The Spiritual Familiar System

The Spiritual Familiar System is a branch of Magic that deals with tying oneself with a mythical creature in order to temper and control one's Spiritual Magic and deepen and strengthen one's connection to the Spiritual World. It's unique to the Eastern Magical World and is most notably practiced by the East Asian School of Magic.

The Spiritual Familiar System is a mutualistic symbiotic relationship between a witch/wizard (Magus) and a mythical creature (Familiar). The Magus is helped by the Familiar to be more in tune with the Spiritual aspects of Magic while the Magus acts as the Familiar's anchor to the physical world. A witch or wizard aspiring to have a Familiar should not expect to get one right off the bat. They have to create and nurture a psycho-emotional bond between themselves and their intended Familiar before they can undergo the spiritual bonding ritual, meaning the Magus and Familiar need to have a bond forged by large amounts of trust and devotion to each other. Forced spiritual bonds are looked down upon by society and is viewed to be a grave sin punishable by death.

Most of the time, the SMFS is traditionally between one Magus and one Familiar only but it's possible for it to be between several Magus and Familiars, whether it's a Magus with several Familiars or a Familiar with several Magus or even a group of Magus and Familiars sharing each other, although those that differ from the traditional pairing are very, very rare, as the system requires a deep psycho-emotional bond between everyone involved. The spiritual bond is physically represented by a special tattoo and a 'treasure', and spiritually by a golden string around their pinkies.

The Ritual
The ritual is to be performed when the pair believe that they are ready and when they are recommended to the High Magic Council for it. It's held traditionally in a temple of *insert deity here* and overseen by the Council and each of the pair's family. During the ritual, they are required to say the oath out loud while a Council member casts the spell that would bind their souls to each other. Afterwards, they exchange the 'treasure' they prepared for each other. If their bond was seen as sufficient by the overseeing mythical creatures, the former would then make the spiritual golden string appear and tie it around the pair's pinkies. The string would then disappear as the pair's representing tattoos appear on each other. Once the tattoos have formed, the ritual is considered complete and the pair are now officially in a Spiritual Familiar System.