Other Literature Lore no one asked for [WIP]

[Banana_=P]

Welcome, one and all, to just another lore thread. Because I have a bunch of lore relating to stuff I'm using in RP's - some of which is also involved in a book series I’m writing. Not really writing right now, but it’s a project I have - and I want to share it here. Because.

Anyway, I have put a lot here. Just a warning.

Spoiler: Arth

Balance

My original lore world. It’s more or less Earth, with a few geographical differences due to the Great Cataclysm. Oh, and it's run by shifters now, not humans. Should probably discuss those guys first and foremost...

Spoiler: What a shifter is

Capabilities:

As the name implies, shifters are beings capable of shapeshifting.​

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Using cell-sized enzymes to catalyse the process of mitosis and general cellular activity (so that things like feathers are made very quickly), they can make their cells replicate very rapidly at will, not only providing the necessary biomass for larger forms, but also leading to extremely powerful regeneration. In fact, shifters could, theoretically, regenerate from just one cell. It's not a 100% reliable trick, though.​

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Using magic, they can rapidly decompose unneeded cells.​

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These together provide the backbone of their shapeshifting ability.​

Trivia time: Shifters usually turn into a ball of slime as a transition form before turning into another form. Doing things like turning from a cat straight into a bird is possible, but less comfortable and more jolting for the shifter, who may experience discomfort as they are forced to adjust more rapidly to their new form.

The appendix:

The organ integral to a shifter's ability to shapeshift, by way of providing the necessary large amounts of energy and, as a sidenote, the biologically impossible material shifters may use in their forms.​

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Unlike the seemingly useless tube thing under your average human being's large intestine, a shifter's appendix is more balloon shaped, and larger. It's used to store all things ingested in a shifter's body that isn't digested (which would be less than a human's, due to evolved digestive systems).​

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A shifter's appendix is also a source of great magic. After all, a lot of magic is going to be needed to:​

A) Store the matter that goes in a shifter's body that isn't food and ensure nothing harmful on it spreads by converting it into their more compressible magic forms.​

B) Convert some of said stored matter into large heaps of energy in the form of ADP (Adenosine Duodecaphosphate) (Like ATP, but it provides more energy) in a process not unlike matter annihilation.​

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The matter stored here, when not being used for energy, is usually used to provide the materials for a shifter's body that isn't biologically possible. So, they'd need to ingest steel before they can make themselves a steel sword arm. The metal must come from somewhere.​

Yes this science is 100% accurate. Though, it is very much open to corrections and amendments, I'm really not an expert on this stuff.

Specialty:

Virtually all shifters, even those who literally cannot do magic because of their genes, have some sort of a 'relationship' with magic as a whole, which culminates in a single spell. A shifter's specialty is the culmination of said relationship, birthed from amongst a shifter's first experiences with using magic (or just born from the passage of time as it develops).​

However, how this specialty manifests varies in subtlety and specificity, and all fall into one of 3 archetypes in terms of their general power progression. For some, it's a 10-second, single effect spell, while for others it's more of a super-power type thing that allows you to Switch objects around or make anything you touch bouncy.​

[Just gonna fix this up in the future...]​

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Spoiler: Xitering

Xitering:

Xiter. Portugese for cheater.​

Xiter forms are forms wherein a shifter is at the pinnacle of their potential power, with enhanced magic capability, specialty, strength, and speed.​

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It is the result of a shifter possessing the correct soul characteristic, a white streak on their soul known as Hope: the potential to achieve, at least temporarily, a perfect state of balance between consciousness and unconsciousness, instinct and technique, emotionality and rationality, as they 'let go' and let their forms and power flourish.​

This Hope never occurs naturally. A shifter will have to develop this characteristic in order to be able to xiter, usually through some sort of ‘inciting event’. There isn’t really an official name for this development, however, as the nature of the event itself varies from individual to individual. It could be the unearthing of a lie, the making of a choice to embrace a fundamental part of oneself, etc..​

However, it is possible for one to be unaware that they can actually xiter, having developed the characteristic they need without really knowing it during the course of their life.​

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On average, Xiters possess power comparable to that of Super Sonic (particularly his Frontiers depiction). Capable of strength that can punch humongous holes in mountains, speed that can cause massive sonic booms, and seemingly insurmountable defence… just one of these is a force to be reckoned with. Although, as consequence, their magic consumption is extremely high. Similar to our favourite golden hedgehog, these forms last only for a limited time. The bigger and stronger the attacks and magic tricks they put out are, the less magic they have left, and the less time they have to maintain their xiter form. And running out of magic to use is always bad news for a shifter.​

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However, xiters, with training, can, in the best case scenario, become strong enough to be able to take on 3 average-level xiters. They can also maintain their xiter forms for longer, since their bodies become better able to produce enough magic to at least somewhat offset their insane magic consumption.​

Spoiler: Fusions

Fusion (verb): The combination of at least two organisms, at least one of which is a shifter, into one being. Biologically combined, mind and soul coexisting in the same body, as one.

Integration: When the bodies fuse into one and the souls and minds are “introduced” to each other, coming into contact and being able to interact with each other.

Factor: An organism used in the creation of a Fusion.

Fusion (noun): The colloquial term used to refer to the result of a fusion.

These are naturally stronger than your average shifter, actually capable of developing abilities comparable to that of xiters.​

This is due, in part, to the integrated minds (which, if they work together, can more than double the fusion’s mental capacity), souls (something about interaction), and, most notably, bodies.​

You see, a shifter’s magic ability is technically derived from the soul, in turn linked to the Alpha chromosomes in each of their cells. This is where the shifter’s magic enzymes are synthesised from, macro-enzymes that assemble outside of the cell to create pushing and pulling effects on the magic in the surrounding environment. These are difficult for the body to produce, since its mere synthesis is dependent less on biological factors such as metabolism and availability of nutrients and more on a certain “clock” determined by the soul. This translates into the shifter not being able to create more “magic enzymes” at a whim, such as when they grow in form size. However, in fusion, the magic enzymes of both shifters are integrated, added to each other, resulting in a net benefit of double the magic power at minimum, since a shifter’s magic power and control are proportional to the concentration of magic enzymes within their bodies.​

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The personalities involved with the Factors do overlap to some extent in the main body outwardly, though the personalities are largely separate, able to converse with each other and “take over”, changing up the fusion’s behaviour.​

Resolution (noun): When the souls and minds begin to…merge, due to being in contact with each other for too long without a mental interface barrier.

The consciousnesses within the fusion begin to lose sight of themselves if kept together as a fusion for long enough, in a process known as “resolving”, since fusions are initially naturally unstable in terms of mental state and soul, since organics tend to be accustomed to having only one mind and soul in their body. Should this process be allowed to complete, the souls and minds do become one, typically resulting in a Shattering due to the two consciousnesses and their overlapping, possibly conflicting thought patterns and feelings and memories trying to be stabilised as one.​

Such a being is referred to as a Resolved Fusion, or an RF, for short. Their magical power is boosted beyond the baseline power of a fusion as a result due to the removal of conflict between the two minds, resulting in just double the mental capacity and soul energy that makes their magic enzymes in general more potent. Those with Shattered minds, unfortunately, are also essentially feral, insane animals incapable of reason, following, for some odd reason, an intense desire to eviscerate everything around them.​

Spoiler: The Specifics of Shifting

Specifics of shifting:

Shifting: The act of changing one’s physical form.​

This process can actually be surprisingly difficult, due to two main things.​

• One’s DNA must be modified to make certain forms work by introducing new organs and systems
• Shifters also require high precision with what specialised cell each of their cells is turned into, to ensure every cell is what it needs to be. The reason shifters often work out instead of just shifting into a stronger form is because it’s far easier to provide themselves with the potential to become stronger rather than giving them the strength they desire in the first place, because of what makes people actually strong [gonna put in the science later].

Thankfully, much of this is done purely instinctually. Nonetheless, the finer details of shifting have to be better understood if a shifter were ever to wish to become skilled in the art of shapeshifting - this actually is a profession on Arth, and is quite desirable in Arth’s entertainment industry.​

For a shifter’s form to be ‘sustainable’, in which they can still shift into others, the form itself usually has to meet 3 requirements, at the bare minimum, in terms of what their form possesses.​

• A thinker: What humans would refer to as the brain, which houses the shifter’s higher mental faculties such as thoughts and feelings.
• A beater: What humans would refer to as the heart, despite this term being a catch-all term for all organs that act as a more sustainable source of energy for the shifter.
• An appendix: Of course, the main organ that grants shifters energy in high bursts for whenever they want to shift, and the one that houses biologically impossible material for use in a shifter’s forms.

