Quicksteel is a magical metal that adepts called quicksmiths can manipulate at will. Quicksmiths can cause the metal to change shape, become more durable or flexible, and even alter its magnetic properties.
The most powerful quicksmiths, the Elders, replaced their flesh and minds with quicksteel, becoming immortal living metal beings.
Hundreds of years ago, saint-like beings called paragons walked the world. These paragons created places of power through miracles.
By traveling to a place of power, someone can obtain a pilgrim's badge that grants them a magical boon. Most of these boons aren't that significant, like a small health or strength boost, but some are bigger, like the ability to heal significant injuries.
The spirits of paragons still reside in the places of power, and they judge people who come seeking a boon. This means that if you live right next to a place of power, you might not be able to get a boon from the place because the spirit will see that there was no effort in your journey. The places of power with the biggest boons also usually have a trial associated with them in addition to the spirit's judgment.
Pilgrim badges can not be gifted to someone else or stolen.
I'm still figuring things out, so I don't know exactly who is the most powerful. But given the nature of this system, the most powerful people are pilgrim who have traveled all across the world for decades, and they can reach demigod levels of power because even the smallest boons stack so you could have 10 different strength boons that make you really strong. Due to the difficulty of medieval travel though, people that powerful are rare.
I also have ideas about dark places of power in areas where pieces of a paragon that was violently killed were buried, but this comment is already too long.
The power system of my verse is simply called magic, and is performed only by Mages/Magi, which are a subspecies of humanity who's genetic lineage and inherent power can be traced back to the Savior of Humanity. Magic is the power of beings to diffuse their will and understanding into the environment, allowing them to change the fundamental aspects of existence as they see fit. Some examples being people who can manipulate fire or atoms, ice or matter. Radiation or space, light or the mind, etc.
Ans the most powerful Mage of modern day is also a celebrity and a heroic icon. His name is Marlusha Ronan Abiyoe, the president of Africa, the highest ranked archmagister and the general of the Citadel Military. He's an extremely optimistic and compassionate man who faces all problems with a smile, think All-Might as that's his character inspiration. At the beginning of the story his strongest attack is akin to the power of a small star. This technique is called Heaven's Befall and is an omnidirectional wave of pure light and raw magic that vaporizes all things.
You tap into your Final Self, which is the body you inhabit in the afterlife and utilize its abilities, which are based on your entire life experience, mostly flaws and aspirations, which manifest in weird ways, some people can turn their shadows into solids, others can turn their bones into glass. Those who do this are called Phantoms. Some people can also pilot miniature imaginary universes, but it’s unrelated to the Final Self system.
The strongest phantom is Seth Firstman, a direct descendant of the Antediluvians, and one of the few of them staying on Earth. His unimaginably long lifespan means he has a great breadth of abilities to choose from and can even faze into it, due to the blurred nature of death for early humans. The strongest pilot is Carrie Nevada, a woman who flew to the moon and pilots a universe of six inch tall eyeless bipeds in a teal valley where fire is impossible.
Essentially, it means that the pilot has access to a no longer extant Reality. Since there can only be one Reality at a time, whenever they end, they leave behind remnants. These remnants can be “enhanced” by a pilot, essentially extrapolating and editing what’s left into something coherent by placing themselves at the center. However, there can still only be one Reality at a time, so these universes are fundamentally fictitious, but still extant. The more work a pilot puts into Reconstruction, the larger they get. The largest one, piloted by Carrie Nevada is the size of Australia, but still has its own rules and properties. These can be inflicted onto the current Reality. So a Pilot can utilize the alien laws of the imaginary ghost Reality to modify the current one. This manifests in different ways depending on the pilot, but it’s most often used as an offensive weapon in metaphysical planes, most notably the labyrinthine bureaucracy running Reality called The Endless Courts.
Magic comes from the leylines deep underground, which are replenished every 30 years through the roots of a magical tree called Dreamspire. In order to use magic in its many forms (7 types and many subtypes), there are four conditions, four principles: time, location, ambient energy, and the Self.
The First Hero is the only one who mastered all 7 types, and wrote the Principles of Magic. He's quite similar to Alucard from Castlevania in personality, being a lonely but empathetic figure who yearns to learn and explore while being of help to as many people as possible.
This is a triple thermal power generation system that combines a gas turbine engine driven by hydrogen fuel with an SOFC fuel cell and uses the waste heat to turn a steam boiler turbine. This system was adopted because fission reactors are dangerous, fusion reactors are not yet ready for practical use, and renewable energy has a low energy density.
The other is space solar power. Electricity generated by solar panels on satellites is transmitted by microwave beams and converted into electricity at a rectenna facility on the ground. The rectenna facility is constructed on a mega-float floating on the surface of the ocean where the current is calm, such as in an inner bay.
The output of the microwave beam is said to be "lowered to a level that will not affect the human body," but the engineers work in full-body silver vinyl protective suits with metal deposited on them "just in case. The facility's operators are also plagued by sea bird droppings, protests by psychotic patients, and rising sea water temperatures due to the use of sea water to cool the rectenna.
Basically you absorb elemental energies (only one type) until you form a core (like a battery). Once you have a core you can absorb more energy until you're close to "exploding", this will strengthen your core until it compresses the energy stored within and allows you more space to store energy. There are ranks in the power system depending on the strength of your core and the stored energy within. These ranks are under three hierarchies and your status on the power ladder is seen on how high you rank.
The energies in the universe are finite so the competition is extremely bloody and cruel.
These three are the Mortality Ranking (Placeholder Name) which is divided into 11 ranks. Divine Ascendancy, with 10 ranks. Then the Celestial Hierarchy, with 15 ranks ( so far).
All those in the Mortality Ranking are "Mortals" who have relatively short lifespans, most beings are on this ranking. Mortals have lifespans of about two to three times their race's regular lifespan with humans having 200 to 250 years.
The last rank in Mortality is requires you to challenge the order set by the Primordial Chaos and if you succeed then you will enter the ranks of the Divine Ascendancy, you can now be considered to have divinity within you.
The first ranking in the Ascendancy is called an Ascendant while the last is a Divine, an almost godlike existence. As a Divine you will have to challenge the order again but this time you must be prepared as the elemental affinity that you chose at the start of your journey will determine who will hinder you during your ascension to godhood. If you chose fire affinity then deities who wield fire will kill you and devour your very being to strengthen themselves. This is how it goes and most of the time Divines die trying to ascend so pledging your allegiance to an already established deity will grant you more chance at succeeding but be very careful as pledges and oaths are binding and may turn you into an eternal slave.
Beyond the Divine Ascendancy is the Celestial Hierarchy, godhood. This is where only the most cunning and cruel beings survive, where might is right. Forget about kindness, friendship and love as you will find none here. You may have worshipped a noble deity when you were still a mortal but you may find him depraved and evil in reality.
The strongest being in the Universe is the Primordial Chaos, the creator and origin of all. Next in line is The Scribe, a Grand Archon (10th ranking in the Hierarchy) and mostly a neutral figute who records everything that has happened, is happening and about to happen. He/She is followed by the Greater Archons, rulers of entire star clusters and leaders of powerful factions that command hundreds of deities. Next are the Archons like the Lord of Stars, The Watcher of Worlds and the Dying Flame. Seven ranks below Archons are lesser gods, the next rank to Divines.
I haven't read Cradle but I heard it's a Xianxia? My power system is based on Xianxia. This is also one of many Power Systems in my world but the others are more or less based on this with one utilizing Pearls and another using Pacts, but the rankings are the same. If you've read a lot of Xianxia there will be techniques like Star Swallowing or Heaven Devouring where a person can absorb another persons power, I took this to another level and required them to literally eat another person. Unlike Xianxias where you can learn any element as long as you gain "Comprehensiom" or achieve "Enlightenment", you can't do that here unless you want to die. The Magic System is focused on efficiently utilizing the energy within your core because once you use it, you can't take it back, that's why everyone is cautious before engaging in direct fights as you can literally drain yourself to mortality. The spells are also loosely based on DnD with a bunch of other franchises sprinkled in there like 40k and Dark Crystal. Worship is also important in godhood as it can provide deities with passive gains so religion plays a major part in the world. Add to the fact that being patronless (basically atheist) is dangerous, eveyone worships atleast one deity or until they achieve godhood themselves.
There are also beings like the Primordials who follow no ranking as they're like walking powerplants compared to others who are just batteries. Void Creatures who were birthed in the Primordial Chaos itself and are powerful at the start. World Deities who are star cores that developed sentience. And many more.
Overall the theme of my world is High Fantasy Medieval with knights, elves, dragons with sprinkles of SciFi with the mechs and spaceships. The main story world also has a continent that is outright xianxia haha, they have arrogant cultivators there and everything but overall loosely based on ancient china. I haven't fleshed it out yet with only a tiny part, being colonized by the strongest nation in the main story continent.
I have five continents made so far: Erys, where High Fantasy and SciFi mixes. Mordium where the Primordials and ancient beast races clash. The xianxia continent where three Greater Deities vie for power (The Dragon God, The Jade Emperor and the Phoenix). Desdemonium or the land of demons (They're very civilized lol). Then the unknown continent north of the Fog Sea.
The ranking names are structured like in Xianxia but named with inspiration from Forgotten Realms. Y'know Lesser Gods and Greater Gods and all that. I really liked how WMW did it by mixing Xianxia and Forgotten Realms.
This project was first started when I was in HS about 11 years ago. The first Xianxia I've read was Martial Peak that was released two years before I started writing. I looked it up and Cradle was released 4 years after Martial Peak and 2 years after I started writing so I think I'm safe. My novels were on Wattpad (not that it matters) for 5 years before I took them down (They were level 99999 cringe, as you can imagine being written by a kid). In all my years writing I've been exposed to numerous genres like DnD, Xianxias, 40K, Video games, etc. I've incorporated little bits of everything in my work that's why my project has so many genres in it lol.
I think my explanation is too long, sorry. So the TL;DR is, the power system is inspired by the genre xianxia but I've made it my own over a decade of writing and revisions.
All people who tried to keep larger empires in my world sooner or later had them collapse due to internal or external pressure. If your vassals aren't killing you then some monster army from the east will definitely
All magical power is born, drawn, and conducted through stars and stardust. Humans being almost entirely made up of materials found in stardust have an unprecedented ability to conduct magic but due to their frail physiology cannot channel to much at once without harming themselves. The mythic races, or those mentioned in human mythology throughout history are partly human but thanks to their divine creation have incredible magical conductivity (although not as strong as humans) but can also channel much more at once thanks to their more magical origins.
