Apparition Attunement

Animists have a gift for divine magic that allows them to serve as conduits or bridges for otherworldly spiritual entities known collectively as apparitions; through them, these entities can commune and interact with the physical world in a process called attunement. Apparitions are myriad and diverse: they may be human spirits lingering on the border between becoming phantoms or ghosts, animal spirits with particularly strong connections to the physical world but lacking the malice that would spur a transition into true undeath, manifestations of natural locations that have grown thought and purpose over time, or they may be a different variation altogether.

Some animists attune to one or more specific apparitions that accompany them in their travels, forming deep partnerships over time, while others adapt to their surroundings by befriending the local apparitions who dwell wherever the animist's journey takes them. Each day during your daily preparations, choose two apparitions from the list on page 17 to attune to. Of these, choose one to be your primary apparition. Your attuned apparitions each grant you knowledge in the form of Lore skills and a repertoire of additional spells you can cast using apparition spellcasting (see below), and your primary apparition grants you even further power in the form a unique vessel focus spell and, when you are higher level, a unique avatar form.

When you Refocus, you can change which of your currently attuned apparitions is your primary apparition, selecting from any of the apparitions you attuned to during your daily preparations. All your apparitions typically remain attuned to you until your next daily preparations, but some animist abilities can temporarily disperse them, usually in exchange for a powerful boon. If an apparition is dispersed, you lose access to its gifts—you forget its apparition skills, its spells are removed from your apparition spell repertoire, and you can't use its vessel spell or avatar form—until you attune to it again. When you disperse your primary apparition, one of your remaining apparitions becomes your primary apparition, chosen by you at the time of dispersal.