Concepts and Places
Big Three: Time Travel, The Future, and Death
Time Travel
Time is not a thing. It isn't a substance, it isn't a place, it's just an idea. A measurement. How we keep track of events, and it only goes one way: forward, at one hour per hour. Trying to move through time any other way is an exercise in futility. No being, no matter their abilities, can truly affect time, much less travel backward through it - it's just a series of events, and what has happened, has happened. A person's perceptions and body can be accelerated or slowed, but effects that appear to stop time are actually only doing this, accelerating the individual. Some abilities may be able to observe the past, but never affect it.
The Future
Just like time is a measurement, the future is just an idea, a way of explaining plans or expectations. The future doesn't exist because it hasn't happened yet, and nobody can 'see into it' or be certain what it may hold. Fate and destiny are inherently incorrect and indeed impossible concepts, and the best one can do to predict the future is analyze a huge data set with a good understanding of how people and the world work and act.
Death and Afterlife
What happens at the point of death is for the most part fairly clear - the body shuts down, and the soul seems to quickly fade away until it winks out. Nothing 'leaves' the body when it dies, and nothing 'survives' death unless someone can very, very quickly move the soul elsewhere. Reviving someone will make the soul blaze back to life as well, usually without any loss or damage unless the body suffered brain damage while dead. What happens after death, on the other hand, is a total unknown - and it's impossible for it to be any other way. Nothing exists that can prove or disprove what may or may not exist postmortem. Barring specific powers that cause it, we know that 'reincarnation' doesn't happen, but anything beyond that is a mystery.
Other Concepts and Places
Alternate Realities / Other Earths
At least among those who have had a modicum of interaction with the anomalous, it is well known that ours is not the only existence. Other realities and timelines similar to our own but distinct in their own ways exist, and can even occasionally be touched and reached into - though crossing the gap and actually managing to step into another reality is risky at best, since so little is known about the possible effects of interdimensional travel. The more different a reality is from ours, the more difficult it is to reach, and the less precise any attempts will be, possibly getting one similar to the target reality but not quite the right one.
Distant Worlds
Officially, it is unknown whether life on other planets may exist. Even if life exists, even if it develops full sapience, even if it somehow does so at such a rate and from such a starting point as to be a sapient species at the same time as we ourselves exist, and even if that species used something we could recognize as communication, managed to journey into space, and - against all odds - somehow left their own solar system and reached another… the chances are infinitesimal that they would ever eventually find and reach our own system and planet, and by some coincidence it happened to be any time near the present. A very, very generous estimate could speculate that there may be perhaps half a dozen other worlds with sapient species in our galaxy, with merely half of them being both industrialized and non-extinct, perhaps two having left their planet, and perhaps only one having entertained the idea of deep space exploration - yet even they probably wouldn't have yet managed to find some form of faster than light travel, or had the time to send a cryostasis ship at near-lightspeed into the void, much less toward Earth.
The Dreamscape
"Empty, but with infinite possibility." Half realm, half thin, vague field of psychic energy from the extremely low level telepathic broadcasts of humanity, the Dreamscape is shaped and influenced by the thoughts and desires of those who interact with it. In its natural state, it's blank and empty, but it's never seen in is natural state - for the moment it's observed, the will of the observer begins to affect it. It is from here that the energy needed to create thoughtforms comes, directed by focus and conviction. Note that the field doesn't react enough to any single will to enhance telepathic ability at all, nor to create a thoughtform without a direct link to the realm. Gathering enough total focus, desire, energy and will to direct it enough to form something real is, by necessity, a communal activity.
