In Kanamian culture, a totem represents the physical embodiment of the ancestral spirit. In the earliest days, the Kanamia Tribe was not a single people but a scattered collection of dozens of tribes across the untamed wilds. Each tribe had its own totem: some worshiped serpents, others wolves, boars, deer... there was even a tribe whose totem was a clay pot.
To the Kanamians, a totem signified the form in which the ancestral spirit once revealed itself to that tribe's leader, an act of divine recognition and validation.

Yet all Kanamians held one belief in common: there is but one ancestral spirit. According to the First Law of the Seven Laws, "All Souls Belong to One": the ancestral spirit manifests in many forms. The way it appears depends on the capacity of each tribe to receive its presence. The spirit is everything.
This led to tensions. Tribes began to accuse one another of lacking spiritual insight, arguing over whose totem was the "truer" form of the ancestral spirit. Clashes erupted... until, in time, the wolf totem tribe emerged dominant.

However, this victorious tribe proved to be remarkably inclusive. They allowed others to keep their totems. Thus, the Kanamia finally became what they had always aspired to be-all souls belong to one.