Encyclopaedia Divine: Shamans: The Call Of The Wild (d20)
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It is said that when the gods created the world¸ they gently blew life into it¸ awakening the conscience in every piece of their work. Trees¸ rocks¸ rivers¸ fire¸ wind¸ mountains… all of them received the holy breath¸ and all of them worshipped the gods before the first race set foot on the face of the world. They were the animae¸ the souls of all things: the spirits. These beings are the heart of Creation¸ overseeing the turning of the seasons¸ the cycle of predator and prey and even the falling of each flake of snow. This first age was a paradise¸ but when the gods had set the stage for their mortal children¸ the spirits lost their place as the inhabitants of the world. Yet they were not really gone. Shunned to the lands behind the mirror¸ the spirits maintained their connection with that which gives them life¸ and they served a new role as the intermediaries between the gods and the physical world.
Shamans existed long before clerics and wizards usurped their role as the wise leaders of the people¸ the first to try and make sense of a strange world and the earliest people to delve into the powers of the unknown. Their magic is unsophisticated¸ and looked down upon as the province of the uncivilised¸ a primitive tool inferior to arcane formulae and divine prayer.