause agony with a flick of its bloody wrist. The god of a ship, can be bargained with to help the crew in their journey.
Most of the time a spirit is dormant, coaxed to life only by prayer, sacrifice, magic, or its own duties and ambitions. Most mortals at least mouth a prayer to a deity as part of their occupation, but there are entire cultures formed around being ruled by or worshipping a god or gods, sometimes out of love or fear. They can be powerful allies, or dangerous foes. Some do not need worship at all, as it is their nature to prey on mortals. Indeed gods do not have the same fears or requirements as mortals do, and each are subject to their natures, purview, and the belief of those that pray to them.
Only experts can tell the difference, but spirits exist in a hierarchy called a pantheon, with spirits answering to or working for a more powerful god. There are three types of spirits that the educated know about, but sometimes its difficult to determine by sight alone. Not only can spirits be intangible at will, but they commonly change forms. The beautiful innocent maiden one moment reveals her divine nature and becomes a multi headed hydra. Their forms vary as wildly as the mortals they lord over.
Gods Gods can lay claim over a planet, a moon, a satalite city, a nation, or even a small empire. They are what mortals pray to when they ask for generic common things like good fortune, safe journey, or love. Their prayers whisper in the ears of they massively powerful beings, and they gain motes of essence from it, all the better to power their awesome effects. To ignore or anger a god is quite unwise, even for the Exalted.
Angels They act as agents for the Gods, or are given minor functions. Commonly Angels are city mothers and fathers, or the god of powerful vessels or the Avatar of legions. They all have names, and commonly have magical artifacts to better protect themselves and serve their functions.
Spirits Are varied and numerous, some of them mindless or having no names of their own. They are the most likely spirit a mortal will interact with if they ever do, and a lot of common occupations have minor rituals to propigate these spirits. They are the workforce that keeps the fabric of creation running smoothly.
Sample Angel:
(TSRodriguez)
Joul'Shani, Goddess of Leaves and Transitions, is a wood spirit located on the Garden World of Isleen. She claims all the trees and plants of Isleen as her domain and is commonly busied with the intricate process of changing seasons. She is prayed to for good harvest, short winters, and long springs. Especially devoted worshipers may be taken as lovers as she can change her form. She births demi-god beasts and monsters that sometimes wreck havoc on Isleen's farming villages.
Sample Spirit:
(josearias)
Copper Spiders are a type of machine spirit employed by spirits of technology, discovery, knowledge, and greed to salvage and scrap ruins and crashes. While they ignore mortals while they work, shearing sheets of metal for eventual retrieval, they will attack any that takes their claim with lasers of burning essence. They can be summoned and employed by mortal sorcerers to seek out useful scrap, which these industrious spirits have a nose for.
"There be monsters... Anywhere... Watching... Waiting..."
Demons
Nothing brings empires and races together quite like the rumor of a demon and demons are why every empire that wishes to exist through its infancy must find a way to protect itself. Demons are from beyond the Veil, the borders of Elysia. An impenetrable wall of rolling void and chaos. While it is known that there is no escaping Elysia, and a terrible death for all that tries. The prison is no infallible from the outside coming in. Things emerge, appearing anywhere within creation. These are called Demons. They are unnatural, unholy, they shouldn't exist. They bring with them magics and technology that are vile and profane. These are the only beings that have no Essence within them but in their wickedness, they've found out ways to gather and pervert it to their own wicked ends. They come in many forms, from undead monstrosities, machines of terrible manufacture, and monsters with forms that defy biology. There are currently no known demon worlds, but such a den of wickedness would surely cause Elysia to quake into action to purge the unclean with demon and witch hunts in the surrounding worlds for decades to come. Still, the demon is insidious and can strike from anywhere at any time.
Demons with their lack of internal essence can be detected and harmed via 'holy' or strictly divine effects. Additionally particularly strong rituals and spells can inflict effects upon them, as the power of belief and essence force themselves upon their unholy forms. Likewise, they are impossible to predict as even time and destiny spells cannot see the influence a demon would cause. They also bring weapons and powers to bare that sometimes defy understanding, even to demon experts.
Sample Demon:
(Chase Stone)
Lashstalkers are solitary hunters and ambush predators. They seem to have an instinctual sense of targeting those individuals that would cause the most chaos in a particular group, prioritizing healers and leaders. They know guerilla tactics, set traps, and will injure over kill, knowing it would slow a group down. They are also completely silent, save for the sound of leather rubbing against the ground as they move from space to space. Their size would suggest they'd be unable to fit into some places, but yet, cobbards, under beds, closets, even containers can hold a 10 foot tall monsters, bursting forth to lash with whip like fingers, twisting and breaking their victims.
"Come to my bed said the spider to the fly."
Devils
(Yang Mansik)
Beautiful and Terrible. Parents in the center of Elysia will tell their children to behave or they'll call the Devils on them. As one nears the Veil of Elysia, one keeps their weapons, prays a little harder, double checks to lock their doors, and keeps an eye on that scanner a little more closely, lest the devils get them. Devils are of Elysia and like spirits are composed of Essence, but are invariably hostile to mortals. Devils are beings of chaos, beguilement, corruption, and dreams, each unpredictable, alien, without cause or reason. They can appear as beautiful as the most seductive dream, approaching in robes of gossamer wearing the face of a victim's first love but so lovely they make the eyes bleed. They can also appear as impossible shapes, riding beasts from a child's nightmare, an amalgamation of monsters that would be impossible to exist if reality had any say in the matter. A horde of Devils and their spawn have been known to slaughter one planet, change the colors of another with their chaotic touch, and ignore another, merely because their whims and desires change with but the slightest flicker of inspiration. Their powers cause madness, twist reality, and enwrap those in layers of lies and illusion. Devils most commonly ride into Elysia on raids, stealing mortals and slaughtering with glee. Those they take are ravished of all ambition, willpower, and purpose. These Dream Eaten are perfect slaves, as they will not even eat or drink without being told to do so. Unscrupulous merchants have found ways to trade with these beings, receiving Chaos Artifacts that defy logic, creatures that never even existed, and the Dream Eaten. Often the Devils Price is a fresh new herd of frightened mortals for them to torment and eat.
Like demons, holy magic seems to effect these creatures quite well, and there are rituals and items that can ward them off. Pure Cold Iron effects them as if the metal was red hot to the touch, and can be used as a strong deterrant. Additionally, a Devil is bound by his word, and deals can be struck with them as it has a strange permanent effect on his patterns. Be warned though, these creatures are ageless, and their snake tongues and twisted minds can turn negotiations into a battle of wits even an Exalted would have trouble with. They love to twist deals into their favor, receiving the dealer's life, age, dreams, desires, or sanity as payment.
Sample Devil:
The Piper is a terror on the quiet villages, lonely alleys, and old residential sections of space stations throughout Elysia. Anywhere that children are raised in peace with loving parents who want to protect them from the evils of creation may become targeted by a Piper. The music these devils utter is sweet, melodical, and hypnotic. Children will follow the song which cannot be heard by those past a certain age. The children will disappear while the adults sleep. In the coming days, those that look for them will hear the children, laughing, dancing, playing, but will never actually see or touch them. The laughing will end only when the children are found, their entrails and bodies strung up on trees or in some unused room in some hideous parody of an artist's gallery. As a final insult and stab to the psyche, parents looking at their child's remains will find the display breath-takingly beautiful, even as they wail at their loss.
vietmyke
