Spirits are beings used by Gaia as a sense of touch, and anything that interferes with them is considered a contradiction. There are several types of spirits and despite the fact that they can be found everywhere only those humans who possess a spiritual affinity can perceive them. Spirits with no material form are generally harmless to people, but those of higher class are of such a dimension that they can be perceived as well as interact with people, are a different story. Presently, science cannot interfere with spiritual bodies and modern Magecraft cannot reproduce mysteries of such scale.

Contents 1 Nature 2 Categories 2.1 Elemental 2.2 Divine Spirit 2.3 Heroic Spirit 2.3.1 Jinn 2.4 Animal Spirits 2.4.1 Kitsune and Inukami 2.4.2 NEKO Spirit 2.5 Nature Spirits 2.6 Guardian Spirit 2.7 Lower-class Spirits 2.7.1 Wraith 2.7.2 Apparition 3 References

NatureEdit

There are many spirits born from human folklore and human traditions due to humans being able to "engrave" a Thaumaturgical System (魔術系統, Majutsu Keitō^?) upon the World ─ a body of preestablished rules, fomented per the faith of the populace. If it is believed that the subject of a mystery "exists," the World permits its existence. Definite affirmation of said belief is not required, so even though the majority of modern humans reject the existence of ghosts, modern science cannot outright demonstrate that they do not exist, and, thus, within the unconscious, there lurks the vague suspicion that "they might indeed exist." This sort of "suspicion" falls under the category of "faith." "Ignorance" is the force that opposes "faith." If the existence of ghosts is itself utterly unknown, faith cannot foment.

CategoriesEdit

ElementalEdit

Elemental (精霊, Seirei^?), the general term for the spiritual bodies of dead animals, nature spirits who are born from nature and the artificial created Guardian Spirits. Lower class spirits such as ghosts and apparitions are not included in this category. Most of these spirits do not necessarily have human form and most of them cannot be perceived by humans.

Elementals manifest themselves by using the images of humans to shape their bodies. Still, even if the shape turns out to be close to that of humans, their values and logic is still unlike than those of humans. Fairies that grow to a scale that can be perceived by humans become capable of manifest themselves in a fashion similar to that of Elementals. True Ancestors can be considered a type of manifested Elementals.

Capable of using Marble Phantasms and Reality Marbles, with the former being applied in the manufacture of their dwellings. Said dwellings are, despite their otherworldly aspects, still part of the natural world. As such, there are times when humans accidentally stumble into them.

Despite being a general category for all sorts of spirits, the term “Elemental” usually refer to spirits from the nature when used by itself. The likes of the Lady of the Lake, the True Ancestors and others mediators of nature are first and foremost Elementals before being part of any other category. Incidentally, Elementals can become Demons.

Divine SpiritEdit

Main article: Divine Spirit

Heroic SpiritEdit

Main article: Heroic Spirit

JinnEdit

Djinn (ジン, Jin^?) The wind gods of Islamic tradition, well known for being very mischievous. With bodies made of gas and smoke, they can float in the wind and are mostly invisible, but are capable of producing solid forms when necessary. In those cases, they preferably take the shape of an ogre with the face of a dog and the back of a cat, but cases where they take the appearance of a beautiful human or some beast such as snakes are not unheard of.

Animal SpiritsEdit

Animal Spirits (動物霊, Doubutsurei^?) The spirits of dead animal's. Differently, as by the souls of dead humans, who are generally formless existences, animals retain their form from their former lives.

Kitsune and InukamiEdit

Kitsune and Inukami (狐、犬神, Kitsune, Inukami^?) The traditional nine-tailed fox and dog-familiar spirits of Japanese folklore, they are attributed of being the source of people’s insanity by possessing them. Also, in cases where a demon possession causes the emergence of multiple personalities due the host surrendering his rights of ego, the resulting alternate persona is said to be these spirits themselves accordingly with Japanese beliefs. However, unlike the nonsensical accidents that are the Western demon possessions, there is a definite reason and “will to curse” behind the cases of possession that are brought about by these spirits.

NEKO SpiritEdit

NEKO Spirit (ネコ精霊, NEKO Seirei^?) refers to the type of spirits that reside in the Great Cat’s Village. Members of the race include Neco-Arc, Neco-Arc Bubbles, Neco-Arc Chaos, Neco-Arc Evolution and Neco-Arc Destiny.

Nature SpiritsEdit

Nature Spirits (自然霊, Shizenrei^?) As the name states, a spirit born from elements of nature such as plants, soil, gemstones, natural phenomenons and etc. Ores and jewels that have been beneath the surface for an extended period of time are said to be capable of easily giving birth to these kinds of spirits. Their spiritual body's are formed by the will of the planet earth and they gain power from nature itself.

