Great Spirits

Great spirits stand above every other kind of spirit in power and in distance from mortal affairs. Only mighty shamans can reach them, and anyone who tries to bind or control one with spirit magic meets a grim fate. Each is tied to a striking natural or supernatural force: Lightning, the Sky, the Master of the Clouds, Fire, the Sun, the Rain-maker, the Four Winds (the North Wind, the South Wind and their brothers), and perhaps dozens more. Each looks like what it embodies; the winds appear as whirling pillars of air, while Lightning is a giant spinning a basket of bolts above his head.

A great spirit almost never fights player characters. If it shows itself and is treated with disrespect, it simply returns home. Forced into battle, it can use command up to three times daily and turn its own element against offenders for 1d20 damage each round. The North Wind, for example, might raise a freezing northern gale that pelts the party with flying debris.

Any alignment is accepted. A great spirit accepts any shaman who is at least 3rd level and has proven to share its character. The North Wind wants cold, ruthless detachment and leans toward evil shamans; Fire asks for power and adaptability; Lightning has patience only for the loud, brash and short-tempered.

In return the spirit demands that the shaman keep showing those traits and never take another great spirit as patron. It needs no worship, since mortal awe at its phenomenon is enough to sustain it.

A patron grants every spell on the solitary shaman list, tribal shaman spells of 5th level and below, and priest spells up to 4th level from spheres suited to its force. The Four Winds, for instance, offer the Weather and Elemental Air spheres, while Fire offers Elemental Fire and Chaos. On the rare occasions a great spirit picks a mortal to guard it or carry its power further into the world, that champion carries a permanent bless for as long as the service lasts.