A Crash Course On the Spirit World

Spirits

Trollish religion is polytheistic. In their eyes the world is alive with spirits. Every tree and river, even every blade of grass, has a spirit of it’s own, which represents it in the Spirit Realm. These spirits are very much the same as the thing itself, only more ideal. A river’s spirit is an idealized river. It runs stronger, freer and more river-like. A forest’s spirit is like the forest, only wilder.

Every thing has a spirit, which represents the ideal of that thing.

So it is with trolls. The trollish spirits are like trolls, that is, they have thoughts, desires and goals. They are, however, also idealized. Not in as simple a way, however. They have ideals and concepts in their own minds, after all, and in a world created from concepts and ideals, that gives the power to change your surroundings.
Thus, trollish spirits become an exaggeration of the ideals that the troll held in life. Since many trolls hold similar ideals in life, they often do so in spirit as well. This is expressed through the existence of Spirit Nations; great political and military blocks in the spirit world that champion the different ideals.
However, given that ideas give the power to literally change the spirit world, a few powerful spirits eventually managed to gain enough power to distance themselves from newborn spirits enough that they seem almost god-like. These are the loa, and most Spirit Nations are led by one of them.

In this way, the spirit world has a tendency to look like a strange mirror version of the physical world, and the barrier that splits the two is, indeed, named The Mirror. It is thought that Spirit Talkers learn to look into the Mirror and see their own spirits upon the other side.

The Five Primal Loa

The five most commonly known Loa are the ones that represent the Five Holy Beasts. Each beast represents a different aspect of what it is to be a troll, and also of trollish life.

Bethekk
The panther. Bethekk is the leader of the Panther Nation of spirits. As a panther it represents the hunt, and thus the all-important food-gathering professions. It was common practice in Stranglethorn for hunters to leave out food for the panther Loa before going on important hunts. As an aspect Bethekk represents patience.

Shirvallah
The tiger. Shirvallah is the leader of Tiger Nation of spirits, and a feared conqueror. It is primarily a god of warfare and revenge, and is often portrayed with blood and gore around it. Countless rituals have been invented, over time, for Shirvallah, since warfare is an unavoidable part of the trollish condition. As an aspect Shirvallah represents furious wrath.

Shadra
The spider. Shadra is the de facto, but not official, leader of the Spider Nation. She, unlike most of her peers, controls her subjects through a series of impossibly complicated schemes and plots and puppet leaders, and it is not surprising that she is generally considered the loa of cunning and schemes. She is widely worshipped by politically-inclined trolls, but most give at least lip service to her ideals. She is the aspect of cunning.

Hethiss
The serpent. Hethiss leads the serpent nation in strange ways. One moment strangely manic and embodying the ability to do anything, and the next moment espousing stagnation and hopelessness, Hethiss is duality given one form. Indeed, he/she does not have a single gender, but changes according to whim and desire. Hethiss is the aspect of adaptation in the troll.

Hir’eek
The bat. Blind to all matters of material and wealth, the Bat Nation of spirits languishes in poverty. However, in matters of mind and creativity, none can challenge them. Indeed, Hir’eek once spoke a single truth: The world can expand from a single question spoken in the mind. This is the maxim of the loa of knowledge and wisdom.


Spirit Magic
The physical world is unremarkable. Everything happens according to the order of the universe. Nothing is random, since everything was made in one way at the beginning, and only one thing can be at a time. All trolls would live the same life, unchanging into eternity, if not for a single ingenuity that spirits and trolls conjured together. Magic.
The chaotic world of the spirits needed stability, while the static world of flesh needed change. The two had what the other needed in abundance. So, a wise spirit shattered the Mirror for the first time, and approached a troll. He bade the troll hear its name, and worship it. The worship of the idea of the god led the god to stability, and in return he could pour some of the matter of the spirit world through to the troll, thus allowing the troll’s ideas to become reality for a short time. This is magic.