Tag: nature spirits

#Lore24 – Entry #156 – Wild West Month #4 – The Ways of the Spirit World

As told by Kumiko Stalks-Amongst-the-Stars, shaman of the Midnight Panther tribe of Kerra-Kerra

Though we will always owe much to our Great Mother, the goddess Sarresh, it is in the home of the Great Spirits that we dwell, and to them we must always show much respect and deference, for it is ultimately they who will allow the Kerra-Kerra to continue to live upon the Broken Cage that Still Imprisons.  This is why we must learn of the many spirits that live within this world, for we must know and respect and fear them, lest we suffer another Great Uproar and be scoured from the very face of this world.

Greatest of the spirits are the primal sprits, those of the most basic and elemental forces that have the power to shape the land itself, those which determine where we may live, where we may hunt, and whether our people may live or die.  Spirts of Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind are the four most primal elements which make up all the others, and it is these spirits we must always strive to revere and offer our thanks, for it was they who caused the Great Uproar when they freed themselves from the Devil-Wardens.

Next are our most sacred spirits, the totem animals which our tribes revere and have taken as our guardians and guides.  For our people, it is the midnight panther, a powerful and cunning hunter which stalks its prey by night.  It is the great spirit of the midnight panther, Munkuro Tsume, which we revere most, and who grants us our spiritual magics and, for the shaman of our tribe, our ability to take on their forms so that we may travel amongst them.  This is like the other tribes of Kerra-Kerra, and those who are not of our people who still hold to the ways of revering the spirits. 

Then there are the many spirits of nature that dwell within all aspects of the world.  They are made up of pieces of the great primal spirits and are found within everything upon the Broken Cage that Still Imprisons.  These spirits are of the plants and trees, of the rain and snow and drought, of the earth which grows our food, of the animals who are not our totem spirits, of the mechanics used by those who are not of our people…everything.  It is not important for those who are not shaman to know all their names, but it is vital that they continue to acknowledge their presence within and without, for we must always strive to live in harmony with them.

#Lore24 – Entry #155 – Wild West Month #3 – Spirits of Nature Arise

As told by Kumiko Stalks-Amongst-the-Stars, shaman of the Midnight Panther tribe of Kerra-Kerra

So, it came to be that the Devil-Wardens’ power would come to wane, and ruin would follow soon after.  Our ancestors say that the Devil-Wardens had imprisoned the very spirits of land and sea and air, had used foul sorcery to shape the land itself to their dark desires.  However, the spirits of nature would not take well to such treatment, and soon enough would prove that they were more powerful than even these sorcerers and their Ships that Sail the Stars.

It would come to be that one day, the bound spirits of nature would tear free of the great devilish device that the Wardens had created to contain them, had used them to reshape the world as they saw fit.  Then, without the dark sorcerers knowing, for the Many Spirits are more cunning than we can fathom, they gathered their power and begin to dismantle the evil spells which bound them.

In a Great Uproar, the spirits of nature would break the sorcerous chains that bound them and bring terrible destruction upon the Devil Wardens and their Fortresses of Stone and Metal.  In great torrents of wind and water, of eruptions of earth and fire, with fury that rent the very earth beneath us, they would tear down the walls of the fortresses that once imprisoned our ancestors and drive the Devil-Wardens from the Broken Cage that Still Imprisons.  They would flee in their Ships that Sail the Stars, and, for a time, even the future of the Many Peoples would be in doubt, for the Great Spirits were angry, and their fury would not end for many moons. 

Though the Fortresses of Stone and Metal once imprisoned the Many Peoples, some would find safe shelter within them during the Fury of the Spirits, while others, our ancestors, would follow the guidance of our Great Mother goddess, Sarresh, and embrace the will of the spirits who had freed them, to learn to worship and appease their volatile moods, to find harmony amongst them, and so we would prosper in the wilds beyond the Fortresses.  And this is how the many tribes of the Kerra-Kerra came to be, of how each tribe learned of its sacred totem spirit, and how the Broken Cage that Still Imprisons came to be as it is now.

But do not think that the Great Spirits are tamed.  Never assume such!  For the Great Spirits still hold memory of their own imprisonment, and they will lash out with their rage and fury, just to remind our people, and the Many Peoples who are not of the Kerra-Kerra, that the spirits are to be respected and feared, for it is they who hold the true power of life and death upon the Broken Cage that Still Imprisons.