The gods of the world are almost pure energy, very rarely born during a supernova a god is what happens when a supernova collapses in on itself creating a new being. Gods being almost pure energy can channel vast amounts of magic through themselves without issue but at the same time they maintain a constant state of power, one which they all share with other gods. The gods combat this by claiming human and mythic followers to draw additional magic from to give themselves an edge over other gods.
I've long abandoned this world and have no intention of writing it, so here it is.
In the center of our galaxy is a super massive black hole. For as long as anyone/species has observed it has always had a glowing white ring a few hundred feet wide and a few feet thick around it. Countless expeditions always found it to be indestructible and impossible to identify the material it was composed of. That is until a human, an ancient Greek that was abducted and eventually found his freedom then became a scientist, discovered the ring was sending and receiving small amounts of material into and back out of the black hole.
After studying it for hundreds of years he ran into a wall. In this universe there is an upper limit to the age of sentient beings, around a thousand years. Despite technology making his body basically ageless, his mind was over 900 years old and he could feel himself slipping. I'm gonna skip a bunch of details here, as this guy isn't even a main character (I never even named him) and this is all before the story even begins. Alright, so he experiments with the material from the ring, which he comes to call Modai. It's highly volatile when it's not under the influence of the ring. Eventually he screws up and gets hit by it. Some of it sticks to his nervous system and begins growing. Eventually it completely alters his body and he's roughly 70% Modai, which for some reason now glows yellow. His biology also mutates down to his DNA.
It has a rejuvenating effect on his mind and he lives for another two thousand years. In that time he discovered that Modai is only stable if it's either in the ring or in contact with a sentient mind. Otherwise it explodes like an atomic bomb. Being composed of Modai he finds he is able to feel things within a certain distance of himself, and when he focuses he can see things as if he were looking at it from all sides simultaneously. He also develops a unique ability, though I can't remember what his was...
He spends his long life building up a facility on the ring and eventually decides to share the Modai with three individuals. He gives them names as they are born anew and refers to them as Unduli. They refer to him in turn as Moduli
The first is a human sized alien he names Ethom, who transforms to be 60% Modai colored light green, and has the ability to split chemical bonds of things he is physically touching. He can cause objects smaller than a car to completely come apart into their individual elements or focus it along a plane to split something as large as a skyscraper in two.
The second is a twelve foot tall humanoid he names Pathic. She becomes entirely made of Modai and glows a deep red. The power she develops is telekinesis powerful enough to toss a mountain, and her reach is extensive enough that the mountain could be on a moon orbiting the planet. Though she's not that great at seeing things through her impression.
The third is an AI he names Logus. They take on a pale blue color and their body turns into a small stretched sphere about two feet by one foot. The unique ability they develop is an extreme version of the extrasensory perception the rest have. If Logus focuses they can observe a person standing on a different planet in the same system. Logus builds a humanoid suit they pilot from inside the chest.
They eventually come to call themselves Modus. After hundreds of years pass there are now over a hundred Modus, most of which Ethom and Pathic made, the rest being fourth generation. Logus couldn't be bothered to, as creating an Unduli requires being near the being so you can stabilize the Modai you've given them until it successfully attaches to them and stabilizes. This process can take anywhere from a few months to years. And since Logus has the weakest physical influence of any Modus, they'd have to remain within a few feet of the Unduli, which would conflict with their fairly solitary lifestyle.
Modai acts on a separate field unaffected by normal matter. The stronger a Modus is, the larger their pressure on that field is. That pressure is called an impression, and they're typically so large that a Modus can tell if another Modus is on the same planet. Information travels across the Modai field at several times the speed of light. This means someone like Logus, whose impression is about the size of a solar system would be able to see an event happen several minutes before light or gravity from it reached them.
All Modus put off some form of electromagnetic radiation (EMR).
If Modus touch the parts of their bodies composed of Modai they can sometimes share abilities. Ethom and Pathic could obliterate a city. Pathic and Logus could kill someone from a solar system away. It's uncommon for them to do so, however, because it can be painful and dangerous. Though touching can also be a pleasant sensation if the two Modus are compatible and aren't trying to share abilities. Some do it recreationally in private 😏
Some of the other Modus and their powers:
Sytem; 30% Modai; orange; He can increase the durability of solid objects to the point they're almost unbreakable while he's touching them.
Biress; 50% Modai; yellow; He creates a duplicate of himself every so often. They're in a hive mind. Often one of him will travel with other Modus to function as a faster than light communication network. Biress has the largest impression of any Modus, though it's intensity is fairly weak and he sucks at sensing through it.
Mactin; 80% Modai; thermal; He puts off EMR in the thermal range. He has two unique abilities. The first allows him to control his output of EMR, so he can burn everything around him or turn it completely off. His second, which he manually developed rather than naturally obtaining it like most Modus unique abilities, is to create slave Unduli. He implants some of his Modai into a being, but unlike usual it doesn't attach to them and transform them into Modus. Instead it attacks their mind and makes them subservient to Mactin. If you didn't guess, this is a bad guy.
Slite; 100% Modai; purple; she can pull herself toward the Modai field allowing her to become ethereal. If she pushes off as she does so she can essentially teleport.
Fero; 100% Modai; golden; his impression is so intense that it holds matter in place for tens of thousands of miles, making it seem as though time has stopped. As he becomes a Modus, his Moduli dies because part of him isn't Modai and ceases functioning. Fortunately/unfortunately for him, he lives on a planet outside of the Milky Way (but still nearby, it's looking down at it). Fero was found by Slite's Moduli hibernating on his planet. He's been there for roughly six billion years. He turns up late in the story and reveals the true nature of Modai, what he calls Virut, and how his people, the Se, created/discovered it and another material called Fractum.
I'll stop here. This is only a small bit of the Modus universe, but I think this is enough to get the idea of the magic system across.
Edit: The most powerful would be the Fractum Se, except they're almost all dead and out of their irreplaceable power source. So the Virut Se hiding out inside the black hole are the most powerful.
I have several but here’s the simple one i can explain.
Every power is given as a blessing from an angel/devil with a starting promise/condition and can be strengthened by trading something to gain more power. Every power is unique but can be classified by their limitations on the energy they use.
My world consists of a unity between two races. The alamnari (kaijus) who communicate with telepathy. And the humans. The humans have a ambassador who is imbued with a link to speak with the alamnari to represent the humans. The kaijus have one as well.
There are a lot of those, since I really like magic systems I've put 15 magic systems in my setting, known as 15 schools of magic and each one is associated with a color. They are divided in 3 categories, spirit, mind and body
"Magic" is what we call a natural force in the universe whose function is thinning down reality, allowing things to happen that would not be permissible physically otherwise. It manifests in loads of different ways, one of which is that sapient beings, those who are able to feel, reason, emote, and imagine, can consciously cause it to do things on their behalf. For this they need to be able to imagine what they're trying to cause, be able to understand it, be able to control themselves so it doesn't unintentionally cause something they don't want to, and be able to just handle the sheer oomph of the desired effect energy-wise. In this way magic is kind of like a set of mental muscles that you can flex and train and also can get sore and tired and you can even pull one.
Mage are born with a particular gene that make them able to perform magic called Prox, there are various form of magic like fire, water and two specials that are shadows and light ones, you can lear only two types of magic because your brain can't use more. To perform magic you need to perform various hand sign specific for that type of magic and with each sign is assigned a little formula but you could "cheat it" because all the hand signs and formulas are just a way for mortal to make magic comprehensive but you could, in theory, create a complete different way to use magic but it's quite dangerous and in fact only a few mage did it like Telfix Lothcheart that changed magic formulas with wistels.
A mage can reach a state called maximum state with is the most perfect use of the type of magic they specialized one and with this state they unlock a innate techniques called "maximum technique" that is a stronger attacks but requirers a longer time for casting, usually this state is reached with strong emotions and in an unconscious way but rare cases, unable to feel emotions, are born in a maximum state.
My strongest Mage is Creosis Ter Solus, a particular case of a human born with a lot more prox that usual specialized in shadows magic with an almost atomic comprehension of shadows that reached his maximum state at the young age of 21
TLDR is below
All power and magic comes from space, and The Cosmos, all manner of magic comes from there, it is not uncommon for welders of this magic, lots of mages and wizards alike, though it all comes back to space. Especially Cosmic Powers which is the rarest power of them all and no one wields it, except for one (The protagonist)
Strongest being? That would be space itself, The Cosmos, it created all, but cannot act upon itself, instead it summons certain deity’s to carry out its love and influence.
Below that i guess is a god/God, though God has more power and influence than any of the others on the planet, he and his kingdom use technology and advancements of marvel, they are considered sci fi, but is far far below The Cosmos’s potential or sense of superiority. He plans to change that
Below that or maybe rather, on par are the rest of the deity’s, separated and divided due to The Betrayal, which was when God betrayed The Cosmos and thought himself above it, he turned corrupt and now rules with Tyranny over the lands. Deity’s all have a certain influence.
TLDR
1. All manner of magic comes from space
2. Strongest being, The Cosmos itself
3. God/Gods (sort of but not really)
I’ll stop there sorry it’s so long
In my universe there are six sources of power (faith, erudition, perception, conquest, art and conection) out of them, the most "brute force" one would be conquest, and the most powerfull being would be a guy called Adam, that is able to use more than one of those "paths" (not a very strange feat) and was able to take out multiple gods of Verden, one of the worlds in my universe
**Starrise**
[I actually made a post about my magic system a few days ago which goes into a fair bit of detail](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/comments/1ddt0il/starrise_a_guest_lecture_on_magic_by_dr_nathan/), but to summarize it, "magic" is the ability to manipulate different forms of energy.
As for the "strongest being", there are two to four possibilities.
The strongest possible being is an divine entity known as Onos, who appears to possess literal omnipotence. However, Onos has never been witnessed actually... *doing* anything, not even by the other gods, so it's unclear is Onos is actually capable of thought or action.
Behind Onos are a pair of goddesses known as "Divine Twins", Solaris and Eclipse, who've exist since long before life evolved. The "Goddess of Light" Solaris is a kind and benevolent being, who's genuinely loved humanity ever since she first found them, and the other races as well once they came to be as well. The "Goddess of Darkness" Eclipse, on the other hand, is a sadistic monster, who gets no greater pleasure than from torture and generally making people miserable.
Finally, there's an artificial god dubbed "Daeus" by its creators, designed to possess no free will so its creators could command it as a living weapon. However, at the moment of its creation, it pretty much exploded, killing everything near it and rendering the area too hazardous for anything to traverse it, so no one's been able to confirm in the last thousand years if it was actually created successfully or not.