Guardian SpiritEdit

Guardian Spirit (守護精霊, Shugoseirei^?) is a classification of spirit that comes from the result of merging an Animal or Nature Spirit with a human soul. It is not something that happens naturally, but rather is something that is made by the hands of men in order to give human values to something that is not human. The spirits of humans are of a much lower rank than the nature or animal spirits and are thus absorbed in, but as a result, it acquired knowledge as a human, and gradually acquired a human's value. Theses Spirits must be bound, to objects or to places, inorder for them to stay in this world. It takes quite some time for the human spirits to gain control of themselvs and to gain their own body. They are considered to be below other types of Elemental, but have the potential to become Holy Spirits (聖霊, Seirei^?). These Holy Spirits can possess Mystic Eyes, which are designated as Jewel under the Noble Colors system. They surpass the Gold-ranked Eyes of the Dead Apostles and are exclusively possessed by Holy Spirits and Magical Beasts from the Age of Gods. In order to materialize themselves, they require a supply of prana beyond that of most people. Guardian Spirits cannot be observed by anyone, except the Master they are connected with, in their spirit form. But they can still talk with each other and go scouting by flying in their spirtual form. The best examples for these kind of spirits are Nanako who inhabits the Seventh Holy Scripture from the Church and the Argon Coin possessed by Medea.

Lower-class SpiritsEdit

下級霊 - Kakyuurei

Vague, generally formless existences that can only acquire a definite identity by “possessing” an image.

WraithEdit

Wraith (亡霊, Bourei^?)

, also referred to as Human spirits, are souls of dead people that remain attached to this world due past grudges, regrets and other sorts of unfinished business that they had during life. As such, they tend to haunt places, items or people that are related to their unfinished business. Normally, direct physical intereference on the part of these ghosts are low. As spiritual body's they usually have to act through some sort of medium, by putting it under its domination, in order to conduct interference. However, as they are no longer something that belongs to this world, their existence is something that degrades with time and they are bound to disappear eventually.

But as they are Human Spirits they are able to consume the souls and minds of people and convert them into energy. The basic abilities they had from the time when they where alive still remain but they don't change from such nourishment, as they only become tougher as their magical energy capacity increases.

There is also an interesting relationship between Wraiths and Heroic Spirits. If a hero of fictitious origins is summoned by any reasons, a Wraith of an individual that possessed traits similar to that fictitious hero will be created to temporarily play his role. Such was the case of Sasaki Kojirou. However, it should be noted that all of the Hassan i Sabbah that qualified as Servants of the Assassin class per the uncorrupted rules of the Fuyuki Grail War are technically wraiths rather than Heroic Spirits.^[1]

The Dead Apostle Ancestor Stanrobe Calhin is referred to as the first Wraith.

ApparitionEdit

Apparition (浮遊霊, Fuuyuurei^?), also referred to as leftover thoughts (残留思念, zanryuu shinen^?), are fragments of an already departed soul that gathered together to form an amorphous entity that is filled with nothing but the most primitive drive to live. A projection of someone’s past records which were stored in the surroundings. The traditional ghosts in the popular sense of the world, generally harmless as almost nobody can perceive them. Technically, they can still interact and even attempt to possess those with spiritual abilities, but as long as the target possess a strong ego they won’t be able to take over.

Examples include the spirits of the Fujou Building. The “fairies” controlled by Misaya Ouji and Len were made out of these kind of spirits.

ReferencesEdit

1. ↑ Jonnobi -- ハサン・サッバーハ（亡霊・英霊候補: 冬木の聖杯戦争において必ずアサシンのクラスをまとって召還される亡霊（英霊候補）の郡体。正体はアサシンの語源となった暗殺教団（イスラム教イスマイル派）の歴代頭首たち。英霊でないのは決して名を残さなかったため。

Magecraft
Concepts
Bounded Field • Conceptual Weapon • Gradation Air • Magic • (Second Magic • Third Magic) • Magical Spells • Marble Phantasm • Mystic Code • Mystic Eyes • Mystic Eyes of Death Perception • Psychic • Reality Marble
Creatures
Demons • Divine Spirit • Dragon • Familiar • Homunculus • Humans • Phantasmal Species • Spirits • Vampire
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Command Spells • Great Grail • Heroic Spirit • Holy Grail • Master • Noble Phantasm • Servant • Servant classes • Servant Parameters
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Barthomeloi Lorelei • Magician • Magus • Sealing Designation
Terms
Akasha • Chants and Incantations • Elements • Gaia • Magic Circuit • Prana • Soul • Thaumaturgical Crest