"Before we start, could you tell me how much you know about spirits?" Sylara asked.
Calen scratched his head and thought for a bit.
"Not much, I suppose - I know that they’re not the same as ghosts, and that in terms of intelligence they’re on par with humans."
"That’s correct - spirits are just another category of sapient creatures, they used to be common during the age of wonders, but nowadays only a few remain."
"Time before the age of the old gods - although back then they were just the gods." She explained. "Fundamentally spirits are elemental beings, and they can be separated into five tiers and three states. At the bottom of the totem pole we have sprites; young spirits who have only recently connected to an element and formed a soul."
"So the spirits are born out of nothingness?" Calen questioned.
"Only this lowest tier, which brings me to the next point: actual spirits."
"There’s a tier of spirits called spirits?"
"Yes, they had different names in the language of spirits, but humans conflated the terms because this tier was by far most numerous." Sylara answered. "Spirits are basically a mature members of this group, and every sprite would eventually become one."
"I assume spirits grow by obtaining more of their source element?"
"Correct." She confirmed. "Those belonging to the third tier are called elementals - they are distinguished by a high mastery of their element, and the fact that their body is made of their source element, which brings me to the other classification of spirits, states."
She waved her hand and two spheres appeared in the air in front of her: one was made of wood, while the other looked like made of green energy. Calen could also feel that there was something else in the air, just next to the green sphere, but he couldn’t see anything.
"Spirits can be found in one of three states - formless." She pointed at the empty space where Calen could feel a presence. "Incorporeal." She gestured towards the green sphere. "And incarnated." She motioned towards the wooden ball.
Sylara snapped her fingers and the examples disappeared.
"In general sprites and spirits are formless, with most becoming incorporeal just before ascending to the status of an elemental. While gaining a form is technically not required to become an elemental, obtaining a body is necessary if one wants to go even further than an elemental."
"Is it theoretically possible for a sprite to gain a body?" Isara queried.
"It can happen in very special cases, but we’ll get to that." Sylara responded. "Next up we have Source Lords - it wouldn’t be a stretch to call them demigods considering their power, and every spirit dreams of becoming one."
"So they’re the strongest?" Cassian asked.
"No, but it’s the last tier that is reasonably possible for a spirit." She shook her head. "The ones who sit on the top are the Primordial Sovereigns, there can be only one for each of the elements, and they’re essentially pseudo gods, wielding the power over a domain until someone claims its divine throne."
"What do they do then?"
"That depends on who tries to claim the seat - if it’s a being respected by the sovereign, they might swear fealty and become the right hand of the new god."
"The sovereign will try to take the throne for themself."
"Wait, they can do that?" Calen frowned. "Why don’t they do it immediately upon becoming the sovereign then?"
"There are..." Sylara paused. "Consequences to divinity, that are not present when one remains a sovereign. The price to pay is simply too heavy for some."
"If a spirit can become a god, could divinity classify as another tier of spirits?"
"In a sense, yes. Now that I went through the basic information about spirits, we can address the theoretical space you visited so many times - before only your consciousness could enter for a limited amount of time, but this time was different, wasn’t it?"
Sylara looked at Calen and waited for him to connect the dots.
"I’m... a spirit?" His eyes widened.
"You would be classified as an incarnated sprite to be precise, but yes, you are a spirit." She smiled. "I wouldn’t worry too much though, it’s more of a metaphysical classification - from a biological standpoint you’re still a human, albeit a significantly enchanced one."
Calen went silent for a while, processing the information.
"What about you then?" He studied her. "It all started with a question about the guardians after all?"
Sylara nodded and laced her fingers.
"I was born as a human, roughly seventeen years before the establishment of the Sun Kingdom. When I was six I displayed an unprecedented talent for using the nature domain - my grandfather wanted to nurture that gift, and introduced me to the best master possible... the green lady herself."
Everyone present stared at her in shock.
"To be completely clear, when you say the green lady, you mean...?" Calen prompted.
"The original Goddess of nature, yes."
Sylara looked rather amused by their reactions.
"Contrary to popular belief not all gods were cold and distant, some even interacted with their priests regularly. To be fair, I probably wouldn’t have become her apprentice if not for the fact that my grandfather knew the Goddess personally, but it was definitely easier than it would be nowadays."
"Okay, so you came under the tutelage of a goddess, what next?" Calen decided to not point outthe fact that nowadays the gods were simply gone.
"Nothing particularly important for over a decade - my training was demanding, but not that different from what a regular druid would experience." Her face fell. "Everything changed when the first Flamebearer united the warring tribes and armies, and declared the Sun God to be the only true God. The message to the other gods was clear - disappear, or we’ll make you."
"The others didn’t fight back?"
"By this point the Sun God was by far the most powerful in the pantheon, even if everyone rallies together against him they’re victory would be uncertain."
She leaned further back in her chair before continuing.
"It didn’t mean they just meekly obey the orders though - the Sun god expected them to renounce their power completely, and disappear into obscurity, but they instead stepped down from the divine throne, while maintaining their hold over their respective domains."
"So they became Primordial Sovereigns?"
"Not exactly - there’s a substantial power gap between a sovereign and a god, and they were somewhere in the middle. Additionally, as long a they were alive no one else could claim the position of the god. They dubbed themselves-"
"Guardians." Calen finished.
"Precisely. I won’t explain too much about gods now, because that’s a whole another topic, but for now you should know that they can’t pass their duties to someone else - a divine throne can be only usurped."
"And I’m guessing it’s possible with the title of a Guardian?"
"Indeed - otherwise I wouldn’t be able to become one after all, the first and only second generation Guardian."
"So the other two are original gods? And why is there only three of you? Wasn’t the pantheon comprised of six members?"
"Our story might be a bit lacking in detail because it concerns the times around the rise of the Sun Kingdom, and it’s subject to the same restrictions as direct information about the Sun God, but I’ll try to express it as well as I can without using details."
"We’ll do our best to interpret it properly then."
"Only three gods became guardians, Although one of them did it long before the ultimatum, and was merely pretending to be a god all this time. The two others were nowhere to be found, so the three of them banded together to create the organisation known as the guardians."
"What did they do back then?"
"They tried to understand the plan of the Sun God - or rather confirm their suspicions about it. Not much else happend because we couldn’t tell anyone anything - after around a century of operation, replacing my master and that’s about it."
"That... wasn’t much. That information restriction must be quite severe - can you at least tell us what happened to your master after you succeeded her?"
"Not much." Sylara shrugged. " She just returned to her source element."
"...you mean she died?"
"From our perspective yes, but..." She sighed. "I’d have to explain how gods work for this to make sense and we really don’t have the time for that - please just trust me that it’s a bit different."
"Alright - but that knowledge seems fairly important, it came up twice during this conversation, you should really tell us about it someday."
"I will, but not now." She promised. "The sun will set soon, if you want to catch the opening of the festival you should go freshen up in your rooms."
"Okay." Calen turned to his companions. "Who’s dragging Auren home?"
They all just looked at him.
"Fine, but I’m not going to do everything just because I ate a bunch of herbs and it made me slightly stronger..."
At least he hoped that wasn’t going to be the case.