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🕑 Added 2024-08-27 10:55:49 +0000 UTCEnlightenment
What can I say about Enlightenment that isn’t already obvious? As much secrecy as the art is clouded in, it is as simple as it sounds. Enlightenment, in a few words, is a power system that allows conjurers intoxicated by foreign substances to manifest a myriad of peculiar abilities.
Those abilities can be completely diverse and different from what you may expect from its user base, but much like its sister power system of Evolution, the end result is influenced by the source product used.
You will not be surprised to hear that Enlightenment is an end-positive power system, after all, the other power systems of Khaffat cover the other positions. Of course, there is no law that forces the power systems of a world to fill all the categories of the source of their power, but Balance can be that whimsy if it sees a golden opportunity.
I do not think it requires much definition, but an end-positive power system where the power comes from outside of the conjurer. The most famous power system of this category is Magic with its mages and mana. That example should work as a better explanation than any description I may give you.
Now, where does this power come from and work?
In two words: the cognitive plane.
The article is silent here, it is only two words, shut up.
As I was saying, the source and manifestation of Enlightenment is through the cognitive plane. I will not describe what the cognitive plane is, as it is basically the hardest one to explain, but in summary, it is the plane of thoughts, dreams, and ownerless information. To put it even simpler with the other planes: the physical plane equals visible and tangible reality, the spiritual plane equals the intangible and invisible reality plus somewhat part of the afterlife, and the cognitive plane is where the waste from cognitive entities goes. Anything sapient affects the place, you see.
I know it is quite heavy to understand for someone like you…
That was unnecessary, I am intangible, immortal, and cannot even feel pain, you know?
…
Enjoy being paralyzed for the foreseeable future. Also, you are immutable now. Anyhow, where was I?
Understanding the cognitive plane is a difficult subject even for the most brilliant scholars, so let us not focus on that, but rather on how it affects Enlightenment.
For a person to practice Enlightenment, they need to get intoxicated. This can be either physical or mental, so yes, alcohol does work. The problem is that most alcoholic beverages affect the brain equally, so you are mostly getting the same effect from a cheap beer than from an expensive wine.
Why does one need to be intoxicated to practice Enlightenment? Well, the answer is in the very name. People do, quite literally, try to reach a higher state of being by making their bodies unstable. This must be not a surprise to you, considering certain acid trips you have witnessed.
Any substance that affects the body or mind could be used for Enlightenment: drugs, sedatives, alcohol, aphrodisiacs, medicine, poisons… The list goes on and on.
Now, if you thought Evolution was random, then you were right. Enlightenment is not random, but it can feel like that for an inexperienced observer. Depending on the consumed substance one effect or another will show up, but there is a certain margin of error. Because the power system depends on the conjurer’s body, its constitution, health, and whatnot will affect the resulting effects.
How much the divergence between two individuals may be I cannot say lightly, but it is possible that a drug that gives one telekinesis may give another teleportation capabilities.
This is, though, an exaggerated example.
Once the substance has been consumed, the conjurer becomes attuned to a certain part of the cognitive plane and is able to freely draw energy from it. What this means in practice is that under the effects of that given substance, they may only use a power shaped by that localized energy. Because Enlightenment conjurers are using the cognitive plane as their weapon, it is not uncommon for most effects to manifest as mind-related abilities like telepathy or telekinesis.
A curious fact about Enlightenment is that it directly hijacks the cognitive plane, so if a conjurer were to be present around a conjurer of another power system that boosted the local cognitive plane like a neuromancer, informer, psionic, or gnosiamancer then an interesting battle would unfold. An Enlightenment user will be able to hijack – or more exactly piggyback – the other’s power, meaning that in the right circumstances, an untrained Enlightenment conjurer could be as powerful as an eleventh-star neuromancer or a Sage.
Those are just hypothetical scenarios, but it is certainly possible, nothing in the Existence stops so from happening.
Having said that, Enlightenment is probably one of the weakest power systems in Existence as it requires the user to harm themselves to ridiculous degrees to achieve something meaningful that other power systems may require only a snap of the fingers. However one could argue that such shortcoming is compensated by its massive counter of cognitive users with little to no effort.
After all, a mage that is rivaled in power will always lose to an assassin with a poisoned dagger.
I know I did mention I would talk about outer infusion, but even as closely related as Enlightenment is with the topic, it is better if we wait a bit longer. Let the power system shine by itself, in a bit though, I will show you the synergistic properties of the power systems of Khaffat. I also reserve the right to not explain assassin jargon like Apotheosis or the Greater Understanding, as those terms don’t exactly fall under the jurisdiction of Enlightenment.
Letter of a Traveler
…the contents of the letter are blurry at best and damaged at worst. You can only see certain fragments of it and can only read but a fraction of the many papers before you. They are old, torn, and partially burned. The only untarnished item you see on the ground is a seal made of pure gold and perfect craftsmanship.
Dear daughter,
I write from the world of Khaffat, a place far different from I have ever been before. Whilst it is not the most advanced planet I have been on, I can say with confidence that is more advanced than most in many aspects. Though more than its technological progress, I’d rather talk about the climate.
It is dry here.
You would have hated it on here. I’ve never been in a place as arid as this one. Well, one that still sustained life. Most of the surface of the planet is covered with some of the saltiest water I’ve ever seen in my life, and it has been a long one so far.
Most of my time has been spent in a country called Ydaz, which makes sense as it is the biggest country in the world and it is placed on a desert, the Qiraji, that extends well over a fourth of the whole land.
Talking about deserts, there are many here. Sandy, frozen, rocky, jungleous – if that’s even a word – and maritime. I’d say that three-quarters of the planet could be considered a desert if you stretched the definition enough. I don’t know how this many people live here.
Coming back to Ydaz, it’s a sultanate currently ruled by a rather… forceful woman. You know that I like to taste the local delicacies, but in this case, they were forced down my throat. I must say this is the first time I’ve been forced into carnal activities, but I know you’d rather not hear that.
What I cannot hide is the power of that woman. She’s certainly the strongest entity on the planet and by a long shot. I guess that what happens when you are the de facto ruler of the biggest and most powerful country in the world and also Aligned with Life.
I know I’m not one to badmouth about Aligned characters.
Anyhow, I enjoyed the many cultures and the diverse fauna and flora. I intuit that something has happened long ago on this planet because many animals I’ve found have been modified in some way in another. The locals call them monsters. That I can understand, especially with one of the magics I’ve felt waving in the locality though the name is still unknown to me, but what is beyond my comprehension is why someone would modify the fauna but not the flora.
I expect both of my critiques to change in the future considering how agitated the local powers are getting. Like it or not, war always seems to be the largest engine of progress.
I’ll return soon to see you, but I intend to come back to Khaffat once the fires have calmed down.
I have high hopes for this world.
See you soon,
Your father.
Comments
Zachary Patterson
Thank you for the chapter!
