Spirit (ki)

Everyone has some. Cannot affect ki within another living thing; only the ki released from self, subject to the gains made by the Third Stage, which will permit limited affectation of the environment.

A well-developed reserve of ki will slightly lessen the effect of aging, allowing spiritualists to peak in overall fighting ability in their late 50s; can be offset by contaminated spiritual aura [NTD: what’s contamination]. It does not however lengthen the human lifespan.

Theoretical Considerations Regarding the Spirit Sensing the Ki of Other Spirits: Outflows (Ki, Aura, Masking, Spiritual Pressure) and Inflows (Spiritual Sense, Spiritual Pressure and Spiritual Perception)

Spiritualists and beasts are able to invoke what is called the spiritual sense. It is, quite literally, the spiritualists own spirit sensing other spirits. The sensing spirit does so by detecting the subtle and de minimis outflows of ki from other spirits. Well over 99% of the ki put off by other spirits will be gray key, with just a trace amount of ki of the hard affinities most used by the spiritualist or beast.

The spiritual sense typically requires a conscious act in order for the sensations to be conscious.

Spiritual pressure refers then to when the spiritual sensations are so great, that they break through from the unconscious mind into the conscious mind of the spiritualist to be sensed.

The human mind is not capable of natively processing the sensations of the spiritual sense. As such, they are overlaid onto the human senses in a synesthetic process, though this follows a common pattern. First, there is a combination of touch and sight. For sensations within the line of sight, the spiritual sense will overlay onto human vision. With practice, the mind can be trained such that the minute amounts of attuned ki sense can be used to “color” spirits, thus making them more readily identifiable to the conscious mind. For sensations outside the line of sight, it is detected as goosebumps. Second, there hearing. This follows only a level or two about the detectable threshold for sight. At a low level, it may be like some sort of hum or low whistle. At a medium level, a stiff breeze. At higher levels, it has alternatively been referred to as a strong gale, a waterfall, or the distant crashing of ocean waves. Finally, though such reports are difficult to corroborate, at a high enough level, tastes and scents may occur. For neutral spiritual sensations, this is most often reported as a tingle associated with strong spices consumed in quantity, such as chili, nutmeg, pepperbark, or cinnamon. For spiritual sensations laced with killing intent, the scent or taste is reported as that of blood, though it is unclear whether or not the individual in questions were actually tasting their own blood on account of having bitten themselves.

The ki of young humans and beasts is unformed. Though weak, it is openly sensate to all spirits within the local region. Though, on account of its limited strength, such sensation may be difficult and require a fine sense or close proximity.

When a spiritualist or beast learns to form an aura, it is popularly understood that the aura forms a limited protective barrier of the body. While true, the aura also acts to encapsulate the remainder of the spirit, thus making the spirit less perceptible to the spiritual sense. This ultimately makes it possible for large numbers of spiritualists to reside in a densely populated area both with each other and with civilians. Additionally, it is widely believed that the formation of the aura is necessary for the spirit to grow.

Nonetheless, as an aura is ultimately an unconscious state, it is ultimately an imperfect barrier for the spirit and de minimis outflows of gray ki still occur. It is on account of same that spiritualist with auras are still perceptible to the spiritual sense.

Nonetheless, it is possible to augment the aura through conscious effort and, by such effort, limit the outflows of gray ki. This limitations makes it more difficult to sense.

On the other end of the spectrum, a spiritualist with an aura may drop the aura completely. Under such a situation, their spirit remains naked as the day they were born. For E-rankers and above, this will be perceived as spiritual pressure in the vicinity. F-rankers can only exert spiritual pressure by focusing the ki outflows of their spirit all in a single direction. In any event, a naked drop of aura E-ranked or above is usually considered poor form on account of the spiritual pressure put off; on the other hand, pulsing same is generally accepted as a valid means to gather the attention of a large crowd.

More commonly, to the extent that spiritual pressure is intentionally used, it will be focused on either an individual or over a discrete area. In such a manner, it may be much stronger. And particularly in a potential combat situation, it may be an acceptable trade off to partially drop the aura in order to invoke a measureable amount of spiritual pressure in order to ward off a beast.

Without masking, a spiritualist with their aura up will give off enough spiritual pressure to deter beasts three ranks below them without conscious effort (e.g., an D-ranker will deter G-ranked beasts).

A spiritualist may intentionally give off spiritual pressure and deter beasts of any rank below them (e.g., an E-ranker will deter F and G ranked beasts).

