The stuff the world runs on
Score: 616 | 8/18/22 |
Newly Formed regions come saturated with raw psychic energy, and go through a process of Depletion as it's removed.
Types of Energy
There are three different types of energy, each related to the next.
Raw Psychic Energy
Raw Psychic Energy comes infused in New Regions; it's required for the creation of all life, where it gets structured structured into Soul Energy, and such living thing (especially creatures with intelligence) produces potent, refined psychic energy for as long as it's alive.
Soul Energy
Soul Energy is the structured energy of the soul; it represents the quintessence of mortal life, and also the life stuff of the Undergods. When associated with mortal life, Soul Energy continues to generate refined psychic energy.
Harvesting
When a creature dies, its soul energy is released into its immediate environment. The longer that soul energy remains, the more likely it is to attract supernatural critters which would feed on it. Ghosts, Soul Sparks, even mindless aetheric clouds may come to haunt an area with a large amount of ambient soul energy. For this reason, it's generally best if the energy is properly Harvested and sent to an Undergod's Undermantle.
Harvesting is done by those who serve a given Undergod in one fashion or another; a plague doctor may Harvest from dying patients in exchange for the spells to heal their other patients. A torturer will Harvest from his victims for his own vile purposes. A gravetender will Harvest to prevent the accumulation of pests.
The Undergods also have their own preferences for the soul energy they're sent; The Serene will not be pleased if they're sent the soul energy of a murder victim, and The Damned might even retaliate if sent the soul of someone who died peaceably in their sleep...
Necromancers may Harvest to provide themselves with the energy required for spellcasting, but it's generally much easier to get the energy from a patron, so instead they'll transfer the energy to a patron, who is likely to give them much more energy in return. Necromancers of evil patrons may be under an obligation to provide a given quota of soul energy.
Refined Psychic Energy
Refined psychic energy is the life stuff of the Gods, sent to them by mortals through the worship of their Mantles.
When put to similar uses, refined psychic energy is much more potent than raw psychic energy; the consumption of raw psychic energy when refined psychic energy is technically possible is generally considered to be an evil act, particularly given that raw psychic energy is not renewable.
Worship
Worshipping is the voluntary sending of refined psychic energy from a mortal to a god or mantle. Gods will sometimes grant favors in return for worship, but not always.
Formation
Formation is the act of giving shape to The Void, and requires a great deal of psychic energy, typically provided voluntarily by large groups of mortals working together in concert.
Magic
Magic requires energy to function.
Arcane
Arcane magic relies on raw psychic energy, drawn from the region or some special type of storage vessel. Arcane spellcasters intending to travel through Depleted regions must take care to conserve their energy, and possibly rely on charged magic devices like wands and potions. Fully depleted regions will not allow them to regain spell slots after resting, but partially-depleted regions may allow them to regain lower-level spell slots.
Beware! People living in depleted regions may have a very strong dislike for arcane spellcasters, and laws against arcane spellcasting in regions nearing Depletion can be quite severe! Once cut off from access to the Void regions by the Canait Kingdom, the Vecurian Empire immediately instituted licensing requirements for arcane spellcasting, before outlawing the practice entirely with severe penalties.
Artifacts
Arcane artifacts with charges naturally hold raw psychic energy within them. Arcane focuses are used to channel and manipulate raw psychic energy in some way.
Warforged
Warforged operate on a lot of raw psychic energy, and drain the land around them while operating. A warforged starved of this energy source will shut down and go dormant after a couple days. A dormant warforged when provided with a source of psychic energy will, after a couple days, wake back up.
Warforged don't automatically shut down from exposure to antimagic fields, but an antimagic field sustained for days will cause them to go dormant, as it will suppress their ability to absorb local raw psychic energy.
Necromancy
Necromancers are spellcasters who work with and manipulate Soul Energy. Necromancers will often have an Undergod as a patron.
Artifacts
Necromancers often will use a focus, which helps them channel and manipulate raw psychic energy in generic or specific ways.
Divine
At their core, divine spellcasters channel favors by their gods, who use refined psychic energy to do their work. Divine spellcasters are granted packaged refined psychic energy to power their spell slots by some deific house, mantle or diety they pray to.
Some divine spellcasters have managed to acquire a mantle, a dangerous type of artifact which can be worshiped by mortals to funnel refined psychic energy to its wielder. Such things are dangerous because of how supremely powerful they can be; a mortal spellcaster would do well to watch their backs, as such things are worth entire kingdoms and more to the right person.
Soul Sparks are a special kind of divine spellcaster, in that their entire substance is refined psychic energy, and it is their own substance that they spend to cast spells. Most Gods are simply Soul Sparks with a lot more energy than you.
Artifacts
Mantles enable the wielder to receive refined psychic energy from others, most notably from mortals via worship. Mantles are generally associated with an abstract concept, such as "music", "prosperity" or "law as taught by Fys". They are quite powerful, and almost always only held by gods; a mortal wielding a mantle is likely to have a lifespan ending on the point of a dagger.
Divine focuses are mantles of a more limited function; they enable a divine spellcaster to receive energy from their god's house.
(image by midjourney)