Spirit

Spirit was a term used for a variety of distinct but related concepts, creatures and types of being.

Spirits of the Living and the Dead
"If anything, our souls are more free after death, transcending planar barriers in search of a resting place that best befits our deeds, beliefs, and station in life."

- Iosefa Elgin, in an excerpt from Metatext: Rebound.

In everyday language, "having spirit" meant possessing a lively temperament.

On a deeper level, the spirit was the animating lifeforce of a being, often equated with the soul.

If the body of an inhabitant of the Realms died, their spirit usually moved on to become a petitioner of their respective deity, or, in the case of unbelievers, one of the False or the Faithless. Sometimes a curse, the tragic importance of some unfinished business, a will of extreme evil or good, or necromantic magic interfered with this course of events, causing the spirit to remain on Toril and become an undead creature.

In Mulhorand, the Church of Osiris believed that people had two spirits within their bodies, known as ba and ka. The former was said to remain in a mortal's body when it died, while the latter moved on to be judged by Osiris.

Nature Spirits
The environment was populated with a near-infinite variety of creatures and forces with a close connection to nature, also often collectively called spirits. Among these were counted the races of the dryads and nymphs. Nature spirits, also called primal spirits, were considered to be the most powerful and reclusive of spirits that shamans, druids, and barbarians could contact.

The Nine Trickster Gods of Omu were also considered primal spirits in the jungles of Chult.

The land of Rashemen was also host to a great deal of nature spirits, such as the telthor, thomil, uthraki, and strongest of all the wood man.

Next to the spirit of each physical part of nature, green elves revered a number of god-like wilderness spirits, most important among them Bear, Coyote, Eagle, Raven, Snake, and Wolf.

Spirits of Kara-Tur
On the continent of Kara-Tur spirits called kami, or sometimes nature gods, represented all aspects of nature and the elements as well as personifying places. They (together with other beings like oriental dragons) were organized in a great hierarchy called the Celestial Bureaucracy. Consequently, the plane paralleling the lands of Kara-Tur they resided in was named the Spirit World, and the language of the Celestial Court was also called the Spirit Tongue.

Related were several races that sprang from the union of spirits and humans, like hengeyokai and spirit folk.

The eastern continent also had its share of undead spirits: They were condemned to their status by the Lords of Karma. They were shut up in the Underworld during the day, and terrorized the lands of the living by night. Among them were counted the bajang, bisan, gaki, chu-u, con-tinh, and kuei.

Despite the name, spirit creatures were not necessarily incorporeal; many had flesh and blood.