Without masking, a spiritualist with their aura up will give off enough spiritual pressure to discomfort humans three ranks below them, and deter humans four ranks below them.

Spiritual perception is arguably unrelated to the foregoing. While a spiritualist can, with spiritual sense, take a guess at the strength of a beast or human opponent, this largely relies on an imprecise measurement to begin with, followed by significant guesswork as to how the outflow or ki relates to the total spirit within the shell of the aura. Spiritual perception aims to correct this in part. Within a reasonable short distance, a spiritual will form a rope (or similar) of gray ki and use it to “feel,” the aura of another. The sensations involved are much more precise than the spiritual sense. However, the use of spiritual perception has complex social rules which govern when it may happen with or without consent, though a sufficient gap in ranking (2 levels) may allow a highly ranked spiritualist to discretely observe a lower ranked spiritualist.

Aura

A personal shield of ki, which up to a certain level will entirely prevent damage, and thereafter will lessen the damage dealt. All humans will instinctively invoke when in danger (fight or flight response), though for normal people, this will be of limited use. Beasts instinctively use their aura to protect themselves. When a human’s ki runs low enough that the aura entirely disperses, a distinctive noise is generated.

Whether or not an attack—physical or ki—will pierce the shield and cause damage is dependent upon the nature of the attack. Thus, a sharp implement has a greater likelihood of piercing aura and cutting the victim. Similarly, certain of the ki affinities, both hard and soft, are well known for greater attacking capability.

Attack: Fire, Water, Earth, Thermal, Kinetic, Electric

Not: Air, Light

Aura is not limited to external wounds, but will also act to prevent or limit internal wounds such as internal bleeding, concussion, etc.

Invoking aura at will is considered the first and fundamental skill of spiritualists; it is frowned upon to call oneself a spiritualist if you are not able to do so.

Spiritual techniques

specific martial art move to invoke attuned ki. Poorly developed due to loss of runic knowledge. In City A, especially deteriorated due to suspicions and competitions between and within the Big Four families. Occasionally re-discovered by accident, these tend to be kept close at hand and frequently die out again due to intrafamilial. More common source for City A is exploring the ruins of the old empires. Also rated on power scale (roughly) based on technical difficulty and the ki needed to invoke. Key attribute of First Stage.

Spiritual pressure/killing intent

When one flares their ki, it can be felt even by those not using spiritual sense and makes one more readily felt from a greater distance by those who can. When specifically directed at a person or thing as a form of psychological warfare by inducing fear, it is referred to as a killing intent (strengthened by battle).

In large settings of spiritualists, a staccato rhythm of spiritual pressure if often used to gather attention and ask for quiet.

Masking

The opposite of spiritual pressure. Capping one’s ki in order to hide ones spirit from a being using spiritual sense. The effectiveness of this technique may be overcome by a more skilled user of spiritual perception.

Spiritual Sense

Ability to use ki to sense the presence and strength of others with spirit. Counterpoint to spiritual pressure and masking. A spiritualists greater skill spiritual sense will increase the range at which spiritual pressure may be sensed. No external use of ki. In battle, may be used to roughly estimate the spirit of another or a beast.

Spiritual Perception

A more invasive version of spiritual sense. Used to more precisely ascertain the spiritual characteristics of an opponent. Requires the external use of gray ki to feel the other’s spirit and thus prone to being disrupted, and so not suitable for use in battle against beasts. Spiritualists dueling will only use spiritual perception upon agreement of the other, as it may be seen as an attack or invasive of one’s privacy. A wide skill gap between the user and the target may allow the user to do so undetected.

[Speaking]

[The use of ki to compel those of weak mind to obey. ]

Strengthening ki

Ki is strengthened by an oscillating cycle of fully utilizing the ki one has at any moment and allowing it to fully recuperate. Overexertion of one's ki can lead to exhaustion and nausea. Exhausting the ki by the same repeated method will slow progress; as such, different method of exhaustion will lead to greater growth in ki strength.

Controlling ki

meditation often an effective means for learning of the nature of ki within oneself; as kinesthesia is knowledge of one's body and how it moves, so too does mediation allow one to under the ki within oneself and how it moves.

Similarly, small scale exercises calling for the precise control of ki are also useful for increasing one's control of key

Ki is thought to move along pathways within the body, occasionally referred to as meridians. As far as the world knows, these are not physical in nature.

Recuperation of ki is increased several fold by mediation. It is unclear why.

