What is your opinion on spirit shops? For those who don't know, a spirit shop is a place where you can pay money and have a spirit bound to a vessel shipped to you to be a spirit companion. Some believe this is safer than trying to conjure a spirit on your own, but some also believe that this is unethical to the spirits, some even believe they are full on frauds. Another common "issue"with spirit shops that is brought up is that the people running them don't spend enough time with the spirit before selling them. This has been supported as some people have received dangerous spirits, or spirits who are not what the shop listed them as.
As a conjurer, I don't believe I could ever charge money for a spirit who i've spent months working with, only to send them off to a person I don't know. I probably am a bit biased as the one spirit shop I did interact with was very rude to me and when questioned about the strength of their wards, blocked me and called me an idiot within their discord chat.
But, what are your guy's opinions on spirit shops? Do you think they're unethical? Have you ever bought a spirit from a spirit shop? What was your experience?
It is my opinion, which probably contradicts many other opinions, that spirits cannot be bound to any item permanantly, and would only do so if it was in their best interests to do so. I.e. they had an offering, an agreement, or they had been threatened (which happens in some schools of thought)- again what sort of threatened being would do a good job?
I would imagine most of the people selling such items are frauds, how are their consumers going to be able to tell. Even if they are psychic or have some degree of perception the seller could just say that they don't have enough psychic ability to sense the spirit.
I would never buy a spirit, I don't think one can. I work with spirits of all kinds, I make offerings, I ask for advice and I ask for help. I give something back in return, that is a polite method. Forcing a being to do your bidding and claiming to imprison them into an object is akin to slavery.
While I'm not personally opposed to binding and enthralling, I still take issue with this. If someone feels the need to buy a spirit, they are most like inexperienced and with not be able to put down a malicious spirit. Once bound, a spirit is bound to the person that cast the bind. They're under no obligation to obey anyone else, and so far from their masters and likely under a weak spell to begin with, once they're released they're going to be unhappy even if they aren't inherently malicious. Some will just straight up leave immediately, others may feel inclined to punish whomever they first lay eyes on. I would wager, more often than not, that they buyer receives an empty vessel anyway. Honestly, it's not much better than they deserve, and possibly much better than getting a malevolent spirit. People ought to do research before making impulsive decisions. Whatever the case, they get what they paid for. It should be a lesson to them to exercise patience, rather than seeking immediate gratification.
I have heard of 'shops' that don't require you to pay money to 'adopt' a spirit; unless you want to custom adopt. I don't really know a whole lot about them so this is only what I've heard and seen.
