“The Nevernever is a big place. In fact, it’s the biggest place. The Nevernever is what the wizards call the entirety of the realm of spirit. It isn’t a physical place, with geography and weather patterns and so on. It’s a shadow world, a magical realm, and its substance is as mutable as thought. It has a lot of names, like the Other Side and the Next World, and it contains within it just about any kind of spirit realm you can imagine, somewhere. Heaven, Hell, Olympus, Elysium, Tartarus, Gehenna - you name it, and it’s in the Nevernever somewhere. In theory, at any rate.”

  • Summer Knight By Jim Butcher

Perhaps it’s due to my religion, or simply a byproduct of the kind of fantasy fiction I enjoy, but I like a degree of ambiguity and natural paradox in my world, where the metaphysics in question don’t strongly support one or another answer. Of course our own reality is itself rather opaque at certain layers and why many people prescribe to the idea reality is merely a Black Box and thus not really knowable or understandable.

That aside I’ll save my “Human perception is a series of models” rant for another time. what I wanted to get at is adding another world should not alleviate this “problem.” Spirits should be just, if not more opaque as our own physical laws are. This is not to say they should be inconsistant (certainly not in a game mechanical context) but rather different, operating on a different series of laws and fundamentals than us. All of this to say spirits are not a hand wave explaination for why certain things happen. they should almost beg more questions than answers.

Do not mistake this for J.J Abram’s Mystery Box method though, the opaqueness of the metaphysics and background elements of the world shouldn’t really bleed to far into a mystery or investigation in the context of TTRPG and player goals, in my experience withholding information really never lead to an interesting investigation.

To cut to the purpose of this article This is more an exercise in world building than mechanics, to be sure there are some mechanics to support these ideas but nothing is quite set in stone at this phase and I suspect things or the ways they are described will change, likewise future articles I have in the pipeline require me have some concrete rules and explanation for spirits as a whole.

The point of Be Not Afraid as far as I envision it, is about mundane humanity’s reaction. And fighting against the predations of evil forces on the mundane and physical side of reality, and thus the conflict is set on Earth in our side of reality, this is not to say adventures cannot take place out in the Spiritual Realm, but rather to say that is not the focus.

Glossary⌗

Phyiscal Realm - The Physical World, or Mundane World, everything we humans understand and interact with.

Spiritual Realm - The otherside of reality, a semi-psychoactive realm which mirrors aspects of our own. sometimes also called the Astral, The Noosphere,or The Everywhen.

The Seperation - The ongoing process of the Spriti World and Phyiscal World drifting apart.

The Liminal - The Transition or liminal space between the spiritual and physical realm.

The Veil - The barrier which prevents entites from the Liminal or Spiritual from directly interacting with the Physical.

Spirit - Entities native to the Spirit Realm or which primarly exist on that side of reality.

Realms/Planes - sub-areas or domains within the Spiritual Realm as a whole, often ruled, inhabitied, and governed by specific entities.

Plantery Spheres - The Spiritual connections and Realms associated with the planets of our Solar System.

The Lunar Sphere - The point in which human metaphysical connections begin to wane, and eventually drop off altogether.

The Seperation⌗

The vast majority of humanity in Be Not Afraid are virtually unaware of the spiritual side of reality, sure they may profess to know of it, or believe in it, but their actual encounters and interactions with it are sparse to none, this is the state of humanity, blind and deaf to their neighbors, blissfully unaware of the beauties and nightmares which exist on the other side of The Veil.

Though this is a fairly recent state of affairs, humanity knew of these beings in their past history, and before that even the seperation of the two worlds was almost nonexistent, spirits and deities roamed the earth as readily as any other creature. The reason this has changed is a point of great debate and speculation among those inclined to navel gazing. But what is understood among Magi and those in the spiritual or metaphysical know is that this is an ongoing process, the worlds are slowly and steadily moving apart and thus it becomes harder to peak behind The Veil.

The Liminal⌗

When most people talk about the Spirit World or Realm what they are often referring to is the Liminal, the overlapping transition space between the Physical Realm and the Spirit Realm, This is where the majority of spirits any person may interact with or have contact with dwell, as it’s the closet a spirit can naturally get to the Physical Realm without mortal assistance.

