Spellmist

Spellmist is the gaseous, highly energized inert substance that can be utilized into what most people call magic.

Origins

In nature, Spellmist is scarce and interacts weakly with chemical or physical forces. It diffuses in the air and flows along magnetic lines, behaving like a corollary to electricity.

In the Mainland, humans concentrate it by awakening Lunstones. In magical realms, like the Lung Archipelago, Spellmist is abundant in the atmosphere and dissolved in liquids.

The Dragovians believe it is a remanent of long-deceased gods. The Bogovey, a Dragovian clan, believe it originates with the Oni, who originate from a demon realm accessed via a Demongate.

Properties

It is ordinarily unobservable. The Spellmist can be only seen by humans upon Awakening, when it is manifested as green mist, and it quickly "evaporates," or loses its color and its potential for usage.

In the Lung Archipelago, the Spellmist still cannot be seen by humans. Magical beings like Fae can see and even sense the usage of it.

There are many devices created by the Lotus Empire that can compensate humans lack of sense for Spellmist, but they are prone to malfunctioning, as they get overcharged in the area of Archipelago. One such device was the Sextant used to navigate the Lungcao to the archipelago.

Its physical manifestation is light, sound and force. In its free, uncontrolled form, Spellmist will typically take the sensory manifestations of natural things, known as Nature Mimicry. At the interface between the archipelago and the Human realm, it manifests as perpetually threatening weather in the Lunopause.

Uses

The Spellmist behaves like a high-energy force that is "aware" of its user's intent.

Among Humans

After significant study and literal meditation among Lunstones, Awakeners can perform sophisticated spells and conjurings.

Spellmist can be controlled to reproduce natural phenomenon. This exploits its Nature Mimicry. Novices typically make only illusory phenomena. An advanced Awakener can make phenomena that both looks and acts real. For example, a novice's rain, when drunk, would only feel like it quenches thirst; an advanced Awakener's rain would actually quench thirst.

Advanced Awakeners can create physical, moving matter called Constructs. These are moving, conjured beings, sometimes autonomous and sometimes under the control of the Awakener. Their mobility is achieved via Animation. This magical act was used to activate constructs towards social ends, like delivering messages, doing physical labor, or in automated processes.

At the time of Shun He's departure, Spellmist is mostly utilized in warfare. The Lotus Empire pioneered offensive Spellmist it during its conquest of its many neighbors.

The key military innovation was Imperial Flame, known as dragonbreath to the magical beings of the Archipelago, a fire that cannot be extinguished by any non-magical means. The warrior-monks of the Empire exhausted nearly all the Spellmist extracted via awakening to create perpetual-flame barricades and to lay indefinite siege upon hapless, common enemies.

Among Magical Beings

There are creatures that require Spellmist for their basic life functions, and they almost exclusively inhabit Lung Archipelago.

Fae, whose ancestors were early humans arriving at the archipelago, developed their symbiotic relationship with spellmist over many generations. It gives them the ability to Share Vision, to breath underwater without the radical development of gills, and to communicate with plants and animals.

The scholars of the human world do not yet fully understand the role of spellmist for Dragovians and Oni.

The Hengeyokai are believed to have existed in animal form on the archipelago before magic came to the island. The spellmist played a role in their development to sentient shapeshifters, along with the arrival of the Fae's human progenitors.