Week 12 (October 23rd, 2009)
[note=Got an Topic Idea?]Send me a PM. Remember, we are discussing any topic relating to world design (but not system design), so fire away.[/note]
[ic=Philosophy Archive]
Week 1 - The Cost of Magic (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?70759)
Week 2 - Villains (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?71232)
Week 3 - Genre Conventions (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?71697)
Week 4 - Design Method (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?72101)
Week 5 - Characters (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?72445)
Week 6 - Theme (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?72962)
Week 7 - PCs in the World (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?73123)
Week 8 - Politics (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?73352)
Week 9 - Government (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?73505.last)
Week 10 - Alignment (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?73709.last)
Week 11 - Magic Items (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?73886.last)
Week 12 - Philosophy (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?74200.last)
Week 13 - Races & Ethnicity (http://thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?74353.0)
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Races & Ethnicity
Some settings feature many races. Some of these feature many subraces (e.g. wood elves). What is gained or lost by the inclusion of multiple races? What about subraces?
Some settings do not handle ethnicity among humans. What do we lose by this choice?
What are your general thoughts on races and ethnicity in a speculative fiction setting?
Since I get really bored with humans I always have to have multiple other races/species for variety. Yes, there's interesting stuff you can do with just humans, but for me interest consists of biological differences and humans don't have those.
Bear in mind before you continue reading: I consider lost of standard-issue fantasy literature concepts to be stand-ins for real and difficult issues. At some level, to some extent (and perhaps subconsciously), we are using fantasy to confront our shadows by proxy, to wrestle our demons at arms' length.
I tend to view fantasy races-- in most but not all cases-- as being an abstracted way to deal with real-world issues of human ethnicity, xenophobia, and prejudice. We use dwarves and elves and orks and goblins when we want to talk about People Different From Us. The stark delineations between fantasy races are the real or imagined differences between ourselves and other groups of real people, magnified and distorted and exaggerated, written out in great big letters with bright crayon so we can grasp them easily.
It's a useful tool! Much like a pair of pliers. Some tasks absolutely require a pair of pliers, and with other jobs, they'd just get in the way.
I use small flock of "humanoid" (what an awkward word for this topic) races in the Jade Stage, partly because when I was just beginning to come up with the idea of the setting all those years ago, it didn't occur to me that I had any other options. There have been times when I've toyed with the idea of stripping them all out-- there are certain things that just work better when you're only working with humans-- but I feel like they've put down roots and made themselves at home. I feel like I've leveraged them to powerful effect in some places, and that their potential is a bit wasted in other places.
LC, there's a certain beautiful irony in italicizing a word for emphasis, and then making a typo out of it.
Y'know, I could edit that, but I think I'm gonna keep it like it is.
Mare Eternus doesn't even have humans, likewise to several other settings (clockwork jungle for example). I am not yet sure how that will end up working in the end. I suppose time will tell.
From a gaming perspective, I think that the category of "race" or "subrace" can be very useful. It provides an easy way for players to draw a rough sketch of their characters. Though we don't want to rely too much on racial stereotypes, it is still an easy way of forming general categories of people, to give players a jump-start on their roleplaying. It seems like most successful game systems have a system of categorization like this. D&D has all sorts of fantasy races, of course; the World of Darkness has its vampire clans and such things, based on traditional conceptualizations of whatever supernatural creature the game is about, assigning a sort of "base stereotype" to each character; and even the open-ended GURPS has "racial templates" that can be applied to a character sheet to give some unifying traits.
This is not to say it's only valuable in gaming. In a literary setting, the same "stereotypes" can be leveraged to help the reader understand the world a little better. This is not to say that we necessarily want all characters of a certain "race" to act a certain way, but it helps understanding when the readers have some of the same preconceived notions that the characters in the story have-- both adding to the level of immersion as the reader understands the world better, and requiring less overt description.
In Crystalstar, I made it a point to make it a human-only (well, maybe pixies and demons skew this a little, but at least very human-centric) setting. So, to add these categories, I made sure to have a few clear cultural groups (Great Desert, Central Basin, Mountain, etc.), and within those groups, have a few specific sub-groups For example, a character from the Central Basin will belong to a specific caste. Caste isn't as important in the Great Desert, but there are a lot of tribes, and a character will have a tribal identity. Each caste, tribe, or whatnot has certain "roles" and specialties, but they are, of course, just general guidelines-- enough to give a boost to one's character concept without forcing the character into a specific, narrow mold.
