Spirit Walker

Who Are They?

The Spirit Walker is a conduit, a living vessel whose mind is forever burdened by the hundreds of lives of noble ancestors and powerful heroes of times lost. Their minds float freely, leaving it constantly invaded by different personalities and thoughts. A Spirit Walker draws strength and power from these spirits, channeling them through themselves to learn and grow.

At their prime, a Spirit Walker displays strength and intelligence greater than any average shaman. The Spirit Walker's eyes shine with the power of the spirits that surges through them, causing intoxication and disorientation when bearing the weight of so many souls. Spirit Walkers are powerful support casters, providing healing and enhancement while themselves being difficult for enemies to subdue or kill.

Who Likes Them?

Spirit Walkers are not only revered, but also feared. Their abilities offer them immense insight which may bring the fearful truth about. Nonetheless, they are most respected amongst the followers of the spirits and in places such as Thunderbluff, Nagrand, and the Exodar.

Training

Requirements

The Spirit Walker is an elevated Shaman, one with strong ties with the Emerald Dream and the souls trapped within. To be one, the Aspirant should be a Shaman. While the most common Spirit Walkers are Tauren, Orcs, Trolls and Draenei are also known to be Spirit Walkers.

Alliance » Draenei (rare)

Horde » Orc (rare) Tauren Troll (rare)

Strengths

• Spirit Walkers have a strong connection with the spirits and an intimate knowledge of souls. They are strong with support and healing magic.

• The Spirit Walker retains all the knowledge and wisdom of their race's past.

• With the channeling of spirits, the Walker has the ability to gather a mass amount of wisdom and knowledge far beyond the mortal's mind. This grants them increased combat prowess when blocking and physically attacking.

• A Spirit Walker's training grants them increased endurance and health points.

Weaknesses

• While the Walker is strong to physical attacks when incorporeal, he becomes even more susceptible to magic-based attacks

When a Spirit Walker is weakened, the spirits begin to shift in and out without warning or permission. Within this maelstrom the original Spirit Walker is subsumed for a short time beneath another spirit. This spirit possess personalities, strengths and weaknesses that make it a separate entity. The Spirit Walker must become stronger before they can regain control.

• Spirit Walkers have a very loose grasp on reality to begin with, making them extremely weak to any sort of illusionary effects or lies.

• Spirits can take control of the Spirit Walker at inappropriate times. Perhaps a xenophobic spirit takes over when talking to a member of another race, or a particularly headstrong and short-tempered spirit when patience is required.

• The Spirit Walker has difficulty communing with members of their own race. When they speak with a member of their race the spirits of the person's dead relatives will well up and press against the Spirit Walker's mind. While conversing with them, the Spirit Walker will feel as if they are the person's brother, sister, mother, child, father and lover all in one.

Skills and Abilities

• Spirit Companion

A Spirit Walker summons the spirit of a great hero of his race to be a companion and guard. The spirit companion must have been a hero of his people in life, and the Spirit Walker must know him and his history. The companion is incorporeal and thus gains defensive bonuses against physical attacks, but penalties against magic. The companion can be of any class available to his race. (Consider dual-boxing for this companion, or having another player play him.)

• Disenchantment

Tapping into the power of the spirits, the Spirit Walker purges magic within a particular area. Effectively, this is a multi-target Purge.

• Forgotten Knowledge

A Spirit Walker can draw upon the collective knowledge of the past of their race. When in this trance state, they are capable of witnessing past events that the spirit participated in and know facts about terrain, animals and history.

• Spirit Link

By linking together his soul with the soul of another, the Spirit Walker effectively pools his health with that of another person. Damage between the two is then split evenly between them until the link is broken.

• Spirit Walk

A fully-trained Spirit Walker has the ability to go incorporeal whenever he or she may choose. This state makes physical attacks harder to land.

Note: When a Spirit Walker dies their spirit wanders for a period of a week, regaining strength before returning to their body. The Spirit Walker can self-resurrect.

Training Outline

A Spirit Walker Aspirant does not choose to go down the path. An Aspirant is chosen by the spirits and forced down the road to this prestige. If they deny their birthright they will be tortured by the spirits and suffer madness and dementia.

An Aspirant first knows of their powers through dreams. Out of the blue, whether they be young or old, an Aspirant will begin to have vivid, bizarre dreams. These dreams will put them in the roll of one of their ancestors in a moment of their life. This can either be in a historic battle, a situation of deep intimacy or a moment of deep sorrow and regret.

The Aspirant will awaken from their dreams exhausted and deeply disturbed by the images. They will seek out aid and, gradually, be directed to a powerful Shaman. The shaman will realize that the Aspirant is showing signs of a Spirit Walker ability.

Before the Shaman can instruct the Spirit Walker on how to wield their new found gift, they will be tasked with proving that they have the mental fortitude to take on such an awesome responsibility as containing a maelstrom of souls. The Aspirant will be taught how to open themselves to the torrent, allowing the souls to rush in and invade their minds. The Aspirant must then reign in the spirits, calming his mind and bringing order to the chaos. If they fail they will be driven mad and be killed. If they succeed, they will begin their training.

The Shaman and the Aspirant will retreat from society. They will retire to a location with deep meaning to their chosen race (A Tauren burial ground, a Draenei massacre sight or an Orc internment camp) and where many had previous perished. There the Shaman will instruct the Aspirant on the spells and abilities that they are required to learn to command and wield the power of a Spirit Walker.

After the Aspirant has been educated and taught the rights and rituals needed to summon and command spirits, they will go out to find one of their own Ancestors. This quest has you following in the great Ancestor's footsteps, sharing in their trials, battles and miseries. Once they have gained empathy with the Ancestor and their trials the Aspirant will journey to the place where they died and, using the rights and rituals, summon Ancestor to them.

With their knowledge and the guidance of their Ancestor, the Spirit Walker may return to civilization a strong, wise man.

Active Spirit Walkers

• Grakor Ghostice