Mana
Mana is the power source used to actualize feats beyond natural science, going by many names such as Unatro Energy, Prana, Neala, Chi, and Sihir; it is a mysterious form of seemingly living energy which dwells within many different types of containers, among them living beings and significant planets.
Contents
Mechanisms
Mana cannot exist independently or do anything by itself, so is always bound to some sort of recipient. For that reason, it is mainly used by beings with the capability to either create or store Mana in order to achieve feats such as pyromancy, cyromancy, electromancy, telekinesis, illusions, bodily protection and enhancement, or the many other types of feats capable utilizing Mana. The ability to use Mana effectively is mainly limited to few species in the galaxy; such as Unani Humans, Jinkou, Croiz, Ancient Ventus, the Kaveni, and possibly the now-extinct Anari.
The use of Mana can be direct; with energy expended directly from the body to achieve magical feats which vary in intensity and power, but are generally limited to anti-personel usage. Or it can be used, in the case of the Ancient Ventus and Anari, with select items and glyphs that interface with the world such as Keyblades and Mana Runes which are capable of as-of-yet unknown levels of power; but are known to reach planetary scale.
Types of Mana
Mana is divided into three main types:
Light Mana
Light Mana is the most common use of Mana, only capable of being used by species of Light Inclination. The only current users of Light Mana are the Unanis, who utilize it as Unatro Energy en masse in their population for both daily civilian life and military engagements, and the Jinkou, who have a select few who can use it naturally. Light Mana is the safest form of Mana, is usable and rechargeable in Unanis through use of a genetic implant named the Unatro Val, and is efficiently available for extended periods of time; but is also the weakest form of Mana. The only known Human to be born with the ability to use Light Mana naturally is Rin Hoshira, the current female Prime Minister of the Unani Empire.
Dark Mana
Dark Mana is the second most common use of Mana, only capable of being used by species of Dark Inclination or beings of pure Darkness such as Heartless. The only current users of Dark Mana are the Croiz -of which only 4%, around 180 million, are able to use it-, and Requiem; which uses Dark Mana extremely frequently with both Heartless, its magi-technology, and its Adepts courtesy of the Demon King. It's almost solely used is for battle, due to it's instability and effect on the user, and is the most powerful type of Mana. It's naturally rechargeable, extremely powerful, and is extremely addicting; but it depletes quickly, is extremely unstable, and has varying effects on the user ranging from increased anger to lunacy. This makes it the most dangerous type of Mana, except in the hands of individuals with extreme willpower.
Twilight Mana
Twilight Mana is the most uncommon type of Mana in existence, only capable of being used by species of Twilight Inclination or beings of pure Twilight such as Nobodies. The only current users of Twilight Mana are the Ancient Ventus such as the Sky King, the Kaveni, and the Nobodies. It is not especially safe, nor it is especially corrupting; it's an entirely grey area with no advantages nor disadvantages, reflecting the Inclination which represents it. It is extremely difficult to recharge, though; with only the entirely mechanical Sky King capable of doing so through an unknown mechanism in his Sky Regalia.
Spells
Spells are the manifestations of Mana expelled from living beings, in order to achieve the magical feats which Mana is well known for. These can be achieved naturally, via expending Mana directly from the body in order to accomplish feats such as expelling balls of energy or healing wounds. Or via chants which focus the energy into more powerful variants and increase in power with every Verse or Aria, which is generally unused due to both the extensive study required to do so and the fact that most knowledge of this kind is lost to the ages in many cultures.
Light Mana Spells
Dark Mana Spells
Dark Mana spells rarely have any use outside of a fight, with most abilities focusing on damaging and destroying. Because of this, its use in the Crescanian Confederacy, who have the known galaxy's only capable Dark Mana users, is forbidden in the civilian sector with the exception of a few spells that have been deemed harmless.
Shockwave - One of the easiest Dark Mana spells, and often the first to be learned by a user. This is done by the user destabilizing the Dark Mana within their body, most often through rage, which makes the mana stream out of their bodies and forming a hot aura of energy around them. The aura quickly becomes too unstable to be maintained, and collapses, making the suppressed energy take on a kinetic form and explode outwards with a force varying depending on the strength of the user as well as the amount af mana used in the act. This explosion occurs roughly two milliseconds after the aura has began forming around the user. The shockwave, although dangerous to organics if enough force it put into it, has most of its uses in crowd control and in clearing space. But if the energy can be channeled, such as through one's arms, rather than letting it spread around a fixed area, the action instead creates a Mana Beam.
