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You would need to do a lot of the work for this by yourselves, although Peter's and other people's background information will hopefully be useful.
In RQ3 I would have tended to retain the rules and other structures described in the Horned Man write up, but to replace the details with some local and other thematic content.
There is very little published information about Eol, and the only specific Eol shaman cult I know of to have been described with any detail at all are the Third Eye Blue people (unless someone can correct me).
It might be possible to extrapolate from there that the practises of shamanism in Eol are those of some sorts of Inner Senses allowing participation into otherworld magics. Having a great big eye tattooed onto your forehead may not be universal LOL ; but it could be seen as suggesting that strikingly prominent tattoos feature more strongly in their shamanism than elsewhere and that their magic involves some sort of magical senses.
Personally, I would probably go with describing Eol shamanism as being of the more internal and meditative and passive varieties, in that the senses are mostly passive elements of our beings, and that it seeks to use the spirits to foster the improvement of people's personal abilities and powers and possessions (one's own and those of others) rather than the flashier and more outwardly active Praxian methods.
Nurturing, Growth, and Empowerment then, and the corollary of this is that "evil" magicians in Eol would use the more destructive, active, and directly outward methods of magic.
I'm not at all sure what sort of male/female differences I would want, but they would be characterised by these same themes, and would bear in mind that men control more of the active and women more of the passive principles.
The suggestions of an elemental theme are excellent, and we also know that the Third Eye Blue have metal magic at their disposal. Perhaps the shamans of Eol view the world as being made of various different kinds of materials, so that there are shamans of fire, earth, metal, wood, flesh, weaponry, clothing, and other such basic elements of material wealth ? I say wealth, because a spirit is something that you either belong or belong to.
So, we would then have this theme of Inner Senses, as well as this theme of enhancing one's material possessions -- which strikes me as a good male/female distinction right there.
So the male shamanic traditions would concentrate then on empowering possessions and tools, and focus on Enchantment ; and the female ones more on growth and nurturing and the passive empowerment of body and spirit.
Of course, that would not be an absolute split, and each pathway would borrow from the other.
Looking at your idea of using elemental spirits, let's say fire as an example, I would see a typical fire shaman more concerned with say empowering people's hearth fires, or enchanting flaming arrows and swords and other weaponry, and generally imbuing things with fiery properties and magics rather than as blasting everything in sight with fireballs -- but that there are "evil" shamans that like to do just that, and no reason why some PC might not have such unusual magics at his disposal without necessarily being Evil LOL.
Does that sound at all helpful to what you have been contemplating for your game ?
The above is of course completely made up off the top of my head, and I would be grateful to learn any existing information that contradicted it, and you should just take it as suggestions :)
Julian Lord
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