The Liminal often comports and maps to our own world’s geography almost exactly, the difference is that everything there is vivid and hazy, like looking through stained colored glass or laser lit fog, and in some places it’s a crytal clear reflection of Physical Reality but the colors are all washed out. much of the apperance of the Liminal is decided by the spiritual makeup of the physical space it’s reflecting.

Likewise People, animals, cars, objects can be seen moving about, though cannot be interacted with, again the Liminal can only see into the physical, but almost never directly interacts, this is how spirits watch us, through a haze of our auras and minds.

The Veil⌗

Between the Liminal and the Physical is The Veil, a curtain or wall which prevents spirits from reaching out and touching us, or us touching them. sure whispers and shadows, small things can be projected across but for the most part the Veil cannot be passed without aid.

How the Veil came to be is of much speculation, since it’s neither of spirit or of the physical, a common belief held among some theist magi is that the Almighty constructed it some time during or after the Great Flood, others yet claim it was created during the Bronze Age collapse as a countermeasure against a force of invading entities.

The Spirit Realm⌗

This is the least charted (and least fleshed out) part of reality, it is also the largest though that doesn’t exactly mean anything given distance is a bit abstract when operating here, much of it’s topology and geopgraphy are also shaped by human thought. though there are static sub-realms which exist here, any realm or place in mythology you can think of probably exists somwhere, from Duat to Sheol, Tartarus to helheim, Arcadia to Hell.

To say this place is dangerous is a bit of an understatement since any and everything can exist here, and laws of reality here depend very much on where you are, thus this article isn’t going to touch too much on this part of the cosmology (Given I haven’t made too many decisions or how one explores it yet.)

Realms can and do exist indepdent of human thought and existance, much how they are connected and related to one another however is very much tied to human/sentient thought, likewise the Spirit World has parallel space, meaning while they are not directly linked to our topology many of the spiritual realms you can encounter are earhtbound and anthropocentric. There may be loose connections to realms which exist outside the human noosphere, Olympus in the spirit world for example has a point of liminal contact with both the Mount Olympus in Greece as well as Olympus Mons on Mars.

In medieval cosmology there is a concept of the planetary spheres, each planet having a spiritual sway or tidal effect on Earth, explaining certain seasonal or weather phenomena, the moon’s orbit being the edge of the physical world and where the heavens began. I take a similar approach but different, The Lunar Sphere is where the anthropocentric connections of the spirit realm begin to wane. as you get furhter from earth the less human the spirts and things you would ecnounter.

Spirits⌗

Spirits really only means natives to the spirit world, and not much else, the differencs between the types is so wide it’s hard to really even call of them all spirits. As a rule of thumb regarding them though, if you can touch them, they can touch you, and the reverse, if they can’t touch you, it means you probably can’t touch them, a spirit in the Liminal space can’t directly interact with you. There are of course magical and supernatural means this can be bypassed, but they tend to favor the physical side of reality not the spiritual side. Unless of course you step into the Liminal or the Spirit Realm, in which both you and the spirit in question are quite tangible to one another. As such all spirits have Hit Dice, Movement, AC, Attacks, Powers, Saving Throws, etc.

many spirits in the Liminal do require something often called an anchor to be there, thinking of the Liminal as sort of shallow waters, the Anchor is their coral reef, it’s what they feed on and what permits them to linger there. some spirits can just exist there because, but for the most part they have an Anchor, said Anchor can be something like the relative of a deceased person who’s Shade “guards them” or the Lures/House spirits of a specific property who do simple small things for the residunce there in return for certain observences, such as setting out tinkers of beer or milk. Destroy the Anchor and the spirit typically either ceases to exist or gets flung back into the spirit world.

Types of Spirits⌗

By no means is this list comprohensive in any respect, likewise the catagories are somewhat arbitrary and not mutually exclusive, however these tend to be the broad groupsings and encompass most of the types you’d encounter.

Thought-Forms: These are your Servitors, Tulpas, Egregores and other such entities born of human thought and belief, in the modern day and age quite a number of these spirits look like marketed or branded people or items, it would not be terribly uncommon to find a number of these entities that look like Spider-Man or Batman.

