Mentor Spirits

The term “mentor spirit” refers to a number of concepts that affect the way an Awakened person uses their magical abilities. Not all mentor spirits are actual spirits, in fact. The phrase itself comes from the school of Unified Magic Theory, where all magic is seen in the same light. UMT’s ideas are being rethought and revamped, but the mentor spirit language has stuck, for better or worse. At their core, mentor spirits act as guides for the use of magic and the lives of those who use it. The first of these guides, and some would say the more true expression of them, were the animal totems that guided the first Awakened shamans. Animal totems seem to be culminations of, and yet more than, the world’s cultural beliefs about these animals. It may be that there is some sort of metaplanar template wolf that guided the evolution of our world’s wolves and still guides the animals and wolf shamans today. Or it may be that the wolf totem is the sum hivemind of all wolves everywhere manifesting as a uniquely powerful being. Perhaps an otherworldly power took the form of an animal familiar to us, whose nature aligns with the goals of that being? We really don’t know. No one but those with totems can speak to them, and those who follow these totems are not usually in positions to demand clarity from them. But totems are just the jumping-off point. Forces of nature are also known to be mentor spirits for some—Mountain, Ocean, River, Volcano, Wind. There are some cultures or traditions that have idols as mentor spirits, or loa, like in Hoodoo (or Haitian Vodou and Louisiana Vodoun). Some Christian traditions have saints as mentor spirits, and there are some polytheistic traditions where certain gods act as mentor spirits. In some extreme cases, certain actual people or things, such as Elvis or Dunkelzahn, have inspired mages as mentors. In other cases, even darker forces have acted as magical guides. We can’t say what exactly they are, whether they are all equal, or even real. Perhaps some are, perhaps others aren’t. Perhaps the guidance some give is only in the imagination of the mage, or perhaps the gift of totem magic comes from another source. What we can say is their power and influence on the mages that follow them is profound, often overriding all other allegiance.