Spirit

Spirits in the Avatar RPG campaign are poorly defined, but are entities of an apparently objective extant nature. They appear to be individually highly variable, and have unclear and likewise individually highly variable capabilities.

Relationship to humans

In the Avatar RPG campaign, spirits are frequently presented as possessing part or all of the essential nature of some specific idealized abstract concept or form (a mountain-spirit may characterize "mountainness," etc.). Such spirits are likely to dwell in the environments or settings which correspond to their nature, and may be venerated or appealed to by the people who live in such settings.

While laypeople often present offerings and make pleas to spirits for various reasons, the specialists who interact with spirits to elicit some effect are often (but perhaps not always) known as shamans. In some more complex societies with greater specialized roles, the shamans have developed into organized ritual practitioners. For example, Yonggan shamanism became the root of a state religion during the Ri Dynasty, and the spiritual lore and speculations of the Air Nomads have been widely influential because of their outsized cultural influence.

Conversely, as the true motivations of spirits are unknown and often unknowable to humans, some people may mistrust spirits and choose to avoid interactions. This is, however, markedly less common than seeking to cultivate positive relations.