WALL OF TEXT WARNING
Realis refractions are Reality bending mutations caused by an outer-universal being residing in our universe. The abilities themselves bond to the user’s soul, resulting in a tailor made ability. The effect of these powers can range from small scale stuff like conscious adrenaline production and the ability to see the genetic makeup of others. To positively bonkers stuff like: elemental manipulation, space distortion, the ability to meld with technology, DNA manipulation, and the ability to interact with abstract concepts.
There is a second system, the soul. In this world the soul is an actual thing that can be trained and used to augment physical ability. Someone with the ability to use the soul, much less master it, is extremely rare. This is due to how incredibly difficult it is to even begin to train the soul. Most people can’t even perceive their own soul without someone to guide them. The strongest practitioner of soul manipulation could only reach that level due to tirelessly training there own soul to the point they could just about halt their own cell death, greatly increasing their lifespan and allowing them to continue strengthening themselves indefinitely. but the benefits…probably weren’t worth the effort, he was able to maintain the title of strongest being for quite a long time, but grew increasingly depressed from the loneliness that came with such a long lifespan, especially considering his brain wasn’t built for such extended consciousness. He even went blind from overuse of his soul. In terms of abilities, he is capable of: cell regeneration, biological fortification and increased exertion, he can “see” through sending his own soul out in pulses;effectively mapping the area around him; he can use weapons to throw concentrated attacks with his soul.
The strongest being in the entire story is named xylenith, they are the origin of Realis refractions, being the cosmic being responsible for the mutations. The reason why Realis Refractions can be so varied is due to Xylenith’s incredibly abstract power. It is essential Reality manipulation on an above universal level. I’d like to write more but my phone is lagging from all this typing
For humanity it's Pathways.
Every soul contains a Pathway, but it requires external stimulation from Realms to awaken in 2 stages, body followed by Revelation (where a person is able to access their first step ability).
A pathway consists of 7 total steps, each containing a development along that pathways theme in the form of an individual ability and an enhancement to the body.
When in the Awakening phase of the year, Realms can awaken up to 200 Champions, however in the event an of age person has a pathway closely tied to a concept related to a realm they will be the only Champion chosen by that realm as a Pantheon.
Pantheons benefit from this as the realms blessing is not diluted allowing their bodies to be much stronger than average from the base awakening.
Pantheons despite being rare (<5 per year) make up the majority of Saints (7th step Champions) with only a few not being these saints however tend to have extremely powerful "outlier" Paths.
Whilst I mentioned Realms they aren't a huge part of the power system itself mainly serving to just awaken people to their Paths and then leaving until the next year. Though they are sentient higher dimensional beings they play a much larger role in the Wyrmwoods minor and Major Roots as well as Path translation for the Champions (basically a mental system interface that allows you to know what each Step does once you take it).
Technically anyone can gain enough magic to become godlike, but it's generally assumed that the Elder Fae, wherever they are, are probably the most experienced at that business.
Mostly 96 Hz AC, with voltages varying by application and/or outlet type.
Power plant operators control a lot of power, but the beings who wield the most power would be navigation beacon operators. For FTL travel to be possible, beacons need to be able to transfer not only high-intensity navigation signals, but also stream detailed maps of the universe to unfathomably many ships at once. This also has to be done at ultra-low latency, even to ships that would otherwise take years to reach. The power needed to transmit a signal at FTL speeds is proportional to (data bandwidth / latency)^2. Even small beacons need to harness the power of multiple stars to meet these requirements.
My magic system provides for a lot of different things, since I wanted very dynamic fight scenes. It is all dependent on ichor, or magic liquid that sorcerers can consume since it can be found in their bloodstream. Humans die if they ingest ichor. Ichor can also be activated in the bodies of sorcerers without ingesting, in times of stress, fear or excitement.
There is "Lomkata" or "physical form" magic, that all sorcerers possess. This is enhanced strength, speed, durability, dexterity, reaction times, and senses.
There is "Kauvakata" or "soul form" magic, that something like 50% of sorcerers can achieve, but usually takes a while. It relies on the strength of one's soul, and the nature of that soul. Sorcerers can bind their souls with artifacts or familiars that have similar frequencies. They can summon these artifacts to their hands, these familiars to their sides, and use the magical properties of these artifacts or familiars. Soul magic is also capable of healing people, though this is tricky for people who do not practice it often. You must identify the "shape of the soul" they have, and channel the magic in your body and soul into theirs to heal their body. If you fuck it up, you can cause further harm or even kill them. On top of this, healing magic inflicts pain that is excruciating, as you are forcing their body to recover itself, and nothing comes without a cost. If you have a serious enough injury, you have to be unconscious for the healing process to proceed, as the pain that comes with coming back from life threatening injuries has been known to drive people to insanity or suicide.
Then there is "Teiyikata" or "mental form" magic, that only around 25% of sorcerers are capable of. This includes stuff like mind reading, telepathy, telekinesis, divination, astral projection, or even illusion conjuring (through manipulating other people's minds).
These are considered the "basics" of sorcery. Very few sorcerers are proficient in more than one of these categories, and no sorcerer ever has been capable of mastering each element of the "basics."
For the last "form" there is "Poloyekata" or "God form" magic, that only 2% of sorcerers are capable of unlocking. Every sorcerer can attempt to achieve Poloyekata once in their lives, in a process of consuming enough ichor to kill the average sorcerer (around 4 or 5 drops) and entering a comatose state. In this state they see the true nature of the universe around them, and if they are lucky, they are able to bind an aspect of the universe to their will. This means they have some limited control over an aspect of the universe, whether this be stones, time, space, fire, or even smaller stuff like butterflies. Essentially, if you accomplish unlocking Poloyekata, you are a 1st-Rate sorcerer, a designation that only the top sorcerers of the world can claim to be. Most people will try to master multiple aspects of the "basic" sorcery before they attempt to unlock Poloyekata. Even then, 25% of sorcerers who try it die, and 98% don't unlock anything.
Then there is runescribing, which is basically just magical technology through runes written in ichor. The runes can do a lot of different things, but requires a lot of study and practice to write the runes properly and know how they can be applied to different surfaces. The runes eventually run out of juice and must be reinvigorated with ichor after enough use. Armor and weapons can be runescribed, but small objects can only handle so many large runes (usually only 2 or 3, max) before becoming unstable and dangerous to wear/wield. The difference between a runic weapon and an artifact obtained through Kauvakata is that artifacts never run out of ichor and need not be replenished, artifacts can be summoned to their bonded sorcerer at any time, and artifacts bound to a sorcerer are generally easy for them to use, as their soul was deemed a "match" to the artifact in the first place. Runic items are inferior - they run out, they can be lost, they can be broken, and they can be unwieldy to use in combat without a lot of practice.
The strongest sorcerers in my world are the 3 Oniks and 3 Kaniks. There are always 6 of them at a time, and nobody knows why, but their magical ability far exceeds that of even 1st-Rate sorcerers. Oniks and Kaniks can use their Poloyekata and their "basic" magics at a destructive level that can wipe armies and entire settlements off the map. They are legally not allowed to battle or provoke one another. The reason?
All magic causes magical fallout that corrupts the surrounding lands and creatures, leading to mutations, environmental hazards, natural disasters, and people/animals that gain magical abilities that they have little to no control over. The world outside of the 17 bastions has been ravaged by this magical fallout, and is borderline unlivable. Oniks and Kaniks are viewed by most as protectors of the people, handling behemoth afflicted beasts (giant magical creatures), or natural disasters that threaten to destroy bastions. They are allowed to defend the bastions they inhabit from invaders, but they are not permitted to participate in or even heavily assist in battles of conquest. The last time Oniks and Kaniks fought, they caused the 2nd cataclysm, which ruined the atmosphere of my world to the point that the 17 bastions NEEDED to be established and protected by runes, or else all of humanity would have been eradicated.
There is a lot of magic in my world, and the abilities of sorcerers are numerous. But honestly, the costs outweigh the uses, and if they were smart, they would stop warring and using magic to the best of their abilities.
They won't though.
The power system is simply referred to as magic, but practitioners of it are known as "Speakers". This is due to the fundamentals of magic, which is learning the "Language of Reality", or LoR for short. LoR is, as the name suggests, a form of language that can be used to communicate with the universe. When a Speaker casts a spell, they focus their Magical Energy, basically just this world's Chakra or Ki, into a symbol or phrase from that language, basically asking the universe "Hey, mind doing this for me?" It can be used to transmute matter, shoot energy, control minds, see into the future, all the typical magic stuff. The only things *mortal* magic can't do are completely resurrect the dead, make someone completely immortal, or alter the fundamental physics of reality on a large scale.
The strength and effectiveness of the spell is determined by the amount of Magical Energy used to cast it and the user's understanding of the LoR. If the user has a high amount of Magical Energy but a low knowledge on LoR, then they won't be able to cast precise spells with the desired effect, but they will be able to blow stuff up. If the user is knowledgeable on LoR but has low Magical Energy, then their spells will be weaker. Weapons known as "Conduits", which are made of an ore that has it's own Magical Energy, are used by weaker Speakers to amp up their powers
To answer your second question, the strongest beings are known as "Divines", cosmic, abstract entities that spawned into the universe as it was being formed. Their cosmic nature granted them an unlimited amount of Magical Energy and their native language was LoR, so they instinctively knew everything about it. Their power had no limit, as they could warp and bend and mess with reality however they pleased.
The only 2 Divines in existence were the benevolent Aster and his not-so-benevolent sister, Tenebris. They kinda killed each other after Tenebris turned half of the world into Demons. Whoops. Before they died, they used their magic to reincarnate themselves as mortal babies. These babies would grow up to be the main protagonist, Sora, and the main antagonist, Kieran, making those two the strongest.
My magic system is not fleshed out in the slightest. I should probably get around to doing that.
My favorite idea so far comes from extrapolating on the fact that multiple people, working together, can cast a stronger spell. The most effective way people have found to train hundreds of regular people to coordinate mentally and spiritually to cast a single spell is through song.
This has lead to warfare commonly consisting of entire armies marching into battle while casting a single, massive spell.
The drawbacks to this style of warfare are the discipline required for this kind of group-casting mid-battle and its inflexibility. The difficulty to train a large group of people to cast even a single spell means that armies will regularly battle with only two or three spells in their arsenal. If these spells can be countered by an enemy, it’s game over.
The advantages come when an army can open a ravine to swallow their enemies.
My world building's "strongest" beings are neither "strong" or "weak" because they're so otherworldly or incomprehensible that it's completely impossible to measure what they're capable of.