The Forgotten
Not every 'dream' comes to fruition, and not every idea is remembered. As long as someone lives who remembers an idea, or the existence of an object, it is safe. However, once something is lost to the world, with not a single soul keeping it in memory, a shadow of it forms here, like a leak from the Dreamscape mourning what once was or could have been - or an unrealized dream. By its very nature, the Forgotten is very difficult to access, for if someone were to comprehend something here, it would fade until once again forgotten. If something could be pulled out of this realm, and not be known until it was safely away though…
Faerie
A full realm of its own, with unique geography and life, Faerie is continuously shifting, coming into contact with the mortal world at different points. These rifts connect to places based not on relative location, but on ideas and associations, and can last anywhere from a couple minutes to a few hours. Faerie is saturated with magic, which affects the life that's developed there and sometimes that which stays there too long - the unique properties of the place, combined with this, can result in dramatic changes to humans in particular if they live there from a very young age.
Faerie is, naturally, home of the Fae, with multiple small communities and individual domains. Its shifting nature lends itself well as a shortcut for travelers who understand the realm, since a short distance in Faerie may bring one to a place with a very different association, with any brushes against the mortal world coming out far from where the traveler originated.
The Soul
The manifestation of a being's uniqueness, self, and personality. It 'grows' with life experience, and small portions can be mostly-safely poured into things that have special meaning to them - it regenerates slowly if someone 'puts their heart and soul' into a project. Intrinsic to an individual, and fades into nothing if they die without it somehow being moved elsewhere - but can return if the person does. All unique entities with a sense of self and a personality have a soul - from humans, to sapient synthetic beings, to living, feeling thoughtforms.
The Spirit Plane
The plane of spirits is not a realm or world of its own, but a layer of reality existing in the same space as the material world and mirroring it. The landscape is like a shadow cast by the physical, reflecting changes made in it and making anything non-organic visible, but lacking anything from there that is or once was alive or part of something living. It is home to spirits of all kinds, though any being in it unhindered by a physical body can move by thought alone, in any direction and don't interact with real matter - the buildings and ground are not actually part of the plane, but only visible from it. This means that the landscape itself can't be changed, or even really interacted with besides just acting and pretending; the reflection is one way.
Beings, Entities, Species
Main Classifications Beyond the Mortal: Spirit, Fae, Thoughtform
Spirits
Entities that are not natively physical, but rather made up of 'spirit energy' (a form mostly unique to denizens of the plane of spirits) and a sort of quasi-matter that said energy can condense into on said plane at a much more efficient rate than any other energy-matter conversion. Every spirit has a sort of affinity, and requires nourishment based on it - these are at an individual level, though some trends can be seen within the same species as well. Some hints might be evident as to a spirit's nature in their form, as a spirit's form is dictated largely by their true self image, not conscious decision. Despite not being physical naturally, many spirits can manifest a physical body with effort, however this becomes extremely difficult to maintain where their affinity is absent, or outside of the domain that it dictates. They can partially sate their needs by eating and sleeping while physical, but their unique requirements still won't go away entirely. Nearly all spirits who can't manifest a body, and some that can, are instead able to possess others in order to interact with the physical.
Due to the fairly significant differences between mortal and spirit 'physiology,' even with a manifested body, spirits don't experience cellular decay or aging, aren't compatible with most diseases, and don't leave behind residue since anything that stops being part of the spirit disappears unless actually try to maintain it. Many spirits, though not all, can set one foot in each 'world', being still non-physical, but able to observe both the material and spirit planes, and interact with both (as long as actual contact isn't required in the material's case). This is not without its risks, since they will be visible to those on the spirit plane still in this state, and thus still exposed to any dangers it may pose, such as those spirits who prey on others of their kind.
Fae
The Fae are a fairly diverse multitude of species, with primary points of commonality being that they are native to Faerie or have been altered by said realm beyond recognition, and all either feel some behavioral compulsion, or have a material whos very touch causes burning pain and greater injury than other materials could. Fae range from solitary to communal, but like the realm in which they originate, are too fluid and needing of freedom to form any sort of organized governing structure. While some Fae crave the power and have the political mind necessary to bend others to their whims, and may take control of a domain or community, these 'kingdoms' are never stable nor widely recognized as an authority of some kind.