Nowadays I prefer a mythology-esque take on races. That is to say, the distinction between "monster" and "race" is blurred, and non-humans are generally given the role of exotic and wondrous beings that stand out against the human-defined global norm. Ideally a fantasy race wouldn't feel out of place in a real (or constructed) mythology.
Now here is a perhaps controversial question: Should there always be made a distinction between fantasy races and human ethnicities, in a setting where both are present? Personally, I have no trouble conceiving a setting where fictional (humanoid) species such as dwarves are seen as oddball races of Man - or perhaps more accurately, that Men perceive their own ethnic divisions so stark that they consider foreigners as similarly alien to the "actually" separate species.
Quote from: GhostmanNow here is a perhaps controversial question: Should there always be made a distinction between fantasy races and human ethnicities, in a setting where both are present? Personally, I have no trouble conceiving a setting where fictional (humanoid) species such as dwarves are seen as oddball races of Man - or perhaps more accurately, that Men perceive their own ethnic divisions so stark that they consider foreigners as similarly alien to the "actually" separate species.
When you consider the fact that a great many fantasy settings include "half-" categories, from a biological perspective, it actually becomes not so controversial at all. Humans of all different races and ethnicities can still interbreed, so, if humans are able to also interbreed with some of these other races, they can't (biologically speaking) be all that different, either. Granted, this is trying to assign a realistic biology to something that is definitely not realistic, but it does at least make sense.
Quote from: Luminous CrayonI tend to view fantasy races-- in most but not all cases-- as being an abstracted way to deal with real-world issues of human ethnicity, xenophobia, and prejudice. We use dwarves and elves and orks and goblins when we want to talk about People Different From Us. The stark delineations between fantasy races are the real or imagined differences between ourselves and other groups of real people, magnified and distorted and exaggerated, written out in great big letters with bright crayon so we can grasp them easily.
I do find it interesting that this is done and then someone decides to give humans further diversity by culture. As if even more possibilities for raising the issue need to come up, which is what sometimes happens when this is done. So you have Human Cultures 1-5 and Non-Human Monocultures A-D and the non-humans become a sort of sad side-kick because we've got all the culture war we need in the human camp and.....well......what use are they besides LotR jokes?
In speaking for myself, I use monstrous beings (I hesitate to use the term "races" in Eschaton) because they are found in mythology. They are not intended to represent player options, nor as stand-ins for real world issues (though the original myths likely did represent a deep-seated fear of the Other, and I imagine people in world see them that way).
When you write fantasy (or sci-fi for that matter) you blend creativity and fiction with reality in an attempt to create a sort of surreality. Races are an obvious consequence of a process like this. Even in the real world we imagine that other worlds far away might hold intelligent life. Is it that unimaginable that a world could exist where more than one type of intelligent life would develop alongside each other?
In that way races are not just representative of cultures, but are representative of what intelligent life could be. We use races to explore our ideas in new directions.
Of course, you have to maintain a balance; too many races (in some cases even just having more than one) can ruin certain setting tones. Very medieval/feudal settings for example can't have anything much more extreme than elves and orcs.
In more surreal settings one might try to go for "the Mos Eisley Cantina" feel where races are numerous enough to make for a metropolitan scene of various absurd characters.
I agree with Crow's point. In A Song of Ice and Fire, for example, an abundance of non-humans would ruin the world's medieval purity; in modicum a few non-human races (rarely seen, really only glimpsed) add an edge of the sinister or supernatural without overwhelming the work as a whole. In Mieville's Bas-Lag, however, race functions in the opposite way: the more diverse, strange, and in-your face the better, since much of the point of Mieville's weird aesthetic is to familiarize the unfamiliar, make the unreal believable, even "normal."
I'm personally more of a fan of the latter approach in my own world-building because I like monsters, in particular social, intelligent monsters. I'm generally not a big fan of elves/dwarves/orcs for the simple reason that I feel they've been overdone, though their presence in a setting doesn't necessarily ruin it for me, if they're treated in an interesting way; in my own settings (with the notable exception of the quick & dirty Goblin campaign I ran this summer, and which I still intend to finish writing up once I have time) I tend to favor the "go big or go home" approach to strangeness in race-design, i.e. anthropomorphic leeches, sentient orchids, beings of living glass, amorphous protoplasms that possess corpses, etc.