Steps of Spiritualism

Qualitative changes in a spiritualists subjective understanding and control of their ki. In theory, no minimum power level is required in order to meet each of the stages, though in practice there is a correlation with greater power required to meet in stage. Further, reaching a new stage will cause the spiritualist to increase in effective power, though whether that is sufficient to jump up the scale varies.

First Step (initiation) –being able to invoke protective aura at will, is considered the minimal mark before one may be called a spiritualist

Second Step (internal) – use of (unattuned) ki to enhance strength and movement; key differentiator between the F-ranked and E-ranked

Third Step (external) - consistently output attuned ki to attack.

Fourth Step (environment) - invoke and control external ki intuitively (without the need for specific movements); when external ki comes in contact with the corporal element invoked, limited control of the elements in the environment may be achieved; reduces the ki cost of having to create the element, and only the ki cost of the procedural nature need be invoked

As such, the third stage both eliminates unnecessary movement to invoke ki attacks, thus lending itself to a much more fluid fighting style, and greatly reduces overall ki costs in such attacks, causing battles between practitioners to last much longer.

Fifth Step (enlightenment) – limited prescience

The Third Stage is considered semi-mythical in City A, with the last known individual in their recorded history being a king from about 1500 AG. Rumor that the ruling queen has reached that stage but kept quiet about it for unknown reasons.

There is nothing intrinsic in the ordering of these techniques, though conventional wisdom is that they should be trained and mastered in a particular order. Thus for instance, without being able to invoke a protective aura at will, serious sparring is impossible and a human’s life would be in great danger with every beast attack. Although spiritualists are more well known for their flashy ki attacks, such attacks require years of mastery in not only using them, but using them effectively in a combat situation. As such, a student who has reached the First Stage will almost always beat a student who has reached the Second Stage, as the former will simply dodge the attack, and knock out their opponent. Even with beasts, it is far better to have positioning on the beast then it is to throw away ki on attack. That said, a mastery of the Second Stage is needed to fully under ki and how it works on an intuitive level. Without such an understanding, the Third Stage is truly impossible. As to the Fourth Stage, the prescience granted is rather limited, and without the ability to effectively block and counterattack, it is of limited value.

Attuned ki

Ki is often attuned to an element; elementally attuned ki attacks tend to be more effective. However, doing so requires specific movements before the Third Stage (relationship between movements (t-dimension) and runic symbols). Development armed and unarmed martial arts. Former more effective in battle; latter more effective for training. Hard and soft types. Can also be used for healing, though more effective with anatomical knowledge. Martial arts involved in invoking attuned ki are very specific and require a high degree of study and practice to invoke successfully at all, let alone on the battlefield. Moreover, because of similarities in the spiritual techniques used to invoke each element, there is a popular misconception that spiritualists have an intrinsic affinity to a specific type of attuned ki. This is actually a learned response, but due to popular confusion, it will often affect the manifestation of a person's aura which, while inconsequential over years, over the decades will tend to counterbalance the positive impact that ki has on the body leading them to peak in fighting power in their late 30s/early 40s. Nonetheless, even spiritualists at the Third Stage and beyond will continue to use weapons in battle, though no longer limited by the need to invoke specific movements to invoke. As such, their armed martial arts tend to evolve with experience.

Humanity typically divides attuned ki into 8 elements; 4 corporeal (hard); 4 procedural (soft).

Hard (Matter)

Soft (Energy)

Real World Analogue

Fire

Light (dark)

EM radiation

Water

Thermal (heat)

Thermal energy

Earth

Kinetic (waves)

Kinetic energy

Air

Electric (magnetic)

Electromagnetic energy

Generally, corporeal ki is persistent, while procedural ki is ephemeral. Of course, that doesn't mean the corporeal ki will stay. Wind may blow away, water evaporate, fire run out of fuel, and earth may erode, it's just more likely to stay.

Corporeal ki requires a minute amount of the pre-existing material to work. Cannot invoke air ki in a vacuum, earth ki in the clouds, or water ki in the desert. There are no perfect vacuums in this world, a grain of sand is enough, humidity can be pulled from the air, and fire only requires a hot spot rather than open flame. (Unclear what the fuel is, though clearly it burns out; may gray ki itself?).

Conservation of mass between gray ki and attuned ki. Make a kg of earth, need a kg of gray ki. As such, fire ki and air ki tend to be creation. Earth and water ki techniques tend to be more about movement and bending to will, rather than raw creation (except with respect to flasks, which are a survival tool, and a kg of water is worth a lot more than a kg of ki). Not sure where the ki mass comes from.