Thoughtforms
Born of the directed, focused thoughts and true belief of humans and, on occasion, other beings with at least some level of telepathic ability or connection to the Dreamscape, thoughtforms are as their name suggests, manifestations of thought. Creating one is by necessity a communal activity, as it requires a significant amount of combined conviction and belief that an entity - or on rare occasion object - exists, to the point that no individual could ever hope to form one. The large amount of focus put into an entity psychically directs the stuff of the Dreamscape to slowly create it until it awakens with the abilities (to a degree), personality, and appearance that it is most believed to have - the more specific the better, and the more limited, the better, as they may be 'spread thin' by being thought to have too great of capabilities; even the most powerful thoughtforms could only reach the upper bounds of mortal potential, and it's rare to find one with greater power than any other anomalous being with a couple decades of practice.
Thoughtforms form memories and are shaped by their experiences just as any other being after they first take shape and wake, but their base personality will still be dictated by what they're believed to have - as is their power, and ability to stay alive. They need a constant influx of consideration to sustain themselves, and it takes a lot out of them normally to exist anywhere other than the Dreamscape, especially if they use powers beyond the ability of the average mortal. They can get around this partly by acting through proxies - most thoughtforms, once powerful enough, can bestow a bit of their power on another being if they're believed to be able to do so. In exchange, the being (if they want to keep the 'blessing') will try to help them by spreading the idea of them, or sometimes trying to convince others of details that the entity wishes changed about themselves and has the will to push for.
More Specific Entities, Beings, and Species
Aberration
The worst of the worst because they became the way they are by choice, an Aberration is any person who has undergone a process to turn themselves into parasitic monsters, both physically and mentally, in an effort to unnaturally extend their own lives. Aberrations universally feed on humans to extend their lives, and possess a monstrous form of some kind - though many can disguise themselves as human still. They totally lack any empathy for other beings, are difficult to harm with normal physical attacks, and the change is permanent - there's no going back to what they were before. Fortunately, aberrations are uncommon, and are known to be universally weak against magic weapons.
Angel
Spirit who made a pact with a Thoughtform to be 'blessed' with and share a little of its power, allowing it to more easily manifest where it otherwise couldn't, in exchange for service and a bit of their freedom.
Defiant
True to their name, Defiants are defined by their unique ability to bend or break one natural law, or to deny or reject one commonly understood and accepted concept. They originate from a relatively difficult to access plane called Underworld, and the fact that they usually can only leave via ritual summoning leads many to believe they're demons of some kind. This belief is not helped by the fact that many take advantage of their unique abilities to make offers that would otherwise be impossible in exchange for service or "partnership."
Dragon
Unlike most spirits, 'dragons' have a very strong affinity for the physical world as a whole, to the point where they feel extremely uncomfortable when not manifesting a body. Instead of there being places they can't manifest or feel difficulty doing so, a dragon has difficulty letting go of their body and phasing or going to the plane of spirits. This extends to the point where they're almost like mortals, needing large amounts of physical sustenance since they can't siphon or feed the way most spirits would, and having bodies that stay consistent with the world around them - their wounds don't vanish, and they leave biological residue, with fallen hairs, spilt blood, severed limbs, and so on persisting even after no longer a part of them. Some speculate they may be originally physical creatures that at some point in the past were forced to draw on spirit energy to adapt and survive, until it changed them permanently. Most dragons can take both a humanoid form and a form that one imagines when hearing the name of their species.
Echidnean
Snakelike entities with the head and torso of a human woman. Intelligent, Proud, narcissistic, cruel and power hungry, the depth of their evil is offset only by their rarity, with only one mature Echidnean existing at any given time. The current mature specimen, Echidna, gives the species its name.
Echidneans possess a complex life cycle, beginning with mature and adolescent individuals laying between a hundred and several hundred thousand eggs every year, with egg count increasing with age. Of these eggs, only those of the mature Echidnean may develop into juvenile Echidneans, and of those only with a chance of one in half a billion. The remainder of eggs in both mature and adolescent individuals develop into “false children,” animalistic entities with chaotic forms, most too deformed to survive. Many monsters in many mythologies can trace their lineage back to an Echidnean, giving the species its reputation as the “mothers of monsters.”