Quote from: Steerpikei.e. anthropomorphic leeches, sentient orchids, beings of living glass, amorphous protoplasms that possess corpses, etc.
Throw in four-armed angry cupcakes, metamorphic toasters, and sentient shades of the color blue, and we've got a setting!
The weird approach to the physiology can be fine, but when it extends into the psychology I always get confused. When people try to make non-human psychologies the result has always felt to me lacking, lacking in some primal core and then a masking of crazy attempts to get this core to become the mythical "higher brain". These "other" psychologies are too whole, too sane, no matter what the logic of their origin.
Quote from: Cataclysmic CrowIs it that unimaginable that a world could exist where more than one type of intelligent life would develop alongside each other?
In fantasy, you don't even need to bother with plausible natural developments; miraculous origins can be applied if desired. For most worlds it's sufficient to create a reasonably balanced ecology. In more surreal settings even that can be ignored.
Quote from: Cataclysmic CrowOf course, you have to maintain a balance; too many races (in some cases even just having more than one) can ruin certain setting tones. Very medieval/feudal settings for example can't have anything much more extreme than elves and orcs.
What do you mean by more extreme? Are you refering to the number of races, the size of populations, or their differences to humans?
Hmm, all three possibly. It should be noted that I'm mostly talking about races available to players when i talk races; It's possible to have a dragon slumbering in some mountain in a feudal world, but you might run into some issues if you try to implement giant slug-men.
I've always thought that standard fantasy troupes do a disservice to the idea of race and ethnicity. More often than not, races become stereotypes of something in the real world. Mostly these are benign/comical, like the Dwarf-Scotsmen dichotomy. Some times, whether on purpose or not, race/ethnicity in fantasy becomes polluted with real world xenophobia and bigotry. It wouldn't be hard to argue that Tolkien, who is basically the starting point for most modern fantasy, injected (consciously or not) racism into the LoTR. The good guys are fair and beautiful men and women from the West, while the bad guys are dark and nasty from the East/South. Basically what I'm getting at is that I've found it very hard to create new races that aren't some form of modified stereotype. And even if I did develop an authentic "species" from the ground up, it would be inherently difficult to roleplay, unless the player fully empathized with this race, as its mind could potentially be so alien that it would be difficult to understand its motivations.
and don't even get me started on "half-" races... ;)
Quote from: LeetzBasically what I'm getting at is that I've found it very hard to create new races that aren't some form of modified stereotype. And even if I did develop an authentic "species" from the ground up, it would be inherently difficult to roleplay, unless the player fully empathized with this race, as its mind could potentially be so alien that it would be difficult to understand its motivations.
Why is it so difficult to just design a race physiologically and leave its mentality and culture out? No stereotypes, no worrying about it being hard to roleplay.
Quote from: Leetzand don't even get me started on "half-" races... ;)
What about them?
well, my slight rant aside, my basic argument was that far too often the easy was is taken in creating new races - this way being keeping a human mindset while only simply changing the physical appearance. Elves are graceful and pretty, dwarves are dour and stocky, halflings are short and whatever. What I mean is that in traditional roleplaying, elves, dwarves, halflings, etc. all think along the same lines, and the only difference is their physical alterations or some defining "mood" that belongs to their whole race, which I find silly. I dislike how humans are often presented as running the gamut in everything, but other races are pigeon holed, I myself am guilty of this.
Admittedly, a lot of my argument's validity depends on the setting - if gods made the races, as opposed to natural evolution, than the same mindset/different look approach works.
And as for half-races, I just find it somewhat implausible (not that this matters in fantasy really) that two totally different species, (as I would consider elves or humans or dwarves, for example, as different species, not different races) could create offspring. That would be like having a human and a chimpanzee (99% matching DNA or whatever they say) creating monkey-people. But that's just me ;)
Quote from: LeetzBasically what I'm getting at is that I've found it very hard to create new races that aren't some form of modified stereotype.
why[/b] they think and act the way they do." Stereotypes don't have a reason; a group just
is hard-working,
is dull-witted, or
is deceitful. If you make the stereotype and just leave it at that, that's just what you've made - a stereotype. But if you can justify yourself and answer the big question
why, you've gone further.
