What are wisps and sprites? Are they as diverse as monsters or are they mostly homogeneous?
Also, do some form from a monster’s magic, like a monster with a living shadow?
we'll learn more about these incidental creatures later, but the basic gist is:
"sprite" is a catch-all term for the gods and spirits of the Middle Wood. they range from little fairy-things all the way up to the Phosphor itself. sprites are intelligent in the same way that monsters and humans are intelligent; the main difference is that, rather than being born from flesh, sprites are embodiments of different aspects of nature. a sprite may be associated with a particular tree or brook, for example. it can sometimes be hard to tell a sprite from a sprite-shaped monster, though as soon as they open their mouth the difference usually becomes clear. sprites are Weird and Temperamental. negotiating with them is a full-time job, and pissing them off has capital-C Consequences.
"wisps", also called "primordial sprites", are mindless embodiments that appear and disappear in response to movements in the psychosphere. will-o'-wisps are an example: they spawn in the river and disappear quickly. some people speculate that wisps can eventually "graduate" into sprites if they stick around long enough; how long they do stick around is up to the local psychosphere.
now you're asking, "what is the psychosphere?" uh, it's sort of just a fancy way of saying "the vibe". here's an example:
a house burns down and isn't rebuilt. over the years, the local children spread rumors about the ruins being haunted. wisps appear in response to the rumors. a group of kids spot the wisps hovering in the ruins one night, and now it's not just a rumor: everyone knows that the old house is haunted. so the wisps never go away. decades pass. now the burned-out lot has a patron sprite. their hobbies include rattling chains and emitting ghastly shrieks in the dead of night. you can offer them gifts of freshly-burned oak cinders in exchange for piping the fuck down. nobody can build on that lot anymore. it's fine. that's just nature's balance.
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