The Geis realm has two parts to it; the physical world and the world of the spirits. Everything in the physical world has a corresponding aspect in the spirit world. Every tree, rock, person and animal. Even concepts have homes within the spirit world. Those mortals who stand between and within both realms are known as Midewin.
The Midewin have the greatest understanding of the Manitou. Whereas the various religious orders concern themselves with the gods themselves, the Midewin focus instead upon the spirit children of those gods. All that is understood about the Spirit World comes from the understanding of the Midewin. They refer to the Spirit World as being like a long vast plain. The Near Spirit World is closer to the physical world and is nearly identical to it in geography. As one travels away from the Near Spirit World, one encounters the Manitou of non-physical things like forces of nature and concepts of understanding. This is called the Far Spirit World. The gods themselves live in the furthest reaches of the Far Spirit World.
Midewin use a sort of magic that is spiritual in nature, calling upon the relevant Manitou in order to attain the desired affect in the physical world. There are two known groups who have made permanent contracts with Manitou other than Midewin. These are the Bards, who have made covenants with the Manitou of Music and Story and the Palan Muerte, those servants of the Emperor who made covenants with the Manitou of Pain and Suffering. These three groups will be discussed in greater detail later.
The Manitou of Geis utilize their powers according to rules understood only by them. A mage or psychic may work with a Manitou without realizing it. Indeed, the Astral Plane and the Etherial Plane are simply other names for the Spirit World. Because of the nature of Manitou, information and knowledge may be stored within the Spirit World. This is not unlike the concept of cyberspace although the means for reaching it are vastly different. Midewin, Palan Muerte, Bards, psychics, mages and priests all can gain access to the Spirit World for the purpose of storing or gaining information. Each does so in a unique way, with only the Midewin being able to physically enter the Spirit World all others merely access it. However the Spirit World in accessed, there is danger to be found. The Manitou are intelligent and willful, they have perspectives vastly different from mortals. To apply concepts of beneficence and maleficence to them is folly for they transcend such ideas. The Midewin strongly caution all who seek to reach the Manitou for to do so is to literally court death or worse.
The further from the physical world one travels, the more powerful and foreign the Manitou one encounters. Many Midewin will never stray far from the physical world. Only the wisest or most foolhardy will venture into the Far Spirit World. Priests of the gods will regularly seek guidance and intervention from their deities. The prayers of these folk are direct connections to their deities and therefore the safest form of communicating with the most powerful beings of the Spirit World, for only the god being prayed to will hear and answer.
* As a side note, the names Midewin and Manitou come from the First Nations people of North America. My use of the terms is not meant as an insult in any way. I was inspired by stories of these people and the role they played in their society and wished to honor them in my fantasy pulp setting. The way I describe the Midewin does not reflect anything upon the reality of the Midewiwin in the history of their relevant peoples any more than the Druids of D&D reflect the ancient order found in Celtic tribes in Europe. *
The Master of the Undead is an intruder upon the Geis realm who has made a home for himself deep in the Far Spirit World. A powerful being of unknown origin, he contends with the gods themselves. His true desires are unknown. Prior to his arrival, there were no undead on Geis and as a consequence of it, the undead are different than in other settings.
To begin with, all Undead have an order of precedence. There are many types of undead from ghosts and skeletons to wraiths, liches and vampires. Some are mindless automatons whereas others are willful and otherwise independent thinkers that are enslaved to the Master. No undead exist without having made a pact of some sort with the Master. This means that some forms of undead like skeletons or zombies may indeed have intelligence and will, and others like vampires or wraiths may not. Do not seek to apply the rules of undead found in other settings to those on Geis for although the names may be the same, the creatures themselves may be vastly different.