QuoteAnd even if I did develop an authentic "species" from the ground up, it would be inherently difficult to roleplay, unless the player fully empathized with this race, as its mind could potentially be so alien that it would be difficult to understand its motivations.
actually[/i] been inside the head of.
So don't try to be "alien," at least not with major/PC races. Work with what you know - humans.
Treat races like humans, making "alien exceptions" only when necessary (for example, modifying the culture of a group of flying creatures to reflect the fact that they spend their lives in the air).
At least, that's my two cents on the matter. And because you asked, I won't get you started on half-races. :D
Quote from: PolycarpQuoteAnd even if I did develop an authentic "species" from the ground up, it would be inherently difficult to roleplay, unless the player fully empathized with this race, as its mind could potentially be so alien that it would be difficult to understand its motivations.
actually[/i] been inside the head of.
So don't try to be "alien," at least not with major/PC races. Work with what you know - humans. Treat races like humans, making "alien exceptions" only when necessary (for example, modifying the culture of a group of flying creatures to reflect the fact that they spend their lives in the air).
Polycarp has it: we can try to make aliens all we want, but they're always going to miss something. That something is the primal instinct that's so damn difficult to pin down for
humans that of course it's impossible to come up with for another species. So what you get instead is something that just makes too much sense.
I'm not saying people shouldn't make aliens if they really feel like it. I just think when they dismiss the alternative as the "easy way" they're missing half the point.
very good points. you have me, that's all very true, and I suppose it is inherently/nearly impossible to create an truly "alien" race.
But, I still feel that we can do better when creating new races, instead of using genre troupes or conventions. I guess what I was really getting at was that we should challenge ourselves to create authentic, original races/species, instead of merely using slightly tweaked elves or halflings with wings.
Quote from: LeetzBut, I still feel that we can do better when creating new races, instead of using genre troupes or conventions. I guess what I was really getting at was that we should challenge ourselves to create authentic, original races/species, instead of merely using slightly tweaked elves or halflings with wings.
will not care[/i].
Well, I might care, but you get the point.
Uh, this is a popular topic (not surprisingly perhaps).
When we depict other races, perhaps when we write campaign info in general, we have decided on a point of view which will most often coincide with the views of the Major Race, which, again, is most commonly humans. This is not necessarily bad; the human viewpoint is perhaps the one we understand the best. But this also means that when we view other races we will tend towards stereotypes, just like real life people who try to explain the intricacies of a far-away country.
While I'm strongly against the "one race one thought" design principle employed in D&D, it is not always entirely bad or inexplicable. In many settings, other races are rare or isolated and are therefore far too few to arrive at the same cultural diversity as humans; thus their cultural upbringing will vary little from individual to individual and they will exhibit common traits of personality. Not to say there won't be extraordinary individuals, but most will come from the same background.
While I agree that a human could never understand an alien mind in depth, I'm not of the belief that an alien mind is impossible to portray. Consider the animal; they don't think in the same way as we do, far from it, but don't you think you could roleplay an animal decently? Animal instincts, hunger, fear and cautiousness are things we can imitate even if we can't never feel them the same way. Yes, animals are comparatively simple, but the point still stands; the alien is not necessarily out of reach.
Many of my races qualify as alien, but of course they are based on the human experience to some degree or another. I always take great care to detail their cultural upbringing as well as their general psychology and perception. Hopefully enough so that people can understand them at least partly.
Quote from: Cataclysmic CrowWhile I agree that a human could never understand an alien mind in depth, I'm not of the belief that an alien mind is impossible to portray. Consider the animal; they don't think in the same way as we do, far from it, but don't you think you could roleplay an animal decently? Animal instincts, hunger, fear and cautiousness are things we can imitate even if we can't never feel them the same way. Yes, animals are comparatively simple, but the point still stands; the alien is not necessarily out of reach.
What's so different about animals from humans? Humans are animals, we feel the same instincts, we just pretend we don't.
It seems to me "alien" is just another way of pretending that instincts don't exist so we can justify prejudices based on "being different".
EDIT: Sorry if I sound accusatory, this is just an issue that plagues me in any portrayal of non-humans.
I have to agree with SCMP on this one. I don't really think a true "alien" mind can be properly portrayed.
Non-human races can still be done well, and a decent approximation is possible.
That being said, I find nearly every single race is there for aesthetic reasons, or as LC said to portray the Other.