Procedural ki must be invoked in connection with corporeal ki. Each procedural type has a corporeal type which it is strongly aligned with, two it is weakly aligned with, and one it is weakly aligned with. Alignment primarily has to do with the ki cost associated with applying a procedural quality to it. Procedural ki need not necessarily be invoked when invoking corporeal ki, though this is difficult before the Third Stage.

Light

Kinetic

Thermal

Electric

Fire

2

1

0

1

Earth

1

2

1

0

Water

0

1

2

1

Air

1

0

1

2

So, you could create an air-quake or a cold-fire, but it'll be inefficient. As such, they would tend to be utilized for highly specialized applications if at all (so not in City A).

Light

Kinetic

Thermal

Electric

Fire

Torch

Hellfire

Fireball

Fire Crystal

Hotfire

Coldfire

Electrofire

Magnetofire

Earth

Earthglow

Shadow

Earthquake

Stone

Magma

Fridge?

Battery?

Magnet

Water

Waterlamp

Shadow?

Waterball

Ice Nine

Steam

Ice

Lightning whip

Magneto whip

Air

Glowball

Shadow?

Air knife

Cloud Pillow

Space Heater

Air Conditioning

Lightning Strike

Magneto

Gray ki (Unattuned ki)

Natural state of ki within the body. Ideal use is as part of spiritual aura. Gray. Unlike attuned ki pre-Third Stage, specific movements are not required in order to invoke gray ki, either internally or externally.

Not often used as an attack due to its weak nature vis-à-vis attuned ki. But useful externally for movement, and other non-combat applications. It can also be used to apply pure force in situations where kinetic ki should not apply.

Gray Ki has mass, but is wholly incorporeal, which is akin to the soft affinities. Greatest cultivators weigh tons. Fights lead to weight loss but not volume loss.

Ki is recovered at approximately 12.5% of the maximum per hour, though this may vary slightly from person to person. With no other interference, a depleted stock of ki will take about 8 hours to recuperate. Meditation is known to decrease this, though the extent of which it does so varies based on the skill of the person and the technique used. Typically, 4 hours while meditating is usually, and one of exceptional skill could fully recuperate in 2 hours.

Theoretical Consideration Regarding the Origin of Ki and Its Transformation Into Attuned Ki

The following information is unknown to the characters and human society, though perhaps hints may be dropped throughout.

All matter of the world experiences a half-life whereby it is likely (over long period of times) to spontaneously convert into gray ki. On account of the huge mass of the planet, this allows for large amounts of ambient gray ki. Though like a fish who does not recognize water until it is absent, spiritualists are unable to detect this ambient gray ki and to the best of their knowledge, it emerges spontaneously. Moreover, their collection of ambient gray ki is so miniscule that it would cause no holes in it. While a spiritualist of the Third Step could theoretically harness the environment gray ki, the failure to understand its presence means that it cannot occur.

The human conception of attuned ki is a human overlay on a process they fail to understand.

In truth, ki may be converted into any form of matter or energy. However, it requires an understand of the desired end product sought in order to create. The eight attuned ki known to human society may be broken down into 3 of matter (air, earth, water) and 5 of energy (fire, light, electricity, thermal, and kinetic). It is only due to human symmetry biases and it is usually broken down into 4 x 4. In truth, fire ki mostly consists of converted the gray ki into flammable gray ki and lighting it on fire. It is the human ignorance as to matter that prevents other types from being made, particularly with complex hydrocarbons. Water is pure; air is primarily simply N2 and O2 molecules and are well within human understanding. Earth is more difficult for humans to create, and most humans will only create one or two types of earth if they focus on it. Though across the spectrum it is quite a many. Some artists can create many and they are earth obsessed. Moreover, though sand may be created, soil may not. Something like a messy sedimentary earth is almost impossible for a human to create.

The bottom line is that complex organics and even life can be created, but require a fundamental understanding of same. This is the nature of Ashira’s lifeshaper profession.

Nearly everything that a human comes into contact with in the barely civilized world is a complex organic.

One aspect of human misunderstand is that metal cannot be ki formed. In truth it can, and the Great Forgers keep this a secret, though they have little use for it. The problem is twofold. First, they think they cannot so they cannot. Second, even when they do, the bindings of metal atoms together is sufficiently misunderstood that the product is extraordinary friable, quickly oxidizes, and so may be mistaken for earth or simply that ki created metal rusts away instantly.