Actually there is something that might be useful. A few things.

First off, the common knowledge of each race. And then relations between races. Might help with getting into character if we know what our characters might know or believe of other races. What they might have grown up knowing of other races. It could be useful information, particularly with regards to Phelan and especially Willa.

    This is a quick and dirty post about the Grimm which I will clean up over the next week.  I'll bump the thread and post a comment in the OOC thread when I have rewritten this entry.  Part of what I write here will also be reflected in the Cult of the Grimm entry under Religions and Philosophies section in the Ancerenth Character Creation Book.

  To begin any discussion of the Grimm we first need to talk about the Underworld, the Spirit Realm and Arcana as these three are connected.  Spirit is as much a state as it is a plane of existence, most all things that we think of as being things (and not being things like void) has a spirit in some form or to some degree.  Spirit is more enduring then matter yet less tangible as a result alchemists tend to liken Spirit as unto a liquid, something one can hold but never truly grasp.  This endurance can be seen in the lingering of a spirit of a thing after its corporeal form has been lost or destroyed.  Spirits can intermingle or overlap as oil and water but cannot readily mix thus even when a spirit “possess” another it can be undone if one is careful and clever with no harm to either spirit.
  Due to this curious nature the Spirit Realm it can easily overlap with the Material Universe especially at holy places (particularly altars), consecrated spaces or areas host to plentiful or a power spirit(s) often causes a sort of “bleeding” between the planes resulting in more direct and sometimes dangerous interactions with entities from both realms as effects which are minor in their interactions normally suddenly become magnified.  Particularly of note is the disruptive effect of purified metals on spirits, highly concentrated and pure metallic objects (such as a well forged steel sword) can harm a spirit as well as it would harm a man.  Though it often requires a metallic mass equal to or larger than the volume of the spirit to actually disperse it entirely (this effectively destroys the spirit) other factors such as energy density may also play a role as more powerful spirits are not so easily disrupted and require higher or more exotic metals to cause them harm.  Of course there are a few metals which do not possess this disruptive effect and others which can trap a spirit within a container made of the metal or within the metal itself of particular note in this regard would be silver (through which a spirit cannot readily pass) and gold (which draws a spirit into itself).

  A distinctly different plane of existence but very much still a spiritual realm is the Underworld (the existence from which the Elementals spring is quiet similar to the Underworld in this regard) and it is the most direct metaphysical border between the Spiritual Realms and the Material Universe.  All departed spirits are drawn to this place by some call or other, it is not very well understood what or who or even how this call functions beyond the simplest fact that the longer one is dead the stronger the call becomes to the point where one feels pulled or compelled to go there.
  Unbound spirits (spirits who were not created, conceived or born with a physical form of some kind) are uneasy within the Underworld and feel a dread and revulsion to the realm they are unable to place or explain venturing further into the Underworld they find that this sensation becomes stronger and stronger until they flee in fear of it.
  Though the Underworld is a vast, seemingly endless wasteland there are settlements within it.  Created by the inhabitants these settlements are curiosities in and of themselves mostly created for the sake of community the majority of those commonly known to the departed are those nearest the borders of the Underworld and the physical world though others along different borders for other reasons.  More curious structures can be found deeper into the Underworld such as the libraries of the Watchers (beings who collect the knowledge and histories of the living), the terrifying fortresses of the Phantoms (departed spirits who reject the path of the dead), the wandering vaults of the Keepers (creatures who collect curious deceased individuals for their own collections) and other stranger still.
  There is no single ruler or governing body of the Underworld there are simply loosely allied domains and territories claimed by the various beings that inhabit the strange lands of the dead.  The most prominent of these are the so called Lords of the Underworld a very, very loose council of the most ancient and/or powerful factions of beings in the Underworld.  This council was supposedly formed after a terrible and almost forgotten war between the various gatherings of the dead over one simple thing.  The ways in which the dead could and should interact with the living.
  The Phantoms championed the notion that the living should benefit from the wisdom and experience and the power of the dead.  While the Grimm sanctioned that such interaction should be limited and that the material world and all therein was the concern of the living not the dead.  Eventually the Grimm won a bitter victory over their rivals and have maintained an uneasy peace ever since.

  Wandering the Wastes of the Underworld is a tricky thing as all such wanderings lead to the circle of death, the stones of judgement, the gate of the dead or the pit of transmigration.  Whatever one chooses to call it there is a structure at what some believe to be the centre of the Underworld yet geometry is a very different beast in the spirit world then it is the physical world and one cannot reach the end (as is another name for the gateway of the beyond) by merely planning a route upon a map of the Underworld (which is an entire subject unto itself) as the gateway appears only under three circumstances; the first is upon the moment of death when some part of the spirit summons the gateway and thereafter departs through it, the second is when one has made the journey called the path of the dead (often also known as the final rites, a series of deeply personal spiritual trials by which one is said to shed all earthly ties and even identity to become the true self or some such philosophical thingy or other) and thereby find the gate and pass through it, finally there is the use of magic which can conjure the gate of the dead as one would summon any other spirit though this is done at the conjurer’s peril as there is a harrowing which can in and of itself injure or even slay the spellcaster.  Though this harrowing can be eased with the aid of a powerful resident of the Undeworld, compacts with the Grimm are often made for this purpose.

  These compacts are simply promises which societies (usually those who can wield magic) make in accordance to the laws for interactions between the living and the dead as set out by the Grimm.  Specifically limiting and outright forbidding forms of Necrothaumaturgy as related to the abjuration, binding, compulsion, conjuration, communication and evocation of the dead.

  The Grimm themselves often appear as small quadruped creatures (sometimes likened to the bodies of living creatures such as cats, dogs, horses and the like) which appears to have been skinned (though this is not always their appearance) with Etheric writings, arcane sigils and diagrams often being present as tattoos or brands upon their flesh or skin.  Furthermore their faces or the entire head is often concealed or covered by a stylized, pale mask (usually white though faint colours are not uncommon) with the eyes being the only openings.  More powerful grim have one or both eyes sown shut with open eyes often appearing as radiant pools of light amidst the eye of a fierce storm.  Their eyes appear to be crying blood though no such fluid reaches the ground or pools beneath them.

  Arcane power, magic as scholars think of it, is strongly related to the spiritual realm and seems to spring from it yet is not limited to that plane or entirely subject to its laws.  Magic almost entirely seems to defy any attempt to directly quantify it or if one would try to create a single description of it, it would finds some way to subvert that description thus causing many an academician a never-ending headache.  It is often easier to view magic as part of larger hierarchy of the supernatural powers to understand what the power is most spellcasters draw upon when they cast their spells.
  At the top there is Divine power which is transcendent magic, far beyond any reason we can conceive of.  Therefrom follows Psionic power which is the magic of thoughts, ideas, consciousness and the mind itself and information.  Thereafter lies Arcane power which is feeling, sensation and emotion and the power thereof.  Finally there is Primal power which is the expressions of reality and the elements.