Juvenile Echidneans begin life indistinguishable from a large snake, one meter in length. The humanoid characteristics develop quickly but artificially, forced via psychic influence from the mother. The juvenile will grow at a rate of nearly a meter per year until adolescence, occurring at around twelve years of age. At this point both mother and child will grow increasingly hostile towards one another, and the juvenile is forced to leave the den as an adolescent.
Adolescent Echidneans are controlled by an overpowering urge to kill all other non-juvenile Echidneans, a hard-wired instinct irresistible without medication. They continue their growth of a meter per year and begin to lay eggs. Surviving false children are psychically dominated as extensions of the adolescent’s will, a personal army. Adolescents will continue to fight amongst themselves, enslaving the armies of fallen siblings until one grows powerful enough to kill their mother and take her place.
Newly mature Echidneans will find a home deep within the earth and grow to titanic sizes, a hundred meters across and kilometers in length. Mature Echidneans maintain an exceptionally long “tongue,” many times longer than their body, with the appearance of an adolescent Echidnean. It is with this organ that the mature Echidnean interacts with the outside world; not even her children, true or false, will encounter the bulk of her body.
Ghost
Imprints of memory from a dying person who was particularly spiritually attuned, psychically powerful, had excessive determination, went through particular rituals, or had a particularly traumatic death. There are dozens of other possible circumstances that could lead to someone leaving a ghost, and not all are known or understood, but those are the most common. A ghost is not the same person as who they came from, they are but a soulless shade, a memory, a shadow cast by their death. Some will go through the motions of life, or a particular series of actions, while others will seem coherent and be able to respond and react to the world around them, even answer questions.
Lich
Lichdom is the term for achieving immortality by transferring one's mind and soul into an object, called a phylactery. The resulting being is a lich, a sort of undead who controls their body remotely through a soul link stabilized by magic. Due to the residue of the intense energies needed to catalyze the transference ritual, the phylactery is capable of slowly remotely repairing the lich's body, or fully forming a new one if the old is deemed unusable or irretrievable.
A lich is incapable of eating food or drinking anything due to it being dead. Likewise, it lacks brain activity, a heartbeat, any needs to breathe or sleep, and other things required for life. A lich's blood does flow, however, through magical means and only while the lich is inhabiting its body, but this is merely circulation and not the creation of new, oxygenated blood. This is to circulate the soul's connection with the undead body and slow decay, which does happen at a reduced rate, though some artifacts and preservation abilities or magic can halt said degradation. In addition, the soul link is imperfect, leading the typical lich to potentially appear more stoic or lethargic than they were in life.
A lich's phylactery, their soul jar, can be made from most any object that has some meaning to the lich, and must be well-sealed if hollow. A poorly sealed, hollow phylactery could result in bits of the soul "escaping" and causing a decay in the lich's humanity or other emotions. A solid object has a similar problem since the lich's soul is the entirety of the object, if the object is chipped it could cause a small decay in the lich's emotional spectrum. Since this is the housing for the lich's soul and that soul must be able to reach the body, a lich's phylactery must be within a certain distance from the lich. A phylactery should be treated as an artifact for detection purposes, but not mimicry or nullification. If a lich's phylactery was an artifact prior to being used in the transference ritual, it retains its former properties unless the lich absorbs them.
Primal
While many spirits are fully sapient, and often can be grouped into species, there are also those which are partially formed or of lesser intellect. These "primal" spirits have rather specific, narrow affinities, often a single emotion or ideal, and are usually created from large amounts of thoughts or feeling in relation to it. The majority are born from negative emotions and either act in accordance with them, or try to push others to do so in order to sate their needs. Often they can either only manifest with vague features since they have little sense of self to create a firm self image, or else can inhabit and only partially possess other beings to try to nudge them toward certain behaviors, but not fully control them. Primals have been known, as well, to sometimes outright consume the minds of others if allowed to grow powerful enough. The rare strong willed primal may manage to attract many lesser ones and pull them all together into itself to form an amalgamate being.
