Shadow Walker Chapter 2 (Spoilers*)

[dellstart]

You forget, hair and nails show up to spirit sight. They're attached to the living body, and even though they're dead, they show up.

Spirits are certainly aware of the physical world, but most of their understanding of it actually comes from Shaman. Over the centuries, they spirits learned about the material world even as the Shaman learned of the spirit world. They had a very vague concept of it beforehand because they DO puzzle some things out from what they can see. They see shapes covered in microscopic life that seem to have no substance to them, and the living things of the material world, which they can see, interact with these strange shapes. Over time, they worked out a good basic concept of the things they can't see.

As far as acuity goes, the eyes of a spirit are just as sharp as a mortal's sight. They can see everything about a living thing we can see about a mundane thing, but they can see more. Spirits are far more attuned to energy, and as such can see the patterns and texture of energy, which gives them much sharper vision that tells them much more than normal sight. Shifts in Kyven's mood show up in his energy pattern, his aura, which the fox can read like a book.

As far as what the spirits know, it's as much as you might think. Ever since they became aware of the material world, they've studied it, and they are rather clever. They can see the microscopic life coating things they can't see, and with time, patience, and study, they came to be aware of the things they can't see and how the mortal living things interact with them. What they didn't know or understand, they learned from the first of the Shaman. Those first Shaman taught the spirits nearly as much as the spirits taught them, exchanging information about their respective worlds which the other didn't comprehend.

As far as the Breach goes, that's about right. When the ancients started experimenting with alchemy, it attracted the spirits. Remember, spirits can see energy, and when an alchemical device is operating, it is inorganic matter infused with magical power, and becomes visible to them. They had no idea what the humans were doing, because the humans themselves really had no idea what they were doing either. When the humans started gaining some control over the power to do some things, the spirits were curious and didn't interfere, curious to see what they were doing and how they would go about it. It was the first experiments in alchemy that caused the spirits to really take an interest in that "other world" which they could see but with which they didn't bother to interact. Up until then, the spirits really didn't CARE about the mortal world.

Then came the Breach. The Breach killed spirits and damaged the spirit world, damage that took centuries to heal (yes, spirits can die). The breach itself was an accident, and caught just about everybody off guard. The spirits sensed that the humans were doing something big, but they were curious to see what they were doing. They let it go on too long before they tried to stop it, and by then it was too late.

It was the Breach that more or less involved spirits in the mortal world, if only as a matter of control. To prevent another Breach, to guide mortals away from doing something that stupid again, the spirits began taking an active interest in the mortal world. They cultivated the appearance of the Shaman, a process that took centuries and careful and subtle encouragement in the way spirits can encourage mortals, and through them, they learned that which they didn't understand. The Shaman don't just speak for the spirits, they are the "window" through which the spirits can see into the material world. From the Shaman the spirits learned about technology, human politics, everything they could only guess at given their limited ability to see into and interact with the material world.

It's not a harsh control, though. The spirits are by nature very curious and compassionate creatures...with a few notable exceptions. They do sincerely care about the humans, and the Arcans, and the mortal world. Centuries of observation added to their contact with the Shaman to instill into the spirits an honest affection for the mortals and a desire to help them, even as their interaction protects themselves from another foolish mortal act that might harm them. What started as a coldly logical plan to control the mortals evolved into the current situation, where spirits are quasi-deities whom are worshipped by Arcans. They've accepted this role with grace, and work both for the harmony of their world and to take care of their "herds" of Arcan followers and the humans.

wow! thanks fel for the background info

[boballab]

When you look at it from that angle the Spirits actually need the Shaman, for without them their influence in the material world is just about nil. If a large enough majority of the Shaman disagreed with something the Spirits wanted, the Spirits would all of sudden find themselves between a rock and hard place. Yes they could kill the Shaman, as has been done before, but if they had to kill 75% or greater of the Shaman they would be crippled in what they could do, especially at this critical junction. They need the Shaman to stop Humanity from unknowingly killing more of them. However none of the Shaman have thought of that...yet! Could you imagine the bargain Kyven could extort from the Shadowfox if he figured that out and there he is, the only one that could prevent another breach. He could blackmail the shit out of her and if she didn't like it, oh well there is not always a happy ending even for Spirits

Another thing with the Spirits not being able to see inaminate objects, and trying to deduce what they might be and how they function: Spirits don't use technology. They didn't have the technological background to understand what they did see. It would be like someone assembling a computer in front of a Cro-Magnon. They are just as intelligent as us but don't have the technological background to understand what they are seeing. That is until the Shaman came into being and even after that it would be like trying to explain the color blue to a blind man: Where do you start and how can you descibe it with no frame of reference.

[NSC]

I'm re-reading this series, and again that large, perfect, green crystal is a big question mark. Since the loremaster is unwilling to discuss where it came from, and Kyven knows they intend to rebuild the machine that caused the breach, perhaps it's from an early experiment into that machine?