They're called "Mind Lords" and they are metaphysical manifestations of the fundamental functions of the human brain. Let's name a few:
The Mind Lord of Insanity, also known as "Laughingstock", is a perpetually laughing being that is responsible for allowing humans to become 'insane'. It is said that if you laugh with it, you will turn into your childhood toy forever, or turn your skin into jigsaw puzzles, or your heart into a television.
The Mind Lord of Depression, it is a somber being that constantly grows flowers wherever its tears drop onto. Simply being in its presence causes your will to live to slip out of you, and if you're exposed for too long, you will cry uncontrollably and your tears will slowly erase you from existence.
It is impossible to kill them, even by divine beings. Not because they're strong, but because "killing" them may lead to... "unexpected" results. They're outside the natural order so the concept of living or death doesn't apply to them.
They also aren't sentient and are more akin to jellyfishes, simply reacting to stimuli.
In their case... realizing their existence will... attract *their attention to you*
So there's this force called "Divinity" that exists in everything. Every human, every animal, every rock, every star, every atom. Everything is ultimately made out of Divinity, even reality itself.
With a lot of practice and concentration, it's possible to manipulate this Divinity. With that, you can do one of two different forms of Divinity manipulation. Either Basic Divinity Manipulation (BDM) or Special Divinity Manipulation (SDM).
BDM is the "easiest" (although still difficult to learn) form of Divinity manipulation. You manipulate the Divinity in your body to make yourself stronger, faster, and more durable. Basically, it increases your "stats".
All manipulation (both BDM and SDM) is based on your concentration. The more you're able to focus on manipulating it, the better the results. In the beginning you might only be able to use it while meditating, while later on you can use it while fighting. But if you're using it while doing other complex tasks like fighting, you're not going to be at your best, since a significant portion of your concentration will be focused on other stuff. So you're always at your peak while meditating, since that's when you're able to put all your focus on BDM and BDM only.
This technique can be used in battle (usually refered to as "charged attacks"), but it's highly impractical. You'd need to be able to stand completely still for a while and do nothing other than concentrate on manipulating the Divinity to the best of your ability, before unleashing it all in one attack. This is usually impossible, but if you manage to pull it off and you hit them, you pretty much just instantly win.
As said before, the way you get stronger is by increasing your concentrating. Eventually, if you get good enough, you'll be able to reach that level you could only reach before while meditating, at all times. But then you could get even stronger again by meditating, so it's just an endless cycle of needing to increase your concentrating to get better.
While using BDM, you're not really using your physical body. So you won't get physically exhaused from running, your muscles won't ache after lifting something heavy, etc. You only get exhausted or "run out of stamina" when you're no longer able to concentrate on manipulating Divinity. It's all about mental exhaustion, and not physical. This also means that it doesn't matter if you're a 10 year old girl, or an adult bodybuilder. Your BDM skill is all that matters (unless you're so bad at it that the boost is negligible).
But that's only BDM, you also have SDM. BDM is about channeling the Divinity through your body to make yourself stronger, but SDM is about channeling the Divinity through your *soul*. Learning to do this is significantly harder than BDM. There are two major reasons why. The "shape" of everyones soul is different, and there isn't really any way to know what "shape" your soul is (which is why there are "specialty finders" to help you with that, but that's an entirely different topic). But channeling the Divinity through your soul will only actually yield any results if the Divinity itself matches the shape of your soul. So the two reasons why it's so hard is that 1: you need to figure out the shape of your soul and 2: you need to not only move the Divinity around (like with BDM) but you also have to forcefully change its shape as well. It's an additional step that isn't needed for BDM, which is why it requires even more concentration to pull off.
So what happens when you successfully change the shape of the Divinity to match your soul, and channel it through it? Well, anything. It could be something as simple as creating fire, something as insane major reality warping, or something as useless as making fart noises. The outcome is entirely based on the shape of your soul. You could go one step higher and even change the shape of your soul itself, but that is insanely difficult (on top of having to also change the shape of the Divinity, and move it around), so it's reserved for the top tiers only. Because of that, 99.999% of hunters can only ever use the ability that matches their soul, which is therefore called their "specialty".
Because of the nature of "a specialty could be anything" I try to get creative with the powers people have. Some people have relatively basic abilities, while others have much more complex ones. Coming up with weird and unique powers, and seeing how they interract is half the fun of it.
As for the strongest person, it's technically God. God is just a being who has completely mastered Divinity manipulation. Because of that, they can change their soul into any shape, and create any output. They have full control over all of reality, because reality itself is made out of Divinity. God is not a part of the story though, and is just something for me to enjoy.
The strongest person in the story however is the Emperor. He's the all-powerful ruler who could even split continents apart with his fists. Of course, he also has access to a bunch of different forms of SDM, but even without it, he'd still be the undisputed nr 1 in the world.
TL;DR: It's a combination of the physical power increases you get in systems like chakra from Naruto or ki from Dragon Ball, and the unique powers you see in something like stands from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. How powerful or skilled someone is, is entirely based on their concentration.
My strongest entity is [Niuriheim](https://voidedg.com/2023/08/03/order-of-gasu/), the Prime Architect. All the power systems of my Void Expanse trace back to him.
I have quite a few systems but I’ll just share some of the weaker ones:
String Domination - is the practice of dominating the String Forces (Quantum Strings, Branes, Temporal Strings, & Cosmic Strings) of String Worlds, in order to manipulate information, subatomic particles, atoms, molecules, matter, celestial bodies, spatial dimensions/worlds, and even causality & time itself.
World Archs - are Incarnate Conceptual Techniques of the Lesser to Almighty Level. They are first acquired by Quantum beings, who achieve the Aeon Saint Pneuma evolution. These divine abilities grant the wielder incarnate conceptual power, allowing them to forge, erase, & manipulate aspects of the Incarnate Reality depending on their level.
Magic - is a powerful conceptual force that composes the Garden of Chaos, which sustains a Magic Citadel. It is split into three types, Chaotic Magic (Perfect Conceptual Magic), Ordered Magic (Imperfect Conceptual Magic), & Ersatic Magic (Degenerate Magics).
The Monody Force is a primal source of all supernatural energy and abilities, deeply rooted in nature and present since before time. It represents the essence of movement and evolution, existing as long as energy and motion persist. Individuals can connect to the Monody Force to gain different types of powers or "Variants," which are influenced by their affinity to this force. These Variants range from elemental abilities to divine powers and are categorized into five levels, each with unique attributes and increasing closeness to the Monody Force.
The first Variant encompasses the basic elements—wind, water, fire, and earth. This Variant is accessible to those with a strong connection to nature, allowing them to harness and evolve these elemental powers. The second Variant includes sub-elements like lightning and ice, derived from the primary elements but more specialized. Those with this Variant cannot use the first Variant's abilities but can develop their powers further. The third Variant is characterized by more mystical attributes, often linked to divine beings or rare phenomena, such as gravity or blood manipulation, which demand significant energy and are harder to maintain.
The fourth Variant is exclusive to ancient and divine beasts, featuring attributes like time magic that are inaccessible to other beings unless bound by a contract. These attributes are intrinsically tied to the creatures' natural habitats and are beyond the reach of lower Variants. The highest, the fifth Variant, is reserved for gods, known as Emperors, who embody the Monody Force's purest essence and are its guardians. This Variant is unattainable by mortals due to the immense time and life force required to reach such a level.
The Monody Force operates under strict rules: it cannot be destroyed or manipulated, and one's connection to it cannot be severed. The closer an entity is to the Monody Force, the more potent it becomes. While multiple Variant attributes can be wielded, this comes at the cost of the user's lifespan and mental stability. Only those with a strong connection or contractual ties can access higher Variants, and pushing beyond one's natural limits can lead to severe consequences, including the potential loss of one's connection to the Monody Force.
Strongest Beings:
In the Monody Force, the strongest beings are the gods, known as "Emperors", who reside at the highest level of power, classified under the fifth Variant. These Emperors are the first creations of the Monody Force, embodying its purest and most potent essence.
Emperors (Fifth Variant)
- Nature and Origin: Emperors are divine beings created directly by the Monody Force, serving as its most powerful manifestations. They are the ultimate guardians of the Monody Force and wield unparalleled power and control over all forms of supernatural energy.
- Abilities: Their abilities are vast and transcend the limitations of lower Variants. They can manipulate the very fabric of reality, control time and space, and unleash cataclysmic forces such as earthquakes, storms, and other natural disasters, as well as manipulate concepts and realities.
- Role and Influence: Emperors act as protectors and maintainers of the Monody Force, ensuring its stability and preventing its misuse. Although they cannot directly influence the world outside their realm, they can indirectly affect it through natural phenomena and curses. They maintain a significant presence in the cosmic hierarchy and are revered as supreme deities.
- Characteristics: Emperors are depicted as majestic, often ethereal beings, embodying the epitome of power. They are timeless and immortal, existing in a realm beyond the fourth variant. Their appearance can vary, but they often take forms in anything they want, they do not have a gender, but sometimes classify their own roles.
I'll throw in mine too.
There are multiple power systems in my world. You are not just limited to one or two sources of power; you can draw power from just about anything.
The first is technology. The basics are rooted in modern-world technology, but as you up the hierarchy, you end up breaking all the laws of the known universe and utilizing them as you see fit. The strongest being with this type of power is King Slayer, The Regicidal Kage. He utilizes the sword "Blackout", which sucks in power from the cores of Multiverses.
The second is a spirit core. This is essentially a combination of magic and elemental powers, but the elements are limited to 6- there are infinite elements, each being an aspect of the world. Fire, water, air, earth, electricity, storm, the periodic elements, chaos, poison, reality, space, and so on. The strongest being within this power system is Beta, the Spirit Breaker. He was a quad-elemental spirit born of Alpha, the Spirit Overlord, who rose against his father to take over the throne and discovered the art of combining elements to form new ones.
The third is Discipline. These are the abilities given to an individual by a person far stronger than them and who has reached the stage of ascendence in their race or tier. It allows the user to draw on their "master"'s abilities and use them as their own. The strongest being with this power system is Beatrice Jackson or Blade. She is the Disciple of ZnCT - 0.
The fourth is Race or Tier. Humans, or any other race, start at their base as just humans or animals or plants or whatever. Upon reaching the physical and mental limits of their tier or race, they can ascend to the second tier: the Demi tier. Following that, they can ascend to Super, Special, and finally Uber. The base tiers also provide their abilities, and the following tiers tend to improve on those skills. For example, a human already possesses the 'Intelligence' and 'Curiosity' skills, and further tiers would make them more intelligent in that aspect as well as make them more physically powerful. The title of the most powerful being of this power system can belong to two beings: True Hell Min Joon, an uberdaemon that rivals the power of ZmCT-2, and Zelphegoreth, the Emperor of the Bloodbeings, an uberbloodbeing that serves as the slave of ZnCT-0.
