Of Sprites

Sprites are spiritual creatures that have little to do with the corporeal world and the beings there as their presence are felt rather than seen. They have low magical power, having only minor spells in relation to particular elements. Yet, they are almost impossible to destroy- being completely immune to physical attacks and able to largely dampen the effects of magical attacks. As a race, they exert little influence on the development of their world. They have a propensity for wandering and are content to be observers of unfolding events rather than participants. Sprites often travel by themselves or in twos and threes but seldom in large groups.

Origin:

It is not known for certain how the first of these come to be. When being asked about their births, the sprites themselves only refer vaguely to a moment where their consciousnesses spontaneously awaken and they just come into being. Mages, however, speculated that their formations are the results of pockets of left over energies from world creation that have coincidentally fused with particular elements of nature.

Evolution:

Once in a while, individual sprites felt a call for the Deep Slumber, during which it falls into a state where its consciousness is shut down and its entire being is being slowly reformed. During this time, a sprite encases itself within a gemstone, forming what is known as a spritestone or elemental stone (this is because the reforming process attunes their beings to be more in line with the particular element they are affiliated with. This process basically involves the energies at their cores being constantly released outside and re-absorbed back into their beings. Self-encasement prevents such core energies from leaking into the general environment with the result that the sprite cannot re-absorb them).

Once a sprite wakes up from the Deep Slumber, its magical prowess would have significantly improved from before. Also, in rare cases, a Deep Slumber can give birth to new sprites.

Common Varieties:

Snow Sprites- inquisitive beings who wander the world to observe other races at their daily lives

Fire Sprites- wise and introspective, intent on understanding the inner truth of various world aspects

Water Sprites- gentle and shy, they nourish the land they set foot on and are in term nourished by more fertile land (that are rich with water)

Wind Sprites- free-spirited and restless, can never keep to one place for very long

Less Common Varieties:

Fungus Sprites- spontaneous and vigorous, they are shunned by other sprites as they tend to sprout where other sprites have withered

Mold Sprites- they actually like to cluster but only for short periods, they are one of the rare variety of sprites who like to keep company with the fungus sprites

Echo Sprites- playful and with their own unique way of viewing the passage of time- for them, everything is either in terms of a few rebounds/echoes or generations indeed according to human reckoning which is the space in between when they revisit the same location

Morning Dew Sprites- exceedingly unique among the sprites in that they have two forms depending on the time of the day: a normal sprite form corresponding to the period when morning dews is present and a not-quite coalescing form at other times of the day. By nature, they are simple-minded and unassuming but very intuitive.

Roleplaying Use/Author's notes:

This piece is purely background for two of my (forthcoming) full submissions so it is not meant to be covering all angles. As far as the concept presented here goes, these sprites would be useful to roleplaying in: 1) forming a logical background piece for most fantasy settings and 2) being a potential valuable source of information to cultivate for PCs (more to follow on this aspect in a forthcoming submission), given that these sprites have practically unlimited lifespans and would have inadvertently attained knowledge just through their propensity to wander and observe things around the world.