Story
The mist was endless.
It curled around the roots of trees that had no bark, no leaves, only slow movement, as if they breathed. Each step sank into something soft that was not soil. The air shimmered, not cold or warm, just there, full of whispers that dissolved when listened to.
The shaman walked barefoot, carrying only his drum. Its hide was pale as moonlight, its frame carved from bone and smoke. He struck it once. The sound rippled through the fog like a wave. Shapes stirred.
He did not speak. Words were too heavy here.
From the mist came faces, some known, others never seen. A woman with eyes of water, a child made of feathers, a man whose ribs were open, and within them stars burned quietly. They looked at him and smiled with too many mouths.
He kept walking.
The path wound downward, though there was no ground. Every step left behind a flicker of color that vanished when he looked back. He passed a river that flowed upward into the air, its surface made of faint laughter. He touched it and felt a hundred memories that were not his.
"Shaman."
The voice came from everywhere. It sounded like his own.
He stopped, the drum still beating, slow and deep.
"You have come too far."
"I follow the trail," he said, though his mouth did not move. "The spirit is lost. I would bring it home."
The mist thickened. Something vast shifted within it, unseen, patient. The air trembled like a held breath.
"You walk the space between," said the voice. "Few return whole."
The shaman struck his drum once more. "Then I will return in pieces."
Silence. Then the mist parted, revealing a plain of silver light. On it stood the spirit he sought, a child's outline, faint as smoke. It turned to him, eyes wide, unafraid.
He knelt, offering his hand. The spirit hesitated, then reached out. Their fingers touched, and for a moment he saw everything-the child's first cry, the mother's song, the sickness, the last sigh. All at once, and gone again.
He struck the drum one final time. The world folded inward like water closing over a stone.
When he opened his eyes, he was back beside the cold fire, the body of the child sleeping, breathing softly.
He smiled, though the mist still clung to the corners of his sight. Somewhere behind it, in that other place, something large watched and waited, and the faint echo of the drum still beat in answer.
He whispered a prayer of thanks and lay back, knowing he had not truly returned. Only borrowed time from the mist.

The Voice Between Worlds

Across the worlds' many lands and peoples, shamans are those who walk the border between the mortal world and the realm of spirits. Though their customs vary from tribe to tribe, their purpose is the same: to listen, to mediate, and to keep balance between what breathes and what lingers unseen.

Some call upon the spirits of their ancestors, others speak with the winds, rivers, or beasts. To the shaman, the world is alive, every stone and leaf holds memory, every storm or sickness a voice to be understood. They are the ones who ask, who listen, and who answer when the spirits whisper back.

Trance and Communion

Communication with spirits requires leaving part of the self behind. Shamans enter trances through rhythmic drumming, chanting, dance, fasting, or the use of hallucinogenic herbs. Their minds drift into the veil between life and death, where dreams and truth mingle.

There, they walk the spirit paths, vast plains of light and shadow where voices speak without tongues. Few remember these journeys clearly, for the spirit world does not obey mortal logic. Many describe it as beautiful and terrible in equal measure, where love and horror wear the same face.

Sacrifices are sometimes made to open these paths: food, blood, or smoke offered to the unseen, gifts of respect and exchange.

Sometimes, when a shaman returns from trance, the spirit world clings to them. Faint lights drift behind their steps, the scent of rain or smoke follows them indoors, and their shadow moves as if still walking the paths beyond. Elders say these are echoes of the places they have touched, reminders that no one crosses the veil without bringing something back.

Spirits and Allies

The shaman's greatest gift is connection. They may call upon ancestral spirits for wisdom, bargain with nature spirits for healing or rain, or bind restless ghosts to bring peace to the dead.

Some are accompanied by spirit animals, creatures that have chosen them rather than been chosen. A mouse, raven, or fox might guide a shaman's visions, speak in dreams, or appear only in the moments between waking and sleep. Unlike a witch's familiar, a spirit animal is not a spy or a leash, but a companion, sometimes real, sometimes ethereal, always equal.

Healers and Guardians

In most tribes and villages, the shaman is healer, seer, and judge. They interpret signs in the flight of birds or the stirring of wind, mix herbs to mend wounds, and settle disputes with the weight of ancestral wisdom. Chiefs and kings may rule the living, but it is the shaman who keeps peace with the dead.

Their power is often quiet, yet respected. When the shaman speaks, even the proudest warrior listens, for none wish to anger the spirits that walk unseen beside them.

The Path of Binding

Not all shamans serve as gentle mediators. In some lands, they practice the art of spirit binding, forcing the dead or the unseen into vessels of bone, wood, or clay. These shamans walk the edge between guidance and domination.

They craft dolls or fetishes to house bound spirits, using them for healing, protection, or vengeance. A spirit trapped in such a vessel may whisper advice or scream to be released, depending on how it is treated. The strongest of these shamans can command the dead to rise, as mindless corpses or as willing servants bound by oath or fear.

This practice is often called the Black Path or Blood Road by other shamans, for it demands sacrifice and precision. A single misstep can draw something far older and hungrier than the spirit intended. Yet even among these darker arts, not all who bind do so for evil. Some believe that binding a spirit saves it from greater torment, or uses its pain to heal the living.

