Clouded Soul Spirit Types

This document will cover the types of spirits, at least the ones I am absolutely certain of. There is always room to introduce more types later if need be but I want to focus on ones that I need background info about to start writing story. This document will cover some of the basic details about them and refinement. Once again, all of these terms are placeholders. Especially sacred beasts since that's literally what they're called in Cradle.

Before that, a quick note on the makeup of a 'being'. A true being is comprised of three parts, body, soul, and mind. You have to have all three of these in order to be on the path of soul refinement. A creature with a body and a mind but not soul is a zombie, a creature with no body but a mind and soul is a ghost, and something with a soul and a body but no mind is a tree or object that has not yet developed sentience.

Sacred beasts.

Most sacred beasts start out as typical animals. Animals are reincarnated souls who have built up far too much negative karma or what have you to reincarnate as human anymore. Animals can be raised or nurtured into having sapience, though it can just happen naturally in the wild either by the animal happening to live in a rich environment conducive to spiritual development or by going through enough trials and tribulations to unlock a sense of self. This transformation comes with the ability to take on a more human form, though still possessing animalistic features of varying severity. Because their souls are so tainted by their prior reincarnations, sacred beasts have a very difficult time advancing on the path of soul refinement. This is why it is extremely common for sacred beasts to seek out refiners willing to take on a contract with the spirit.

This is a two-way street. The refiner gains access to his beasts chi reserves and with enough training camps activate a measure of their powers without actually having to learn the specific techniques. On top of this, it's a very quick and easy way to bolster your power, especially if you're a young refiner. It's very common for rich families to raise up sacred beasts solely to gift to their young heirs as another one of the many shortcuts these people can provide.

An even stronger method of contract exists, that of spiritual marriage. This is not exclusive to sacred beasts, I'm just putting it here. By marrying and making love on the regular to their spiritual spouse, the exchange of power between both parties is much more potent. The only downside is it's very difficult to sever this connection if things don't work out.

Spirit marriage is looked upon quite differently by different parts of the world. Some wealthy families might make it a tradition to groom a suitable spirit to wed their most talented scion, whereas others might view the act as demeaning, seeing sacred beasts as little more than animals and thus believing it to be beneath them. Certain groups might prefer some sort of soul branding technique if they are cruel about it but want to get some of the benefits without any of the emotional shit attached. Similarly, there are villages that are xenophobic about any nonhuman entities, whereas other places have a very harmonious relationship with their local sacred beasts just as some sects might have relationships with sacred beasts as part of their doctrine. It all depends.

For potential plot purposes, i.e. in case I end up wanting to, there is no limit to the number of contracted/wifed sacred beasts a refiner can have so long as they are sufficiently advanced enough to handle the strain on the soul

In exchange for everything refiner gets, the sacred beast naturally accumulates more of their partner's power that they can use for their own advancement. The stronger the refiner gets, the stronger the beast becomes. They still have to perform whatever steps are necessary along the road of refinement, but they don't have to rely solely on themselves like a refiner does. Very few sacred beasts make it into the mortal realm stage of advancement, and even fewer into the godly realm. Those that are able to do so solely on their own power are considered absolute monsters.

On top of getting a share of their partner's power, the main draw for sacred beasts is that cultivating alongside their human partner is twice as effective as doing so on their own. Sacred beasts find great difficulty in refining, but by holding hands with their partner or something along those lines, they are able to better focus and direct their spiritual power. It doesn't work with just anyone, it has to be someone they're contracted or married to because oaths are binding and have power behind them.

Broadly speaking, sacred beasts don't choose their own initial aspect. When they first gain a sense of self, that serves as their equivalent of the initiate phase of the clouded tier. Rather than ending it by choosing their own aspect, it happens naturally and the pool tends to be very limited. Common aspects for beasts include survival, dominance, and ingenuity. There will be more than just that, those are just the only three I think of at the top my head. A mouse might have survival, a tiger might have dominance, and a monkey would have ingenuity. Likewise, their affinities tend to be straightforward, no-nonsense things. Claws, fangs, agility, power, etc. While it's possible to have more magical abilities, this is almost exclusively much later on in development, barring certain animals- like foxes potentially having a predisposition to an illusion affinity- but on the whole, sacred beasts just aren't very suited for magical abilities and will need to work twice as hard or even more if they want to excel as easily as a human would.