Remnant
Remnants are the end result of polarization within the latent emotional fields of an area. Areas that witness significantly negative or positive* emotional events over a long period of time will end up spawning entities composed of pure spiritual energy, either positively polarized or negatively polarized. As such, remnants are not corporeal.** Unless somehow depolarized without harm, remnants do not develop souls.
Remnants feed off of spiritual energy, with heavy preferences towards energy compliant with their own polarization. As it does so, the remnant grows stronger, amassing more energy into its being. If no consistent source of properly polarized spiritual energy can be found, remnants will seek sapient creatures for which to induce the emotions necessary for such energy. In some cases, however, mostly in cases where the remnant believe it is being threatened by an outside force, it will attempt to devour the outside force's soul instead.
Remnants have a variety of abilities. Being entities composed entirely of spiritual and emotional energy, remnants have no real physical form, instead being perceived however they wish to be perceived. In addition, remnants left with sapient entities long enough are capable of extracting information relating to said entity's memories and emotional state. Indeed, in some cases, remnants have been known to replicate anomalies bound to someone's spiritual energy.
Remnants can be destroyed through intense exposure to opposingly polarized emotions or some form of spiritual attack.
Due to the current state of humanity as a whole, there are far more negative remnants than positive remnants.
*What constitutes as "positive" or "negative" depends upon the type of entities responsible for the events. In addition, even in humans, they do not necessarily correspond to a good/evil dichotomy. For example, the glee of setting off a bomb inside a hospital could count as "positive" in the correct person.
**Unless a remnant becomes strong enough that it finds itself anchored to the physical realm, though this has happened only one recorded time.
Sidhe
The Aos Si are both a genus of Fae and something akin to a social class, the closest thing that they have to widely recognized "nobility." Sidhe are by far the most beautiful of the Fae by human standards, and in the cases of some species because of their inherent properties, all standards. Like most Fae, they tend to be very 'detached' from human concerns or ideals, having a totally different system and basis of morality. Compared to other Fae, they almost never have material weaknesses, and almost always have a behavioral compulsion - sometimes one which puts them drastically outside of the norm in terms of how they interact with both others of their kind, and those from other realms.
Tear Drinker
"Tear Drinker" is the term used for a member of a parasitic psychic gestalt, typically preying upon and forcibly incorporating humans but potentially infecting other sapient beings. The infected will frequently have its consciousness subsumed into the gestalt, becoming little more than another body for the collective mind. Tear Drinkers experience progressive physical degeneration into a sort of undifferentiated proto-matter, gaining tremendous strength and durability but quickly becoming little more than a sack of black ooze. Apparently, the end-goal of each Tear Drinker gestalt is to grow and merge its components together, becoming a monstrous psionic entity that then ascends to another plane of existence- though anomalies are known to occur, such as the collective known as Anthiel.
The Tear Drinker infection is primarily spread by a highly mutagenic and psy-reactive fluid known as His Tears, the origins of which are a mystery but which may have been created in another world. It is assumed that at the center of each Tear Drinker colony there exists a repository of the substance, and many Tear Drinkers' body fluids carry similar properties, but efforts to locate the source have been unsuccessful. Due to the psychic nature of the infection, it can additionally be spread by a vector known as the "Black Signal," which takes the form of progressively intensifying psychic influence around the vicinity of a powerful Tear Drinker that erodes willpower and causes bizarre spatial anomalies. Those exposed to the 'Black Signal' for extended periods will often fall victim to the gestalt's influence and quickly become infected themselves.