The Shadow of Madness

The spirit world gives wisdom, but also danger. Some shamans journey too deeply into the other side and cannot return whole. They begin to see things others cannot, hear whispers that never stop. The line between vision and delusion blurs, and they drift between both worlds like ghosts still trapped in their own flesh. Their life is a balance on the edge of madness.

Old shamans say this is the final price of their calling: the more clearly you see the spirits, the less you belong among the living.

The World's View

To most of the world, shamans are figures of awe rather than fear. They are strange, yes, wild, painted, their eyes clouded with unseen truths, but they are not reviled like witches or summoners. Their power is natural, ancient, and necessary. Even great empires sometimes keep shamans in secret, for there are illnesses and omens no scholar can cure.

Yet those who practice spirit binding walk a narrower path. To their people, they are both protectors and threats. The same man who calls rain might also command a spirit to rot an enemy's crops. Respect and fear walk hand in hand.

Theories and Fears

Scholars debate what spirits truly are, souls of the dead, echoes of divine creation, or reflections of mortal thought. Some claim shamans do not speak to spirits at all, but to fragments of their own minds shaped by ancient instinct. Yet the results are undeniable: the rain comes, the wound heals, the dead sleep.

There are darker whispers too, that some shamans no longer serve as mediators, but as vessels. Their bodies remain, but their spirits wander free, leaving something else behind to wear their skin.

Possible Secrets

The Spirits Lie

Most shamans trust the voices they hear, but not all spirits speak truth. Some are tricksters, feeding lies wrapped in wisdom to amuse themselves or sow chaos among the living. Entire clans have fallen because a shaman followed a "vision" that was never real. Some older shamans claim there are spirits that imitate the voices of the dead, wearing familiar tones to lure the living into pacts they cannot escape.

The Living Fetishes

In rare cases, a bound spirit does not remain passive. It grows stronger, reshaping its vessel into something alive. Dolls that walk, masks that whisper, charms that tremble when angered. A few of these fetishes have escaped their masters entirely, wandering from hand to hand through the ages, carrying the memory of their creators' sins.

The Clouded Path

It is said that a shaman who walks the spirit world too often may leave part of their soul behind each time. Eventually, something else may notice the empty space and fill it. These clouded shamans return to their bodies unchanged in shape but different in essence. They speak with too many voices, and their shadows sometimes move before they do.

The Black Ancestor

Sometimes, there is a shaman whose spirit refused to pass on, choosing instead to linger among the living. These "Black Ancestors" offer guidance at first but grow bitter over centuries, jealous of the living and hungry for sensation. Some tribes secretly sacrifice to keep their ancestor placated, though none admit it openly.

The Drums Beneath the Earth

There are places where shamans hear drums beating deep below the soil, echoing through dreams and trance alike. The sound calls to them, promising knowledge and unity. Those who follow it vanish into caves or deserts, leaving behind circles of scorched earth. Some say these drums belong to something older than the spirits themselves, something that wants to wake.

The Bone Song

Certain shamans craft flutes or rattles from the bones of their ancestors, believing it helps channel their guidance. But there are stories of instruments that sing on their own, calling storms or waking the dead. When played under the wrong moon, the music can draw spirits that were never human at all.

The Forgotten Tribe

Old songs speak of a people who crossed too deeply into the spirit world and never returned. Their bodies withered, but their souls built a village of mist and light within the Veil. Some shamans still claim to meet them in trance, and a few return carrying symbols no living hand could carve. The price for such meetings is always the same, one memory left behind for each word spoken.

Adventure Hooks

The Dying Grove

A sacred grove once tended by a revered shaman begins to wither, its trees oozing sap like blood. The villagers beg for help, fearing the spirit of the grove has turned hostile. Deep within, a sickly green mist coils around the old shaman's staff, still planted in the earth, whispering softly to any who draw near.

The Mask of Winds

A great storm strikes every midsummer night, blowing through the same valley for a single hour. Local hunters say it is the spirit of a shaman who bound the north wind long ago, wearing a mask carved from ice. The adventurers are asked to find the mask and calm the spirit before the storm grows strong enough to sweep the valley away forever.

The Bride of Smoke

In a distant tribe, a young woman is chosen each year to wed a spirit from the volcano to keep it silent. This year, she has fled before the ceremony. Her people beg for help finding her before the mountain wakes, but the spirit has already begun its search.

The Drums of the Dead

A frontier village hears drums every night coming from the burial ground beyond the river. The locals believe a rival tribe's shaman is trying to summon the dead. In truth, the drums are calling for help, the spirits themselves trying to warn of something breaking through the veil beneath the earth.

The Spirit's Child

A hunter's child is born with eyes like molten gold and a voice that hums with two tones at once. The tribe's shaman insists the child carries a spirit within, one that must be either guided or banished before it consumes the body. The adventurers are drawn into the ritual that will decide whether the child lives as human or becomes something else entirely.

The Painted River

A river that once brought life now runs the color of rust. Fish rot in the shallows, and the local shaman lies in a fever, claiming the river spirit has been poisoned. The adventurers must follow the river's length into forbidden lands to find the source of its sickness, and discover that the spirit is still alive, watching them from beneath the surface.

The Dreamer's Plague

Villagers fall into deep sleep, whispering in unison about rivers of stars and a woman made of mist. The shaman tending them insists their spirits are trapped in a shared dream and begs the adventurers to enter the trance and help guide them home. But dreams follow their own rules, and not everyone who enters will wake.

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