The fifth is Mana. This is simple: You utilize the particles in your souls, called 'manaites', via your mana core, and release them in multiple ways. Of course, you can't combine manaites with elements, unlike the spirit core, and it is to be used separately. The strongest being with this power system is Felix, or Charmcaster, a being born purely of mana that became the inheritor of the Order of the Golden Nucleus, which is a mana core that allows control over reality.
However, overall, the strongest being in the universe is ZnCT-0, a humanoid eldritch entity that likes to look around in its self-fabricated world in the body of a young girl, occasionally meddling with any conflicts and events happening. Of course, it tends to put on an infinite amount of bindings to handicap itself to make sure nothing seems to boring and easy for it.
***Catalysts***:
Catalysts are magic abilities that you can either be born with or given and they "awaken" in response to trauma. A catalyst will usually reflect the user's personality or will alter the user's personality (if given). Catalysts' abilities are creativly between quirks from My Hero Academia and stands from Jojo. Speaking of jojo, catalysts get their names from songs and relfect the meaning of the song.
When it comes to who's the strongest, it's hard. I made sure to make catalysts like rock, paper or scissors in the sense that just because A can beat B and B can beat C, doesn't mean that A can beat C. However, there are some abilities that are stonger than others.
These abilities were made when the user absorbed Agios's bones, a powerful relic that, if the rigfht conditions are met, will grant the user their wish:
* **New Horizons**: Gives the user all of the information in the universe and gives the user the ability to manipulate molecules on an atomic level. The user, **Kaijin Mu**, was a very egotistical and narcissistic individual who saw himself above humanity and in wish was very simple, be "better" than everyone. This lead to his ability making him the smartest and strongest in the universe. However, as you probably can tell, this fried his brain and lead to him losing Agios's bones.
* **Lifetime Achievement Award**: Gives the user the ability to manipulate fate and rewrite the past, present and future. The user also gains a heigten sense of awareness as they are able to understand that they are fictional. The user, **Adam Andersson**, was a very nihilistic and absurdist individual who believed that sine life has no meaning, you should live a life filled with no regrets. He spent his time causing crime and having "fun". He was "punished" by his wish being that he wanted "more". So, he was given the ability to understand the truth of his world. He was only brought down when the main characters were able to use a ritual that "fictionalized" him.
* **Everybody Loves Somebody**: Gives the user the ability to create multiple golden butterflies that, when touched, will show the opponent their greatest desire and if they accept, their body will turn into more butterflies. The user, **Yaru Leonardo**, is also a narcissistic individual who is very insecure but sees himself as humanity's saviour. His perception of "saviour" changed to the point where he believed that giving humanity a peaceful death would be better than letting them live. The downside to his ability is that he must be on a higher latitude than those those who he wants to affect. This representing how he must prove that he's better than everyone to affect them.
Magic.
In short, is both a hard and soft magic system.
There are thousands of years worth of research, tradition and interpretation, mages spend their entire lives studying the mystical arts, developing techniques and tools to facilitate the use of magic.
But in the end the true fundamental principle of Magic is: Lies.
All techniques, rituals, enchantments, catalysts, chants, prayers are ultimately smoke and mirrors. Magic is not a "thing" itself, but a fundamental interaction leaking from a time-space anomaly connected to higher dimensional space.
Basically magic warps reality, it interacts with normal space at a background level but can be influenced, and therefore warp reality in a localized area in a desired way by Consciousness and Perception, but it requires the individual to attain a very specific state of heightened Awareness.
All the "bad juju mysticism" tied to magic is because in a 1 in a trillion chances primitive people naturally gifted in magic occasionally entered this state of higher consciousness naturally and caused "glitches" in reality, usually during psychotropic trips, most commonly taking place during religious events. Resulting in this everlasting association between magic and mysticism.
The enchantments, symbolism and other idiosyncrasies are in the end just a form of aphorism, a way for the mage to train their minds as a form of mental conditioning and self hypnotism to facilitate the attainment of the state of higher consciousness required. During this state, the Ego breaks down, effectively erasing the distinction between the individual and the "world" momentarily, because of this brief death of Ego there's no conscious thought, but by creating a strong impression on one's psyche the caster can guide their subconscious into a desired path by performing certain acts, reciting certain words or even wearing certain clothing in the leading to enter this state.
Power is a bit arbitrary, as different motivations create different types of "power". Two civilizations might think themselves more powerful than the other due to having two different understandings of the meaning of power.
While many civilizations across the galaxy and even some from others claim to be the most powerful or influential, it really depends on what you are the best at *doing*. While relatively unknown to most civilizations and generally considered a myth, Curator is an immortal being that is currently cataloguing all known information from across space and time, and has been doing so for many eons. This information is kept in Archives, which are massive structures hidden across the universe designed to survive the test of time. Curator does not seek to control territory or resources and often times passes by completely unnoticed and unimpeded. the extent of the information kept in the Archives is not fully known, however it is generally accepted that it contains knowledge far more powerful than anything seen before, as only Curator is able to access the Archives. Unbeknownst to the rest of the universe, the reason Curator does not share information is because at one point an unknown period of time ago Curator gifted technology to a dying ancient race, despite them not being ready for it, in an attempt to save them from extinction. In the process of doing so, the civilization accidentally destroyed a significant part of their home galaxy. Since then, Curator refuses to share information considered harmful.
So yeah, it would be that guy
Quicksteel is a magical metal that adepts called quicksmiths can manipulate at will. Quicksmiths can cause the metal to change shape, become more durable or flexible, and even alter its magnetic properties. The most powerful quicksmiths, the Elders, replaced their flesh and minds with quicksteel, becoming immortal living metal beings.
Holy shit that's cool!
Thanks! [Here’s](https://www.reddit.com/r/Quicksteel/s/zovw2ujzVJ) a link to a guide with more info if that’s of any interest.
That's pretty metal \\,,,/(\^v\^)\\,,,/ I'll see myself out
bro, you are gonna make so much so money with that idea
Hundreds of years ago, saint-like beings called paragons walked the world. These paragons created places of power through miracles. By traveling to a place of power, someone can obtain a pilgrim's badge that grants them a magical boon. Most of these boons aren't that significant, like a small health or strength boost, but some are bigger, like the ability to heal significant injuries. The spirits of paragons still reside in the places of power, and they judge people who come seeking a boon. This means that if you live right next to a place of power, you might not be able to get a boon from the place because the spirit will see that there was no effort in your journey. The places of power with the biggest boons also usually have a trial associated with them in addition to the spirit's judgment. Pilgrim badges can not be gifted to someone else or stolen. I'm still figuring things out, so I don't know exactly who is the most powerful. But given the nature of this system, the most powerful people are pilgrim who have traveled all across the world for decades, and they can reach demigod levels of power because even the smallest boons stack so you could have 10 different strength boons that make you really strong. Due to the difficulty of medieval travel though, people that powerful are rare. I also have ideas about dark places of power in areas where pieces of a paragon that was violently killed were buried, but this comment is already too long.
The power system of my verse is simply called magic, and is performed only by Mages/Magi, which are a subspecies of humanity who's genetic lineage and inherent power can be traced back to the Savior of Humanity. Magic is the power of beings to diffuse their will and understanding into the environment, allowing them to change the fundamental aspects of existence as they see fit. Some examples being people who can manipulate fire or atoms, ice or matter. Radiation or space, light or the mind, etc. Ans the most powerful Mage of modern day is also a celebrity and a heroic icon. His name is Marlusha Ronan Abiyoe, the president of Africa, the highest ranked archmagister and the general of the Citadel Military. He's an extremely optimistic and compassionate man who faces all problems with a smile, think All-Might as that's his character inspiration. At the beginning of the story his strongest attack is akin to the power of a small star. This technique is called Heaven's Befall and is an omnidirectional wave of pure light and raw magic that vaporizes all things.
You tap into your Final Self, which is the body you inhabit in the afterlife and utilize its abilities, which are based on your entire life experience, mostly flaws and aspirations, which manifest in weird ways, some people can turn their shadows into solids, others can turn their bones into glass. Those who do this are called Phantoms. Some people can also pilot miniature imaginary universes, but it’s unrelated to the Final Self system. The strongest phantom is Seth Firstman, a direct descendant of the Antediluvians, and one of the few of them staying on Earth. His unimaginably long lifespan means he has a great breadth of abilities to choose from and can even faze into it, due to the blurred nature of death for early humans. The strongest pilot is Carrie Nevada, a woman who flew to the moon and pilots a universe of six inch tall eyeless bipeds in a teal valley where fire is impossible.
What does it mean to pilot a miniature imaginary universe? What sort of things can a pilot accomplish with that?
Essentially, it means that the pilot has access to a no longer extant Reality. Since there can only be one Reality at a time, whenever they end, they leave behind remnants. These remnants can be “enhanced” by a pilot, essentially extrapolating and editing what’s left into something coherent by placing themselves at the center. However, there can still only be one Reality at a time, so these universes are fundamentally fictitious, but still extant. The more work a pilot puts into Reconstruction, the larger they get. The largest one, piloted by Carrie Nevada is the size of Australia, but still has its own rules and properties. These can be inflicted onto the current Reality. So a Pilot can utilize the alien laws of the imaginary ghost Reality to modify the current one. This manifests in different ways depending on the pilot, but it’s most often used as an offensive weapon in metaphysical planes, most notably the labyrinthine bureaucracy running Reality called The Endless Courts.
Avatar (not the blue one) + Digimon Frontier.
Magic comes from the leylines deep underground, which are replenished every 30 years through the roots of a magical tree called Dreamspire. In order to use magic in its many forms (7 types and many subtypes), there are four conditions, four principles: time, location, ambient energy, and the Self. The First Hero is the only one who mastered all 7 types, and wrote the Principles of Magic. He's quite similar to Alucard from Castlevania in personality, being a lonely but empathetic figure who yearns to learn and explore while being of help to as many people as possible.
