The Otherworld: A Guide To Spiritual Mysticism

The school of mysticism encompasses the most obscure and ancient types of magic, that cannot be classified into any other of the main five groups established by the Mages Guild and usually lack accessible theoretical sources and manuals besides knowledge passed down generations of hedge mages, such as necromancy, shadow magic and seering. Spiritual mysticism is one of these magics, and after gathering sufficient information from willing nordic and dunmer nomads and witch covens, we have managed to put together this introduction, that hopefully, will stir curiosity in our scholars and contribute to further research.

###1. Definition

Spiritual mysticism is the branch of mysticism that specializes in the supernatural; in afterlives, ghosts and spirits, souls, the Otherworld and their manipulation. Spirit mysticists are often wise witches, seers, mediums, and otherwise people who tend to the spiritual health of the plane or people who interact with it.

###2. Theoretical Foundations

The Otherworld, or known as Spirit plane to scholars, is a place that exists in the same space as Mundus, and bleeds into Oblivion and Aetherius. It is made of pure energy, light and magic rather than tangible things as in our world. There, magic flows and souls pass into their respective afterlives, or roam as ghosts; it’s some sort of safe transitive place for the departed, and the way the magic from Aetherius is accessible to us. It contains the magic in all our world: in the trees, the Memory in water, and the stars in people. Mundus and the Otherworld cannot be separated; they coalesce into a single being that cannot exist without their halves, since magic needs to be made concrete, and it needs the tangibility of the world, as it needs magic to keep growing and changing, to have a soul. It intersects Oblivion, but melts into it rather than existing in the same place as with Mundus. The famous Waters of Oblivion are canals that connect all planes -except Nirn- simultaneously, and are a combination of Spirit Plane streams and empty Oblivion pockets, with some Void energy there.

The difference between Aetherius, which is also a plane made of energy and magic, and the Otherworld is that the latter does not contain any energy left from Creation, or can create anything for that matter. It’s simply a plane whose sole function is to transport, recycle, and harbor magic or energy, that follows Mundus’ laws, movements and changes. It doesn’t contain any pocket realm that functions as an afterlife and it loses stability and shape as it gets distanced from Mundus.

Have you wondered why can mages access magic so easily, despite there existing a barrier between Nirn and the outer planes? It’s because of this plane, which draws energy and magic from the Aether for Nirn, then returns it in different shapes. This way, the Aurbis is equilibrated and energy is preserved, allowing the universe to continue to exist and change.

###-Regarding souls

Every sapient being in Tamriel, often classified into subgroups of Mer, Men, or Betmer has a soul attached to their body, that contains their magicka pool and its conscience, made from remains of creation, energy that Lorkhan and His siblings used to create the world. Some cultures label souls as Stars, or Essences; any name is valid and refers to the same thing.

The main active functions of souls are, first, to contain the conscience or mind of the person, and second, to contain a person’s magicka reserve, keeping it flowing and regenerating. They are the bridge that allows people to connect to the magic and spiritual sides of life beyond spell casting; if their soul is big enough, with enough magical predisposition, the person might easily see spirits, ghosts or tears in reality like those caused by Oblivion Portals. This sensitivity to the supernatural is proportional to the connection to the Spirit Plane the person might have - their innate talent for magic, or how easily they perceive it. Mer are naturally more sensitive and aware of this plane.

This is why rural human communities have no problems with burying their dead on the open, while most mer bury their dead deep underground, conserving ancient customs; most human farmers wouldn’t notice their ancestors are walking around them, making unsolicited comments, or the kind of spirits they might attract, while mer know it’s unsafe for their ancestors to roam in such unprotected places or for people to accidentally step on their ancestors.

The other important, primary function is determining where the person will go after they pass away; we will expand on this in another section.

Souls vary in size, color, and shape, and only the first one, which is static and doesn’t change through one’s life, is related to ability with magic. The other ones, that rarely change, derive from the unique, personal characteristics of the person. One cannot change any of these characteristics willingly, unless they are willing to submit their soul and mind to potential damage by unnatural arts.