Of course, there often are various other things shifters use, such as the various sense organs shifters use to actually perceive their surroundings, but a shifter does not necessarily need them, per se.​

Due to how difficult shifting can be, shifters often draw up things known as 'Bioprints', which detail what their forms look like, and what its features include, in advance before practicing changing into that form. Bioprints are much like blueprints, except for *often* biological constructs. This is mostly just to help get it into their muscle memory though; the bioprints aren't necessary for them afterwards.​

Mistakes are inevitable with those unexperienced with shifting, after all. Though, as a shifter grows, they usually find basic forms easier than more complex forms.​

To assist in designing a shifter’s form, shifters have defined a few basic form types.​

Some of them are as follows:​

Humanoid: One of the simplest forms to take on, though a tad deceptively complex in terms of the organs often included in it.​

Pros:​

• Average agility (agility varies somewhat in direct proportionality with height, though the taller one is, the bigger of a target they are)
• Dextrous, can use many tools with ease

Cons:​

• Low mobility options without tools
• Somewhat low defence

Draconic: A popular form type because… dragons are cool, to be honest.​

Pros:​

• High defence with scales
• Often strong
• Somewhat good mobility if wings are used, though they can never be as fast as an avian.
• More agile without scales.

Cons:​

• Their magic ability is more diminished than other forms.
• Not very agile with scales
• Somewhat fragile without scales.

Avian: Another popular form type. As shifters are commonly thought of as an evolution of humans (how accurate that actually is is debatable), it is thought they inherited humanity’s desire to take to the skies without the use of machines or tools.​

True avian: When a shifter makes themselves look literally like a bird. They often rely on their beaks and taloned feet to grab stuff.​

Pros:​

• High mobility and agility

Cons:​

• Awful defence - easily shattered bones because they have to be hollow to allow flight
• Mediocre dexterity

Anthropomorphic avian: Anthropomorphic birds. Can carry stuff with their wing arms (Prehensile feathers. Something like that), making them more dextrous.​

Pros:​

• High mobility
• Decently high agility, does not match true avian

Cons:​

• Awful defence - same reason as true avian

Octopus: Not exactly as popular, but well known for its many arms​

Pros:​

• Extremely dextrous

Cons:​

• Very hefty arms to carry around
• Requires some getting used to to get the most out of this form

Now for possibly the most important event in all of Arth's lore:

Spoiler: The Great Cataclysm

A big war between shifters and humans. Long story short, it was a drawn out, but ultimately curb-stomp conflict in the shifters' favour, which made humanity *virtually* extinct.
(Potential trigger warning. War, you know? Just saying…)

Now to elaborate.

Context:

The year is 2125. Earth's fossil fuel stores have been depleted. Humanity now relies entirely on biofuels to maintain their way of life, sacrificing animals and plants to keep their cars running and their lights on. Attempts to terraform Mars have stalled, due to no inventions being made that makes it practical to make planets like Mars habitable. All the while, the Earth continues to die. There was much social tension over this fact.​

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Around this time, a new race had been discovered, known as "shifters", who have apparently been living either amongst humanity or in secret for quite some time. The discovery was made when a man was found to have survived being crushed by a stray falling boulder after single-handedly, with magic, managing to stop a mine from caving in. He turned into a lizard man after regenerating on the side (he was still identified as the same man due to the remains of his clothes and DNA analysis).​

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For some time, this race had been actively campaigning for humans to change their ways in an attempt to protect the world.​

It started first with a massive message written in seaweed in the Pacific ocean, visible from space, which simply read: "STOP KILLING THE EARTH". Then the smaller acts of vandalism started, with messages written on the walls, generally relating to various things humanity should be doing to help the earth, such as continuing research in green energy sources... when it wasn't something along the lines of "no more cars for you", and cars being totalled. Then the armed hold-ups started. Not at banks, but in public spaces and world landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower. The shifters there held speeches during said hold-ups, telling humanity they must change their ways.​

For a bit less time, some shifters have also been showing up individually or in small groups, making their own efforts to cleanse the world. One shifter was found sucking the CO2 out of the air and into a bunch of canisters on top of the Empire State Building. Another group was found fishing up plastic from the ocean. By controlling the tides. The first shifter found to be doing such a thing was captured, as was an entire group later on, for 'scientific research'. Then, the rest began to bolt immediately upon discovery, by teleportation, swimming, flying, or simply running.​

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Humans experimented on the shifters they had managed to capture, testing out this strange new chemical they'd managed to create, with the help of a strange white substance: Chemical XFOS. It seemed to be one of the only things capable of killing shifters, besides using enough firepower to atomise at least their whole body, and then some, with their insanely powerful regeneration. Chemical XFOS worked by messing with a shifter's unique enzymes, making them incapable of regenerating.​

Chemical XFOS was also found to be capable of nullifying all magic phenomena around itself. This made chemical XFOS extremely useful as an anti-magic field producer... although it didn't seem to have as much of an effect on a shifter's magic unless impractically high concentrations were to be somehow introduced into their system.​

How it started:

One day, humanity decided enough was enough. Humanity started the war for various reasons. Interest in studying and perhaps replicating the shifters' capabilities - their insanely powerful regeneration, their ability to shapeshift and do magic - economy and innovation stimulation, uniting the people against a common enemy so that they'd forget about their problems, and fear of what could happen if they didn't attack now. After all, what comes after armed hold ups? Killing. What comes after killing? Mass killing. War seemed inevitable.​

Besides. Chemical XFOS was a thing now, and the humans felt they would be able to use chemical XFOS to win the war.​

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Collectively, all the world powers joined up to form the world's biggest military coalition. Their goal? Kill / capture all shifters. It started first with building several shelters and housing for people near several of humanity's largest cities, and fortifying them, turning them into very imposing fortresses. After all, humanity will need to be far more packed in instead of spread out to minimise human casualties for the incoming storm. Then, several military bases of operation, and bunkers, were put up, the former for humanity's imminent offensive on shifterkind and the latter for war logistics, such as war machine production, innovation, and shifter containment.​

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The first act of war, on March 14th, 2125, following humanity's declaration of war, was to fire a hydrogen bomb at the first shifter base of operations humans had managed to find, with lots of espionage and investigation. It was underwater, fortunately, deep in the Pacific Ocean. It was a sign humanity was not messing around. It was just a shame there were no shifter casualties, thanks in part to portals and teleportation.​

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Then, the world entered an entire two months of silence. Shifters rallied, although they were few and far between, and mass teleportation just to rally was impractical at the time. A few groups of thousands were amassed, along with several other groups of hundreds, but during that time, humanity managed to evacuate most of their civilians to their fortresses.​

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It was around this point that some witches and wizards came out of hiding.​

Many of them sided with humanity, giving them more time to do what they needed to do, and assisting them where they could.​

However, others sided with the shifters, choosing instead to herald the people of a new era.​

The next act in the fight, two months later, was a huge espionage move. Several shifter spies in the human ranks had managed to sabotage pretty much all of humanity's most destructive weapons. That meant their thermonuclear warheads and their laser-shooting space stations. Shifterkind then followed this up with a rapid barrage of magic-based alpha strikes, meant to level all of humanity's fortresses and deal a decisive blow to humanity, leaving only the rather spread out military bases and bunkers to deal with. Such alpha strikes were comprised of things like meteor storms, lightning barrages, and several boulder flurries.​

But that wasn't how it went. Humanity unveiled a secret trump card they'd managed to keep secret, and that was forcefield technology. It protected humanity's fortresses, military bases of operation, and bunkers with their surprisingly high defence, enough to protect them from long range magic alpha strikes.​

They also bolstered their security, managing to work out how to weed out shifters from their ranks before they could do any more damage. Turned out, they revealed their original, non-human form if they were simply told to "show their real form". It seemed there was a contraption in their bodies called an identifier that forced them to do so. And it wasn't exactly easy to remove.​

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Shifters, of course, had stronger magic attacks; earthquakes and hurling a moon at said fortresses were two such options the shifters had to penetrate humanity's fortress forcefields. Fortunately for humanity, the shifters cared about the world. They did not wish to inflict more collateral damage than necessary. So, they changed their tactics, and chose to fight the long fight.​

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Shifters, themselves, had their own reasons to fight. Humanity had been killing the earth. First they constantly burnt fossil fuels which cooked the earth alive, and now they're sacrificing animals and plants just to keep their way of life. To top it all off, humanity didn't even let them help the earth before it was too late. The shifters feared what would happen if they didn't go through with this war. So... they felt they had to fight. To change the world order. To topple the people perpetuating the world's destruction, and save it.​

The war itself:

Shifter progression against humanity was slow. Sure, they won basically every fight against humanity, with heavy casualties on man's side, but every fight man took to the shifters was time wasted taking out people that just. Wouldn't. Stop. Coming.​

The shifters had to attack humanity's bunkers and bases first, as humanity was able to put up XFOS anti-magic field towers all over their fortresses and bunkers and military bases, hence preventing teleportation inside. Their forcefields had to be taken down.​

The smaller ones around the bases and bunkers were easily taken down with organised mini-alpha strikes. Fortunately, inside these bases and bunkers were most of the generators that powered the larger forcefields around the fortresses. So, the shifters just had to take enough of these bunkers and bases in order to purge the fortresses.​