We should not assume that the modern post-industrial point of view, which sees ethnic divisions simply as superficial groupings arising from genes and culture, should necessarily have any relevance for fictional worlds. Certainly people of past times (and some contemporary people) viewed things in a different light.
Who is to say that races of Man might not be an accurate and practical concept in a fantasy setting? Mankind need not have evolved from apes - the first Men may just as well have burst out from a magical coconut. Different origins could actually be applied to ethnicities/races within the same species.
There could even be significant spiritual qualities assigned to divisions of ethnicity/race/species. For example, one group may have been created with the purpose of smelting the sacred ores of the mountain-god, another with the purpose of harvesting the bounty of the sea-god. To have these groups mingle and cross-breed, or even just move away from their homelands, could be seen as a corruption that will eventually doom them - and this could actually be true.
Even stereotypes could be justified with supernatural backing. A race might simply be incapable of acting in a particular manner, because that's the way it was created. When free will is limited or altogether absent, "realistic" diversity of a population may not be happening despite sufficient numbers and geographic spread.
Well that's a sufficiently different enough method that it's not so bad. In case of that what I would still hate is if humans were given the opt-out. Somehow there's always the idea that humans get to be the "special people" who weren't subject to the same restrictive designs as everyone else.
If you want to talk lazy design that's where it is.
[ooc]
From the Celtrician Frontpage...
There are racial issues alive in Celtricia as well. Small Hobyts and the strong Orcash are the most numerous races in Celtricia, followed by the three original clans of the Humans, the ancient Omwo~ (Elven), the Klaxik (Dwarven), the Gnomic, and the Gartier. These races comprise the primary inhabitants of Celtricia that are within the civilized world. Understand, however, that it is considered an effect of culture to be able to integrate and work with other races, especially in the North-West Cradle areas where Orcash live side-by-side with Omwo~. Barabarians are tribal, integrated cultures are civilized. So in hyper-integrated cultures, race is considered much less of a divider than Guild or Country, however you will find many areas that hold to their own.
But this very disintegration of racial identity is another dynamic that needs attention. The Omwo~, the firstborn servants of the Planars, are a race in remmision. Many ancient writings point to the advent of humans as a replacement for the Omwo~. The Stunatu, the Klaxiks, Gnomics, and Hobyts, were created to be workers, servants of others, back in the Age of Legends. In the last five centuries, the humans, who were created to replace the Omwo~ as the stewards of the 'Waking Dream' in most older religious texts, have watched the Hobyts outpace and supplant them with a cheeful, hard-working smile. And overshadowing that, the even more recent inclusion of many of the the Ogrillite races, the servants and tools created to defend the Cairnhold in the Age of Legends, and the bloody-handed soldiers of Arbor and the Dreadwing throughout the Age of Heroes and the early Age of Statehood, into the sunlit streets, shops, and even governments of today's Celtricia.[/ooc]
Races and sub-races in Celtricia were chosen and developed for a couple of reasons.
Taking the trope and spinning it around is a challenge in itself. Omwo~ (Elves) are often more dour and serious than dwarves in my world, especially when dealing with the subject of race, as the original taxonomy of the races when they were created has changed drastically. Races also have changed positions, in that all of the Sunatu (Hobyts, Klaxiks, and Gmonics) were created together as one racial group to be servants, and the ogrillites were created to be the troops of the servants of Anthraxus.
Humans are not the populous, nation builder group that they are in the generic setting, actually, Hobyt's fulfil that best. Hobyt's and Orcash are the most populous races, with Humans being third.
Similarly, all the races, humans included, have broken into culturally derived sub groups back thousands of years ago.
I use them to explore the ideas of racism and classism, as cultural integration vs Racism/tribalism is one of the major current conflicts in the setting.
To put it succinctly (to anyone who has not looked or thinks of Celtricia as traditional), Celtricia is the rare setting where all the players are hoping to play a Bugbear.
Quote from: vreegCeltricia is the rare setting where all the players are hoping to play a Bugbear.
Gartier for life!
Quote from: SilvercatMoonpawWell that's a sufficiently different enough method that it's not so bad. In case of that what I would still hate is if humans were given the opt-out. Somehow there's always the idea that humans get to be the "special people" who weren't subject to the same restrictive designs as everyone else.
If you want to talk lazy design that's where it is.
