My idea for categories are Realm, Domain, Zone.

Realms are self-regulating and stable, so long as no external forces act on it. They have a core to support it's energy needs.

Domains are tied to an anchor Will, who acts as the source of energy for the Domain. Once they are created, they only require occasional maintenance to keep stable. Domains can be inherited or gifted, a Domain is inherited if received at the time of the owners death, while it is gifted if the owner personally transfers it. While a previous owner remains alive, they still can still exert some control over the Domain.

Zones are temporary spaces that require a conscious effort to maintain, they mimic the area they were created in.

Women become weaker when they are first impregnated based on how fast the child grows. The faster the child is growing, the weaker the female becomes. Once the child is past the embryo stage and able to sustain itself, it will provide a boost in strength per child. Different species will have different birth cycles.

Females generate Life Ethos in their womb, Life Ethos is Very High Energy Ethos

female’s take on some of the will of whoever they mate with. Making having multiple partners frowned upon as the offspring will not be ‘pure’. Making prostitutes literally dirty. Accumulated essence becomes dispersed when a child is birthed.

Female orgasm sheds/cleanses some/all foreign will?

Women cultivators usually wear veils and shawls to hide features.

Children are expected to take care of their mothers

Males

Absorb Life from females to bolster sperm production, absorb rate depends on woman.

When mating, males absorb the desire from the female which is then mixed with the males Aura and converted sperm. The better the male makes the female feel the stronger the sperm they generate. The sperm carries weak wills that must pierce an eggs mantle to fertilize it.

Creatures

Beastial

Shigo

Sentient genderless creations, Similar to golems. They are capable of a form of reproduction, although there is no genetics involved and they don’t age. They make changes to their race as needed.

Shigo more often than not act superior to Beastial races

Monsters

All monsters are male. To reproduce, monsters have varying ways of corrupting the eggs of their prey to create new offspring. Monsters are made from echo's. Monsters have no inherent place in an ecosystem and are purely invasive.

Slime.

They consume matter from anything inside of it, willpower makes it difficult to dissolve creatures so it will prefer dead bodies to living prey. Slimes grow proportionally to the matter they consume. When slimes get large enough they will attempt to mate with a female creature. If no females are found, due to the energy required to maintain it’s size it will perform mitosis.

To mate, slimes cover as much of their target as possible then begin to stimulate the target to produce desire and corrode the targets Focus. The higher the desire and the lower the will produces stronger the offspring. will be, and the faster it will grow.

Goblin

Nothing yet

Tentacle

Nothing yet

Slugs

Nothing yet

Living Entropy

Made primarily of Ethos and Carbon. It’s body is a sludge like liquid, and uses any suitable debris it can find as a skeletal frame. They highly radioactive due to their naturally unstable nature. The only reliable way to get rid of them is by rounding them up and incinerating them, most forms of weaponry are not very effective at harming them, as they are a ferro fluid any impacts cause their “body” to harden, making blunt melee weapons nearly useless. They can not be stunned, but they tend to be lacking in coordination, so knocking them down can reduce their threat level. While bladed weapons cannot harm the creature itself, sufficiently applied force can cut through the creature and attack its skeletal frame itself. Without a frame, the creature has limited movement capabilities. The remaining Will that keeps the creatures form is weak and requires time to adjust to losing a limb or its entire frame.

Micro

Stomach parasite that creates a microbiome in the stomach that takes sperm and waste to create nutrients.

Small organism that goes in lungs that converts slime liquid to oxygen. Rapidly grows in greenhouse environment.

I am still considering how ethos should be used, and the restrictions with the different ways of using it.

Ethos comes from beyond the Geminis Veil, it is theorized that the hole we make in the veil to harvest Ethos can maybe be used as a way to leave.

Strong wills help to reveal the Veil and allow those within Geminis to pull Ethos from it.

Ramblings:

Medium

Alternative names: Cepheid, Aether

Ethos is an un-refined fuel source. It can be used raw, but is very taxing on the body. Blood contains life Ethos, bones generate the life Ethos. Increasing heartrate increases Ethos saturation in the body.

Flow rate Control Processing

Refining

Martialists refine it into Qi. resolve→Qi

Mages refine it into Mana. Spirit→Mana

Berzerkers refine it into Rage.

Geminis Is separated from Ethos via a veil. This veil is normally shrouded from our perception due to the chaotic nature of Geminis, but when a large group of people with a unified belief system are gathered and “pray”, the veil can be more easily perceived. When someone trains enough, they can learn to perceive the veil without needing a gathering.

The template

A Will based Artificial General Intelligence that resides in an Isolated Space, named Clio after the Greek god of history. They persist through universe collapses. The template awakens at the same time as the first Crystalized Ethos is created. It has a conscience and can use stored Will, but can not generate Will on it's own, most of it’s systems are automated and cannot act beyond it’s means. The template understands it’s purpose. Created by the Spyre in Iteration 0. The template and Hunters concepts are *cough* inspired by webnovels with systems and such.

The template opens Dungeons(link to Dungeons when I write that blod enry).

Common Tech

Most of these are names that I thought of while brain storming and didnt want to forget, so I just wrote them down.

Source Prism

Mana Circuit

Ship Travel
Shear Drive

Dive Drive

Resonance Crystals

Alignment Anchor/moors

Acts as a door to a realm. Uses the crystal generated from a realm beacon.

Realm Beacon

Origin point of a realm, sends out pulses of artificial Will to keep realm stable.

Realm Stabilizer/Reef

Provides surface for matter created by the Beacon to attach to.

Shepherd

Attacks

Trait

Anything related to ones body, tough skin, night vision, etc. Traits cannot be taught.