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Slowly but surely, over the course of a few months, and then a year, the shifters started to win the war. As it turned out, humanity seemed to have only managed to develop one readily usable weapon from chemical XFOS: XFOS bullets. As it turned out, XFOS refused to be bonded to anything larger than a bullet. It couldn't be used to power a laser.​

To make things worse for humanity, the XFOS bullets could hardly be distributed readily. That wasn't always the case, but then the shifters had managed to sabotage too many XFOS bullet production facilities and lock down most of the transport routes for the bullets that made it out of said facilities.​

Innovation of other XFOS applications were stifled by shifters literally slaughtering the scientists doing the innovating in the bunkers.​

At first, the shifters spared the children and civilians, simply capturing them. The shifters had no reason to kill them. They were just gears in the system. The shifters were after the source of humanity's folly.​

But then, the debates started.​

"Wouldn't it be kinder to kill them? They've witnessed so much death..."​

"The children will grow one day. Then they'll rise against us."​

Here encapsulates some of the main reasons why things changed.​

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If humanity's flaw were to be its aversion to extreme ideas, then shifterkind's flaw would be its willingness to embrace them. "Either finish the job, or do nothing at all. Never leave something half done."​

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And so the shifters' prisons went quiet. Quiet and cold.​

The bodies to be thrown in random ditches.​

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The shifters took no more prisoners during the Great Cataclysm.​

Cataclysm:

Then, the final human military base fell. Another set of alpha strikes later, and the human fortress forcefields went down.​

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However... humanity was not going down without a fight. It had turned out everyone in the fortresses, with the help of the witches and wizards on their side, had worked together to get several gigantic war machines up and ready for deployment, while evacuating themselves underground.​

A few massive air ships, some tanks, some of which were equipped with drills, a few mechas, and several platoons of soldiers in exosuits emerged from beneath the fortresses, ready for one final offensive on shifterkind. All of these were equipped with another XFOS weapon humanity apparently was able to create: XFOS bombs and missiles. Apparently, they had stored up quite a lot of XFOS for this after the shifters had won too many battles against humanity, and it seemed as if humanity would have to go on the defensive.​

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This caught the shifters off-guard, with shifterkind actually drawing many casualties, for once. The bigger machines were also protected with forcefields as strong as the very ones that protected the fortresses. They were powered from within, as well. For a moment, humanity had the upper hand.​

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But then the shifters retaliated. Enough was enough. Nothing else would break through the forcefields of the machines but even stronger spells and attacks, and, evidently, nothing was going to be able to teleport through.​

The collateral damage didn't even matter anyway; if nothing was done, the machines would run rampant, crushing everything in their path in order to wipe out the shifters. Life on earth was going to die.​

So the shifters counterattacked. They created earthquakes, raised tides, conjured hurricanes, and made volcanoes erupt, causing all kinds of natural disasters. They sent those of them experienced with Aereas forms (forms about as big as kaiju, like Godzilla), and even caused a total solar eclipse (which blotted out the sun completely) and a few moon collisions here and there, to deal with the largest machines.​

It was chaos, and also something of a wonder to witness.​

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This day, on which the war ended, on which humanity went virtually extinct, would come to be known as the Cataclysm.​

And how it was erased from history:

Then... came in the other voices.​

"We didn't give them a chance."​

"How could we?"​

"The shifter code..."​

In time, shifterkind became horrified by their actions.​

And lo, it was agreed that the Great Cataclysm would be erased from history. They would never speak of it again, to spare their children of the blood on their hands.​

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...It's a shame secrets like this could not be kept forever.​

Ahem. That's the history. Now for the important stuff. Starting with the magic system, because uh, I barely know what I’m doing in the culture and geography departments.

Spoiler: Magic

Fundamentals:

For starters, there is no mana. No internal source of magic.​

Magic, in fact, is actually more of an invisible, gas-like substance that permeates...everywhere, really. Like the Force, it powers all things magic, merely by shaping it in the correct ratios with respect to the types you use, being manipulatable as a gas, while being all but imperceptible to the non-magically enabled.​

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The only limits to what you can do, magically speaking, is what you know how to do, how much magic is present nearby and in what type, whether you can afford the other costs for more powerful spells, and, as a less important factor, how much energy you have. Shifters and other beings who do magic do so by shaping the magic around them, by secreting magic enzymes with unique magic fields that move the magic around them.​

This leads to such beings having stronger magic the closer they manipulate magic to themselves (Hence explaining why people make projectiles by them before launching them off. It also makes it more impractical for restraining type spells to be used on magic users, as similarly powered magic users would find themselves struggling against each other, with the restrainer needing to use all their focus to restrain while being near the restrainee).​

As a useful guideline for the kinds of things you can do, magic users can often turn on and off their 'magic sight', which allows them to perceive what magic is present around them.

Spoiler: Magic types

Hot magic: A red 'fog' that is used to move things around. It is the magic that gives objects thermal and kinetic energy, hence making it useful for moving projectiles and creating fire.

Cold magic: A blue 'mist' that is used to give objects more 'solidity'. Without it, magic objects would be about as frail as a wine glass. This makes it useful for creating shields and, for lack of a better word, more substantial objects.

Substance magic: Ethereal chunks of various colors and textures, this depending on what type of substance it is used to make (e.g. metal, food, water). As its name implies, this is used to actually make objects. Although, the properties and form it has depends on how much hot and cold magic is used to manifest it. For example, the more hot magic you use to manifest it, the more liquid-y it is. (Note: more hot magic still must be used to move manifested substances around)

Spoiler: Substance magic: A closer look

Here is a list of the more common substance magic types, named for what substance they are used to make. These can be mixed and matched to make other substances:

• Plasma magic: The magic you use to create plasma constructs, and fire. Commonly used in average-damaging plasma or burning, but slightly low damage fire spells.
  • Fire spells (fireballs, fire walls, etc.) counter ice spells, and (sometimes not, but still) air spells.
  • Plasma spells (lasers, ethereal constructs, etc.) counter earth spells.
• Earth magic: The umbrella term used for the magic used in various metals and rocks, and, as a less common application, substances such as dirt, gravel, and sand. Commonly used for fortification, building, and high-damage spells, but this takes longer to manifest.
  • Earth spells (rock spikes, wall drops, big thrown rocks, etc.) counter air spells and fire spells.
  • Grain spells (spraying sand or gravel or chunks of dirt) are also a thing. Though, there really isn't much offensive use for it (it's very useful for making soil for your gardens though), so it's very commonly modified. For example, the grains made in a dust spray spell may be given little spikes to stab your opponents with.
• Air magic: The least common solid magic, on account of a lot of air already being present on Arth. Used for more advanced, alright damaging air spells that are more useful for moving things around in your environment, opponent and projectiles included (simpler ones just need some hot magic, and are usually weak). Often comprised of various other gas magics (There exists a substance magic for just about every element in the periodic table. But they're very commonly found bonded together, just like real substances)
  • Air spells (tornadoes, cutting winds, etc.) counter weaker earth spells (especially the grain spells), and (sometimes) fire spells (by way of strengthening it so much it backfires).
  • Water magic: A derivative of air magic. Found naturally, but can also be created from mashing hydrogen and oxygen magic together. Very flexible. Can also be manifested as / frozen into ice, in order to behave more like earth spells (stabby ice included).
    • Water spells (water whips, water tentacles, etc.) counter fire spells
    • Ice spells (ice shields, icicles, etc.) counter earth spells.

Note: Shifters commonly learn spells involving all substance magics, so that they have a decent magic spell base, and then go off to specialise in at least one, or perhaps a few, substance magic(s). After all, manifesting these different substances require different methods, which translates into different feels required for mastery over them. Although, shifters do often learn spells outside of their chosen magic as utility spells or fallback spells in case their magic doesn't work in battle. Just because someone uses the correct counter spell against you doesn't mean they automatically win, though. Remember that.

Visible magic: A magic that starts off naturally bonded to solid magic, making manifested objects capable of reflecting light to make it visible. However, this sometimes manifests on its own as a thin ‘sheet’, and isolating it from solid is a whole different game. This magic is used to create illusions.
(More types coming soon.)

Spoiler: Miscellaneous things

Electric spells: A group of usually low damage, but stunning spells that doesn't really have its corresponding substance magic type, despite relating to another of the 'classic elements' (by that, I mean the classic 'fire, earth, water...'). Electric spells are achieved by simply using hot magic to make electrons on substances move around ("Electricity is just the flow of electrons"). If you need more electrons than are available in your surroundings, then you usually need look no further than manifesting another substance (literally anything will do, besides plasma-magic made stuff).