Funnily enough, I've always thought that the humans are commonly the only ones that
aren't special, having no particular role assigned to them :-p
Another interesting angle to the humans vs nonhumans disparity could be that there aren't really other
races as the term is commonly understood; just monsters and spirits and the like. Consider for example, a world where elves are actually fairy-like beings that are born from blooming flowers, that speak in riddles and steal your memories. And that dwarves are actually dead elves that passed into the underworld but who during full moons emerge and accost lone travelers, forcing them to a contest of wits where losing means that one has to switch places with the dwarf.
Emphasize the supernaturalness/unnaturalness of nonhumans enough, and the whole idea of comparing them with humans by diversity and adaptiveness will start feeling silly.
Granted now you can no longer have PCs of those people
Quote from: Cataclysmic CrowWhile I agree that a human could never understand an alien mind in depth, I'm not of the belief that an alien mind is impossible to portray. Consider the animal; they don't think in the same way as we do, far from it, but don't you think you could roleplay an animal decently? Animal instincts, hunger, fear and cautiousness are things we can imitate even if we can't never feel them the same way. Yes, animals are comparatively simple, but the point still stands; the alien is not necessarily out of reach.
instincts[/i]. It's not at all hard to roleplay instincts assuming you have any familiarity with the animal, or just animals in general - after all, by definition, instincts require no thinking. But how does a dog experience love? If we could get inside a dog's head, would we even perceive it as love as we define it? People sometimes conjecture as to what a dog would say if it could speak, but would it even understand the concept of language? Of abstract ideas? Of conversation?
I don't think it's possible for us to really think in an "alien" manner, assuming it's even possible for anything to think in such a way (after all, maybe our intelligence is the only manner in which intelligence exists, or could exist). But the argument is really just splitting hairs with a simple question - what do you consider "alien intelligence" or an "alien mind" to mean? Does someone with a radically different cultural persective than you have an alien mind? Does a serial killer have an alien mind? Does a Star Trek alien with a funny forehead have an alien mind?
Quote from: PolycarpDoes a Star Trek alien with a funny forehead have an alien mind?
In that instance I somehow doubt it.
The Empire of Kaidan features humans and a variety of shape-changing races from Japanese folklore. In many ways all the sentient beings of Kaidan have a strong spiritual existence unlike other settings, even including the humans.
Consider that at some past time (816 years ago) this realm existed on another world under different circumstances, however a divine curse uttered by the emperor's grandmother prior to throwing herself and grandson into the sea to drown as an alternative to death by swords and arrow, was enacted by a passing powerful evil being that heard the uttered curse. The land itself was remade into its current state and all of its inhabitants intrinsically altered to follow a new set of spiritual forms defined by the enigmatic evil greater being the caused it all to become reality. Kaidan's history is an altered state.
Humans were once normal humans, but the cursed version of their world, which is now Kaidan, has made them into recycling reincarnated spirits, where their human bodies are merely temporary vessels of doomed existence. A duality of linear human bloodlines is combined with the random movement of spirits that travel between families and clans never in a linear fashion. Thus humans are very much enigmatic beings in Kaidan. Of their bloodlines, ancestral spirits of the past give their own spiritual powers.
Of the various shape-changing sentient beings of Kaidan are the embodied spiritual forms of nature, animal and demon essences. These beings are also caught in the spiritual doomed cycle, just as humans are. In fact human spirits are sometimes "transferred" to these spirit shape changers.
Among the nature spirit beings of Kaidan are Spirit Folk, which are the embodiment of flora spirits found in trees, flowers, water plants. The korobokuru, the gnomes of Kaidan, are the baser earth elements actualized into humanoid form.
The hengeyokai are animal spirits made humanoid - bears, foxes, badgers, monkeys, rabbits, raccoon dogs, dogs, cats and even birds form the essences of these humanoid beings.
Ryujin (an invention of mine rather than a folklore derived sentient) are the animal spirits of sea beings, under the rulership of the great sea dragon called Ryu. These dwell in the outlying smaller islands to the southwest of the Kaidan archipelego, as the great dragon city under the sea is located offshore of these islands.
Finally, of the hell realm, demon spirits most of whom are truly monsters of the setting can in their shape-changed human forms mate with existing humans and birth beings derived of these demon essences, called half-oni, as Oni are the primary types of demon spirits in Kaidan.
Thus all the sentients of Kaidan, are very much the actuated forms of spiritual beings that permeate the dark realm.
GP