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Living on the Spirit

The Praxians are able to exist because they communicate with the local spirits. Their traditions show them how to work with whatever spiritual material is available. Thus even the bleak wasteland spirits are at least neutral.

The Wastelands are a dangerous place for several reasons. First, it is almost entirely a weak point to the spirit plane. It's as if a layer of protection between the worlds was stripped away. Second, it is inhabited by some powerful beings that are eternally outside the tradition and, therefore, dangerous. Hostile spirits are common, but malicious daimons and sorcerous creatures are present, as well as chaos monsters.

The Wastelands are well known to the Praxians now. A the Dawn intrepid bands explored the stories that Waha had left to them and mapped out, the oases, grasslands, chaos pits and other features. After fifteen hundred years they have compiled, in strings and songs, a secret knowledge of what is where and when.

When crossing the wastelands between grazing grounds the shamans communicate with the spirits around them. Many are too small for normal notice, but to shamans of the Waha Tradition every deeply buried sand flea spirit is seen, a little seed hiding under a rock is given offerings, and the ragged things clinging in dry sticks are worshipped.

At the start of a journey the whole herd is blessed and the shaman invokes the guardians that they will approach. Offerings are made, the leaders dance out their upcoming parts, and then everyone sets off singing the songs to awaken Waha and Eiritha.

As the herd crosses the desert the holy people try to coax out the spirits of all who walked that path before. They know the stories, they tell the stories to the leaders in the daytime and to the followers at night. And the leaders themselves, in their own best ways, try to emulate those tales of survival. They wear special clothing and masks during the daytime, all adorned with sacred fetishes and charms. And if all goes right, and the stars have not cursed the people, and if no foreigners are present, then the herd is joined by others. These others are the spirits of those that came before. These are the ancestors of blood and kin, but also of event and story. Those beings know the way, and they are the first to be sent against the enemy spirits that try to trouble the herd. They are weapons against the natural foes of the haunted landscape. They are allies in survival.

In such manner they pass, holy place to holy place, across the wastelands.