Electric spells (shocks, lightning bolts, electric balls, etc.) counter water magic.​

Void magic:

The creation of nothing, in the form of void pockets. This works with null magic, magic created after anti-magic spells are used.​

Void pockets require a constant flow of void magic to be maintained, otherwise they’d cease to exist as the matter around it consumes it. In places with no matter, such as space, only a little push of void magic is needed to create a lot of void pockets that can wreak havoc on anything inside.​

Void pockets can be used for both propulsion and obliteration of objects, both relating to the fact that matter tends to like filling in void pockets. A constant stream of magic is needed to maintain these, assuming the void pocket is made in an atmosphere. Only a little stream is needed to maintain a pocket, which will cool its surroundings as the thermal energy in the air is sucked out to lessen the air pressure and accomadate for the space the void pocket takes up. If you increase the stream a bit to a given region of the pocket, then the void pocket will repel itself in the opposite direction of that region. Increase the stream more, and instead, the void pocket will begin to obliterate matter that it comes into contact with.​

Vasts:

Powerful buff spells that massively buff a specific type of spell (one vast for each substance magic type, and then a few others; For example, the fiery vast for fire spells and the earth vast for earth spells) while also giving you a fun passive ability… at quite a few costs, including, in general, increased vulnerability to other spell types (e.g. water spells if you’re using the fire vast) and virtual inability to cast spells from other types.​

Each vast usually also has its own unique cost.​

For example, the fiery vast, which boosts fire spells as the name implies, makes the user ‘burn out’, getting significantly weaker, if they cast too many spells too rapidly. However, after they finish being ‘burnt out’ they become ‘relit’, getting a temporary extra boost to their fire spells. There’s a bit more to it, but I’ve written enough for this example.​

In addition, generic spells, still cast-able with any vast in effect generally gain the element of the vast you’re using.​

Each and every vast is technically a 3rd level spell in terms of difficulty to learn, despite potentially packing as much power as a ritual spell in trained hands.​

Now for a few examples:​

• Fiery vast:
  • Upsides:
    • Boosted fire spells
      • Boosted further in a ‘relight’ after a burn out finishes
    • Easier fire-shaping
    • Can now shoot off fire from any of one’s limbs, such as their feet, so they can fly around, Iron Man style.
  • Downsides:
    • More vulnerable to water spells
    • ‘Burn outs’ occur if using too many spells in a row.
    • Burn outs set in more quickly while using spells in a ‘relight’.
    • If one becomes burnt out too many times in a short time frame, become extinguished instead, losing the effects of the fiery vast and becoming severely exhausted.
• Aerial vast
  • Upsides:
    • Boosted air spells
    • Easier air-shaping
    • An air sphere around one blows away incoming projectiles, and allows constant levitation.
  • Downsides:
    • Air sphere disappears if hit or upon touching the ground, severely weakening air spell boosts for a time and disorienting the user
    • Increased vulnerability to earth spells

Spoiler: Spells

Spells are… rather flexible in places like Arth. You see, spells are essentially a set of steps to perform an action, a recipe or a blueprint. Take the fireball spell, a classic. The spell itself is well defined, but as you can modify a recipe or a blueprint, so too can you modify a spell to your liking. Use more hot magic, and you can make the fireball move faster. Use water magic instead of plasma magic to manifest it, and you can get a water ball instead, or an ice ball if you use more cold magic as well during its manifestation.

Levels: Spells exist at different levels, depending on a combination of how complex, how powerful, and how useful they are.

Level 1: Spells akin to the various martial arts techniques a person can learn. These are simple enough to learn, and usually have next to no costs (usually just tiring a person after using a lot rather rapidly), but are usually rather weak. Though, good spell casters know that a good range of these are useful for various utilities.​

Spells here include Lesser Telekinesis, Heavy Wind, and Shock.​

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Level 2: Spells that aren’t too different from level 1 spells. They are like the weapons a person can use. More tiring to use, and more difficult to learn, but more powerful and useful. Yes, these still usually have no extra costs.​

Spells here include Fireball, Earth Spike, and Greater Telekinesis.​

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Level 3: Powerful spells that, to make up for the clear power difference between them and level 2 spells, often have an extra cost or unique mechanic that must be worked with to balance things out. Spells here include Duplication, Ethereal Shield, and Sense Boost.​

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Level 4: Level 4 spells, colloquially referred to as ritual spells, are among the most powerful spells a magic user can learn. These can change the tide of battle, but in exchange, they always require at least some form of a drawing utensil, knowledge of the necessary symbols, the shapes to draw, and the stuff to chant, and at least a few seconds executing the ritual to cast. In the practice of battle, ritual users often have to either be good enough at dodging or have some form of defence (e.g. literally any shield) to avoid getting interrupted.​

However, these can also be executed with scrolls, given the right runes are drawn on it. It allows for such ritual spells to be executed much more quickly since all the preparation is done beforehand, though the scrolls are single use since the runes are burned off the scroll as the ritual is cast.​

Spells here include Complete Darkness, Fire Dragon, and Double-Damage.​

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Level 5: Spells that actually rapidly depart from the expected power progression. Akin to weapons of choice or signature techniques the more important characters in a story use, these are quite powerful, and usually, at the bare minimum, match a level 3 spell in terms of power. Such spells are extremely hard to learn, and a person with the correct counter level 5 spell usually gets a huge buff against you. However, these spells have about as much cost to cast as a level 1 or 2 spell, and once you learn one of these, you’ll find they are versatile enough, even with their unique mechanics, to use on quite a few occasions.​

Spells here include the Point Laser, the Light Eater, and the Panel.​

Spoiler: Soul

The soul is an interesting thing in Arth's universe.

Spoiler: Soul biology

Core: The spherical, fundamental essence, the culmination, of who a person is.

The removal of or destruction of this is considered the most serious of soul-related ailments, as loss of this means more or less losing the rest of your soul as well. This is extremely difficult to fully recover from without the soul's recovery, which might not always be possible if the soul was destroyed.​

Usually, loss of this results in death, due to the soul apparently helping animate a person's body.​

Though, it is possible to keep on persisting if a person possessed a 'strong' enough soul. In that case, the soul would've been able to produce enough energy to create excess crust and aura that sticks around in the person after the soul's removal,​

Crust: The gas-y / liquid-y, ethereal exterior, the various learned behaviours and traits of a person. All of this originates from the core. Whether it or at least part of it comes about as a result of one’s will or natural occurrence is… up for debate.

Removal or destruction of at least a part of this makes a person less… ‘there’. They may briefly be unable to speak or move much, or become weaker for a time. The effects, physical, mental, and emotional, depend from person to person, but it’s still somewhat serious. Given, it is most certainly not fatal.​

Some describe loss of this as a loss of passion, while for others, it’s a loss of the ability to care or love, or feeling an impending sense of doom. Some don’t even notice it’s gone. Loss of this is a subjective experience. Fortunately though, it’s usually easy enough to fully recover from this with time, since the core can eventually replace the crust.​

Aura: The transparent ‘light’ the soul’s core emanates and creates. It is a permeating, abundant force, a string, that sews the core and crust together. Without this, the crust and core would separate, causing some… interesting effects.

Upon loss of this, in the cases where death does not occur - due to the core being so shocked at losing what it has made, and thus falling apart, (often occurs only in ‘weaker’ souls, wherein the aura was suddenly ripped out in its entirety) - the effects are similar to simply losing one’s crust. However, it can also make a person unhinged, and briefly impulsive, as their core naturally tightens its grip on parts of the crust using aura it generates, resulting in the specific part of the crust the crust means being exaggerated briefly. Fortunately, this too is easy enough to recover from with time.​

Colour: The excess energy a soul gives off after fully developing (most of the development occurs in childhood, but usually it finishes up when one reaches about the age of 10), or while not replacing lost aura and crust, which manifests itself as different wavelengths of EM light when the soul is viewed with the Soul View-spell.

It’s rare for someone to be able to perceive colour in a soul, as they usually have to possess enough importance to do so, even while using the Soul-View spell. Once they can, though... that’s when things start to get interesting.​

Colours are often a good indicator of who a person is. Though, it’s best to observe it at multiple different times in different situations, preferably without their knowledge of you doing so, due to the fact that shifters can change the colour of their soul, as elaborated on later.​

Basic colours:​

Red: Passion. The drive to change things.​

Dark red: Apathy. The ability to simply not care.​

Yellow: Joy. The ability to enjoy... anything, really, in life.​

Dark yellow: Hatred. The ability to really hate something.​

Blue: Consideration. The ability to consider, think over, how to proceed forward.​

Dark blue: Impulsiveness. The ability to act purely on instinct, the first thing that comes into your mind.​

Combination colours: (note: just about any colour besides white and black are possible, as the basic colours can be mixed together in any concentration just as normal colours can)​

Orange (red + yellow): Glee. The ability to love life enough to fight for the brightest world.​

Dark orange: Sorrow. The ability to feel nearly nothing but sorrow for something.​

Green (yellow + blue): Optimism. The ability to see the world in a good light.​

Dark green: Cynicism. The ability to see the darker side of things.​

Purple (red + blue): Tenacity. The ability to pursue one’s goals in the most efficient way possible.​

Dark purple: Cowardice. The ability to know when to fold ‘em.​

Special colours:​

Black (absence of all colour): Almost never encountered, because the person would have to lack any personality traits expressed in any normal capacity at all. Were such a thing to exist though, the person would surely simply not care about anything at all. An unthinking, unfeeling being that wants only to destroy.​

White (presence of all colour): Love or hope. As with black, it's basically impossible for one to encounter a white soul, but a soul can develop a white streak in a particular pattern on the soul, indicatory of whether or not the soul’s owner is able to xiter.​

Colour variance: Shifters can change the apparent colour of their soul to colours not natural for it. After all, their apparent colour at any given moment depends partially on the feelings they are experiencing at a given moment, or the things they’re thinking. It can even change subconsciously.​

Spoiler: Soul spells

Soul magic, the military magic powered by the energy souls produce, is a surprisingly potent magic that has varying effects on a person, be it the caster or their targets, depending on the soul colours involved.