Color and shape are simply aesthetic and do not affect the person’s functioning at all. However, the person themselves impacts and influences these variables. Color doesn’t change, but shape might. For example, a person who lost a limb might still have it in their soul, which causes the so-called “ghost pain”. A person with identity problems, or one who belongs to another gender than the one they were born into, might have a soul that looks less defined, blurrier, or totally unlike their physical appearance, as their conception of themselves and their essence differs from their physical vessel. The young have very undefined souls, but this is completely normal.

Contact with the supernatural has impact on the soul. It is also said that legendary conditions, such as being Dragonborn in either the Cyrod or the Nordic meaning, or being a Shezzarine, completely transform the appearance of one’s soul, logically with a gigantic soul. It is also generally believed these extraordinary people would have strange markings and characteristics like horns in their souls. There is no any academic proof, study, or source in this (as such individuals are either myths or extremely rare), except for the wisdom of old wild witches who pass down legends of uncertain veracity.

People who have sworn themselves under the service of Daedra, been forced to, or passively worship and believe in one of them, report seeing considerable changes as well. Ashlander dunmer, as they are the easiest to find and the largest group of dedicated Daedra worshipers, are excellent proof of this; most of their souls either have multiple eyes, armor, or webs hanging on them, some to a slight degree, and some doubtfully humanoid (all depending on the degree of worship). It is said that the wise women of the Urshilaku, who have the strongest connection to Azura, have souls that change color in spectrum, of those hues that can only be seen in the sky during dawn and dusk.

Generally, witches that live in the wilds and practice the oldest types of magic, that are extremely close to the Earth and their gods, have very distinct souls. For example, some of the witches of the Reachmen, and the nearly-extinct wild covens of eastern Skyrim and High Rock "become" wisps or wisp mothers upon death, which is in fact, only the appearance of their souls, while most humans mistakenly believe them to be completely nonhuman spirits.

###3. Afterlife

Worship, religious beliefs, actions, and deeds determine where one may spend their afterlife, which is an unspecified period of roaming in a plane (or perhaps many, if the person is conscious enough and the gods allow it) before they are reabsorbed by either the Aetherius or Oblivion and recycled into new energy - perhaps magicka or perhaps a new soul. This is obviously not a matter of being a “good” person or not, but rather of one’s own feelings and beliefs:

A lifelong worshiper of Azura will go to Her plane, a lifelong worshiper of the Divines will go to Aetherius, a person who doesn’t worship but deeply believes in Boethia and follows their philosophy will go to Their plane; fervent worship is not necessary. Someone who is completely apathetic towards religion and gods and doesn’t believe in anything will likely roam this world for some time and then go to the final destination, being reborn into new energy.

This “marks” your soul, not in the physical sense. Think about how you tell the courier the place they must deliver your letter. You technically mark yourself with your destination, largely unconsciously.

Some people, especially daedra worshipers, get terrified about their possible afterlives, and suddenly drop many years of faithful worship of certain deities and dedicate themselves to new gods. The thing is, that unless the belief is strong, and genuine enough to overwrite the weight of years of willing worship, the mark won’t change at all. Fake worship out of fear will accomplish nothing; as it was said many times, your own true beliefs shape what will happen next.

Artificial marks made by superior beings, such as the one that comes with the status of being a Dragonborn, or those that were inflicted by becoming a special agent or servant of a daedra, cannot be overwritten or removed without powerful magic involved. Curses, like vampirism and lycanthropy, require extremely hard to find cures and rites to fully remove. Marks aren’t a concept, they are real effects on the soul. Without one, a roaming soul detached from a body will simply be devoured and recycled in an instant by whatever plane it happens to be in. This is when the real spirit mysticism magic comes in.

###4. Uses

Spiritual mysticism is the most passive branch of mysticism and has virtually no use in battle, as it requires focus and calmness. This is also one of the oldest kinds of magic, and lacks much theory beyond non-scholarly knowledge passed down generations by witches; thus, it earns a place in the classification of mysticism. It focuses on “mending” spiritual affairs, on how to deal and communicate with spirits and supernatural conditions that afflict the spirit, and on the observation of the Spirit Plane.

