Optic Ctf

CHARACTERS, TERMS, AND FACTIONS (I have no life) THIS IS ALL REALLY INFORMAL. IT’S A WAY TO KEEP MY OWN FACTS STRAIGHT, BASICALLY. (And yet I still use rather formal wording.) Optic (don’t ask me why it’s called Optic) Magic Magic in Optic is actually sort of manipulation of one’s own soul, which is why people who use a lot of magic at once have been known to die of exhaustion, and why practical magistry is the most taxing of careers. The practice of it has been refined to be more efficient through the use of a special, man-made written language, taught from a very early age to be the focal point of one’s magical concentration; in this sense, the power of this language comes from the subconscious of the person using it. The writing language functions similarly to some Asian languages, with certain sigils representing concepts and the combination of these sigils as radicals representing more complex concepts. The application of magic is focused even further through a substance known commonly as “wand ink” (subject to change as it’s a stupid name lol), which is powder ground from a mineral called acanite(?), an ore extremely conductive of magical energy. When charged with this energy, the powder does act similar to ink, allowing one to write sigils in midair in order to use magic to a greater extent without exhausting oneself as quickly. Using the language in spells is similar to crafting sentences describing what it is one wants to do, kind of like Eternal Darkness, only more complex and physically written by the user. Sigils can also be written on the skin, to help the user subconsciously focus on a concept to activate a certain spell, utilized by simply tracing the pattern that is already there. Despite appearances, however, these sigils are not physically there; they are ingrained with magic and are therefore written on the soul itself. Magic is ultimately controlled completely by the user’s intent. The sigil language is used merely as a crutch. Those who study magic as a career usually learn to cast spells using neither wand ink nor skin markings, though they do use those as well, thereby honing their focus to a razor-sharp intensity, as well as lending their spell-casting more versatility. Naturally, there are limits. This is normally done just as an exercise or for experimentation since it’s easier for everyone to rely on sigils. Collective Unconscious (lol Jung) Not actually the typical psychological concept, this one is a more literal interpretation of it. The only reason it has the same name is because I’m uncreative. In Optic, every human has a soul. Actually, they’re not really souls; as said above, they’re more each person’s individual reservoir of magical energy. There is, however, a collective pool of magical energy that innately connects everyone. Everyone draws from it. It’s like

the life stream in FF7, I don’t know. It makes sense in my head. There’s a collective unconscious that everyone is a part of, but everyone also has their own identity that is at once separate from and connected to the larger pool. Seriously, it makes sense in my head. It’s like a very subtle hivemind that is not consciously acknowledged. Or something. I’ll work the logistics of it out later. Dracons/Clockwork/Madness Humans are not the only sentient (or even sapient) race in Optic. These are dracons, who belong to a completely separate magic pool that basically functions the same way. However, they do not use sigils, their magic manifests completely differently. Rather, they are shapeshifters; their magic controls the body itself. Their natural form resembles a freakish, vaguely humanoid, mechanical…thing. Kind of steampunk looking. They also have no gender. I haven’t figured out how they procreate yet. They usually take the form of humans to avoid persecution, as humans have a way of attempting to kill anything that freaks them out. Clockwork are fake dracons, made from humans. Kind of like Hollowfication from Bleach lol. They were created by Glass (a dracon, originally named Vilandy), prompted by Sacra (eir sibling). Glass somehow acquired the ability to manipulate not only eir own soul, but the souls of others (humans, even) as well. Ey rips the magic/soul from the human and replaces it with magic from the dracon pool, I guess you could call it, effectively giving birth to a new dracon, in a human’s body. However, Glass does not have the ability to create an entirely new soul, or a sense of identity, and therefore the Clockwork have no sense of self, and as such, have nothing to physically keep them together. They are called Clockwork because of their need to be regularly “wound” with magic to stay alive, and are completely dependent on Glass for survival. The first attempts to create Clockwork were entirely unsuccessful. At first Sacra and Glass tried physical transplants, not knowing the nature of souls (it is not common knowledge to anyone how magic really works). This resulted in the mutilation of their sibling Desya when they attempted to give eir physical characteristics to a young mage, Zehiga. Aside from Zehiga’s violent physical reactions to the transplant, they saw no results. The Madness is a side effect of Glass’s (still secret) experiments. All the wanton manipulation of the dracon magic caused the pool to go a little out of control and spread on its own. The Madness is the human term for when the dracon pool infects a member of the human pool without the human soul being removed first; the two entities cannot compromise, resulting first in insanity and later in brain death. The humans don’t know what has caused it yet, only that it’s spreading like an epidemic and appears to be related to the recent appearance of Clockwork. I haven’t figured out yet why Sacra and Glass want to create fake dracons, especially ones without self-identities. I will eventually, I hope. :(