There are two main types of soul spells:

Afflicters: Soul spells designed to badly impact souls of particular colours by feeding off the power of another’s soul.​

Drainers: Soul spells that are powered by the same excess energy one’s own soul gives off, draining it off its colour in the process. Cannot be used very rapidly in a row.​

Colour effect catalogue: Later.

Spoiler: Organizations

Spoiler: F.U.N.

F.U.N. stands for Fictionality Understanding Names, this secretive, but benevolent group that works to protect shifterkind and Arth by orchestrating circumstances to ensure I.E. effect occurrences in order to minimise the collateral damage and casualties of any incidents and scenarios the Apprehension Forces cannot handle.

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Note: F.U.N. can also be used to refer to a single member (Fictionality Understanding Name).​

All members in this group are people who believe/know about the ‘Theory of Fictionality’, which postulates that the reality everyone experiences is essentially a work of fiction that does not always operate on logic alone. The theory was first created by a shifter with questionable sanity, yes, but people who decided to believe in it have discovered that a few things make a lot more sense when keeping the theory in mind. The theory itself is not exactly scientific, as there isn’t exactly much proof that supports it besides the fact it provides an explanation for things such as the I.E. effect, the odd, yet fateful coincidences that lead to great things, and why the psychology between each known sentient species remains the same. In other words, the Theory is sort of a Religion.

Spoiler: I.E. effect

The I.E. effect, short for the Inexplicable Effectiveness effect, is a strange phenomena, to those not among the F.U.N.’s ranks, wherein a specific, contained set of sufficiently important entities oddly enough exceed their expected… effectiveness, to put it simply.

Let us, for a moment, pit a hypothetical group of 5 teenage friends against a hypothetical set of 7 elite military-trained operatives. Sure, the latter wins in simple training scenarios, but in ‘real’ scenarios with ‘real’ stakes (say, the world will be destroyed if they fail), then 9 times out of 10, the teenage friends will beat the trained operatives to resolving the situation, often while avoiding casualties more often than the operatives would. This is the I.E. effect in action, specifically the I.T.E. effect (more on variants later).

Factors that influence the I.E. effect's occurrence:

• Importance: How ‘important’ the entity(ies) involved is in a given scenario. For example, a middle-schooler has more importance in dealing with bullies involved in a conspiracy than a teacher, solely because they know the bullies more.
• Tension: How high are the stakes; Generally, a sufficiently important entity will fight much better if they’re fighting for their friend’s life than if they’re fighting for a sandwich.

Basically this is plot armour and all that but people gave it a name-

Variants:

• The I.C.E. (Inexplicable Child Effectiveness) effect
• The I.T.E. (Inexplicable Teenage Effectiveness) effect
• The I.A.E. (Inexplicable Adult Effectiveness) effect

Spoiler: The impact of the I.T.E. effect

While the general populace is only barely aware of the existence of the I.T.E. effect, the most prominent of the I.E. effects, people in general are more aware of how it has, as a result, made many teenagers more competent than one would expect. With teenage deaths reducing to a ridiculous low and the number of arrests and successful case resolutions simply rising, the age of majority has actually lowered ever so slightly.

Spoiler: Apprehension Forces

The main law-enforcement / peace-keeping entity in Arth, and arguably the most powerful. With access to the forefront of shifter technology, including massive hover-craft and boots and forcefields, and the authorisation to make use of otherwise forbidden military-grade magic, such as the manipulative mind-magic, the potent soul-magic, or the downright dangerous temporal magic, few can hope to oppose this.

Fortunately, as powerful as it is, it belongs to no nation in particular. And it is to always remain barred from interfering in any sort of shifter conflicts.
Its purpose, first and foremost, is to protect shifterkind, and maintain the peace.

Spoiler: Secret Bureau of Solving

Essentially, Arth's secret services. It mostly keeps out of the public eye, and is only ever called on to solve... issues that cannot be solved with the overwhelming force of the Apprehension Forces.

Spoiler: Daybreak

Light's organisation he put together to, quite simply, conquer the world.

Structure: Daybreak's structure of command and delegation is relatively linear, befitting of a relatively new organisation put together only in a few years. There does exist some branching out that doesn't have anything to do exactly with one's overall competence, however.

Spoiler: XFOS

XFOS: A solution of Liht mixed in water, to produce a luminescent, white, solution almost ethereal in terms of viscosity; a borderline gas.

Origins: Discovered in [] by a doctor...

• Stumbled upon a Liht pool, could hardly do anything with it.
• Alchemist in ancient times, thought it might be useful for the never-ending goal of transmutation.
• Some point, ended up drinking it himself, [???]. Attempts to replicate this phenomenon were unsuccessful.
• ...Counter a shifter's magic...

Methods of Synthesis:

• Mix Liht with water, vigorously

Notable Chemical Properties:

• Conductive of electricity
• Significantly easier to manipulate

Uses:

• Anti magic beacons
• Anti-magic

Spoiler: The battle system

Because the sport of battling is so popular, a system had to be put in place to organise battle-related events. How it works is as follows:

Usually, battling takes on the form of duels. These consist of one person vs another person, usually on a normal, flat battlefield. However, alternative battle terrains do exist. Group battles do occur as well, with up to 5 people against 5 people.

Then, there’s seize battles, where larger groups go head to head in teams of at least 2 and try to claim an objective, a ‘flag’, if you will, and take it back to some sort of central place on their home turf, which often lies within some sort of structure, such as a castle or cabin.


All battles on Arth follow a rather simple set of rules.

• Shifters may not regenerate for the entirety of the battle. The first one to do so, forced to after taking fatal damage or not, loses.
• Military grade magic and sleeping spells or any of their derivatives are prohibited.

There can be other rules, depending on if the host has any special house rules or anything like that, but the above two are pretty much universally followed.

Each shifter is also given a rank upon registration, which they can advance by taking part in enough tournaments and doing well enough.
Ranks:

Newnaster: The lowest rank one can get.​

This rank is normally occupied by very young children. While it does exist, this rank isn’t really an officially recognised rank.​

​

Naster: The second most common rank in the world.​

Most shifters normally can start off here. Usually, people who put at least a little bit of effort into improving their fighting skills find it very easy to progress to the next rank from here.​

Cavalrynaster: The most common rank.​

This is comprised of shifters that are at least competent in battle, although slightly skilled fighters fall here too. Young teenagers fill up the vast majority of this rank, along with most who aren’t exactly passionate about taking an active part in the battle industry.​

Squirenaster: The third most common rank.​

This is comprised of powerful shifters ranging from quite skilled to the equivalent of a peak human fighter or mage. Usually, people in this rank fight for a strong reason, be it love of the sport, the desire for wealth (doing battles does pay good money, especially at the higher ranks), a desire to prove oneself the best, and have found a way to differentiate themselves from the competition, thereby developing the ability to rise up to amidst the cream of the crop.​

Knightnaster: The most uncommon rank.​

Meeting one of these is…quite an occasion, considering how hard it is to get promoted to this rank. One is likely to be rather renowned once they reach this point. Only the best squire-nasters get promoted, receiving a knightnaster serum upon promotion that… does something. This usually includes things like granting enhanced reflexes, allowing for all sorts of more complicated magic, skills, and basically superhuman tactics. It pushes a shifter to their absolute limits, without the use of regeneration.​

Championnaster: Very few of these exist in the universe of Arth. Being one basically means you’re famous. You have to be extremely powerful by definition to even be considered one of these.​

Spoiler: Geography

Geography:

In Arth, there are the usual continents as on Earth, because while the Great Cataclysm had a huge impact on the world’s geography, it didn’t destroy literally every continent. The shifters renamed them too, because they didn’t really feel like keeping the old human names for them.​

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Arth's continents are as follows:​

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Spoiler: Aerope

Overview: The modern version of Europe, complete with a brand new mega-bridge between Britannique and the rest of Aerope.​

• Underground, bookworm spot, lots of libraries and underground vacation spots

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Notable places:​

• Britannique, the landmass just off the coast of the main continent, and the modern counterpart to Britain.

