Spirit

A type of phenomenon. Despite the fact that they can be found everywhere, other than those who possess spiritual affinity, humans cannot perceive most of them. Spirits with no physical form are generally harmless to people, but those of higher class are of such a dimension that they can be perceived as well as interact with people, are a different story. Presently, science cannot interfere with them and modern Magecraft cannot reproduce mysteries of such scale. Additional note: Spirits cannot form contracts with other spirits. Caster was able to because of her own knowledge as a magus; however, the results are poorer and more ineffective than under conventional circumstances. Only something physical of this world can truly link a higher spirit to this world. Even then, the manifested spirit cannot form contracts with the other spirit unless the knowledge already exists. Forming a contract with a higher existence also means that the power source for the contract would act as a tremendous strain with some implications of possible death.

Elemental
精霊 - Seirei

The general term for the spiritual bodies of animals and nature that still remain in the world as well as those spirits made and processed by human intention. Lower class spirits such as ghosts and apparitions are not included in this category. Manifestations of the will of the planet such as nature and animal spirits do not necessarily have human form and most of them cannot be perceived by humans.

Elementals manifest themselves by using the images of humans to shape their bodies. Still, even if the shape turns out to be close to that of humans, their values and logic is still unlike than those of humans. Fairies that grow to a scale that can be perceived by humans become capable of manifest themselves in a fashion similar to that of Elementals. True Ancestors can be considered a type of manifested Elementals.

Capable of using Marble Phantasms and Reality Marbles, with the former being applied in the manufacture of their dwellings. Said dwellings are, despite their otherworldly aspects, still part of the natural world. As such, there are times when humans accidentally stumble into them.

Despite being a general category for all sorts of spirits, the term “Elemental” usually refer to spirits from the nature when used by itself. The likes of the Lady of the Lake, the True Ancestors and others mediators of nature are first and foremost Elementals before being part of any other category. Incidentally, Elementals can become Demons.

Divine Spirit
Divine Spirit (神霊) is the classification for the highest rank of spirits, which are beings desired by both the world and humanity. They are a natural phenomenon given form by people’s worship, and those that are no longer worshiped become Elementals. An example for being Divine Spirits are Medusa and her sisters Stheno and Euryale who were born from the wishes of mankind for ideal goddesses.

Animal Spirits
Animal Spirits (Doubutsurei) The spirits of animals.

Kitsune and Inukami
Kitsune and Inukami (Kitsune, Inukami)The traditional nine-tailed fox and dog-familiar spirits of Japanese folklore, they are attributed of being the source of people’s insanity by possessing them. Also, in cases where a demon possession causes the emergence of multiple personalities due the host surrendering his rights of ego, the resulting alternate persona is said to be these spirits themselves accordingly with Japanese beliefs. However, unlike the nonsensical accidents that are the Western demon possessions, there is a definite reason and “will to curse” behind the cases of possession that are brought about by these spirits.

NEKO Spirit
NEKO Spirit (ネコ精霊) refers to the type of spirits that reside in the Great Cat’s Village. Members of the race include Neco-Arc, Neco-Arc Babbles, Neco-Arc Chaos, Neco-Arc Evolution and Neco-Arc Destiny.

Nature Spirits
Nature Spirits (Shizenrei) As the name states, a spirit born from elements of nature such as plants, soil, gemstones and etc. Ores and jewels that have been beneath the surface for an extended period of time are said to be capable of easily giving birth to these kinds of spirits.

Jinn
Jinn (Jin) The wind elemental spirits of Islamic tradition, well known for being very mischievous. With bodies made of gas and smoke, they can float in the wind and are mostly invisible, but are capable of producing solid forms when necessary. In those cases, they preferably take the shape of an ogre with the face of a dog and the back of a cat, but cases where they take the appearance of a beautiful human or some beast such as snakes are not unheard of.

Guardian Spirits
Guardian Spirits (Shugoseirei) The result of merging an Animal or Nature Spirit with a human soul. Not something that happens naturally, but rather is something that is made by the hands of men in order to give human values to something that is not human. Considered to be below other types of Elemental, but have the potential to become Holy Spirits. In order to materialize themselves, they require a supply of prana that most people simply don’t have. Guardian Spirits cannot be observed by anyone, except the Master they are connected with, in their spirit form. The best examples for these kind of spirits are the Seventh Holy Scripture from the Church and the Argon Coin possed by Medea.

Holy Spirits
Holy Spirits (聖霊) A class of higher-ranked spirits, not much is known about it other that Guardian Spirits can achieve this level.

Lower-class Spirits
下級霊 - Kakyuurei

Vague, generally formless existences that can only acquire definite identity by “possessing” an image.

Wraith
亡霊 - Bourei

Human spirits, souls of dead people that remain attached to this world due past grudges, regrets and other sorts of unfinished business that they had during life. As such, they tend to haunt places, items or people that are related to their unfinished business. Normally, direct physical intereference on the part of these ghosts are low. As spiritual body's they usually have to act through some sort of medium, by putting it under its domination, in order to conduct interference. However, as they are no longer something that belongs to this world, their existence is something that degrades with time and they are bound to disappear eventually.

But as they are Human Spirits they are able to consume the souls and minds of people and convert them into energy. The basic abilities they had from the time when they where alive still remain but they don't change from such nourishment, as they only become tougher and their magical energy capacity increases.

There is also an interesting relationship between Wraiths and Heroic Spirits. If a hero of fictitious origins is summoned by any reasons, a Wraith of an individual that possessed traits similar to that fictitious hero will be created to temporarily play his role. Such was the case of Sasaki Kojirou. However, it should be noted that all of the Hassan i Sabbah that qualified as Servants of the Assassin class per the uncorrupted rules of the Fuyuki Grail War are technically wraiths rather than Heroic Spirits.

The Dead Apostle Ancestor Stanrobe Calhin is referred as the first Wraith.

Apparition
浮遊霊 – Fuuyuurei

Also referred as leftover thoughts (残留思念), fragments of an already departed soul that gathered together to form an amorphous entity that is filled with nothing but the most primitive drive to live. A projection of someone’s past records which were stored in the surroundings. The traditional ghosts in the popular sense of the world, generally harmless as almost nobody can perceive them. Technically, they can still interact and even attempt to possess those with spiritual abilities, but as long as the target possess a strong ego they won’t be able to take over.

Examples include the spirits of the Fujou Building. The “fairies” controlled by Ouji Misaya and Len were made out of these kind of spirits.

Transcendent Kind
超越種 - Chouetsushu

In its narrow definition, the term Transcendent Kind (超越種) refers specifically to terminals separated and given form from out of the World itself as a defense against the resource-plundering actions of humans. Examples of such include Elementals, Divine Spirits, Fiendish Kind, True Ancestors, and Dragon Kind. Despite being anti-human in origin, the Counter Force of Alaya does not target these supernatural entities, as they are extensions of the world and mediators of nature before being enemies of humanity.

In a broader meaning, Transcendent Kind refers to sentient species whose very existence occurs on a different scale from humanity. The Dead Apostles qualify as "Transcendent Kind" under this definition. Strictly speaking, however, the narrow definition explained above is more accurate; and per its criterion, Dead Apostles would merely be "self-described" as Trancendents.