Basic Concepts

Countshire is small town located in northern England. Its main attraction is Countshire University, a large, elite institution known for its extensive international exchange program, and its extremely difficult entry requirements. The student body is largely composed of honor roll students from all over the world, as well as extremely talented athletes and artists. It offers a very extensive list of courses.

The magicians are gifted humans who can use an assortment of magic spells without the aid of any artifacts or catalysts. Although once numerous, they are now scarce, and the last remaining families with the gift (which is hereditary) live in hiding.

All members of these families are born with the gift, although as with anything else, it takes talent and practice to fully master the art, and there are several fields one can study. Traditionally, each family specializes in a different field - this is partly due to the fact the documents containing each of the arts were divided among the families centuries ago to keep them from being found and destroyed during the Inquisition (although it couldn't stop some of them from meeting that fate).

It is said that the gifts come from having bred with Spirits in the past, but their origin has yet to be confirmed.

The spirits are immaterial entities that dwell in a different plane of existence and sometimes cross over into our world. It's said that most legends, gods and other such folklore have their origin in spirits.

They're as diverse as animals in appearance, size, power and personality. Some of them may be as simplistic as bugs, whereas others may be far more intelligent than the average human.

Spirits can't be seen by the average human. Only those with a degree of psychic ability can see/hear them.

A powerful enough spirit is able to take physical form and pass off as a regular animal. Since most spirits are unable to do so on their own, they forge pacts with humans, and draw from their energy to materialize. It's said that some spirits are able to do this without such help, however.

The shades are a specific group of spirits that is considered by many to be evil - unlike other spirits they are innately harmful to the humans they come in contact with. Otherwise, however, they're no different from normal spirits - even if most people believe them to be more like demons.

Demons are immaterial beings living in another world (which is a different world from that of spirits/shades). They lack rational thought, and are predators, feeding on the energy and minds of both humans and spirits alike. They normally do not cross over into other worlds, since this shortens their lifespan dramatically, but it is possible to force them to do so with appropriate magic.

Keeping shades and demons at bay has been the work of this group of people for the longest time now. Although some of them are Magicians, most members come from human families, and forge bonds with Spirits to gain protection as well as powers. Their group has no name and is simply referred to as "The Order" by its members, and it often passes for a religious cult to remain secret from the outside world.

The "pact" is a bond between any two beings of different worlds - in this game specifically, it generally means a bond between a human and a spirit. Its terms are generally defined by the "contract" - an agreement made by both parties, which specifies the conditions (ie "for as long as x is valid") and duration of the pact, whereas it is symbolized by an object (or pair of objects) called the "proof" - any object(s) available at hand upon which the contract is sworn. Both humans and Spirits can only forge one pact at a time, and the pact cannot be broken until the Contract expires, its terms are violated, the Proof is destroyed or either party dies.
Since spirits can't normally be seen or heard, it takes one with psychic skills to assist in making a pact.

It is speculated (but neither confirmed nor denied by The Order) that there is a group of people who are unaffected by Shades' harmful power, and because of this are able to form pacts with them (much like a normal person would with a Spirit). These people also all qualify as Prey (see below), and thus they are a natural disaster to those around them. Supposedly, a pact helps lessen this effect, since a more powerful shade (made more powerful by the pact) hanging around them all the time helps keep other shades away.

As the name suggests, humans are just that - human. The Order tends to classify them into three groups - Neutral, which are regular humans; Prey, which for some reason or other seem to draw Shades and usually fall victim to them; and Potential, which are humans with any kind of above-average gift - highly athletic, highly intelligent, psychic, and so forth. Usually, The Order will only accept the Potential (which are, understandably, rarer) as members, though exceptions have been made in the past. The Potential are also favored by Spirits when forging pacts - being that they are above the average human, they make for a more appealing contractor than average or particularly weak humans.

The Books are thick, ancient tomes in which the ways of magic and spiritual lore are described. Each Magician family possesses one, and there are three in possession of The Order; it is assumed that all of the others have been destroyed. A small group of scholars is working independently to attempt to recover the lost knowledge, but significant progress has yet to be made.

A small group of people (of which some are rumored to be people who forged pacts with shades) that opposes The Order's methods. In spite of their reduced numbers, they actively boycott whatever Order-related activities they can. For the most part, their existence is unheard of and denied by the Order.