Spoiler: History

However, this place has gotten much colder and snowier, due to shifters during the Great Cataclysm having vastly elevated Britannique's landmass to be at altitudes similar to that of Mount Everest. This was so that they could attack, with a full on assault, one of humanity’s largest war machine fleets: A bunch of gigantic blimps that stayed far above any shifter’s range, being so high up that the shifters couldn’t just call up a thunderstorm to wipe them all out as they bombed the land below with XFOS bombs. Once the war concluded, the shifters decided they liked Britannique better as a huge country atop a mountain, and so left it like that. The name Britannique was eventually given to it as a portmaneau of Britain and titanic, in part to how huge it has become. In fact, the mountain of Britannique got so large that its lower levels, with its inner complex of caverns and a roughly surface level ‘cave’ that looks more like a titan took a bite out of the mountain than an actual cave, came to become home to a society separate from those that resided on Britannique’s top.

Notable structures:​

• Titan’s Bite
• Caustic caves
• Britannia

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Spoiler: Asheria

Overview: A well bound together continent where robots, shifters, kolif, and many other species live in harmony.

Spoiler: Efrica

Overview: The forefront of shifter progression, technologically speaking, in some kind of cosmic irony to its usually underdeveloped past as Africa.

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Spoiler: Sellama

Overview: Probably one of the most quirkiest places to live on. Australia was once known for its plethora of dangerous beasts. Now add various geographic dangers such as lava moats.

Axlerique:​

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Antarct:​

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Arct:​

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Spoiler: Moon craters

Massive craters created by the collisions of moons with Arth. They were created during the global disaster that was the Cataclysm, though contemporary explanations for it say things like that the moon craters were careless, collateral damage caused by heated battles with Areas forms in politically charged skirmishes.​

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Spoiler: Baxle

Another Earth-like planet. Where everything sucks to hell and back, because the ground is living and trying to kill you.

Spoiler: What happened...

Once upon a time...Baxle was a planet in an age of prosperity.

Trade was bustling, cities were packed. The economy was at an all time high, with plenty of riches for even the poor. Theoretically, the ideal future of mankind.
All its latest innovations however, were born in the motor industry. Vehicles, technological augmentations, tools that made life faster and easier. Mechs were used to enhance physical labourer efficiency, hover technology allowed for cars to take to the skies, and holo-technology allowed for the projection of charged, enclosed photons as temporary forms of matter.

The catalyst for these new technologies? Why, the Soul Crystals of course. Found long ago, they were so called as such for apparently stealing people's souls. Plenty of testing dictated, of course, that the glowing crystals bear no such soul-sucking properties, and it basically provided FREE, SUSTAINABLE ENERGY for all of mankind's needs.

Spoiler: Cacion

A planet not dissimilar to Arth.

Spoiler: Magic system

[WIP]: More details to be added later.
Cacion's magic system is one based on the concept of Essences, the fundamental part of the elements that give them their properties, with which you can do 3 different actions:

• Extract
• Inject
• Shape

Essence Types:

• Anima
• Necro
• Photo
• Umbra
• Pyra
• Hydro
• Glacia
• Electro
• Terra
• Aero

Spoiler: Diakop

Dystopia time.

Spoiler: Manifestations

Odd magical abilities people Manifest in response to encountering traumatic incidents, whose nature often depends on features of their personality. Though, contradictory abilities are also common too.

Spoiler: Common Manifestations

Later.

Spoiler: Epostrix.

Destroyed, long ago.
I don't even remember it well. But I'll try.

It was paradise. Everyone could smile. It was far from perfect, but we were hopeful.

Spoiler: Petrichor V

Not so much of an original world, but rather the planet both Risk of Rains take place on. I do have lore here though, based on my interpretation of how the events happen, in universe.
(Unfortunately, I have not done extensive research on RoR lore, soo there may be a few things here and there I’ll have to change as I learn about it)

Timelines:

Petrichor V, for some reason, is plain weird, temporally speaking. In both incidents (the U.E.S. Contact Light and the U.E.S. Safe Travels incidents), one or more ‘survivors’ end up on the planet, murdering aliens, getting items, and either dying, obliterating themselves from existence, or defeating Providence/Mythrix and escaping the planet. Regardless of what happens to the survivor, whether they 'win' (by escaping the planet) or 'lose' (by dying or obliterating themselves(?)), a new timeline is created, in which perhaps a different set of at least one survivor survives or is sent to the planet, to try again, with purely instinctual, but subtle knowledge of the previous timelines. Usually, anyway.​

Spoiler: Guardians of the Polyverse

A pair of magic constructs who exist to protect the integrity of the Polyverse. The guardians themselves and the necessary info about them are in my signature, so this section will actually be more of an origins thing with a general job description.

Note: Polyverse is the technical name I'll be using to refer to all of fictional existence. I'm not using multiverse as that term is already used for things such as the Marvel multiverse, or the Undertale multiverse.

But to understand their origins, I'll have to talk about a bunch of spirits that technically don't exist, first.

Spoiler: The spirits

Before the polyverse came into existence, there were 2 types of spirits: the Liht spirits, and the Davk spirits. They've been around for... well, even they themselves aren't really sure. Also, their names are completely original, it was their earliest contacts with life in the polyverse that led to the words light and dark being derived from their names.

These spirits both witnessed the polyverse's birth, with both immediately taking interest in it, from within their own pocket that exists outside of the polyverse, yet permeates throughout it all the same. This pocket is known as The Inexistence.

The Liht spirits were more interested in watching happenstances in the polyverse, like how humans watch a movie or a play. However, they felt it was their responsibility to insure that everything happened 'as they should', else the polyverse would lose its balance.​

The Davk spirits, however, were interested in interacting with the world themselves, playing with its inhabitants and environments and seeing what happens. They believed the polyverse was their sandbox, in which they could do whatever they wanted.​

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I should note now that both of these races are neither inherently good nor inherently evil, by our standards. Some Davk spirits wanted to help life out in the polyverse, while some Liht spirits believed they shouldn't ever interfere, even in the direst of times.​

However, both races still sought entrance into existence. The Davk to claim their alleged rights to do with the polyverse what they pleased, and the Liht to stop the Davk from entering at all, as the Davk's goal went against their own. War started soon enough over the spirits trying to stop each other from getting into existence, while finding their own way into it themselves.

Abilities:

Both races had their influence over existence, even from the Inexistence. They found themselves able to manipulate fate and luck, with the most powerful of them being able to manifest pieces of themselves in the polyverse, a result of their will to have more influence in the polyverse: Liht, for a piece from the Liht, and Davk, for a piece from the Davk. These are exceedingly powerful pieces of magic, with interesting properties.​

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Liht and Davk:​

Liht is a blood-like, white substance, while Davk is a tar-like, black substance. Both can be used as a material to make tools, weapons, attacks, and even sentient beings.​

All things made from Liht and Davk are often, at the very least, exceedingly strong. In fact, objects made of Liht and Davk seem impossible to truly destroy. You can break them apart, but this gets more difficult the more Liht and Davk is involved in the construct, and it's easily fixed by just reassembling the broken parts, as they can literally stick themselves back together by themselves; one way to reliably destroy such objects, however, is by putting them in contact with its opposite: Davk, for Liht, and Liht, for Davk. Even then, Liht and Davk would both obliterate each other on contact. It's a mutual thing.​

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The properties of a construct of Liht or Davk depend partially on a few different things. Firstly, Liht is far better for making objects with magical properties, while Davk is better for making more physically powerful objects. For example, if you made a sword out of Liht, you'd have a far easier time making it able to shoot out lightning with every swing. If you made the same sword out of the same amount of Davk, its lightning swings would be weaker, but the blade itself would be stronger.​

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Secondly, their properties depend on the desires of their creator, and how much of it you're using. There doesn't seem to be much of a limit to a Liht / Davk construct's abilities, actually, beyond how much Liht or Davk you use in a given construct. This will directly influence how powerful said abilities are. You can make a little rock you can throw back in time with just a bit of Liht, but because only a bit of Liht is used, you cannot expect the rock to travel more than a few seconds into the past.​

Fortunately, Liht and Davk are both also very compressible. So, if you want a really powerful gun but don't want it to be really big, then have no fear! Just mash the stuff together into the shape you want. The stuff...may be difficult to compress for the average person, but once you solve that problem...it's basically infinitely compressible; it even appears to just 'know' when it is complete, solidifying into its shape within its first use.​

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...​

However, these properties are only really relevant to people capable of commanding the substances. You'd need an awful lot of knowledge of command words, and a pre-existing ability to work magic wouldn't hurt either. You'd almost certainly require aid from a Liht / Davk spirit willing to help you out.​

So, now let's get into the more general properties your average joe would want to be more familiar with:​

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General properties of Liht:​

• Blood-like in viscosity (or lack thereof)
• Anti-magical. It absorbs 'phenoms', after all, in order to perpetuate its own existence. "Phenoms" usually take on the form of magic, but really it can absorb just about any energy if controlled. Furthermore, phenoms only refer as a shorthand to everything that makes a universe special. Psychic energy, for example, can be thought of as an example of a phenom.
• Seems salt-like in solubility terms; you can mix it in many kinds of liquids.
  • It seems to only loosely follow the law of conservation of mass. Most of the time its volume and concentration is constant. Though, if you were to say, mix XFOS (a mixture of Liht and water) into a large body of water and stir vigorously...the Liht in the solution increases in mass to equalise the Liht concentration in the rest of the body with the concentration of Liht in the XFOS sample added to the water. [Subject to change]
• No apparent boiling / freezing point. It seems to always remain liquid...
• Infinite compressibility. Though this property would kind of be difficult to observe...

