Spirit

Spirit is the generic term for any sort of sentient being that originates from within the dream worlds. They are not always made of atoms and molecules, but usually are made of the substances that are key to the composition of the world they originate from. Spirits are sometimes called dream beings or dream entities.

There is no standardized taxonomy for spirits. Scientists from all over have documented their own way to categorize various types of spirits. Colloquially, various names have been given to spirits such as fey creatures, fairies, imaginary friends, ghosts, demons, gods, and many other terms from folklore.

Spirits are also said to have an indefinite lifespan. They do not die of old age. A spirit can be slain though depending on the nature in which they died, they have the possibility of reforming at a later date. Additionally, humans that die have the possibility of reincarnating as a spirit. Because of this, it is believed that spirits share the same makeup as that of the human consciousness.

Spirits that are hybrids of physical entities are not unheard of, but are still being researched.

General classifications

The classifications of spirits vary. However, they have several common properties that can generally be quantified on a multi-axis sliding scale. As a spirit develops and changes throughout its life, where they fall on the sliding scale may change. A spirit may acquire or lose certain abilities.

• Intelligence – Measures a spirit’s ability to analyze situations and plan ahead.
• Rationality – Measures a spirit’s ability to philosophize and display self-awareness.
• Emotions – Measures a spirit’s ability to express and control emotions.
• Power level – Measures a spirit’s ability to output energy.
• Composition – Measures what a spirit is made of as well as the ease of it manifesting in the physical world.

Ethics

One of the most commonly debated topics following the creation of the Dreamwalking Thesis was the recognition of spirits as citizens with human rights. What makes them challenging to classify is how much spirits vary in their ability to integrate with human society. For example, gods are vastly more intelligent and more powerful than humans but most have shown little interest in assimilating. Equally, some spirits such as shifters are perfectly capable of human-level intelligence and desire to be recognized as citizens but have often faced discrimination due to a history of conflict with other humans. On the other hand, some spirits that superficially appear as humans such as the doppelgangers in the Realm of Darkness have shown no evidence of any consciousness at all; their abilities to reason and learn are outclassed even by fish.

Because of these wildly different demonstrations of consciousness, it is difficult to create laws on how a person should be convicted if a person was to harm a spirit. A person destroying a spirit in self-defense could have either just dismantled a non-sentient natural phenomenon or have killed an intelligent being with little way of telling the difference. However, with a spirit’s ability to reincarnate, the repercussions for crimes against spirits on average tend to be less severe than against humans.

Being able to ponder the philosophy of killing a spirit is usually not a luxury for dreamwalking military organizations that are in combat. Among the general rules of engagement are that spirits are to only be attacked if they are reasonably demonstrating hostile intent towards a human or a spirit that has already been previously recognized as demonstrating sentient capability. Even so, this rule is not always reliable due to the unpredictable nature of spirits in general. As such, it is the mission of dreamwalking science groups to continue unlocking the secrets of spirits.

Dreamwalkers

Show/Hide