Spiritus (entity)

Spiritus, colloquially known as anomalies, are paranormal entities created when the soul of a deceased person becomes trapped within the Internet and transforms into a digital being. Their appearance being influenced by who they were in life or by how they died.

Some people seek out Spiritus (and vice versa) to form Pacts with them: a union between the dead and the living that allows both parties to unlock untold power. Humans that have made pacts with Spiritus are known as Pactmakers. Everyone can become a Pactmaker, but not everyone can be a Pactmaker. It's a mentally and physically taxing role, and many are unable to handle the challenges and risks that come with being one. Some go mad from the power that these Spiritus bring. Others are destroyed by it.

Spiritus largely exist within the confines of the Internet, where they manifest to the naked eye as unusual or terrifying online phenomena that cannot be easily explained by logic, these are called Unexplained Internet Phenomena or UIP for short. Most UIPs are benign, but some can be deadly as well, such as the infamous Red Room Curse, which is believed to have killed 54 people between 1990 and 2006.

Spiritus can also physically manifest in our reality and are believed by parapsychologists to be the driving force, if not outright culprit, behind many unexplainable phenomena and disasters.

Reports of "anomalies" manifesting online date back to the days of ARPANET. During the global adoption of the Internet, the rate at UIPs occurred was so high that governments and companies around the world put in measures to try and prevent them from occurring, which didn't always work. In recent years, thanks in part to the rise of social media, the occurrence rate of UIPs has lowered considerably and has plateaued since 2016. Inversely, the rate at which anomalies manifest in reality has spiked dramatically, spurring government and military intervention in many cases.

History

Spiritus have existed since the dawn of humanity, not as digital lifeforms but as regular ghosts who were bound to the Earth before the creation of the Internet, which became their de facto afterlife.

It is believed by parapsychologists that people have been making pacts with spiritual entities as far back as 6000 BC, communicating with them through traditional methods such as planchette writing and summoning rituals. Pactmaking as we know it now dates back to the early 1990s, when the Internet became more widely accessible. The earliest mentions of communication with paranormal entities through the Internet first appeared in 1989. The first known organized group of Pactmakers was formed in or around 1995. As of 2025, there are currently around 893 groups of Pactmakers worldwide, the largest one of these being Whitewoods, which has around 7,500 members across the globe.

The link between UIPs, anomalies and Spiritus is not widely known or accepted. Communication with ghosts is considered a pseudoscience, and anyone who claims to have communicated with Spiritus or tries to reveal the existence of them to a wider audience are often brushed off as doing a bit or are labeled as being mentally ill.

The majority of people believe that UIPs are being caused by hackers from adversary countries or by rogue generative AI. And when a Spiritus causes a mass-casuality event, the official explanation for it is that it was an act of god, or, if the event happened in a populated area and had multiple witnesses, an alien. Several countries have established or beefed up their military space forces in order to combat any extraterrestrial threat that may arrive to Earth, not knowing that the enemy is earthbound.

The term "Unexplained Internet Phenomena" was coined by a U.S. government official in 1994 to describe websites that had anomalous properties. Nobody knows who coined the term "Spiritus" or when it was first used to describe internet-based paranormal entities.

Manifestation

Spiritus are most likely to manifest in places where there are a lot of devices connected to the Internet or where there is a lot of paranormal activity. Spiritus draw in energy from the surrounding area in order to convert their digital forms into physical ones, then enter our reality through display screens or holes in the fabric of reality caused by said paranormal activity.

Spiritus can also be physically manifested anywhere in the world by their Pactmaker. But this requires complete, undivided focus and puts strain on the Pactmaker's body.

Once manifested, Spiritus require a lot of a particular type of "fuel" in order maintain their physical forms. The type of this "fuel" varies from individual to individual. It could be anything from electricity or biomass to people's emotions or dreams. If they are unable to get enough of this "fuel", their physical forms will start to degenerate, eventually becoming disembodied souls once again.

Spiritus cannot be captured on video or photographed by any camera or device that takes photos/videos. Making documentation of them difficult.

Unions

A Pactmaker and their Spiritus can fuse by linking their souls together and forming a Union. The appearance and power of the resulting being depends on the human host. Unions are mostly used for online combat, but they can also be used to quickly traverse through the Internet and its countless Domains.

Spiritus and humans cannot stay in a Union forever, both parties will split up eventually.

A Spiritus forcibly fusing itself with a human is known as a Forced Union, An exorcism is required to seperate the Spiritus from its victim.

Race

Spiritus are classified by Race. All Spiritus have two Races assigned to them (Ex. Toy/Garbage, Mystery/Machine, Angel/Food).

Threat Level

Since 2019, Whitewoods has been classifying Spiritus by Threat Level based on how much of a threat to humanity they might pose. In 2022, the Quetta, Ronna and UTBD levels were introduced.

To their knowledge, all Spiritus start out at Mega-level, then slowly become more powerful by absorbing the souls of other Spiritus. As their Threat Level grows, they begin to forget their memories of their human life. It is determined that they will forget them completly once they reach Yotta-level. Reverent do not lose their memories upon Threat Level growth, since they still cling on to their humanity unlike Spiritus.

Death

The "weak spot" of all Spiritus is their original human soul, which is protected by their digital forms. If their soul is broken or absorbed, then the Spiritus will die.

Humans by themselves cannot kill Spiritus. Additionally, Humans who are directly killed by Spiritus do not become Spiritus themselves because the Spiritus that killed them absorbs their soul.

If they are gravely injured, Spiritus will shatter into digital fragments and "respawn" after 24 hours, often at a lower threat level then they were before.

When Spiritus die, they are reincarnated as a human with little to no memory of their previous life.

Trivia

• Spiritus do not age, they are permanently the age that they were when they died. Their forms do "evolve" over time as their Threat Level grows.
• Spiritus do not refer to themselves as such. "Spiritus" is a term coined by mortals.
• All Spiritus weigh in at exactly 21 grams. They only feel lighter/heavier than that because they are able to create the illusion of weight through their digital forms.
• The excact number of Spiritus is not known, but it is believed that there are currently around a billion currently in existence.