General properties of Davk:​

• Tar-like in viscosity
• Seems...extremely reactive? It often reacts with the air, making some kind of coal-like substance known as Black Matter that's powdery in nature.
• Magic enhancing. It seems great at amplifying the concentrations of phenoms in the area around it, and it only absorbs minimal energy from its surroundings for this!
  • To this end, it also randomly creates particles around it that pop in and out of existence to expand its energy absorption range. For example, it can randomly create particles that can literally get in someone's brain, messing with their higher mental faculties.
• No apparent boiling / freezing point. It seems to always remain liquid...
• Infinite compressibility. Though this property would kind of be difficult to observe...

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Spoiler: Notable spirits

Spoiler: Arch Nemesis

The greatest of the Davk spirits. Empowered by [Redacted]..but...
...
[WIP]

Spoiler: Hero

The Liht spirit that rose to...[WIP]

Now, with spirits out of the way, it's time to actually start a 5 hour long lecture on the Guardians' origin story. Because no, I'm not getting straight to the point.

Spoiler: An endless war.

As part of the war between the Liht and the Davk spirits, two beings were created, one for the Liht spirits and one for the Davk spirits. One was made of Liht, the other of Davk. They both were given the spirits' knowledge of the polyverse, including all its locations and features, a lot of magic spells, including some the spirits made up themselves, and a very fair chunk of the knowledge all the organisms in the polyverse have managed to amass. Each were also given an additional power, to aid them in their task of providing their respective patron spirit race with permanent access, back and forth, into the polyverse.

You might know these beings already...

The Liht being was made in the form of a little bat. They were given the power of memory.​

The Davk being was made in the form of a hooded figure. They were given the power of imagination.​

The bat and the hooded spotted each other quickly. They were quickly informed of the fact they were enemies by their patron spirit races, the Liht and Davk spirits, respectively.

So the battle began. The bat and the hooded figure fought it out in space, in an uninhabited solar system, accustoming themselves to their body, their knowledge, and their power.

They saw for themselves that they could do many things. Shoot exceedingly powerful lasers, hurl moons and stars at each other, create their own weapons, and even create tears in reality, time and space. The bat's first weapon was a white z-shaped boomerang, while the hooded figure's first weapon was a black sword, ornately designed.

So they fought, long and hard. The battle could be seen in the stars from nearby planets, with bright flashes of white consumed by darkness, stars being extinguished, stars being born, and stars being thrown around. It was quite a spectacle natives got to watch for... about a week.

The two beings found themselves in a stalemate very quickly. Neither could permanently wound the other, as they found they could heal their wounds right up just by producing Liht and Davk to cover them up. Neither even got tired, as a matter of fact.

So, their patron spirits told them to retreat. To the nearest inhabited planet, to recoup and work out what to do as their patron spirits planned.

The bat went to an... earth-like planet, where they found a city in a forest filled with monks, all of which had managed to master very cool chi-arts and stuff. They were all very chill, and more than willing to teach the bat their ways.
The hooded figure, meanwhile, went to a dead planet ravaged by war. All that remained was totalled war-machines and weapons. Tanks, giant mechs, big swords, laser cannons, battle-space ships, you name it.

There, they developed their style of fighting.
The bat was taught to cherish life, and developed the habit of using various abilities and one's own body to fight, as the monks did to defend themselves, instead of simply relying on one's weapon. After all, weapons can be taken and used against you. The bat couldn't lose their abilities thanks to their memory.
The hooded figure learned the art of death, and used the war machines and weapons as inspiration for creating his own weapons and tools, all improved in design, of course. After all, who can deal with countless projectiles while dodging exceedingly large swords of death? The hooded figure had a readily available supply of both thanks to their imagination.

Their rematch... didn't really change anything. Again, they reached a stalemate. Again, they retreated after about a week straight of fighting.
This time, the beings' patron spirits instructed them to not focus on battling their counterpart. Of course, if it was unavoidable, they would have to fight. But instead, they were told to focus on finding a way to bring their patron spirits into the polyverse, while also preventing their counterpart from doing the same.

So that was how it went, for thousands upon thousands, maybe millions of years, or perhaps just hundreds of years. Who knows?

The two beings searched the polyverse.
They made allies, they made friends, they seemingly almost completed their mission.
They found each other, they fought, they watched their friends and allies die if they didn't send them away first, they sabotaged each others' plans.
All in an endless loop in which nothing but death and destruction was achieved.

...although, perhaps the two beings began to understand each other, fundamentally, as well... in all their fighting and opposition of each other.

Spoiler: Truce

The war waged on for so long. Many got to see their conflict, and some sometimes were graced with their presence. Myths, legends… stories rose about them, some more accurate than others.

The stories speak of their war and endless carnage and destruction. Of white dragons that cracked the earth, black rectangular contraptions that shot beams of death…

But as all stories go, something had to change.

The bat and the hooded figure began to talk more and more with each encounter. They didn’t exactly see the point in focusing 100% on fighting at some point, as even if one of them suddenly started giving their all in an attempt to catch the other off guard, said other will usually adapt too quickly for any advantage to be gained. It started with the usual ‘this fighting is futile’ ‘ you’, and ‘die already please’, and trading insults, before eventually progressing to them asking each other about why they’re even fighting. and what they even care about.

Their patron spirits were… not pleased with these developments, but didn’t really say much seeing as their constructs haven’t made much progress in their missions and they probably wouldn’t anyway. So, they had already started up several other projects in order to find their own ways into existence.

One day…

Spoiler: “Narrative mode: ON”

[Note: The bat speaks in this colour, and the figure speaks in this colour]

“Why don’t we call a truce?”
“Why?”
“We’re talking so much anyway. It’s not as if we’re going to get anywhere anyway.”
“…sure.”

Both the bat and the figure sit down and stop fighting. They face each other, simply staring, gazing into each others’ eyes. Or... where you'd expect them to be, where their head is, in the case of the figure whose facial features one cannot see.

“…”
“Let’s ask this question to each other one more time.”
“Why do we fight each other?” The figure guessed.
“Yes.”
“…you’ve answered that question a thousand times.”
“As have you.”
“Following the orders of our ally spirits.”
“…”
“…”
“I’ve asked you this already. Do you really care about what the Davk spirits want?”
“…”
“…you really don’t know, do you?”
“…yes.”
“…I’ve been pondering a similar question for quite some time now. I’m meant to be providing the Liht spirits with access into existence… just so they can watch over it better.”
“And the Davk spirits want the same… just to play with it.”

They fall silent again.

“…”
“…”

<They’re watching…>
<I wonder…>

“…I do realise I fight for what quite possibly would end everything…”
“I fight for the prevention of that… only for most of them to only watch… when it would do no harm if they did something…”

Silence again.

“Neither of us want their ally spirits to come into existence… do we?”
“…everything is… just fine as it is.”
“… then…”
“What.”
“…why can’t we be friends?”
“…hm?”
“We were given life thanks to them. Maybe not for the best reasons…”
“…hardly.”
“…but that shouldn’t mean…”
“That we have to spend it fighting..”
“Yeah!”

“…so, we’re friends now?”
“Weeelll…”
“Sure…?”
“…”
“…”

The figure turns around, before just walking away to sit down. The bat looks at them, before turning around to sit down facing the opposite way.

... and that was how things started to change.

Spoiler: Appointment

Over time, the bat and the figure learned to talk to each other normally, and in a civilised manner.

Their ally spirits, the Liht and the Davk, both collectively decided to just leave them alone to their own devices, setting their sights on their own projects to find a way for themselves to get into existence.

One day, the bat and the figure realised their spirits never actually gave them a name. Something they could call each other by, something to call their own that is not used only to fight.

The bat was quick in deciding their name, and, rather impulsively, called themselves Pol.​

The figure was not quite as hasty in naming themselves, and so decided to name themselves something that related to truth, for that was what the two were living: The truth of what they wanted. So they just took the Greek word for truth, calling themselves Ver.​

No longer with purpose in their life, Pol and Ver sort of just… randomly chose to wander existence, looking. Not really for anything in particular, they really just wandered.