Animistic/Elementals: Everything has a spirit, or a mirror representation of one, most are so small or diminutive as to go rather unnoticed, but a large River or Mountain may have a large slumbering one settled somewhere in the Liminal or the Spirit Realm.

Genuis Loci: Are basically the larger gestalt consciousness’ of many connected elemental spirits, these are the larger spirits of the land, interestingly manmade structures may also have Genuis Loci, Loci can be made up of smaller Loci, the distinction of Elemental and Loci is somewhat fuzzy.

Demons: This is less a specific type of spirit and more a primordial job description a number of spirits fall under, such as Infernal Demons, Qilpothic Demons, certain Djinn and Yōkai fall under.

Shades: Ghosts, Spectures, Wraiths and other such undead, however unlike common belief these are not actually made from the souls of the deceased, they are rather psychic imprints left in a typically truamatic death or event, or by those who were quite fettered with attachments or unfinished business in their passing.

Psychopomps: Spirits and entites resonsible for getting Shades and Souls to where they belong. some of the few spirits can see someone’s Silver Cord when astral projecting.

Chthonic Spirits: Spirits which are native to the underworld(s) and which govern those regions. often also sustaining themselves or punishing Shades.

Daemons: Catch all for attendent spirits, be that house spirits like lares or muses. Or minor spiritual phenomenon or effects.

Plutonics: The pure embodiments of discrete ideas or things often from a superneal realm or place, rare, powerful and nearly omnipotent within their spheres of influence.

Celestials: More commonly called “Angels”. Having been around before and during the creation of the universe. Celestials are The adminstrative beings of the univereses. and presumed servants of The Almighty, while not quite spirits (as they predate the concept) they are all unique and one of a kind, and omnipotent within their roles and purposes.

Chimera: Catch all term for creatures that are mostly spiritual but have natural physical forms. if humans are mostly incarnate beings with some spirit, then beings like Fae or Djinn are mostly spirit with incarnate forms.

Outsiders: Sometimes called Interlopers, are beings from outside existence entirely and which dwell in Outer Darkness, to even call them “beings” is a stretch, they desire to get inside the universe and entirely destroy it, and as such are not really spirits or incarnate beings at all, but often subsume or weave themselves into those forms to operate in our reality.

Quasimorphs: Non-terrestial spirits from overlapping spirital realms called Bramfaturas that are adjacent to the celstial spheres (planets) of our solar system.

Beyonders: Alien beings or spirits from beyond our solar system, which operate under very different principles to typical terrestial spirits or even Quasimorpsh (though the distinction can be hard to find) likewise they are so alien and weird as to be mistaken with Outsiders who have gone native. (Lovecraft Mythos stuff falls under this camp)

Veil Levels⌗

The Veil while in some sense considered a static force, has areas which it grows thinner or thicker depending on the context of the Physical Realm, as a result the amount there are places where spirits have an easier time interacting with or directly engaging with living creatures.

Veil Levels⌗

  1. Absentia (DC N/A) - The Veil is practically nonexistent

    • Locations: Mystical convergences, ancient ritual sites, Deep Ocean, Deep Space.
    • Times: Powerful celestial Events
    • Spirits can freely manifest and interact with the physical world

  2. Tenue (DC 8) - The Veil is extremely thin

    • Locations: Graveyards, haunted locations, Pagan places of worship
    • Times: The Witching Hour, solstices.
    • Spirits can manifest with some effort

  3. Fluxa (DC 12) - The Veil is present but somewhat permeable

    • Locations: Old buildings, forests, crossroads
    • Times: Dusk, dawn, new moon
    • spirits can manifest with effort

  4. Commune (DC 15) - The normal state of the Veil

    • Locations: Most mundane locations
    • Times: Regular nighttime hours
    • Only stronger spirits can manifest reliably

  5. Murus (DC 18) - The Veil actively resists penetration

    • Locations: Busy public places, modernized areas
    • Times: Daylight hours
    • Powerful spirits can manifest with difficulty

  6. Firmum (DC 22) - The Veil is deliberately strengthened

    • Locations: Blessed areas, protective circles
    • Times: Noon, religiously significant hours
    • Even powerful spirits struggle to manifest

