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It is our life-force, the reason why we are alive, the reason for our existence, our actions and our thoughts. It is a way of thinking, an uncontrollable current that runs though us all. Light and dark, everything is borne out of pure Essence.

- Unknown
Demon crisis

Two Essence users, one Demonic (left) and one Psionic (right), facing each other during the War of Ages.

Essence, Energy, and magic are names given to a variety of supernatural phenomena and forces throughout the Omniverse. In the narrow of sense of the word, "Essence" comprises only those phenomena which have historically been speculated to be reflections of an underlying "Pure Essence", a category which excludes some forces such as Valin'uvalyë.

Properties[]

What makes Essence "supernatural" is that it does not follow the mechanistic laws of physics that otherwise define the Realitos Realm: it is non-local synchronicity, which means that it can make direct connections between things that are separated in space and time. This has many practical consequences: essences are not bound by the arrow of time, they can couple directly to emergent and abstract objects instead of manipulating individual atoms, and they need not obey local conservation laws such as conservation of energy. The most common ways of interacting with essences are through their couplings to mental processes and material properties.

Souls and Essence abilities[]

When essences couple to mental processes, they are able to bind themselves to living or synthetic minds and process information in a similar fashion. A mind or a portion of a mind that is made of Essence is known as a soul. When minds are alive, their bound essences have the potential to grant them a degree of control over the physical world in ways that are characteristic of the essences in question. Upon death, or through the processes of Ascension and Descension, minds may be fully transferred into Essence, granting them an afterlife in immaterial form.

An individual needs to have an appropriate mental architecture for exploiting their connection to Essence. Training is almost always required to reorient the psyche into being a more efficient "antenna" for Essence, although certain people (and species) can have natural affinities towards Essence by being born with the necessary mental qualities already present to a degree. The material side of this architecture usually works by establishing a physical connection to hyperspace by emitting biophotons which quantum-tunnel into the Essence-rich realm; anti-Essence technologies such as yrsalimus take advantage of this by disrupting these pathways.

Almost every culture in the universe has its own traditions relating to Essence, from the engineering-focused Neural Physics of the Krassio to the sacred Mystic Arts of the Antroth. These practices have sometimes grown in significance to the extent of defining entire cultures, especially when they have been developed so as to synergise with the innate abilities of a species. The most widespread means of harnessing Essence are Elemental energy techniques, which work by focusing on balance and on mental worlds. They are available to nearly all life in the universe, but progress is time-consuming and fraught with roadblocks, so most users of elemental only attain relatively weak Essence ability over the course of their lives. Those who do master elemental claim they can use it to perceive essence in insightful ways that can complement other Essence practices.

Materialised Essence[]

Materialised Essence is produced when essences bind to material properties. The essence will be responsive to mental commands directed through the matter, while the matter can respond to psychic commands directed through the essence, and the entire substance can take advantage of both Essence's freedom from, and matter's adherence to, conventional physical laws.

Most appearances of materialised Essence are in fluidic form, taking the form of glowing gas, liquid, or beams of plasma when an individual channels Essence abilities. It is from these manifestations that the words "essence" and "energy" became used to refer to the supernatural phenomena as a whole.

Solidified Essence is significantly less common than fluidic Essence and is usually produced by Essentials for the benefit or detriment of mortals. There are three main categories of solidified Essence minerals, classified by their most common uses: aneumetrites, which are focused on violating conservation laws, often producing power, thrust, or particles out of nothing; metavlitites, which have physical properties that are impossible in regular matter, such as metal-like crystals that have high reflectivity and malleability but almost zero electrical conductivity; and veneficites, which enable individuals to utilise Essence by assimilating the material into their bodies and which usually have aneumetrite and metavlitite features to aid in this purpose. Important forms of solidified Essence include the nigh-invulnerable metavlitite gyronidium, the multipurpose metavlitite shidium, the benign veneficite holomatter that provides access to Chronoscopic, and malignant Chaotic veneficites that corrupt the body in the process of Descension.

Division and Variations[]

Most supernatural forces share a few defining features: a deity or godform, which some philosophies describe as being the means through which "pure Essence" is filtered to produce a set of unique properties and specialised abilities; Essentials and a realm, which are composed of the essence and typically serve its ruling deity; and a particular colour scheme, associated with materialised Essence.

Despite their conceptual similarities, the gods, Essentials, and planes have diverse origins. For example, the Nightmarish Shu'rimrodir originated as a non-sapient spaceborne organism and his realm was created inside the pre-existing Realm of Dreams, while the Aberric Khi'voranix is a Hierophant who is the realm of Marrow himself.

Another common pattern among the essences is that several of them exist in pairs, where the two essences are polar opposites and nullify each other upon physical contact. One of each pair is known as "light", "celestial", "constructive", "contiguous", or "good", while the other is known as "dark", "chaotic", "destructive", "disruptive", or "evil"; most complex life cannot thrive within the influence of the latter essence. Celestial Energies tend to be associated with light colours, often blues, whites, or golds, while Chaotic Energies tend to be darker, associated with reds and blacks. Three of the Chaotic Energies are associated with Xhodocto Eyes: Demonic is a product of Ekthrikos, Nightmare was born of Diafthora, and Death has a connection to Terastia.

Theorists have speculated about other dualities among eight of the paired essences: mental (psionics and dreams) versus material (life and time); and non-living (psionics and time) versus living (dreams and life).

The essences are summarised in the table below, where the first Energy of each pair is Celestial and the second is Chaotic.

Pair Energy Deity Essentials Colours Plane(s)
Unpaired Mystic Ultimate One Various Blue-purple Atlantica Realms
Celestial Kkia'Sihm Obvia'Atra White, gold Illum Alta
Aberric Khi'voranix Khaûrik-thazhaurin Green, black Marrow
Life/Death Life Jivanavartin Vi'Navitum White, gold, blue Erratsactum
Descension (Life variant) Vaxal Myraad Aichatharna None None
Death Mrityavartin Xi'Arazulha Red, aquamarine, black Shard
Dream/Nightmare Dream Sonhadromerith Thoi'olerthae Blue-white, gold Realm of Dreams
Nightmare Shu'rimrodir Shu'olerthae Red-purple, black Nightmare Region
Psionic/Demonic Psionic Singul'Aren Iluvii None Iluvii Realm
Demonic Ekthrikos Samut'angar Red, orange, black Inferno
Chronoscopic Light Chronoscopic Vyro'Nazdea Vyro'Narza Gold, green Vyronia
Dark Chronoscopic Vyro'Ralzora Vyro'Ralza Red, purple, black Ralzacia
Existence/Nonexistence Chromatic Queen Alice Elder Beings Red, green, blue Accel Space
Void Ara Maya Forgotten Gods Black, aquamarine, white The Abyss

Following a similar pattern, although usually excluded from Essence compendiums, are the Light and Darkness of Valin'uvalyë, associated with the Oikoumene.

Notes[]

  • Users are not allowed to create new types of Essence, although new Essence techniques are not restricted. If you would like your fiction to have access to any specific essence, use an existing one (with its creator's permission) rather than making one from scratch.
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