Overview

Phrenics are the first spiritualists borne from humanity. By the use of the Vital Breath technique, they condense pneuma—vital breath—from their surroundings, gaining enhanced speed and strength.

Magic is the flame. Mana is the fuel. And the mage is the spark and the wind. They manipulate the essence of creation, molding paradoxes out of clay wrought from the astral void.

The Phrenics, Gatherers of Vital Breath

Spiritualists are those that rely on their spirits, be they from within or without. Phrenics are a class of spiritualist that fuels their magic by drawing on their surroundings. They use their spirits to gather pneuma and enhance their bodies, turning into leaves in the wind. No blade finds them easily or without toil.

The primary shield and weapon of the phrenic is the skin of their spirit, known as the aura. It is animated by the wind mana that flows into their lungs, the water mana that courses through their veins, the life mana that threads through their bodies, and the grey mana that makes up their intangible high-spirits.

Auras are ethereal when at rest, not interacting with the physical plane much if at all. They can be condensed and manifested in the prime-material, creating a barrier of mana that dispels blunt force. This is an auric shroud, an aura given physical form. They can be further augmented or tweaked. Blood mana can enhance all aspects of a shroud for a few moments before exhausting one's vitality. Wind mana can transform an auric shroud from a shield into a whirlwind, passively deflecting blows and increasing speed. Water mana adds fluidity and allows a mage to better dispel and direct force.

The permutations of mana that can animate or enhance a shroud can be found in their surroundings. As such, most of its fuel can come from without in conjunction from within. A mage may draw upon the ethereal tide that swells and ebbs, and the Aether that connects all life, to power an auric shroud.

The Aether is a magical plane that connects all life, made primarily of life mana that dissipates from living beings. It nurtures and protects ecosystems, creating and maintaining the ideal balance for life to evolve. The ethereal tide, simply known as the Tide, is a magical plane made of the ebb and flow of wind and water mana. It is a sea of magical essence found in the air in which spirits swim.

Techniques: The Vital Breath

The phrenic breathes in, his breath coming quick and powerful. He slowly lets air out from his lungs until there is nothing left. He is empty. He pulls at the air around him, using the tug of the Center of his spirit. He opens his lungs to the essence of life in his surroundings. Power floods him. In his veins, both in spirit and body, courses the distilled power of vitality. With both blades in hand, he becomes a whirlwind.

The Vital Breath works by drawing on aetheric mana and the ethereal tide. The mana is drawn into the lungs by mastery over wind essence, pulling it within the body and spirit. Water mana and life mana are drawn in with the essence of the wind. Mana enters the bodies of the mage, powering them with vitality.

This power is known as pneuma or vital breath. Pneuma enhances one's speed, the force of their attacks, and their aura. It is one of the first spiritual techniques known to humanity.

Pneuma is spread through the spirit and body, and can be stored for later use. Though, one must remember that it disperses given enough time. Since there is a limited amount of pneuma in the air, one must always remember that drawing upon the Aether and the Tide has limits. It takes time for an area with a magical deficit in these two planes to recuperate. Movement using the enhanced speed given by pneuma is recommended to be able to draw upon the technique for long periods of time.

Pneuma enhances the ethereal and corporeal bodies in many different ways. Life mana bolster's one's spirit and body, giving one a burst of expendable mana and strength. Water mana allows one to better shift their ether throughout their body, giving grace and fluidity to their movement. Wind mana allows for bursts of speed and strength. Life mana has the secondary effect of bolstering one's mental reactions, allowing them to better use their enhanced speed. Wind mana also has the same secondary effect as life mana in increasing mental speed.

The Vital Breath has been used in conjunction with various other techniques such as the Burning Mind, the Lodestone Body, the Windspear, the Blade Burst, the Winter's Breath, and the Last Breath.

The Burning Mind

The Burning Mind allows one to burn their mental mana, increasing the speed of their mind for short periods of time. The burning of mental mana can be done in many different ways. By either using fire mana as a catalyst or by mental technique alone. Fire mana can either be condensed and gathered from the light of the sun and heat of the blood or simply taken from a flame.

When used in conjunction with the Vital Breath, phrenics turn into blurs, their foes barely seeing them as but flickers on the battlefield. Blood drops stop in the air and all others wade through water. A phrenic goes unimpeded. He is master over the Tide and Aether.

The Lodestone Body

The Lodestone Body allows one to draw on the metals found in the earth, giving one the ability to pull and lash themselves to the ground with invisible ropes made by the chaotic energies found in ionically-charged crystals.

The Lodestone Body is a technique that has to be forged into one's bodies, both in spirit and flesh. Iron spikes are hammered into the body at interval lengths in the limbs. The mage must then meditate on the metals, feeling the push and pull of their physical energies. They must feel the storms that scour their crystal surfaces. They must feel the force that pulls lodestones to one another. They must master the needle in the compass.

The Lodestone Body allows a mage to manipulate their blades midair and to create coils of energy that binds them to the earth. These coils let a mage manipulate metal objects and quickly pull themselves forward. This requires a high degree of mastery for using different metals. Novice lashers can only manipulate objects made of the same metal as the spikes driven into their flesh.

The Windspear

The Windspear is a technique famous for its lethality. A phrenic condenses the pneuma in their bodies into the aura around their hands. They must spin the seed of tempest in their hands. A lance made of spinning air is created over their fists. Its speed is enough to tear a leaf into dust. Enough to pierce a heart through the shell of a ribcage

A phrenic carries only their blades. They need not spear for they create one by the use of their spirit.

The Blade Burst

The Windspear depends on its spin. The Blade Burst does not. By focusing the essence of wind on the single point of a needle, a mage can shape daggers from the air itself. The Blade Burst is made from clay wrought from wind, scouring a foe with a storm of daggers. Death by a thousand cuts made manifest.

The Winter's Breath

Phrenics have been known to draw on all elements in their surroundings. The elemental cold is but one of them. They draw elemental cold from metal, turning their blades into bitter, cutting cold.

Metals are excellent conductors of heat. As such, a phrenic can draw the heat from a blade, catalyzing their mind into a conflagration and chilling their blades into unyielding hoarfrost. All they need is life mana to imbue their will onto the aspect of ice. This is no easy feat. Cold is the element of true order. It is negentropy given form, stopping the chaos of heat. And life.

But, as all mages learn, mana is the clay wrought from the universal cloth. It can be molded into paradoxes. All one needs is to believe in what their waking mind does not. They must lie to themselves and then to the universe.

The cold from their blades paints them white, wrapping the metal in a coat of hoarfrost that spreads like a pest. It is the embodiment of order, bringing life to heel and the universe to a stop. How long can one survive when true order comes for them?

The Last Breath

Phrenics of eld had been feared for but one technique: the Last Breath. They take the breath from inside one's lungs, fighting the will of their spirit and soul. The Last Breath is infused with elemental cold, chilling one's body and spirit both. It exhausts the will, spreading inside out in its insidious plight. Emperors and kings hold their throats as their faces turn purple and their lungs are pierced by daggers made of ice.

Their last breath turns into fog.