The first “spell” one learns in spiritual mysticism is to open the soul’s eyes and close the physical ones, to see and perceive the spiritual plane fully. This spell can be used to detect daedric contamination in the area, soul sickness or any kind of magic influence over a person or being, magic anomalies, and also detect supernatural beings and magic traps. It should be mentioned that this is very mentally taxing, and that it’s not a real “spell” at all; it does not require magicka, but concentration, calmness and clearness of mind, it is the simple fact of opening one’s eyes. Not practical for battle at all.

By opening your mind’s eyes, you can see the flows of magicka in the air, the spirits of various natures that float around, the energy residues that have materialized into strange incorporeal insects, the magicka flowing through the roots of trees that nourishes and keeps them alive, the souls inside people, the barrier in the sky that separates Oblivion from Nirn and beyond it, and many other things that cannot be seen in the simple world. However, fully seeing the Otherworld might be immensely overwhelming for some people, because of the possible sensory overload, and further stresses for long times. Like any branch of mysticism, it is a kind of magic only the most persevering should pursue.

The next step is learning how to detach one’s soul from the physical vessel, which is the most dangerous spell in this school. By doing this, one can roam around the Otherworld, communicate with wandering spirits, all while physically standing in the same place, completely unresponsive. The dangerous part is the possibility of getting lost or trapped and be unable to return, or wandering too close to Oblivion and getting the soul torn apart in the process, turned into raw energy for the realm to devour, or perhaps one could enter a place so saturated that it might have a permanent toll in one’s sanity. Some mages simply find themselves unable to reattach themselves to their bodies, and their physical vessel dies, yet they live on, trapped between planes.

The reason why these unfortunate souls just cannot go to their afterlives is because they have not died “properly”, with their soul contained safely within their bodies. The mark is not activated properly, and all planes and the flows of energy will interpret the soul-person as energy floating around without purpose or use, devouring them. This differs from the recycling that occurs at the end of the afterlife; in that phase, one is almost completely unconscious and has lost much of the self (without even noticing, and this might sound sad, but it is just like going completely senile), and becoming something else is not painful at all. In the case of accidentally being detached from the body and being swallowed by a realm, one still has their mind fully intact and sensitive, and is completely conscious and feels absolutely everything. There are mages that barely managed to survive flying too close to the barrier to Oblivion, often losing big parts of their soul in them, and their descriptions of this feeling induce shivers.

Moving on to other spells, the widely-known soul trap spell is just “marking” the soul to go to your soul gem when the subject dies, within the span of ten minutes or so. There are no mysticism spells about ripping people’s soul off or that sort of actions, but there are some active spells, such as banishing or silencing ghosts and spirits forcefully, and cleansing vibes or auras (think about daedric ruins, houses corrupted by Dagoth or daedric activity).

There are certain individuals and cults in Black Marsh that claim that they can physically materialize in this plane by drinking potions that they did not share the ingredients for, or use their dream selves to roam in it rather than risking their souls. They claim to use this magic as alternative methods of healing, as they can banish any possessing daedric spirit, haunting ghosts that might be causing the victim either mental or physical pain. As these aggrupations are highly secretive, this information has only been recollected from witnesses and former patients themselves.

One can also “anchor” a small piece of the soul to make teleportation to that spot easier, or to see that piece of the Otherworld at any moment. It is strongly discouraged for people with dissociative issues, and also it should absolutely not be done in large scales, as it can bring permanent harm.

There are beliefs that a master of spiritual mysticism could remove or make afterlife marks, or trick the planes and flows of energy into believing they are “passing” to an afterlife to freely travel to Oblivion and beyond. As far as we know in the Mages Guild, this could be simply conjecture.

Spiritual mysticism is a school with loads of potential, largely unexploited, and unfortunately obscure. We welcome any experts or practitioners that could help us in our research or are interested in teaching this subject.