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. :(