Kami

Nature Made Manifest

"... Since times of prehistory Humanity has strove to understand the world around them, and for centuries, the Kami have inspired numerous tales and legends across all Zamzara, for good and for ill. Unlike the Nashyan Monsters, these spirits are born of nature and are inseparable from it, like petals on a flower. Like humans, they have individual aspects and consciousnesses, but remain part of a greater whole nevertheless. While all existence is part of The Godhead, the human soul has a more direct connection to It, while a Kami is connected to nature, which is then connected to Godhead. Their material existences are longer than our own, but far less fulfilling or meaningful..."

- Bestiarum Vocabulum

Basic Information

Growth Rate & Stages

Each Kami is different than the other, and all are created differently. Some are born from deceased human souls which have yet to pass on into the next kalpa, while others are manifestations of a place or lingering sentiment. All are cursed to remain in Zamzara until they grow less attached to the material world, yet it is this attachment that creates all Kami - they cannot separate themselves from the material world without destroying their own temporary existences. Once gone, they transmigrate into the next kalpa like all other beings.

Ecology and Habitats

Kami are innately tied to the locations where they manifest and often cannot leave the areas they inhabit, while others grow attached to the concept of wandering the earth and roam the land, caught in a wretched existence. Those who are affixed to the land have great power, but are restrained by the natural order and usually have duties they must fulfill to continue their existence, while the wandering spirits are unpredictable and often violent. Some humans worship various Kami as avatars or aspects of The Godhead - and this worship only helps to cement their place in the world.

Biological Cycle

Physically, Kami are not too dissimilar from the monsters that have been dissected and studied: They are made almost entirely out of Prana with scant few traces of Elemental energy giving them physical form. However, unlike monsters, Kami have their own souls, making them closer to humans than monsters in their makeup. Importantly, the souls of some Kami are never human across any incarnation, and these are the greatest source of metaphysical debate among academic circles, as it is commonly believed that many Kami are the souls of people from previous kalpas who grew too attached to the material world and reincarnated as something less than human.

Kami almost seem to bridge the gap between Humanity and Monsters: Like people, Kami are primarily composed of Origin Energy, but like monsters, they have enough Elemental energy to have resistances and weaknesses to certain Elements. Their Origin Energy prevents them from being caught in a Pokeball, but their minds are often warped by forces unknown - perhaps the ravages of time take their toll, or perhaps the spirit that made the Kami were already fraught with emotion, pain, or grief while wandering the world. Few Kami are stable enough to hold a conversation with because of this.

KNOWN KAMI

Kami are phenomena that have been known to mankind since prehistory, before the Zamzian Empire unified the disparate cultures and beliefs of Zamzara under a single banner. Tales and stories of them were orally passed down through generations of early humans, but with the advent of civilization came scholars of the supernatural, determined to categorize and explain these creatures. Centuries of research were compiled into the second half of the Bestiarum Vocabulum, the most comprehensive tome of non-human life ever written.

Gashadokuro

One of the more famous Kami, stories about this spirit are told to children across all Zamzara, but are most common in the west. A Gashadokuro is a giant skeleton - an amalgamation of massive groups of people who all died under similar circumstances (most often famine or warfare) whose grudges and lingering hopes seep into the earth itself, forming as a giant skeletal figure with a great and terrible thirst for blood that can never be quenched. It is said that a lone Gashadokuro can invisibly wander into a village and depart as the sun rises, leaving behind a completely deserted town with no evidence except the blood-splattered ground which never fades away.

Jinmenju

This bizarre Kami can be found deep within the forests of Zamzara, most especially in the Greenwood. The Jinmenju, or "Death's Head Tree", is a terrifying plant that blooms the heads of creatures it kills - be they man or beast. The flowering heads smile and laugh until they strike, embedding quickly-growing seeds into the target while the tree itself tries to beat its unsuspecting prey to death to absorb its nutrients. It is believed that the tree claims the souls of those it kills until the "fruit" finally ripens and dies... after 108 years of agony.

Koto

Perhaps one of the most feared Kami, rumors and stories about these creatures, or "it", have circulated for at least 500 years. They are formless, shapeless things that have the ability to assume any form they wish. Most people believe that they are spirits from previous kalpas which either would not or could not reincarnate, while others claim it to be a singular entity from beyond reality as we know it: the only organism separate from The Godhead. While it has the power to shapeshift, it does not simply change form - somehow, what it changes into is gone forever, completely severed from the cycles of reincarnation and denied union with The Godhead, a fate worse than 1,000 deaths. They can be anyone or anything, anywhere, at any time.

Preta

When a human dies, their immortal souls are taken to the next kalpa to be reborn as themselves. This spiritual rejuvenation sometimes goes awry, and a mere spark of the soul is left behind in the cadaver. Denied completion, the soulspark gives life to the body once more but can never be whole or satisfied, as the body cannot sustain itself without the soul. A wretched existence, the Preta are defined by their ceaseless hunger, and many turn to eating their friends and loved ones in a mad and misguided attempt to complete their soul in any way they can. Their only freedom can be found through complete destruction of their physical shell. Due to their spiritual decay, any contact with a Preta can be extremely dangerous: As they rend the body in an attempt to devour the soul, they, in turn, destroy the soul as theirs have been destroyed, perpetuating a spiral of decay, anguish, and death.

Vetala

A legendary wandering Kami, the Vetala roam all Zamzara as spirits that inhabit the bodies of the dead and wear them as undying shells. They have no need to inhabit these bodies, but do so to cause as much pain and misery to Humanity as they can, which some scholars claim they do to sustain their spiritual forms. Their shells do not decay, but only through the consumption of human blood, which the spirit can absorb through touch. The Vetala is an immaterial being and the body it inhabits can be brought past the limits of a normal person, as their sense of self-preservation has been supplanted by an insurmountable need to hurt. These spirits are born when a person has all of their blood sucked out of them by a Vetala, killing them in the process.

Geographic Distribution
All of Zamzara, but there has never been a Kami reported in The Nashya.

Lifespan

N/A