Mana Beam - One of the most dangerous of the abilities available to Dark Mana users; its potential does not stretch beyond combat. It is created when a Dark Mana user follows the steps of creating a Shockwave, they channel the energy through a specific body part, most often the arms, as it is the most practical. The result is a large, black beam of pure energy capable of tearing a person apart on a molecular level, effectively obliterating them from existence. The strength of the beam, as with all other Dark Mana spells, varies depending on the strength of the user as well as the amount of mana put into it. A part of the energy in the beam is transformed into heat, resulting in severe burns given to anyone standing too close to it. This makes the beam effective against targets behind cover, as even if they can't hit them directly, shooting the beam right next to the target will most likely burn them to death. Mana Beam is much harder to learn than Shockwave, as it takes a considerable amount of willpower to control where the mana goes.
Empowering - A slightly harder ability to learn than Shockwave, Empowering enhances the pure physical strength of the user to impossible levels, allowing them to pick up and throw very heavy objects or swing punches or kicks hard enough to tear through metal. An Empowering is easily spotted by the Empowered user's muscles pulsing violently and their blood turning black, as well as their body tissue starts to grow and stays that size as long as they are Empowered. Empowering is considered dangerous not only to people around the users, but also to the users themselves. This is due to Dark Mana's tendency to enhance feelings of anger and fury, and that effect enters a "spiral" whenever someone Empowers themselves, as the mana enhances their anger, and then that anger enhances the effect of the Empowering, and so their anger is enhanced even more. Unless the user is calmed, forcefully if need be, their mind will at last break from the overwhelming amounts of fury, and the mana user descends into lunacy.
Telekinesis - One of the rarer abilities available to Dark Mana users. Telekinesis focuses on bending gravity itself; changing it, mirroring it, or even halting it. Telekinesis has in theory no limit on how much mass it can lift and manipulate at the same time, provided the user has enough power to put into the spell. A typical Croiz, male or female, can lift and manipulate objects between 60 and 80 kilograms at most, while the most powerful known Dark Mana user in existence, Ta'vích Hakreya has been recorded by witnesses to have used telekinesis to move thousands of kilograms of mass at once. Telekinesis can also be used to suspend objects or even people in mid-air by applying gravity on all the area of the object or person in question, making them float in air as still as if they had been stuck within a cement block. If the user is powerful enough, this gravity can be turned strong enough to crush theoretically anything and turning it into a perfectly round ball. Should it be used on a person, it would result in a very painful and very gruesome death.
Mist - A rare ability, difficult to learn and difficult to use. Mist is the action of separating your own body at quark levels and turning yourself into a dark mist-like cloud of energy, which can then travel anywhere the user pleases, be it through air, through walls, through electricity or even through space. Electrical surges jump across different spots in the cloud constantly, simulating the surges constantly rushing through the synapses of a living brain. This allows the user to stay alive and fully conscious while in this loose form. There is no known way of stopping someone who is using Mist. They have turning into nothing but energy, so no conventional or unconventional known methods work. The only thing that has been proven to be able to stop it is another person using Mist. They can then "mix" together with the other person's energies and knocking them out through a strong electrical jolt which "short-circuits" the synapse-like electrical surges through the cloud, causing it to dissipate and the person in question to be wiped from existence in a violent electrical spark, similar in power to an exploding industrial fuse box. Mist is one of very few Dark Mana abilities allowed for civilians to use.
Teleportation - An even rarer and more advanced ability than Mist. Dark Mana teleportation focuses on altering reality itself. When teleporting, a Dark Mana user opens up a tear in the fabric of reality, and in the course of less than a millisecond, draws him or herself into it, causing them travel by the edges of The Void. Within around a second, another tear is automatically opened in the spot the user planned to go by imagining that specific spot. If the user does not decide on a particular spot, they will re-emerge into the mortal world on a spot within around 40 metres of the first tear. This carries a high risk, as there has been documented cases of Dark Mana users re-emerging inside walls or other objects. This object obstructs with the re-joining of the user's atoms, resulting in mutilations, dismemberments and decapitation.
Morphing - Also called Shape-shifting. This ability focuses on changing the physical body of the user on a molecular level, turning them into virtually anything they want to be, as long as it has the same amount of mass as their standard shape. However, should this ability be combined with unhampered tissue growth from Empowering, the mana user can turn him or herself into a beast with no limit as to possible size. Empowering is normally limited, though, and Morphing requires power beyond what is possible for any regular mortal. The only known being in the universe capable of using Morphing at all is Ta'vích Hakreya.
Regenerating - This is a passive ability that does exactly what it says: it pieces together any damaged tissue in the same way it was before it received whatever injury it did. This effectively makes its user virtually immortal, as it stops their body from aging and allows them to fully regenerate from a single drop of blood. This means that they can only ever died if every living cell of their body is destroyed. Like Morphing, though, this ability lies beyond mortal potential, and the only one known of being capable of it is Ta'vich Hakreya.