Although it depends on the species, sacred beasts are known for being very prideful, arrogant, and full of themselves. Much like the Monkey King of mythology, they tend to view themselves as hot shit just because they came out on top of the whole survival of the fittest thing. They are haughty, easily embarrassed when out of their depth, and often childish- especially when looking down at non-awakened animals. This tends to go away over time the longer it's been since their initial awakening, but if such personality traits are common among the animal they come from, they may never grow past it. A tiger will always see itself as better than most other creatures, whereas a mouse might be more humble. This haughtiness will apply to the planned love interest in particular.

There exist creatures who almost everything I've set up till now don't apply to. Animals that are born as sacred beasts, things such as dragons, phoenixes, qilin, and other mythological creatures, share very little in common with your average sacred beast. They are still born without a choice in their first aspect, but the pool of affinities they have access to is on the whole much greater and diverse, and they suffer no significant penalties when learning magical affinities and in most cases are even born with them. Phoenixes will always be born with the fire and healing affinity, for example. Advancing for these mythical creatures is typically even more difficult than it is for your average sacred beast. It's sort of like how in Buddhism you don't want to be reborn in any of the higher realms since it's drastically harder to reach enlightenment when you are born as a creature with formidable power, privileges and other natural advantages from the get-go. Many of them are too stubborn to consider contracting themselves with a measly refiner whom they might consider below them, let alone lowering themselves to performing a spiritual marriage.

Worldly spirits.

This one should be much more brief. Worldly spirits are your typical elementals, or at least they are after sufficient advancement. They are the slowest to develop a mind when compared to sacred beasts and enlightened treasures. It can take centuries for a tree to develop its first thought and even longer for that thought to blossom into individuality. This is more likely to occur in places with high spiritual energy as you might expect. Worldly spirits can be artificially advanced by refiners nourishing them with their own chi, with specially made elixirs, and what have you. What starts as a sentient tree will become a talking tree, and eventually like any other form of spirit it can take a human form with features of its original self. The thing is they are the absolute slowest type of spirit to form, which is where we get into how contracts and spirit marriages with them work.

Worldly spirits accumulate chi at a phenomenally slow pace. When they first gain sapience and ascend to having a clouded soul, they are filled with hundreds, potentially thousands of years worth of accumulated chi that they have absolutely no idea what to do with. Some of them figure it out, the truly gifted ones, while others don't and are overly eager toward the first refiner who comes along offering to teach them so refinement. Most worldly spirits have so much power stored up that they typically shoot straight to clear and bright soul under a contractor who actually knows how to guide them there. If the spirit was born in a particularly powerful place, like, say, a grove of sacred trees or a pool of sacred water, they might have enough latent power to barrel right into sagedom or beyond. Once this initial pool of stored up energy is spent on advancement, the worldly spirit has to store up new reserves by going out and finding more of their element to absorb.

A contract/marriage isn't as long-term beneficial to a worldly spirit as it is to a sacred beast, but most worldly spirits are highly appreciative and dedicated to whoever showed them the way forward and are unlikely to ever leave their side, barring abusive circumstances.

Worldly spirits are a very uncommon sight in most places and your typical peasant will never meet one. I don't have any plans on this being important in the early story, so I will leave it at that for now.

Soulful treasure.

A soulful treasure is a type of spirit that was originally a common or not so common object that through frequent use has developed a soul of its own. This can take a very long time, but as with worldly spirits, there are methods to induce this artificially. Once an object ascends, they are able to take a human form. Their personality is dependent on how the object was used most frequently. To take a sword as an example, if a sword is used mercilessly to kill without abandoning, it will create an evil soulful treasure. If a sword is used primarily as a means to protect others, it will be a virtuous being that strives to do the same. On top of that, a soulful treasure has the chance of mimicking the looks and appearance of its master. This isn't always guaranteed, and in other circumstances, the soulful treasure might purposefully choose a form its master might find appealing. Soulful treasures are very reliant on being used for their own soul refinement. They must continue being handled and used for their purpose, preferably by someone with great power. It's they have a very straightforward ascension path, as they really do just need someone to keep pumping more and more power in but the power required to ascend is incredibly high after certain point. Once a soulful treasure enters into existence by developing its own soul, that soul enters the cycle of reincarnation. It is very possible that someone's first life was in enchanted sewing table before that sewing table got burned down. That's just a very specific example, but you get my drift. You can't reincarnate into a soulful treasure, soulful treasures are a starting place for souls. The way this works is that everything is connected to the original Godhead. Every single piece of matter in the physical realm is technically still part of the Godhead, meaning an object is just as likely to develop sentience as she yells. I know it was implied but I'm including it just so tear concretely, but soulful treasures are obviously still able to return back to their original form and in fact need to do so to advance. A sword can't develop if it's not being used as a sword.