Manifestation Success Levels⌗

Basic Success (Meeting the DC)

  • Ephemeral communication: Whispers, fleeting shadows, brief appearance in reflective surfaces
  • Subtle environmental effects: Minor temperature changes, light flickers
  • Emotional influence: Fleeting feelings of unease or other emotions
  • Duration: 1-2 rounds (6-12 seconds)

Moderate Success (Beating DC by 5+)

  • Clear communication: Audible voices, briefly visible appearance, visible in mirrors.
  • Notable environmental effects: Moving small objects, electrical interference
  • Stronger emotional influence: Causing fear, sadness, or other distinct emotions
  • Duration: 1 round (6 seconds) for active effects

Major Success (Beating DC by 10+)

  • Significant manifestation: Temporarily tangible form, ability to interact physically
  • Dramatic environmental effects: Moving larger objects, affecting weather
  • Powerful influence: Visions, dreams, or compelling emotional states
  • Duration: 1 minute for active effects

Spirit Manifestation Check Formula⌗

  • Roll d20 + (1/2 HD, rounded down)
  • Compare to the Veil DC for the location/time

Manifestation Limitations⌗

  • Spirits can only attempt to manifest once per hour
  • Failed manifestation attempts leave the spirit weakened for 1d4 hours (-4 on future attempts)
  • Each manifestation drains the spirit’s strength temporarily (reduce effective HD by 1 for 24 hours)

Summoning Framework⌗

Because I do not have a specific or unified magic system for Be Not Afraid I’m sort of bashing together aspects together indepdently as my idea of the cosmology forms. at least I don’t have a formalized magic system the way a Chaos Magaican or a Heremtic would thing about it. certainly I have some systems in mind for how humans’ wield supernatural powers, divine or psionic, but not practiced magic.

Despite I wanted to offer a generic system for summoning in this article and offers guidelines for it, thee DC, I left what Attributes and Skills are present vague, since I don’t have the skill list out in an article yet, but it tends to be Attribute (Often INT) + Skill (Occult). this could just as easily work as Attribute + Class Level (Wizard/Caster) as well.

  1. Circle of Calling - Physical representation of the summoning space

    • Quality affects DC: Improvised (+3 DC), Basic (+0 DC), Elaborate (-2 DC)
    • Materials can be specialized to spirit type (ashes for shades, copper filings for Fairies, element type for elementals, etc)

  2. Connection/Offering - Something that resonates with the target spirit

    • Personal items of the deceased for shades
    • Elements for elemental spirits (water, fire, etc.)
    • Symbolic offerings for abstract spirits (blood for war spirits, valuables for fortune spirits)
    • Quality/appropriateness affects DC: Poor (+2 DC), Appropriate (+0 DC), Perfect (-2 DC)

  3. Invocation - Words, chants, or rituals to draw the spirit

    • Can be generic (-0 DC) or specifically researched for target spirit (-2 DC)
    • Language might matter (specific tongues for culturually specific spirits)

  4. Timing - When the summoning is attempted

    • Aligns with Veil level: Attempting during Absentia (-5 DC) vs Firmum (+5 DC)

    Note: A lot of this framework is reliant on a research phase in prep for the summoning itself, this is probably the kind of thing that shouldn’t just work when doing it totally off the cuff, being able to do that probably requires that you’ve done a number of summonings before and have some experience doing them. hence why we don’t see spirits getting summoned in all willy nilly.

Summoning DC Formula⌗

Base DC = 15 + Spirit HD + Modifiers

Modifiers:

  • Veil Level adjustment: -5 (Absentia) to +5 (Firmum)
  • Circle quality: -2 to +3
  • Connection/offering: -2 to +2
  • Knowledge of spirit: Known by name (-2), Known by type (+0), Unknown (+3)
  • Previous relationship: Ally (-3), Neutral (+0), Enemy (+3)

Summoning Check⌗

Roll d20 + relevant attribute modifier + any skill/class bonuses

Results:

  • Success: Spirit arrives in the Liminal near the summoner
  • Success by 5+: Spirit can manifest briefly in Physical World
  • Success by 10+: Spirit can manifest strongly in Physical World
  • Failure: Nothing happens
  • Failure by 5+: Random spirit may answer instead
  • Failure by 10+: Hostile spirit or backfire effect

Binding the Spirit⌗

This step requires it’s own seperate shape (often a triangle) enscribed into the floor/ground, with symbols meant to confine/bind it.