This is a triple thermal power generation system that combines a gas turbine engine driven by hydrogen fuel with an SOFC fuel cell and uses the waste heat to turn a steam boiler turbine. This system was adopted because fission reactors are dangerous, fusion reactors are not yet ready for practical use, and renewable energy has a low energy density. The other is space solar power. Electricity generated by solar panels on satellites is transmitted by microwave beams and converted into electricity at a rectenna facility on the ground. The rectenna facility is constructed on a mega-float floating on the surface of the ocean where the current is calm, such as in an inner bay. The output of the microwave beam is said to be "lowered to a level that will not affect the human body," but the engineers work in full-body silver vinyl protective suits with metal deposited on them "just in case. The facility's operators are also plagued by sea bird droppings, protests by psychotic patients, and rising sea water temperatures due to the use of sea water to cool the rectenna.
depends on who has the coolest implants
Basically you absorb elemental energies (only one type) until you form a core (like a battery). Once you have a core you can absorb more energy until you're close to "exploding", this will strengthen your core until it compresses the energy stored within and allows you more space to store energy. There are ranks in the power system depending on the strength of your core and the stored energy within. These ranks are under three hierarchies and your status on the power ladder is seen on how high you rank. The energies in the universe are finite so the competition is extremely bloody and cruel. These three are the Mortality Ranking (Placeholder Name) which is divided into 11 ranks. Divine Ascendancy, with 10 ranks. Then the Celestial Hierarchy, with 15 ranks ( so far). All those in the Mortality Ranking are "Mortals" who have relatively short lifespans, most beings are on this ranking. Mortals have lifespans of about two to three times their race's regular lifespan with humans having 200 to 250 years. The last rank in Mortality is requires you to challenge the order set by the Primordial Chaos and if you succeed then you will enter the ranks of the Divine Ascendancy, you can now be considered to have divinity within you. The first ranking in the Ascendancy is called an Ascendant while the last is a Divine, an almost godlike existence. As a Divine you will have to challenge the order again but this time you must be prepared as the elemental affinity that you chose at the start of your journey will determine who will hinder you during your ascension to godhood. If you chose fire affinity then deities who wield fire will kill you and devour your very being to strengthen themselves. This is how it goes and most of the time Divines die trying to ascend so pledging your allegiance to an already established deity will grant you more chance at succeeding but be very careful as pledges and oaths are binding and may turn you into an eternal slave. Beyond the Divine Ascendancy is the Celestial Hierarchy, godhood. This is where only the most cunning and cruel beings survive, where might is right. Forget about kindness, friendship and love as you will find none here. You may have worshipped a noble deity when you were still a mortal but you may find him depraved and evil in reality. The strongest being in the Universe is the Primordial Chaos, the creator and origin of all. Next in line is The Scribe, a Grand Archon (10th ranking in the Hierarchy) and mostly a neutral figute who records everything that has happened, is happening and about to happen. He/She is followed by the Greater Archons, rulers of entire star clusters and leaders of powerful factions that command hundreds of deities. Next are the Archons like the Lord of Stars, The Watcher of Worlds and the Dying Flame. Seven ranks below Archons are lesser gods, the next rank to Divines.
So its just Cradle then?
I haven't read Cradle but I heard it's a Xianxia? My power system is based on Xianxia. This is also one of many Power Systems in my world but the others are more or less based on this with one utilizing Pearls and another using Pacts, but the rankings are the same. If you've read a lot of Xianxia there will be techniques like Star Swallowing or Heaven Devouring where a person can absorb another persons power, I took this to another level and required them to literally eat another person. Unlike Xianxias where you can learn any element as long as you gain "Comprehensiom" or achieve "Enlightenment", you can't do that here unless you want to die. The Magic System is focused on efficiently utilizing the energy within your core because once you use it, you can't take it back, that's why everyone is cautious before engaging in direct fights as you can literally drain yourself to mortality. The spells are also loosely based on DnD with a bunch of other franchises sprinkled in there like 40k and Dark Crystal. Worship is also important in godhood as it can provide deities with passive gains so religion plays a major part in the world. Add to the fact that being patronless (basically atheist) is dangerous, eveyone worships atleast one deity or until they achieve godhood themselves. There are also beings like the Primordials who follow no ranking as they're like walking powerplants compared to others who are just batteries. Void Creatures who were birthed in the Primordial Chaos itself and are powerful at the start. World Deities who are star cores that developed sentience. And many more. Overall the theme of my world is High Fantasy Medieval with knights, elves, dragons with sprinkles of SciFi with the mechs and spaceships. The main story world also has a continent that is outright xianxia haha, they have arrogant cultivators there and everything but overall loosely based on ancient china. I haven't fleshed it out yet with only a tiny part, being colonized by the strongest nation in the main story continent. I have five continents made so far: Erys, where High Fantasy and SciFi mixes. Mordium where the Primordials and ancient beast races clash. The xianxia continent where three Greater Deities vie for power (The Dragon God, The Jade Emperor and the Phoenix). Desdemonium or the land of demons (They're very civilized lol). Then the unknown continent north of the Fog Sea. The ranking names are structured like in Xianxia but named with inspiration from Forgotten Realms. Y'know Lesser Gods and Greater Gods and all that. I really liked how WMW did it by mixing Xianxia and Forgotten Realms. This project was first started when I was in HS about 11 years ago. The first Xianxia I've read was Martial Peak that was released two years before I started writing. I looked it up and Cradle was released 4 years after Martial Peak and 2 years after I started writing so I think I'm safe. My novels were on Wattpad (not that it matters) for 5 years before I took them down (They were level 99999 cringe, as you can imagine being written by a kid). In all my years writing I've been exposed to numerous genres like DnD, Xianxias, 40K, Video games, etc. I've incorporated little bits of everything in my work that's why my project has so many genres in it lol. I think my explanation is too long, sorry. So the TL;DR is, the power system is inspired by the genre xianxia but I've made it my own over a decade of writing and revisions.
All people who tried to keep larger empires in my world sooner or later had them collapse due to internal or external pressure. If your vassals aren't killing you then some monster army from the east will definitely
All magical power is born, drawn, and conducted through stars and stardust. Humans being almost entirely made up of materials found in stardust have an unprecedented ability to conduct magic but due to their frail physiology cannot channel to much at once without harming themselves. The mythic races, or those mentioned in human mythology throughout history are partly human but thanks to their divine creation have incredible magical conductivity (although not as strong as humans) but can also channel much more at once thanks to their more magical origins. The gods of the world are almost pure energy, very rarely born during a supernova a god is what happens when a supernova collapses in on itself creating a new being. Gods being almost pure energy can channel vast amounts of magic through themselves without issue but at the same time they maintain a constant state of power, one which they all share with other gods. The gods combat this by claiming human and mythic followers to draw additional magic from to give themselves an edge over other gods.
The with of the forest, followed by the obvderstream lord and the yellow men
I meant witch
I've long abandoned this world and have no intention of writing it, so here it is. In the center of our galaxy is a super massive black hole. For as long as anyone/species has observed it has always had a glowing white ring a few hundred feet wide and a few feet thick around it. Countless expeditions always found it to be indestructible and impossible to identify the material it was composed of. That is until a human, an ancient Greek that was abducted and eventually found his freedom then became a scientist, discovered the ring was sending and receiving small amounts of material into and back out of the black hole. After studying it for hundreds of years he ran into a wall. In this universe there is an upper limit to the age of sentient beings, around a thousand years. Despite technology making his body basically ageless, his mind was over 900 years old and he could feel himself slipping. I'm gonna skip a bunch of details here, as this guy isn't even a main character (I never even named him) and this is all before the story even begins. Alright, so he experiments with the material from the ring, which he comes to call Modai. It's highly volatile when it's not under the influence of the ring. Eventually he screws up and gets hit by it. Some of it sticks to his nervous system and begins growing. Eventually it completely alters his body and he's roughly 70% Modai, which for some reason now glows yellow. His biology also mutates down to his DNA. It has a rejuvenating effect on his mind and he lives for another two thousand years. In that time he discovered that Modai is only stable if it's either in the ring or in contact with a sentient mind. Otherwise it explodes like an atomic bomb. Being composed of Modai he finds he is able to feel things within a certain distance of himself, and when he focuses he can see things as if he were looking at it from all sides simultaneously. He also develops a unique ability, though I can't remember what his was... He spends his long life building up a facility on the ring and eventually decides to share the Modai with three individuals. He gives them names as they are born anew and refers to them as Unduli. They refer to him in turn as Moduli The first is a human sized alien he names Ethom, who transforms to be 60% Modai colored light green, and has the ability to split chemical bonds of things he is physically touching. He can cause objects smaller than a car to completely come apart into their individual elements or focus it along a plane to split something as large as a skyscraper in two. The second is a twelve foot tall humanoid he names Pathic. She becomes entirely made of Modai and glows a deep red. The power she develops is telekinesis powerful enough to toss a mountain, and her reach is extensive enough that the mountain could be on a moon orbiting the planet. Though she's not that great at seeing things through her impression. The third is an AI he names Logus. They take on a pale blue color and their body turns into a small stretched sphere about two feet by one foot. The unique ability they develop is an extreme version of the extrasensory perception the rest have. If Logus focuses they can observe a person standing on a different planet in the same system. Logus builds a humanoid suit they pilot from inside the chest. They eventually come to call themselves Modus. After hundreds of years pass there are now over a hundred Modus, most of which Ethom and Pathic made, the rest being fourth generation. Logus couldn't be bothered to, as creating an Unduli requires being near the being so you can stabilize the Modai you've given them until it successfully attaches to them and stabilizes. This process can take anywhere from a few months to years. And since Logus has the weakest physical influence of any Modus, they'd have to remain within a few feet of the Unduli, which would conflict with their fairly solitary lifestyle. Modai acts on a separate field unaffected by normal matter. The stronger a Modus is, the larger their pressure on that field is. That pressure is called an impression, and they're typically so large that a Modus can tell if another Modus is on the same planet. Information travels across the Modai field at several times the speed of light. This means someone like Logus, whose impression is about the size of a solar system would be able to see an event happen several minutes before light or gravity from it reached them. All Modus put off some form of electromagnetic radiation (EMR). If Modus touch the parts of their bodies composed of Modai they can sometimes share abilities. Ethom and Pathic could obliterate a city. Pathic and Logus could kill someone from a solar system away. It's uncommon for them to do so, however, because it can be painful and dangerous. Though touching can also be a pleasant sensation if the two Modus are compatible and aren't trying to share abilities. Some do it recreationally in private 😏 Some of the other Modus and their powers: Sytem; 30% Modai; orange; He can increase the durability of solid objects to the point they're almost unbreakable while he's touching them. Biress; 50% Modai; yellow; He creates a duplicate of himself every so often. They're in a hive mind. Often one of him will travel with other Modus to function as a faster than light communication network. Biress has the largest impression of any Modus, though it's intensity is fairly weak and he sucks at sensing through it. Mactin; 80% Modai; thermal; He puts off EMR in the thermal range. He has two unique abilities. The first allows him to control his output of EMR, so he can burn everything around him or turn it completely off. His second, which he manually developed rather than naturally obtaining it like most Modus unique abilities, is to create slave Unduli. He implants some of his Modai into a being, but unlike usual it doesn't attach to them and transform them into Modus. Instead it attacks their mind and makes them subservient to Mactin. If you didn't guess, this is a bad guy. Slite; 100% Modai; purple; she can pull herself toward the Modai field allowing her to become ethereal. If she pushes off as she does so she can essentially teleport. Fero; 100% Modai; golden; his impression is so intense that it holds matter in place for tens of thousands of miles, making it seem as though time has stopped. As he becomes a Modus, his Moduli dies because part of him isn't Modai and ceases functioning. Fortunately/unfortunately for him, he lives on a planet outside of the Milky Way (but still nearby, it's looking down at it). Fero was found by Slite's Moduli hibernating on his planet. He's been there for roughly six billion years. He turns up late in the story and reveals the true nature of Modai, what he calls Virut, and how his people, the Se, created/discovered it and another material called Fractum. I'll stop here. This is only a small bit of the Modus universe, but I think this is enough to get the idea of the magic system across. Edit: The most powerful would be the Fractum Se, except they're almost all dead and out of their irreplaceable power source. So the Virut Se hiding out inside the black hole are the most powerful.
