Tellings of the Wisps



Being a brief compendium of the culture, habits, and behaviors of manifestations of the Xorinite Dimension, commonly referred by the populace as "Will-o-wisps".
--Xiao, Council of Wizards

They are reclusive creatures, these wisps, and most unwilling to trade information despite their claims to the contrary. 'Tis not that they are arrogant, though many of my colleagues dismiss them as such. I feel that they are merely cautious with their transactions and 'tis why they often demand "fees" that are often difficult to fulfill. Indeed, lapse of caution between the wisps and an individual known as Zog was so cataclysmic that all that remains of Zog's civilization are a few bones in Britain's museum. Thus are the dangers of an advance civilization exchanging information with one more primitive than theirs.

And gatherers of information are all that the wisps are--or, at least, that is the function of the wisps who we are permitted to see. They serve little other purpose and, indeed, think little of anything else, again contributing to the cold-hearted, unfeeling personalities that my peers attribute to them. They claim to be projections, or manifestations, of entities from the Xorinite Dimension and representatives of the Undrian Council, a regime they dutifully neglect to describe, save that it serves as some form of "government."

Still, personalities surface through these creatures, though I often wonder if 'tis just one person hiding beneath a dozen masks. Obviously, they tend to isolate themselves, but in rather predictable locations. Abandoned homes, villages, towns, and cities seem to be a favorite, inevitably because such locations denote a civilization and thus the promise of information. Forests also prove attractive, possibly for the richness of flora and fauna found within. And places of unsurpassed beauty, such as reflecting pools or palaces, are potential abodes, as if beauty reminds wisps of emotions they once knew long ago. . .