World info. pt. 3

Shamanism is very common in certain parts of my fictional world and almost nonexistent - if not entirely nonexistent - in other parts. the reason for this being that Shamanism is in many places seen as being nothing more than psychic vampirism, which, in many ways, it is. Shamans draw power from living beings; this could be from plants, but even the tallest trees can only give casters a very limited, and very weak, power. Many Shamans keep a familiar whom they work with, rather than steal from. However, in some of the "wilder," more lawless areas of my world, Shamans keep a horde of slaves whom they habitually drain life force from and then discard the "waste" that is the physical carcass. It is these Shamans that give all of the other more humanitarian Shamans a very bad - and in a lot of cases completely undeserved - reputation of being "evil."
I had mentioned before that Shamanism is an in-born ability. Basically this means that some children "accidentally" start draining people/animals of their energy because of a distinct lack of energy in themselves, which I will explain in greater detail when I talk about Sorcery.

In my main stories, Shamans aren't going to be featured too much, so the other magic systems are all slightly more developed. There is only one major ongoing plot point at this point that gives a Shaman a significant place in the story. This, of course, is likely to change as time passes, but for now, know that they exist and the basics of their craft and you'll be good.

More to come!