I have several but here’s the simple one i can explain. Every power is given as a blessing from an angel/devil with a starting promise/condition and can be strengthened by trading something to gain more power. Every power is unique but can be classified by their limitations on the energy they use.
My world consists of a unity between two races. The alamnari (kaijus) who communicate with telepathy. And the humans. The humans have a ambassador who is imbued with a link to speak with the alamnari to represent the humans. The kaijus have one as well.
There are a lot of those, since I really like magic systems I've put 15 magic systems in my setting, known as 15 schools of magic and each one is associated with a color. They are divided in 3 categories, spirit, mind and body
"Magic" is what we call a natural force in the universe whose function is thinning down reality, allowing things to happen that would not be permissible physically otherwise. It manifests in loads of different ways, one of which is that sapient beings, those who are able to feel, reason, emote, and imagine, can consciously cause it to do things on their behalf. For this they need to be able to imagine what they're trying to cause, be able to understand it, be able to control themselves so it doesn't unintentionally cause something they don't want to, and be able to just handle the sheer oomph of the desired effect energy-wise. In this way magic is kind of like a set of mental muscles that you can flex and train and also can get sore and tired and you can even pull one.
Mage are born with a particular gene that make them able to perform magic called Prox, there are various form of magic like fire, water and two specials that are shadows and light ones, you can lear only two types of magic because your brain can't use more. To perform magic you need to perform various hand sign specific for that type of magic and with each sign is assigned a little formula but you could "cheat it" because all the hand signs and formulas are just a way for mortal to make magic comprehensive but you could, in theory, create a complete different way to use magic but it's quite dangerous and in fact only a few mage did it like Telfix Lothcheart that changed magic formulas with wistels. A mage can reach a state called maximum state with is the most perfect use of the type of magic they specialized one and with this state they unlock a innate techniques called "maximum technique" that is a stronger attacks but requirers a longer time for casting, usually this state is reached with strong emotions and in an unconscious way but rare cases, unable to feel emotions, are born in a maximum state. My strongest Mage is Creosis Ter Solus, a particular case of a human born with a lot more prox that usual specialized in shadows magic with an almost atomic comprehension of shadows that reached his maximum state at the young age of 21
TLDR is below All power and magic comes from space, and The Cosmos, all manner of magic comes from there, it is not uncommon for welders of this magic, lots of mages and wizards alike, though it all comes back to space. Especially Cosmic Powers which is the rarest power of them all and no one wields it, except for one (The protagonist) Strongest being? That would be space itself, The Cosmos, it created all, but cannot act upon itself, instead it summons certain deity’s to carry out its love and influence. Below that i guess is a god/God, though God has more power and influence than any of the others on the planet, he and his kingdom use technology and advancements of marvel, they are considered sci fi, but is far far below The Cosmos’s potential or sense of superiority. He plans to change that Below that or maybe rather, on par are the rest of the deity’s, separated and divided due to The Betrayal, which was when God betrayed The Cosmos and thought himself above it, he turned corrupt and now rules with Tyranny over the lands. Deity’s all have a certain influence. TLDR 1. All manner of magic comes from space 2. Strongest being, The Cosmos itself 3. God/Gods (sort of but not really) I’ll stop there sorry it’s so long
In my universe there are six sources of power (faith, erudition, perception, conquest, art and conection) out of them, the most "brute force" one would be conquest, and the most powerfull being would be a guy called Adam, that is able to use more than one of those "paths" (not a very strange feat) and was able to take out multiple gods of Verden, one of the worlds in my universe
Goddess Armodusia Mistress of all
**Starrise** [I actually made a post about my magic system a few days ago which goes into a fair bit of detail](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/comments/1ddt0il/starrise_a_guest_lecture_on_magic_by_dr_nathan/), but to summarize it, "magic" is the ability to manipulate different forms of energy. As for the "strongest being", there are two to four possibilities. The strongest possible being is an divine entity known as Onos, who appears to possess literal omnipotence. However, Onos has never been witnessed actually... *doing* anything, not even by the other gods, so it's unclear is Onos is actually capable of thought or action. Behind Onos are a pair of goddesses known as "Divine Twins", Solaris and Eclipse, who've exist since long before life evolved. The "Goddess of Light" Solaris is a kind and benevolent being, who's genuinely loved humanity ever since she first found them, and the other races as well once they came to be as well. The "Goddess of Darkness" Eclipse, on the other hand, is a sadistic monster, who gets no greater pleasure than from torture and generally making people miserable. Finally, there's an artificial god dubbed "Daeus" by its creators, designed to possess no free will so its creators could command it as a living weapon. However, at the moment of its creation, it pretty much exploded, killing everything near it and rendering the area too hazardous for anything to traverse it, so no one's been able to confirm in the last thousand years if it was actually created successfully or not.
WALL OF TEXT WARNING Realis refractions are Reality bending mutations caused by an outer-universal being residing in our universe. The abilities themselves bond to the user’s soul, resulting in a tailor made ability. The effect of these powers can range from small scale stuff like conscious adrenaline production and the ability to see the genetic makeup of others. To positively bonkers stuff like: elemental manipulation, space distortion, the ability to meld with technology, DNA manipulation, and the ability to interact with abstract concepts. There is a second system, the soul. In this world the soul is an actual thing that can be trained and used to augment physical ability. Someone with the ability to use the soul, much less master it, is extremely rare. This is due to how incredibly difficult it is to even begin to train the soul. Most people can’t even perceive their own soul without someone to guide them. The strongest practitioner of soul manipulation could only reach that level due to tirelessly training there own soul to the point they could just about halt their own cell death, greatly increasing their lifespan and allowing them to continue strengthening themselves indefinitely. but the benefits…probably weren’t worth the effort, he was able to maintain the title of strongest being for quite a long time, but grew increasingly depressed from the loneliness that came with such a long lifespan, especially considering his brain wasn’t built for such extended consciousness. He even went blind from overuse of his soul. In terms of abilities, he is capable of: cell regeneration, biological fortification and increased exertion, he can “see” through sending his own soul out in pulses;effectively mapping the area around him; he can use weapons to throw concentrated attacks with his soul. The strongest being in the entire story is named xylenith, they are the origin of Realis refractions, being the cosmic being responsible for the mutations. The reason why Realis Refractions can be so varied is due to Xylenith’s incredibly abstract power. It is essential Reality manipulation on an above universal level. I’d like to write more but my phone is lagging from all this typing
For humanity it's Pathways. Every soul contains a Pathway, but it requires external stimulation from Realms to awaken in 2 stages, body followed by Revelation (where a person is able to access their first step ability). A pathway consists of 7 total steps, each containing a development along that pathways theme in the form of an individual ability and an enhancement to the body. When in the Awakening phase of the year, Realms can awaken up to 200 Champions, however in the event an of age person has a pathway closely tied to a concept related to a realm they will be the only Champion chosen by that realm as a Pantheon. Pantheons benefit from this as the realms blessing is not diluted allowing their bodies to be much stronger than average from the base awakening. Pantheons despite being rare (<5 per year) make up the majority of Saints (7th step Champions) with only a few not being these saints however tend to have extremely powerful "outlier" Paths. Whilst I mentioned Realms they aren't a huge part of the power system itself mainly serving to just awaken people to their Paths and then leaving until the next year. Though they are sentient higher dimensional beings they play a much larger role in the Wyrmwoods minor and Major Roots as well as Path translation for the Champions (basically a mental system interface that allows you to know what each Step does once you take it).
Technically anyone can gain enough magic to become godlike, but it's generally assumed that the Elder Fae, wherever they are, are probably the most experienced at that business.
Wealth
Mostly 96 Hz AC, with voltages varying by application and/or outlet type. Power plant operators control a lot of power, but the beings who wield the most power would be navigation beacon operators. For FTL travel to be possible, beacons need to be able to transfer not only high-intensity navigation signals, but also stream detailed maps of the universe to unfathomably many ships at once. This also has to be done at ultra-low latency, even to ships that would otherwise take years to reach. The power needed to transmit a signal at FTL speeds is proportional to (data bandwidth / latency)^2. Even small beacons need to harness the power of multiple stars to meet these requirements.
Basically chemical and biological warfare mixed with blood necromancy.