There was many things in existence to see that they could get to, so they kind of, without really talking, silently decided to see for themselves what everything had to offer, despite their ally spirits having already given them so much knowledge.

Along the way, the two helped others every now and then. Doing hero work and doing some miraculous things to make peoples’ lives better, parting ways now and then and seeing each other and travelling with each other as well.

The more advanced worlds they did things in were skeptical of their existence, and thus word of them spread only as rumours, to be forgotten in their advancing age.​

The less developed worlds, however, revered them as mythical beings from the stars, gods and genies and the like. Their adventures, exploits, and travels ended up documented, tucked away in various corners of existence.​

They ended up giving back to existence, as they had taken away with their endless fighting.

...


One day, Pol and Ver felt something. A certain rumble. A gut instinct. A feeling.
…a call.

What it was, even they didn’t know. But they searched once more…this time to find the source of the call.
They turned over every nook and cranny, went on long pilgrimages, wondering if it would just show up to them.

“Maybe it’s a god calling us! Maybe the capital G God those Christians keep talking about!”
“Or it’s just an unnatural… warp in reality.”
“..."
"This'd be easier if any of the spirits told us about it."
"..."
“Well, come on! We’ll find whatever called us, no matter what!”
“…true.”

They journeyed. And journeyed.

…one day, they went back to a place they found early in their life.
The Middle. A space between dimensions, an endless land of featureless white, wherein the power of the Liht and the Davk spirits was strongest.

They searched and searched… finding The Edge. A barrier of… mysterious energy, to say the least.

“…it must be here!”
“What is this…”
“…who knows?”
“I think we need to get through this. Somehow."
“…”

After some effort, they simply… warped their way...
...into The Enclosure. A set of 5 universes that The Edge encapsulates, for reasons uncertain.


…


“…hold on.”
“…Haven’t we been here before?”
“…”
“When we destroyed that universe…”
“…it’s..unfortunate.”
“…”
“…come on. It’s here somewhere…”


…

And then, they found it. The Source.

...

Spoiler

“Pol. Ver.”

"..."
“…yes?”


“…you are two of existence’s most powerful beings.”


“..so?”

“I speak now to tell you.”
“Existence…needs you two as protectors.”
“…”
“Do you understand?”


“…?”
“…seriously.”
“Why should we listen to you?”
“You don’t get to tell us what to do.”

“Look around.”
“You’ve encountered and dealt with some...massive dangers already."
"The destructor...the warp.."
"...your own machinations..."
"..might as well make it official, right?"

“…”
“…”
"Who are you?"

"I am neither a Liht spirit nor a Davk spirit."
"What I am... doesn't matter."
"You can tell I'm telling the truth, Ver."

"...they're not lying."
"..."

"..so. Will you take up the position then?'

“…”
“…”
“…Fine.”
“Alright.”

“Here and now…”
“I appoint you two Guardians of the Polyverse.”

“…"
“…”
“What do you want then."

“This crystal you see before you is The Source.”
“It helps power this prison. And its captor…”
“…is none other than... Arch Nemesis."

"...Arch Nemesis?"
"What's he doing here..."

“..protect this crystal, and do what you can to protect the polyverse as you have."
“…follow what you know to be right. For I shan’t talk with you two from here on out.”
“…goodbye…”

“…”
“…”

And... one more thing:
Hats off to the people over in TLPW who actually decided to read my drafts there on various sections of this lore thread!
Esther, Layn...uh, those were about the only two who actually showed any form of reaction to me putting it up, I suppose. If you read it too for whatever reason just pretend your name is there with Esther's and Layn's.

Feedback and criticism are welcome.
Just. Don't be too harsh, please. Respect, you know?

Spoiler: Update history

Version 1: Arth, Petrichor V, and Guardians of the Polyverse sections created, with content in all.

Version 1.01: Minor corrections

Version 1.1:

• Some reformats for better readability (will probably do more reformats in future updates)
• Added F.U.N. and the I.E. effect
• Vasts section added
• Void magic explained
• Truce section in Guardians of Polyverse completed
• ???

Version 1.2:

• Appointment section in Guardians of Polyverse completed
• Elaborated on the shifters’ ability to shift
• Explained Arth's battle system
• Explained Arth's moon craters
• Named Arth’s continents
• Explained what a xiter is

 

[Banana_=P]

Ok ok.
You never know, but who knows?

Reserved.

 

[Esther]

as frail as a feather

I have a bunch of feathers somewhere in my room, and they aren't exactly frail IIRC
Sadly I can't really think of a better example to put there instead

 

[Banana_=P]

I have a bunch of feathers somewhere in my room, and they aren't exactly frail IIRC
Sadly I can't really think of a better example to put there instead

Perhaps a birch tree leaf.
I’ll think of something, and then edit it in.
Thank you for the suggestion, though.

 

[The Rust]

Isn’t it the U.E.S safe travels and the U.E.S contact light, not the U.S.S..?

 

[Banana_=P]

Isn’t it the U.E.S safe travels and the U.E.S contact light, not the U.S.S..?

Oop-
*facepalm*
I thought I fixed that. I'll fix it now.

 

[Banana_=P]

I'm going to try to get the next update for this thread out by October 1st at the latest.
Just thought I'd let you guys know, as it's coming along... relatively well.

Buut in the meantime...here's the update log I'll include in the update. Details the stuff I intend to add / edit, you see. And a non-sequitur joke, yes.
It's a bit small though, I believe. Trying to find that rhythm and all that between school and studies and here. And one more thing: this log is not final and is subject to some change.

Spoiler: Version update

Version 1.1:

• Reformats for better readability
• Added F.U.N. and the I.E. effect
• Vasts and Void magic sections filled in
• Truce section in Guardians of Polyverse completed
• Potato

I don't have much to add for Petrichor V right now, sorry.
Maybe after I actually get around to doing that research.

And also. Maybe ask some questions about what you'd like to see? Or questions about things I didn't make clear?
Suggestions suggestions.

 

[Banana_=P]

Imma not take risks.
Stuff is going to be added / fixed over time, and then I'll post to say the editing is done.
Editing it all in before saving is going to be impractical when I don't intend to do it all in one go.

I've already added in some stuff, btw.

 

[Banana_=P]

Update's done.

Apologies if the reformats are subpar.

 

[Ketsui/Kezzai]

Using cell-sized enzymes to catalyse the process of mitosis and general cellular activity (so that things like feathers are made very quickly), they can make their cells replicate very rapidly at will

Using magic, they can rapidly decompose unneeded cells.

Would this make them immune to cancer?
Or more susceptible?

 

[Banana_=P]

Would this make them immune to cancer?
Or more susceptible?

Immune.
Their cells may be replicating uncontrollably, but tumours would be simple enough to eradicate with their ability to decompose cells.

However, if their ability to stop releasing the cell-sized enzymes that facilitate regeneration, once they start being released, was removed somehow, then that'd... to say it simply, cripple a shifter quite easily, if it doesn't outright kill them due to them rapidly using up their body's resources to create all the biomass they didn't want to make.

 

[Esther]

as the ritual is acst.

Found a typo in the magic stuff for Arth.

 

[vessal]

I read everything in this and I regretted it but nice work on the lore man also how long did it take for type this.

 

[Banana_=P]

Found a typo in the magic stuff for Arth.

Eagle eyed as usual, I see.
Anyway, should be fixed by now.

I read everything in this and I regretted it but nice work on the lore man also how long did it take for type this.

A fair while.
It helped that I had the majority of the ideas written down already elsewhere and thought out in my head though. A fair part of this lore is re-transcribed versions of pre-existing ideas, paraphrased and rewritten for the public eye to see.

 

[IgnisCervus]

WHOA I DIDN'T KNOW YOU DID SCIENCE
THAT SHIFTER STUFF IS NUTS

 

[Banana_=P]

WHOA I DIDN'T KNOW YOU DID SCIENCE
THAT SHIFTER STUFF IS NUTS

Hmmmm?

 

[IgnisCervus]

Hmmmm?

don't mind me just reading through your various lore points

lmao
"Fusions"
"Yes."

 

[Banana_=P]

don't mind me just reading through your various lore points

lmao
"Fusions"
"Yes."

I think the thing on the appendix is slightly outdated, since it says stuff about how it compresses ingested matter.
When I think later on I decided that actually it just converts it into magic, which I'd say is way easier to compress than physical matter.
...
You probably might want to read about Arth's magic if you want to interpret that correctly.

 

[Banana_=P]

Fusions, meanwhile...
..
Yeah that's not going to be relevant for a good while. Hence why I haven't bothered with writing much on it.

 

[IgnisCervus]

jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus crispy that's a lot of words
this my friend is a thing for another day
there's like at least half a novel's worth of general information in here