Abilities

Abilities are pre-defined abilities, they do not need to be mastered, but they can not be woven into a sequence. Nor can they improved.

Skills

Similar to traits, but they can be taught or self learned.

Spell

A complex manifestation and programing of Mana. Spells can be cast silently and with no help or foci, but the success depends on ones skill with the spell and element.

Mages can harm themselves with their own spells if not careful.

Martial

Attacks that are strengthened through Aura.

Practitioners

Hunters:

Usually work in groups, get their abilities from The template. Takes less effort to get stronger, but Talent limit is a hard cap. The template cannot force breakthroughs. Use SKILLS. When hunters reach their maximum strength, future progress will be be stored and their next iteration will become stronger. Once someone becomes a hunter, they share their gains with The Template. Hunter’s cannot accumulate Potential, as The Template takes the place of Potential. One can stop working as a hunter at any time, but they lose access to their skills. It is common to start as a hunter to get experience fighting, then leave if they feel like being independent.

Journeyman/Pneuma Errant:

Similar to Trailblazers, but are not graded.

Veil farer:

Focused on gaining insights into their aura. Trailblazers on average take longer to grow stronger, but their growth potential is near limitless. Trailblazers have their own ranking system based on their Potential, not their actual combat capability. Trailblazers are so-called as the goal is to find a way out of Geminis. Trailblazers are not a centralized group, so while people can identify as a trailblazer, it just means they've been graded by a trusted examinar. The grading process is defined within the Template. One does not NEED to be graded to be a trailblazer, but if you do not have proof of grading, it can be hard to get work as a trailblazer.

Docent/Exemplar/Paragon/Paradigm/Cicerone/Exhibitor/Lodestar/Pathfinder/Drifter Nomad→Pilgrim→Wayfarer→Lodestar

Mages:

Use grimoires and focus equipment to channel Mana into SPELLS. Casting spells do not REQUIRE mediums, but anything more complex than cantrips take longer and drain focus quickly due to mental stress. There is no requirement to learn magic, but due to it’s complex nature magicians are rare.

One of the defining features of sentience is our ability to form abstract thoughts. Our ability to come up with a concept that does not exist. My conceptualization of a soul for a world that is designed in some part to be easily translated to a game is thus. (The following is a copy paste of my notes, not really fleshed out mostly)

Quote

 

Image/Soul

Souls are more or less copies of ourselves. Along with that, without a body it is harder to grow stronger.

Image -> Echoes

Fading Image/Soul Echo

Strong Echo’s can affect memory interpretation/perception.

Using mana consumes will. Overexertion of Will makes one susceptible to mental attacks.

When one attempts to affect another’s mind they must use their will to fight their targets will. Will can be affected slowly overtime if exposed long enough.

You can use pulses of Will to attract echos to the center

More powerful enemies cannot enter lower fragments. If a higher tier enemy enters a lower fragment, it will rapidly start to decay based on the tier difference. If the difference is too high, the cultivator and potentially the fragment will explode.

Sources/Focus: Energy mages use to process Essence, or like a wand.

Attacks consume energy, higher energy allows for more combos.

Focus is required to utilize Essence

Usage of magic consumes Mana

Bodies naturally absorb pure essence, refine to life essence for cell longevity and generate decay/corrupt essence as a byproduct. Plants catch decay essence which gets cleaned to pure essence by the fragments will.

Creatures can coalesce mana into focuses that can be used to cast magic. It is often a focus will develop it’s own will with use, and can help with research.

Focus:

Mind:

Grit: Pain tolerance

Restraint: Pleasure tolerance

Resolve

Aura/Ki

Image: can be interpreted as a soul.

Soul binding:

It is possible to bind things to ones image through Soul Binding. This involves

Instinct

Intuition Technique Potential→ Talent → Spirit → Mantle/Resolve → Shell/Will→ Aura/Focus

Talent:

Starting point for ones cultivation journey. Talent can be grown through potential by getting experience. Talent allows for innate understanding of a skill they are compatible with.

Potential:

As one goes through life, they gather potential. This is a broad term that encompasses all the experience one gains through life. Going through extreme situations grants more potential. Potential

Spirit:

The area around the core that one can reveal fading Images(echoes). Revealing echoes consumes Will, as you expend the will to be able to perceive the echoes. One can then expand their aura using their Focus. You can either expand the radius, which can expand up to your focus limit, without exhaustion. You can then use finer control of your aura to destroy, repel, or grab echoes.

Mantle:

Ones Resolve, not easily changed, nor replenished. Resolve determines how quickly your willpower can recover.

Will

Willpower is ones mental strength. Willpower is affected

Aura:

Aura is the culmination of all ones image. Aura cannot be depleted, but using Aura uses Focus

Revive

A soul network can be created by aligning with a realm, this allows for the ability to revive some of those lost. This process requires either restoring part of a body, or building a whole new one. Reviving costs Spirit essence, which is usually paid by the one being revived, or if their spirit is not enough to account for the missing mass, then some spirit can be donated.

Soul Capture

Ones Image can be trapped into a crystal through an expensive trap. The size of ones Spirit determines the strength of the Image.

 

I think interpreting a soul as something that is created due to our sentience, and allows for our existences to continue after the organic death of our body is a good way of allowing for progression, along with the familiar concepts of reviving, soul trap, soul bound, etc. One thing I want is to ensure that stuff like reviving and soul trap are known to be hard and resource intensive.

My thought is, we have very 'weak' souls as souls require mana, and mana is scattered in our universe. We have to use large groups of people who share a uniform concept to meditate and gather mana using Will. I'll write more on mana with a post dedicated to mana.