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HeroQuest Q&A

Shamans crossing over to the Spirit World

Q:	I am struggling to get my head around the new (HeroQuest) rules for shamans crossing over to the Spirit World. In one paragraph it clearly explains that shamans open a Spirit Circle in order to contact and deal with spirits from a vantage point on the Mundane World. This meets resistance of 10W3. It definately suggests that this is a crossing point as it explains that any crossing point can be dangerous.
A:	Note that it is NOT just shamans who do this -- many (maybe even most) practitioners have this ability as well.
Q:	To cross spiritually to the otherworld the shaman uses Spirit Travel, a facet of his fetch, which is often done from a Spirit Circle, a point of power etc and meets a resistance of 10W3. Does the shaman have to overcome the resistance twice? Once when he creates his ritual spirit circle and then again when he wishes to cross?
A:	No. These are two distinctly separate magical abilities, used at different times. Open Spirit World is safer than Spirit World Travel, but it is also more limited in scope and effect. It opens a small "door" between the Spirit World and the Natural World, allowing the two to co-mingle for a short period. However, no one can normally use this door to travel into the Spirit World. I mean, I suppose it could happen, but it is not the purpose. Instead, it is used to allow a practitioner or shaman to locate a specific Tradition Spirit or Practice Spirit so that it can be placed into a charm or fetish. It is akin to inviting the practice spirits into the dancing hall or drumming circle to mingle with the mortal worshippers. The key here is that the portal opens to a specific place -- the demesne of a specific majestic spirit, perhaps even the smaller demesne of a specific practice spirit. Unless the practitioner or shaman makes a big mistake, the chance of something bad happening is very small, and the worst that usually happens is the worship service doesn't go well, or the right spirit stubbornly refuses to enter the charm or fetish. Spirit World Travel is much broader in scope, but is therefore more dangerous. It generally can only be done by a shaman who has already awakened his fetch, as the fetch acts as a permanently-open door. SWT takes the shaman's spirit out of his body (or whatever) and puts it into the Spirit World itself. Usually, this will take his spirit to a specific place, probably a secret place known only to the shamanic spirit who helped him awaken his fetch. From there, the shaman can travel anywhere in the Spirit World. As long as he can survive. With Spirit World Travel, one of the key points is that the process is not of itself very dangerous. It doesn't really open a new door into the Spirit World, merely has the shaman and fetch "switch places". This means that there is rarely any danger to outsiders that that the shaman might foolishly allow to be present. The other key point is that it is extremely dangerous -- if a shaman had SWT but somehow did not have Shamanic Escape, he would be unlikely to survive for very long.
Q:	It seems unlikely as the book goes on to describe the effects of the Spirit World on the hapless who do not have Spirit Travel.
A:	This line applies mostly to people who end up in the Spirit World by some sort of "accidental transition" (see page 198); or by entering the Underworld and then leaving by the wrong path; riding on the back of some malicious demon, who drops them in the Spirit World; or something like that. Without Spirit World Travel (or some sort of guide) the individual is most likely lost and without much hope, as the Spirit World doesn't follow any sort of observable "cause and effect" process -- it shifts and flows, and two spots that are next to each other one moment might not be next to each other a few "minutes" later. You can get really lost, really fast. (Even an animist who knows Open Spirit World and then gets lost in the Spirit World by other means will have little or no advantage over other mortals.)
Q:	Why the two skills?
A:	Open Spirit World is the "natural" ability -- the one that lets animists worship spirits at all effectively. It is called different things in different traditions, but always has much the same effect, and is properly used only for religious purposes. Spirit World Travel is an "unnatural" ability -- it is used by shamans to explore, seek strange powers or curses, or to strike bargains with strange or new spirits. It is frightening, and requires an innate magic (the fetch) most people do not possess.
Q:	Should you augment one with the other?
A:	Given the different way in which the two abilities work, I do not think one could normally augment the other, though that is up to the narrator.

Embodied and disembodied spirits

Q:	I would really like to hear some "official" statement on that topic because it would clear a lot of questions I still have about animism.
A:	I will make a small stab at this.
Q:	The way i understand it a lot of spirits are already in some way in the mundane world
A:	This is correct. the official line is that the natural world is the world of spirits. They were disrupted from their idyllic existence and, disembodied, were sent to the Spirit World. In a way, that is how they are defined as being spirits: they go to the spirit world when they are dislodged from their normal life.
Q:	...or at least have a connection to it, that's why you want a friendly relationship with them.
A:	That is correct. Normally they are the animating force for trees, rocks, rivers, and so on. They are your neighbors, and the forces that sustain your life, so of course you want them to be friendly.
Q:	They are native to the spiritworld but do some kind of "job" in the mundane world somehow.
A:	In normal cases, their job is to be a wolf, or a tree, or to bring forth berries every year and so on. And some are to make your sharp rock cut better, or to help you run faster, to make things cold and so on.
Q:	Animism sees the world as animated by spirits.
A:	The animist part of the world IS MADE OF embodied spirits.
Q:	The wind is made by a spirit, gold shimmers because of its shining-spirit,
A:	(A type of) wind IS a spirit. Gold spirits shine, for it is their nature.
Q:	...fire spirits eat the wood the fire consumes etc. In the winter nature spirits sleep, that's why its winter and vice versa.
A:	Yes.
Q:	Why does any spirit want to help you? Because it has certain needs or wishes.
A:	More likely that it has a certain nature which is wants to express. Not so much a need, nor a wish, just "the way it is."
Q:	It wants to expand its personal "view" of life, just like humans do.
A:	Not necessarily. This gives ambitions and desires to spirits, which are (generally) not in their nature. Fire wants only to be fire, not to help you, not to hurt you, just be fire.
Q:	Why would I help you? Because it helps me in some way, too. The same with spirits i'd guess.
A:	Not necessarily so. The fire spirit does what you want/ask because you allow to to be fire. NOW, exceptions exist. SOME spirits have acheived a consciousness like a person has. SOME have desires, ambitions, and so on. But most want to just be what they are, and anything that helps or lets them do what is good for them.
Q:	Spirits who have no natural connection to the mundane world, have certain goals too so that's how you can make a deal with them.
A:	Spirits which have no connection to the mundane world are, in general, hostile and "unhappy," because they have been taken, thrown, forced or otherwise removed from their natural existence. Thus (to humans) they seem hostile, unhappy or hateful. We can not tell what their nature is. They are disembodied beings without a nature.
Q:	Maybe that deal "as a reality" is enough to give them the ability to temporarily transcend the border between the worlds to aid you for a short time, before they'll fade back.
A:	To have a body again is a great deisre for those miserable spirits, and so they will work for you to have that body.
Q:	Maybe that deal "as a reality" is enough to give them the ability to temporarily transcend the border between the worlds to aid you for a short time, before they'll fade back.
A:	Yep, in general.
Q:	Just some thoughts.
A:	And in general, good ones that are right on.