After summoning, a separate control check may be required:

  • DC = 12 + Spirit HD + relevent modifiers
  • Success means the spirit is bound to fulfill a task or answer questions
  • Failure means the spirit is present but unbound (potentially dangerous)

Note: Regarding binding spirits, this requires I think a little more GM fiat, and migh require the PCs have a good idea as to how the specific spirit they are interacting with could be bound, be that an oath they spirit was sworn to, some sort of pre arranged metaphysical pact like one of Solomon’s Keys, or someone discerning the things True Name. a lot of the shame charts for summoning can also apply here but in reverse, so using an elementals opposite , or iron filings for a fairy as examples.

Banishing the Spirit⌗

The danger of the spirit is much more bassed on what it is and the success of summoning it, a spirit must still contend with the veil and still might not have a lot of power when formally present. a spirit however that has been fully brought into the material could be a considerable threat given the right cirumstances…

You have a coouple options when banishing a spirit:

  1. Command Banishment: Requires you have bound the spirit already, and simply command it to leave.

  2. Purifying Ritual: Often require a sword or dagger which has been conscrated, the person forming the ritual is effectly resealing the tear or breach in the Veil the spirit was brought through/disrupting the energies which permit it to exist there. the DC for this ritual is 12 + Spirits HD. (1 minute casting time)

  3. Warding Circle: the reverse of a Summoning Circle, created with the opposite intent, it isolates entities and spirits from beyond the Veil. Keeping them in or out of the circle, once stuck in the circle the spirit is often forced to retreat back to their side of the Veil to escape. effectively banshing them. when creating a Warding circle it is important to use the opposite components you’d use to summon it. the DC for Warding a Spirit is 5 + Spirits HD with a constructed warding circle.

To-Do List⌗

I’ve stated before but this is a very basic overview for some of these concepts. and there is a lot I want to work on and clarify but I don’t think would have fit into this article well or I just want to think on and save for another article, so I at least want to put some of those things here, likewise given the nature of this article I’m also quite open to input and suggestion since a lot of the ideas here are more or less placeholders if I find better ideas. which is not to say I don’t like the stuff I’ve written but I’m still gold panning for ideas.

  1. Clarifying incarnate vs present: On writing this I realized there was a weird overlap between a spirit manfiesting a physical form, vs just being summoned in the physical, and I probably should make at some point a mechanical distinction. my gut feeling on this is if it’s created itself a body or form to be here, it probably can’t be killed directly, it’s main spirit essence still being on the otherside of the Veil, compared to it being summoned to be present on the Physical. since my rule of thumb is if it can touch you, you can touch it, it probably means they can be slain when in that state.

  2. Coming up with more Veil Levels: Something I need to think on as well. more so because Absentia implies an absence of the Veil, and while true, it doesn’t mean it’s a door a spirit can walk through and go to anywhere in the physical now. once it leaves that area of Absentia, it’s still pulled back over to it’s side of reality, or simply can’t leave that area until it goes back to it’s side. this would be different to something like a gateway or shallow spot between the two worlds, which might be a direct linkage and allow real two-way transfers. but again need to think on how to clarify it.

  3. Big List of Spirits: Pretty simple, start clarifying and creating actual usable statblocks for spirits. I already have some of this in some other posts regarding etheral entites, but that is pretty tied to D&D’s planescape cosmology.

  4. Rules for Astral Projecting: Now this I actually do know what I want to do with, but thought it’d be important to make as a seperate article.

Appendix N⌗

Listing some inspirations I had for this article.

  • Umbreal Realms - World of Darkness

  • Invisible College’s Astral Realm - RPGpundit

  • The Nevernever - Dresden Files

  • The Dreamlands - Lovecraft Mythos

  • The Warp - Warhammer 40k

  • The Great Wheel - Planescape

  • Screwtape Letters - C.S Lewis.