Spirit Calling
Spirit Calling
Classification: Specialization
Parent School: Soul Magic
Spirit Calling is the incredibly dangerous and highly illegal branch of Soul Magic dedicated to interacting with, binding, and containing incorporeal souls and unruly spirits.
Specialization Rules
This is an advanced Specialization. To learn Spells (Powers) in this field, a mage must use their dot-purchase selections from the Soul Magic skill track. Furthermore, specific spells within Spirit Calling will explicitly require a secondary prerequisite (such as 1 or 2 dots in collateral Schools) to simulate the mixed-matrix required to cast them.
Progression
Acquiring dots and Powers here requires deep dedication. The spells are extremely potent but narrowly focused.
Example Powers
| Tier | Example Effect | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Soul Sight | The foundational prerequisite. Allows the caster to perceive the spiritual essence and soul structure of living and dead entities. |
| Tier 2 | Speak with Dead | Temporarily summons the lingering spirit or psychic echo of a recently deceased individual to answer basic questions. |
| Tier 3 | Spirit Binding | Forcibly binds an unruly ghost or free-floating soul into a physical object or prepared containment vessel. |
| Tier 4 | Exorcism | Violently tears a possessing spirit or foreign soul out of a host body, often damaging both in the process. |
| Tier 5 | Animate the Dead | The pinnacle of this field (often called Necromancy). Forcibly binds a soul into a prepared corpse to act as an eternal, mindless battery for the flesh golem. |
Lore Deep Dive
The Prerequisite of Soul Sight:
Spirit Calling is completely impossible to practice without first obtaining "soul sight." This is an extremely difficult, excruciatingly painful, and highly dangerous process. A mage cannot manipulate what they cannot see. Because obtaining soul sight is strictly illegal in almost all civilized nations, the only people who specialize in Spirit Calling are underground criminals, ancient liches, and the hypocritical high inquisitors of the Triumvirate Church.
Binding and Containing:
While Summoning deals with pulling physical creatures from other places, Spirit Calling deals strictly with the incorporeal. The primary use of this discipline is binding unruly spirits (ghosts) so they cannot cause harm, or enslaving them to power magical artifacts.
The Overlap with Necromancy:
Technically, Necromancy (the animation of corpses) is just a specific application of Spirit Calling. A corpse cannot animate itself; it requires a bound soul to act as the mana engine. Spirit Callers are the ones who rip these souls from the afterlife and chain them to the physical realm.
Design Boundaries
Spirit Calling CAN:
- Perceive, communicate with, and bind incorporeal spirits and souls.
- Tear foreign souls out of host bodies (exorcism).
- Enslave a soul to power a physical construct or corpse.
Spirit Calling CANNOT:
- Be practiced legally. It carries an automatic death sentence in Altazia.
- Create a soul from nothing. Souls are eternal and indestructible; they can only be moved, bound, or damaged.