“Summoning.
A unique field of the arcane due to having rules & regulations that other forms of magic do not have; on account of even chronomancy just being flat out banned.
In the lower levels it was quite simple - you just offer something in order to gain an effect from the powers who reside on the outside but are looking in. There are many things that can be summoned (from the calling on those from another world to requesting help from an entity in the dreamscape) it was technically a skill that had no limit in what it could do. Of course, when one discusses summoning, there are of course two clandestine races that are most prevalent thus have gained the most from the mysterious field.
The Spirits & Demons.
Between the two spirits have an advantage in the market at the lower levels. From the perspective of the layman; spirits were entities with colourful dispositions but often simplistic in their desires to the point of being outright childish. Often only requiring a simple offering akin to a little bit of the summoner's energy while those more advanced in thought may request for a gift.
Usually nothing more than perhaps a toy although if one is unfortunate it may be something a bit more costly due to them not worrying about such matters. They simply want what they desire. Obviously there are also the elemental lords who possess far greater strength & intelligence thus are famously difficult to make contracts with. Even if one succeeds they are often left as the spirit lords servants and made to help them in their goal of protecting spirit-kind and the world they help maintain.
On the other hand you have demons; typically violent beings that only respect ability with no care for any mortals than those formed by the twisted ideals. Entities that refuse to even enter a home without being invited first but have no problem with bringing down that same house. It is often hard to understand them.
Unlike with the “peaceful” spirits they often require blood to be used as a catalyst to link their realm in order to let their demonic energies pass across the void into the world. Using the blood of an entity as if it were a key into the {Mortal Realm}. Unfortunately a stronger demon has a bigger quantity of energy which means that a “bigger key” is needed for the stronger door that is required.
Funnily enough a demon lord is comparable to the spirit lord in that the ceremony needed would require the presence of an entire city in terms of average level. What is less funny is that the demon lord requires both the energy & blood of that city. A matter that has left demonic summoning with an obviously terrible reputation - if for all the right reasons - as quality can triumph over quantity.
Although the mess which is demonic summoning doesn’t end at just opening the portal as that has only opened the door for you to offer them a contract.
Demons will never go against any deals they make with few caring enough to actually think of ways to use loopholes due to a mixture of pride & ignorance. But when one opens the portal there is not yet an actual contract in place of them to follow. Displeasing a demon is the number one death of the most powerful demonic followers/cultivators across all realms.
Luckily for the less arrogant demon summoners; there exists certain tweaks one can make to the ritual in order to control which demon is allured to their summoning attempt. Most common of which is using a particular type of blood (whether from species, family or gender) or a personal item of the demon you want to summon. For a certain demoness that could mean their childhood toy or a piece of their own body.
Although without any of that (and even with) the demon summoned can be random and even not be on the level of the sacrifice made. An example would be that a fortunate imp could be summoned when one sacrifices a city - an incident that has become something of a tall tale by those of the demonic path. Then there is also the fact that a very particular puppet-like imp could be summoned in the ritual for a regular imp.
There is also the unfortunate case that you went through all that to summon a powerful demon… And they just didn’t like the terms of contract so left without even bothering to kill you.
It wasn’t hard to see why demons were less popular than their spiritual counterparts - demonic summoning being a field built upon an incalculable number of corpses. A portion of those being from the would be summoners themselves. In terms of understanding demonic summoning could be said to be one of the least understood due to the mortality rate & overall stigma.
Not that it was impossible to come to a more peaceful arrangement with a demon.
Nevertheless, that was only true for demons & spirits below the lord level, both races had levels of achievement far beyond that of a mere lord.
Archdemons (demon nobility), demon god empress’ army and their spiritual counterpart
For demons little actually changed as you went higher except the cost could massively go down if they were willing to use their own strength to break through the barrier between realms. Demon Lords not willing to do that due to the weakened state would leave them in making them easy to capture. That not being as much of a possible issue when the demon gets stronger; although it is also certainly a worry.
At the same time… All those demons tend to be insanely loyal so, unless instructed, it is rare for them to even think of leaving the Demon Realm. Also helped by the fact they know the secret that there is little actual benefit for a demon to cross into the realm of weaklings.
So what about spirits?
They have less structure which leads to none of the blind loyalty holding them back - there being no real orders from above for most spirits. The commonly known spirit lords are more akin to an elder sibling who grew to be so strong for the purpose of protecting the weaker spirits. There are still those spirits who are more uncharitable when it comes to power or have a selfish goal for which power.
Their desires influence their forms while allowing them to rise to even greater height & dimensions than what is possible for a mortal to comprehend.
Those are called “eldritch” and are when summoning begins to make little sense.
Each entity is not only stronger in the traditional sense but also exists on a higher existential plane which makes even the sight of them difficult on a mortal's sanity. Merely seeing an eldritch lord would cause a human to develop a powerful headache - something that only gets stronger the longer one attempts to comprehend the existence of the eldritch entities.
On top of that, it only gets worse, the sight of higher ranked eldritch entities would cause one's mind to snap and become crazed in some fashion or another. Similarly the rituals to summon them make little sense as they do little to actually break through the barrier or entice them; rather it is more like a performance somewhat related to the particular eldritch if otherwise random. Like sacrificing a particular creature with a peculiarly shaped knife during a certain time of the day. Almost as if someone or something is trying to keep those entities from being allowed anywhere but the abyss.
For good reason as many of them show a disregard for all life on a level that makes demons think them to be disgusting creatures. There is often no making a deal with an eldritch spirit - there is only them playing along until their desires lead them to betraying any intentions the contract had through some loophole a mortal would never have prepared for. The worst of those, not including the abyss, would be the {Birds of Prey} who are sinful beings from even before the {Era of the Great War}.
Criminals gathered during the {Era of Primordial} for goals no one knows.
Each was powerful before yet now they have been given purpose and method leading to them being entities that even demon gods need to be cautious of. Beings who are only trapped by the rules that are placed upon them by summoning - only able to be breached should one be able to speak of their true name that has long been hidden from the realms. Even just knowing the name is a crime recognised by {The Heavens} thus induces a tribulation according to the threat risk of that particular {Bird of Prey}.
Their particular rituals are also considered criminal to know, if not by the heavens, by every single country across the many realms. If it is not banned then that is due to the ignorance of the leaders. Not that any of them are particularly easy to perform. The easiest and most well known belonging to {The Secretary in Yellow} - though that did not make it particularly pleasant.
Referred to as the {Comedic Play of Tragedy, Dismay & Disarray}; the ritual requires one to depict several scenes involving often tragic & depressing scenes through to completion to 100% accuracy. This means if someone is meant to be pregnant they need to be pregnant, if they get hit they get hit and if death… Well most of them die.
Then there is {The Owl Flies In the Abyss of Knowledge} which requires one to present her with knowledge no one knows in a presentation. Although that seems easier, one would be wrong, it is difficult to find something she has not discovered through being the most loyal to the abyss. She also demands the most accurate display which often just ends up being a bloody dissection that does nothing.
This all likely leads to the greatest question of all; how does one summon the very ruler of the spirit world?
It is simple to understand but difficult to perform due to the pieces needed no longer existing. Having been reduced to an endangered/extinct race except for in the most backward of places across the realms or in those realms she has stolen from the {True God}.
What she requires is a contradiction of the greatest kind.
An angel that sins… Chehehe~”
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