Yiansha

A Yiansha is the equivalent to a demon in this setting. Yiansha are fractured souls that don't belong to the original Godhead but instead are from somewhere unknown. There is potentially a second, more evil Godhead that they splintered off from and they have since followed the same path as mortals in that they are desperately trying to improve themselves and regain a fraction of their original, ungodly selves. They operate out of a hellish realm inside of the earth's core known as Daiya. Diane looks like your average Eastern depiction of hell, and there will be an equivalent of King Enma who rules over them all. I forget his Chinese name so just go with that for now. Since all souls are stuck in a cycle of reincarnation, there isn't actually a hell in the natural order of things and it's instead a place of suffering for those who Yiansha are able to tempt into following their path. Making a deal with a Yiansha is a very fast and dirty path to power, but it comes with the caveat of having to fight the Yiansha off for the rest of your natural life from taking full control over your body. They can grant you power, but they are ultimately after your soul. While they're capable of possessing someone involuntarily, this isn't as good as getting a refiner to agree to a formal contract and won't result in any long-term benefit to the Yiansha. To ensure the best terms, Yiansha will often stock potential targets in advance and orchestrate their lives falling apart or create scenarios where someone has no choice but to agree out of desperation, say, endangering their targets loved ones and then coming to them with an offer of power.

A aontract made with a Yiansha do not result in the Yiansha growing in power like a sacred beast does. Not in the same sense, anyway. A sacred beast will gain flat strength so long as their contracted partner is getting stronger, but a Yiansha only get stronger if there partner is committing wicked deeds in their name or satiating its bloodlust. That's the only way you can get more out of a contract than you initially bargained for. Upon a contracted refiner's death, their soul is dragged to Daiya unless someone is able to prevent it. There, they become a ghost who the Yiansha torture and feed off of for their advancement which for as long as they can milk the soul. Inflicting pain and suffering on others is the main method of advancement for the Yiansha race. Their King and his administration staff have a whole system worked out for maximum efficiency, making sure souls are tortured inappropriate ways, given enough time to rest between sessions, and take care of to prevent the disapprobation of the ghosts soul. This does not result in a soul being deleted from existence, but a ghost can only be put through so much before they are forcefully ripped out of Daiya and put back into the cycle of reincarnation. Inflicting pain and suffering onto others is the main method of advancement for Yiansha, and is what allows them to refine their souls back to whatever ungodly source they come from.

Yiansha are not one hundred percent evil all the time, there is room for more nuance than that. Predisposed to being vicious and self-centered, yes, but there have been heroic Yiansha as well as Yiansha who have gifted power unconditionally to mortals out of the goodness of their heart, just as there have been Yiansha who were swayed onto a more righteous path. Similarly, there are Yiansha who can form attachments to others, it's just very difficult as they are essentially sociopathic by culture. As most Yiansha are evil simply because of their actions, however, they are inherently weak to the justice aspect and certain affinities such as light and purification. This will come into play with the main story, as I am planning on the second girl being a mountain bandit who brutally hunts and kills other mountain bandits to appease the Yiansha sealed in her arm. She also steals from the innocents, but doesn't hurt them, which is what leads him to believe she is not beyond saving. When he is able to use his justice aspect mixed with his affinities, he'll be able to subdue the influence of her Yiansha and allow her to live a seminormal life by his side. She will swear herself to him out of loyalty and strive to redeem herself as she walks the path of advancement alongside him.

Chaotic spirits.

Chaotic spirits, better name pending of course, are separate from the Godhead and the evil Godhead or wherever the hell the Yiansha came from. They are soulless personifications of the primordial chaos that came before, and their forms and power range dramatically. They are aberrations, real and unreal at the same time. They can be totally emotionless or be so detailed as to have an artificial personality, but they are not capable of advancement as they have no souls and cannot reproduce, and cannot form contracts or spiritual marriages. I'm not going to deal in absolutes, however, as if I ever have an idea I want to pursue there can be exceptions to this rule. Whether one somehow gained a soul or was helped along by a refiner who somehow nurtured them to have one, I'm just saying there is flexibility but my main reason for having chaotic spirits is that I want an excuse for there to be random monsters if the plot demands it- monsters that don't fit into any of the other classifications of spirits/a stand-in for yokai/things of that nature. Rather than just making up a bunch of them as we go along, this will just be a convenient catchall.