Vampire
Though a category including several subtypes, Vampires can be grouped into two 'main' types depending on their feeding habits; sanguinary and psychic. Sanguinary vampires feed on blood - typically any blood will suffice, and the majority need fairly small amounts, but they do strongly prefer human blood, or at least the blood of other sapients. The reason for this favoritism varies, but could individually stem from a sense of power over the person, other abilities linked to is consumption, addiction, or simply the taste.
Sanguinary vampires almost universally have enhanced senses compared to the human norm, including sight, hearing and touch, but especially smell. It is for this reason that they tend to dislike too much direct sunlight, and can get disoriented from strong smells like garlic or bleach. In some cases, this discomfort is even more serious, potentially fatal (though instances of simply having allergies from a vampire's human days is not unheard of).
Psychic vampires, meanwhile, are a mutation of normal vampirism in which the sensory enhancement targets a human's low level latent telepathy, making them sense the minds of prey instead of smelling them. Instead of blood, a psychic vampire siphons power from the emotions and mental activity of others, leaving them lethargic and tired - though prolonged, continuous feeding can have more serious repercussions. Psychic vampires often end up with empathic or memory-based abilities, or potentially full telepathy. Unlike sanguinary vampires, their bodies still need (and can take) sustenance from normal food.
In both cases, vampires can be considered altered humans, changed by a 'disease' colloquially known simply as vampirism. Vampirism is a noncommunicable magic disease usually brought about by a ritual specific to blood magic, however there have been cases where the entire ritual could be 'contained' within an artifact and triggered later on. Attempts for a vampire to have children is a major risk to either the child or the mother, and is very, very rarely done. In the case of a vampiric mother, a sanguinary vampire's body will try to drain the child's blood, killing it, while a psychic vampire would be in such long term exposure to cause any child to be brain-dead from birth. In the case of a human mother, the reverse occurs, with the mother typically dying by the 7th month or so. Combined with the customs and habits of most vampiric groups, and the fact that only the reasonably smart survive long on their own, this keeps the vampire population low enough to not be much of a threat to the vast majority of humans - not to mention that 'vampire hunter' is a career choice that grows in popularity if they do cause trouble.
Magic is a sort of energy that can be expressed and directed many ways, and converts fairly easily into other types of energy. What makes it most special is that it follows instructions that are present when it is 'pushed' out and willed to take effect. Some confuse this with magic itself having a consciousness or will, but this is simply not the case; magic is no more or less than simply energy with no guiding force behind it except what the instructions of spellcasters give it.
- Spatial - Includes folding space to teleport people or objects, creating pocket dimensions, and disrupting movement.
- Kinetic - Includes moving physical objects within pre-defined parameters, altering the state of potential or kinetic energy, and creating kinetic barriers.
- Thermal - Includes creating and dissipating heat, and moving heat between objects.
- Druidic - Includes controlling and altering plants, communication with and compulsion of non-sapient living creatures, and shaping organic materials.
- Theurgy - Includes rejuvenation, cleansing, exorcism, and apotropaic wards.
- Infusion - Includes temporary enhancements to the body and mind, and the addition of new properties to a being or object.
- Malediction - Includes curses, hexes, and other maleficium and diablerie.
- Dissonant - Includes countering or suppressing other magics, curse breaking, and piercing magic-based defenses.
- Evocation - Includes communication with and the calling or summoning of spirits, thoughtforms, demons, and the like.
- Divination - Includes extrasensory perception, detection, and observation of past events.
- Illusion - Includes manipulation of light and sound, and tricking the senses.
- Mental - Includes judging moods and mental states, mending the psyche, and pushing compulsions.
All specific spells in magic are done by instructing the magic what to do through a formula, but formulae may be expressed in different ways. Though these methods may appear different, they all come to the same core; the methods other than comprehensive, or 'raw formulaic' are ways of using formulae without actually having to hold it all in mind.
