Shamanism

Shamanism 
Both the haunted and shamans can be classified as waking dreamers, those capable of perceiving spirits in their true forms without being asleep, the big difference is a matter of focus. 

The haunted communicate with the departed and focus their eyes towards the veil. Shamans focus on the present world and learn to perceive the tree of life. Even dreamers rarely perceive the tree, barely catching just a flicker of green out of the corner of their eye. Sometimes they try to catch this flicker, but they're inevitably become lost in the strange labyrinth of desires and fears that make up the land of dreams. 

A shaman learns to find one of the Tonah, who are instinctively aware of the tree and bind to that animal to widen their own perceptions. Once they have endured this process, they suddenly became inundated with new awareness as the tree is everywhere. The legendary absent-mindedness of their vocation is because their senses are so often buoyed by the branches to the highest canopy or chase the rabbit down to the deepest root. 

The tree was born at the conception event of the entire universe. The tree grew with every action of creation, slowly tieing the entire world together with the growing fabric of sympathy. While associations may be far disparate now, the shaman understands that they were once all the same in the primeval time before the genesis of form. 

The tree has begun to wither due to the predation of demons and the weakening of the watchwall wherein its roots entwine. Arcane magic can even be used to warp it and prune it, destroying connections or creating ones that never existed before. If someone does not put a stop to this, the tree will eventually collapse under its own weight and all of Voyrune will be dragged into abyssal nonexistence.

While the shaman maintains the ability to perceive the dead, and will often seek their advice, their focus is more temporal. The balance of forces and the health of the tree is the most important duty that a mindful student of the Tonah can follow. 

Their most important allies are the Tonah, the spiritual essences of the natural world. Through these beings connections with the elements of nature, the shaman can exercise control over the elements. Still: a shamans role is not as a master but as a guide; he does not not wrench control of fire, nor bend tree with force alone, instead he asks and reaches out his hand to assist.