Comprehensive (Raw Formulaic) - The most direct way of instructing magic how to behave, resembling something between computer code, mathematical fomulae, and a set of geometrical shapes or a star chart. Grows significantly more complex as conditional statements or more effects are added. Cleanest and most predictable to modify, though steepest learning curve. So named because it requires the deepest comprehension of magic.
- + Requires nothing but focus. Universal, and thus standardized for sharing. Can modify with certain results instead of guessing. Rituals using it can be done regardless of skill, if careful. Any method's spells can ultimately be reduced back to this.
- - More difficult to learn. Easy to miss something or mess up if not carefully observant. No shortcuts for learning or for focusing and using.
Willwork - Uses sheer force of will to direct magic, but only works with an affinity for that sort of magic, and can be unpredictable since the magic doesn't begin to shape with formulaic pathways to follow - rather it has to create them while shaping itself. Still uses formulae like anything else, but the willworker isn't conscious of them, and might not even know them - it just becomes habit to push the magic through themselves in the same few ways.
- + Requires nothing but focus. Spells can be slightly modified on the fly to act differently than usual.
- - Risky and unpredictable. Modified spells may behave strangely. Still bound to formulae, though practitioner may not realize. Requires affinity.
Runic - By giving meaning to particular symbols, builds associations between magic formulae and sets of particular glyphs, runes, or writings, to make the latter trigger the former. With a mix of remembered connections and intent, this can drastically condense written formulae, though only for those who use the same meanings and associations for the runes involved. Runes can be inscribed on anything from skin to paper, triggering their effects with a thought.
- + Good shorthand for written magic that can be taught to others. Lengthens effects of some spells. Easy to keep some delayed-activation spells in wait. Best possible method if planning to make ofuda, since translates easily.
- - Must be able to move to cast, since it requires drawing in the air or on a surface. Shorter range than most magic. Often recognizable.
Verbal / Somatic - Uses particular syllables and/or gestures (or sometimes whole words or dance moves) to identify the method of targeting and the main effects, and strings them together. Works by mentally focusing the caster through their personally learned associations.
- + Personalized and nonstandard; difficult for others to anticipate results without knowing you prior. Easy to make slight modifications to spells by using slightly different gestures/vocalizations (target:projectile instead of target:self for example, or contact:pierce instead of contact:burst).
- - Personalized and nonstandard; difficult to share or to use what's shared by others, have to build your own associations over time. Must be able to speak/move to cast, reliant on 'crutch' to focus magic. Potentially physically exhausting if you dance for a long ritual.
Sympathetic - Uses something strongly associated with or formerly part of a target to affect it, often fetishes, effigies, bits of hair or blood, or personal objects. Less commonly, this method can also use drawings or paintings of the target and the desired spell effect, and in this way does well combined with runic magic. Sympathetic magic can reach a target over greater distances and tends to be more direct, and can give a finer control when it comes to kinetic spells.
- + Longer range and better control, can cast more direct spells even when the target isn't present.
- - Needs a piece of the target or something closely associated with them, bond can be broken if the target changes too much, needs more creativity to work environmental spells.
Blood Magic - Draws on life force, symbolically taken through blood, to enhance magic, often dissolving the blood into magic energy as well in the process. This allows it to be significantly more powerful, but at a higher cost than other forms of magic. It also lends itself to some rather unique spells that other methods can't reliably duplicate.
- + Unique spells. Strengthened through sacrifice. Intimidating.
- - Much weaker without sacrifice. Stigma. Intimidating.
World Anomalous Treatment Committee
An organization dedicated to fostering good relations between the mundane and the anomalous, to improve the quality of life for both sides. They run Fifth Sanctum through a local branch, WATC-Haven, and have inroads with the Yōkai Directorate to share some curriculum and teacher exchanges for their schools. Relations with the GWU are frosty at best, considering the events at Sunnybrook.
World Anomalous Research Directive
WARD is the research and development side of the WATC, and the side that deals with both anomalous threats that may damage public relations, and assistance for 5S students with little control.
Global Watch Unit
Founded November 13, 2016 in the wake of a mission by their predecessor organization to stop a ritual, and a clash with the Bureau, the GWU's mission statement is that "no longer will the world fear or be ignorant of the supernatural." In contrast with their stated purpose however, the GWU actively attempted to keep knowledge of the anomalous suppressed as much as possible, going so far as to drug civilians and kidnap children from their families to "keep them contained." Nearly a year after their formation, their first school, Lunarcross, opened in Narvik, Norway. About three months later, on the anniversary of the GWU's formation, Sunnybrook Academy for the Extraordinary was founded in Windvale, Pennsylvania, with Promethium School for the Gifted opening in Nagasaki, Japan a month later. Of these schools, only Lunarcross remains under GWU control, as they were overthrown at Sunnybrook and the school was evacuated the last day of November 2018, and rebellion forced them out of Promethium in the following days.
Yōkai Directorate
Created after the rebellion at Promethium in Nagasaki, the Yōkai Directorate has converted the school into their very own; Yōkai Academy, with over 85% of its staff being anomalous just like the students.
The Bureau
Once a group dedicated to eradicating any and all anomalous activity, semi-effective only due to their ruthlessness, The Bureau has largely been neutered by the events of October 31, 2018 with the revelation of the "supernatural" to the world. Prior to the formation of the GWU, how a anomalous human found by The Bureau was treated ranged from freezing them in a Cryo-chamber, to locking them in a jail, to other largely undocumented punishments for individuals, usually ones who did nothing wrong. While their scientists have tried to find and remove whatever anomalous qualities their victims had, most of the time they couldn't be "made normal," and would end up imprisoned, frozen, or simply killed and dissected. Even now however, at their lowest point, they find some backers to continue their efforts wherever possible.
Eye of Infinity
Originally a place to find acceptance, the Eye has strayed from their initial goals, leading to some splintering within the faction. They've been known to perform odd acts of terrorism and theft relating to anomalous artifacts, believing them to be safest in their hands, and something "to be used as the rightful tools humanity has always needed." They are also known to have performed many experiments ranging from questionable to outright immoral on the ethical spectrum, though not quite rivaling The Bureau's depravity.
Manus Populi
An extremely secretive group that works from the shadows, nudging events to their liking and using whatever means necessary to move the state of the world toward their unseen end. Their name translates roughly to "The Hand of the People," and with so little known about them, they could be considered a bit of a wildcard - when they show up, and if others can somehow identify an individual as one of their agents.
Firewatch
An international organization featuring twenty of the most powerful anomalies known to man, dedicated to the defense of Earth against the highest-level threats. Ever wonder where anomalies go when they graduate? The best of the best are recruited to Firewatch.
Making the World a Better Place
The rise of the anomalous has led to some abilities being used on a wider scale to make the world a better place to live, or are being used in controlled conditions to be researched and duplicated. Some technologies have arisen from this research, or simply come into being in parallel to recent events. Scientific progress continues ever onward.
Artificial Intelligence
No sapient AI made before 2015 for sure, though some similar entities may have come into existance through other means. First sapient AI programmed by humans was made in late 2017 or 2018, and we have yet to see one made by a non-anomalous human as of mid 2019. Multiple lower-intelligence AIs have been made by multiple sources for quite some time, however.
Kinetic Barriers
First made by WARD in summer of 2019, the early models are still weak and being tested. Nothing stronger is expected until mid-fall, and nothing that can adequately defend against both kinetic and ability-based attacks should be expected until several months after that. It's extremely unlikely that any other organizations will be able to produce or field similar technology before late fall 2019 at best, unless stolen.
Teleportation
A worldwide ban has been levied on technology-based matter to energy teleportation devices after conclusive proof that they kill the user and the soul is distinct from the one that went in. Portal creation devices, however, have been deemed safe and are beginning to see use after one was successfully tested in the early months of 2019, with a production model established in mid spring. As well, multiple anomalous and magic based methods that are being tested for viability on worldwide usage.