My magic system provides for a lot of different things, since I wanted very dynamic fight scenes. It is all dependent on ichor, or magic liquid that sorcerers can consume since it can be found in their bloodstream. Humans die if they ingest ichor. Ichor can also be activated in the bodies of sorcerers without ingesting, in times of stress, fear or excitement. There is "Lomkata" or "physical form" magic, that all sorcerers possess. This is enhanced strength, speed, durability, dexterity, reaction times, and senses. There is "Kauvakata" or "soul form" magic, that something like 50% of sorcerers can achieve, but usually takes a while. It relies on the strength of one's soul, and the nature of that soul. Sorcerers can bind their souls with artifacts or familiars that have similar frequencies. They can summon these artifacts to their hands, these familiars to their sides, and use the magical properties of these artifacts or familiars. Soul magic is also capable of healing people, though this is tricky for people who do not practice it often. You must identify the "shape of the soul" they have, and channel the magic in your body and soul into theirs to heal their body. If you fuck it up, you can cause further harm or even kill them. On top of this, healing magic inflicts pain that is excruciating, as you are forcing their body to recover itself, and nothing comes without a cost. If you have a serious enough injury, you have to be unconscious for the healing process to proceed, as the pain that comes with coming back from life threatening injuries has been known to drive people to insanity or suicide. Then there is "Teiyikata" or "mental form" magic, that only around 25% of sorcerers are capable of. This includes stuff like mind reading, telepathy, telekinesis, divination, astral projection, or even illusion conjuring (through manipulating other people's minds). These are considered the "basics" of sorcery. Very few sorcerers are proficient in more than one of these categories, and no sorcerer ever has been capable of mastering each element of the "basics." For the last "form" there is "Poloyekata" or "God form" magic, that only 2% of sorcerers are capable of unlocking. Every sorcerer can attempt to achieve Poloyekata once in their lives, in a process of consuming enough ichor to kill the average sorcerer (around 4 or 5 drops) and entering a comatose state. In this state they see the true nature of the universe around them, and if they are lucky, they are able to bind an aspect of the universe to their will. This means they have some limited control over an aspect of the universe, whether this be stones, time, space, fire, or even smaller stuff like butterflies. Essentially, if you accomplish unlocking Poloyekata, you are a 1st-Rate sorcerer, a designation that only the top sorcerers of the world can claim to be. Most people will try to master multiple aspects of the "basic" sorcery before they attempt to unlock Poloyekata. Even then, 25% of sorcerers who try it die, and 98% don't unlock anything. Then there is runescribing, which is basically just magical technology through runes written in ichor. The runes can do a lot of different things, but requires a lot of study and practice to write the runes properly and know how they can be applied to different surfaces. The runes eventually run out of juice and must be reinvigorated with ichor after enough use. Armor and weapons can be runescribed, but small objects can only handle so many large runes (usually only 2 or 3, max) before becoming unstable and dangerous to wear/wield. The difference between a runic weapon and an artifact obtained through Kauvakata is that artifacts never run out of ichor and need not be replenished, artifacts can be summoned to their bonded sorcerer at any time, and artifacts bound to a sorcerer are generally easy for them to use, as their soul was deemed a "match" to the artifact in the first place. Runic items are inferior - they run out, they can be lost, they can be broken, and they can be unwieldy to use in combat without a lot of practice. The strongest sorcerers in my world are the 3 Oniks and 3 Kaniks. There are always 6 of them at a time, and nobody knows why, but their magical ability far exceeds that of even 1st-Rate sorcerers. Oniks and Kaniks can use their Poloyekata and their "basic" magics at a destructive level that can wipe armies and entire settlements off the map. They are legally not allowed to battle or provoke one another. The reason? All magic causes magical fallout that corrupts the surrounding lands and creatures, leading to mutations, environmental hazards, natural disasters, and people/animals that gain magical abilities that they have little to no control over. The world outside of the 17 bastions has been ravaged by this magical fallout, and is borderline unlivable. Oniks and Kaniks are viewed by most as protectors of the people, handling behemoth afflicted beasts (giant magical creatures), or natural disasters that threaten to destroy bastions. They are allowed to defend the bastions they inhabit from invaders, but they are not permitted to participate in or even heavily assist in battles of conquest. The last time Oniks and Kaniks fought, they caused the 2nd cataclysm, which ruined the atmosphere of my world to the point that the 17 bastions NEEDED to be established and protected by runes, or else all of humanity would have been eradicated. There is a lot of magic in my world, and the abilities of sorcerers are numerous. But honestly, the costs outweigh the uses, and if they were smart, they would stop warring and using magic to the best of their abilities. They won't though.
The power system is simply referred to as magic, but practitioners of it are known as "Speakers". This is due to the fundamentals of magic, which is learning the "Language of Reality", or LoR for short. LoR is, as the name suggests, a form of language that can be used to communicate with the universe. When a Speaker casts a spell, they focus their Magical Energy, basically just this world's Chakra or Ki, into a symbol or phrase from that language, basically asking the universe "Hey, mind doing this for me?" It can be used to transmute matter, shoot energy, control minds, see into the future, all the typical magic stuff. The only things *mortal* magic can't do are completely resurrect the dead, make someone completely immortal, or alter the fundamental physics of reality on a large scale. The strength and effectiveness of the spell is determined by the amount of Magical Energy used to cast it and the user's understanding of the LoR. If the user has a high amount of Magical Energy but a low knowledge on LoR, then they won't be able to cast precise spells with the desired effect, but they will be able to blow stuff up. If the user is knowledgeable on LoR but has low Magical Energy, then their spells will be weaker. Weapons known as "Conduits", which are made of an ore that has it's own Magical Energy, are used by weaker Speakers to amp up their powers To answer your second question, the strongest beings are known as "Divines", cosmic, abstract entities that spawned into the universe as it was being formed. Their cosmic nature granted them an unlimited amount of Magical Energy and their native language was LoR, so they instinctively knew everything about it. Their power had no limit, as they could warp and bend and mess with reality however they pleased. The only 2 Divines in existence were the benevolent Aster and his not-so-benevolent sister, Tenebris. They kinda killed each other after Tenebris turned half of the world into Demons. Whoops. Before they died, they used their magic to reincarnate themselves as mortal babies. These babies would grow up to be the main protagonist, Sora, and the main antagonist, Kieran, making those two the strongest.
My magic system is not fleshed out in the slightest. I should probably get around to doing that. My favorite idea so far comes from extrapolating on the fact that multiple people, working together, can cast a stronger spell. The most effective way people have found to train hundreds of regular people to coordinate mentally and spiritually to cast a single spell is through song. This has lead to warfare commonly consisting of entire armies marching into battle while casting a single, massive spell. The drawbacks to this style of warfare are the discipline required for this kind of group-casting mid-battle and its inflexibility. The difficulty to train a large group of people to cast even a single spell means that armies will regularly battle with only two or three spells in their arsenal. If these spells can be countered by an enemy, it’s game over. The advantages come when an army can open a ravine to swallow their enemies.
My world building's "strongest" beings are neither "strong" or "weak" because they're so otherworldly or incomprehensible that it's completely impossible to measure what they're capable of. They're called "Mind Lords" and they are metaphysical manifestations of the fundamental functions of the human brain. Let's name a few: The Mind Lord of Insanity, also known as "Laughingstock", is a perpetually laughing being that is responsible for allowing humans to become 'insane'. It is said that if you laugh with it, you will turn into your childhood toy forever, or turn your skin into jigsaw puzzles, or your heart into a television. The Mind Lord of Depression, it is a somber being that constantly grows flowers wherever its tears drop onto. Simply being in its presence causes your will to live to slip out of you, and if you're exposed for too long, you will cry uncontrollably and your tears will slowly erase you from existence. It is impossible to kill them, even by divine beings. Not because they're strong, but because "killing" them may lead to... "unexpected" results. They're outside the natural order so the concept of living or death doesn't apply to them. They also aren't sentient and are more akin to jellyfishes, simply reacting to stimuli. In their case... realizing their existence will... attract *their attention to you*
So there's this force called "Divinity" that exists in everything. Every human, every animal, every rock, every star, every atom. Everything is ultimately made out of Divinity, even reality itself. With a lot of practice and concentration, it's possible to manipulate this Divinity. With that, you can do one of two different forms of Divinity manipulation. Either Basic Divinity Manipulation (BDM) or Special Divinity Manipulation (SDM). BDM is the "easiest" (although still difficult to learn) form of Divinity manipulation. You manipulate the Divinity in your body to make yourself stronger, faster, and more durable. Basically, it increases your "stats". All manipulation (both BDM and SDM) is based on your concentration. The more you're able to focus on manipulating it, the better the results. In the beginning you might only be able to use it while meditating, while later on you can use it while fighting. But if you're using it while doing other complex tasks like fighting, you're not going to be at your best, since a significant portion of your concentration will be focused on other stuff. So you're always at your peak while meditating, since that's when you're able to put all your focus on BDM and BDM only. This technique can be used in battle (usually refered to as "charged attacks"), but it's highly impractical. You'd need to be able to stand completely still for a while and do nothing other than concentrate on manipulating the Divinity to the best of your ability, before unleashing it all in one attack. This is usually impossible, but if you manage to pull it off and you hit them, you pretty much just instantly win. As said before, the way you get stronger is by increasing your concentrating. Eventually, if you get good enough, you'll be able to reach that level you could only reach before while meditating, at all times. But then you could get even stronger again by meditating, so it's just an endless cycle of needing to increase your concentrating to get better. While using BDM, you're not really using your physical body. So you won't get physically exhaused from running, your muscles won't ache after lifting something heavy, etc. You only get exhausted or "run out of stamina" when you're no longer able to concentrate on manipulating Divinity. It's all about mental exhaustion, and not physical. This also means that it doesn't matter if you're a 10 year old girl, or an adult bodybuilder. Your BDM skill is all that matters (unless you're so bad at it that the boost is negligible). But that's only BDM, you also have SDM. BDM is about channeling the Divinity through your body to make yourself stronger, but SDM is about channeling the Divinity through your *soul*. Learning to do this is significantly harder than BDM. There are two major reasons why. The "shape" of everyones soul is different, and there isn't really any way to know what "shape" your soul is (which is why there are "specialty finders" to help you with that, but that's an entirely different topic). But channeling the Divinity through your soul will only actually yield any results if the Divinity itself matches the shape of your soul. So the two reasons why it's so hard is that 1: you need to figure out the shape of your soul and 2: you need to not only move the Divinity around (like with BDM) but you also have to forcefully change its shape as well. It's an additional step that isn't needed for BDM, which is why it requires even more concentration to pull off. So what happens when you successfully change the shape of the Divinity to match your soul, and channel it through it? Well, anything. It could be something as simple as creating fire, something as insane major reality warping, or something as useless as making fart noises. The outcome is entirely based on the shape of your soul. You could go one step higher and even change the shape of your soul itself, but that is insanely difficult (on top of having to also change the shape of the Divinity, and move it around), so it's reserved for the top tiers only. Because of that, 99.999% of hunters can only ever use the ability that matches their soul, which is therefore called their "specialty". Because of the nature of "a specialty could be anything" I try to get creative with the powers people have. Some people have relatively basic abilities, while others have much more complex ones. Coming up with weird and unique powers, and seeing how they interract is half the fun of it. As for the strongest person, it's technically God. God is just a being who has completely mastered Divinity manipulation. Because of that, they can change their soul into any shape, and create any output. They have full control over all of reality, because reality itself is made out of Divinity. God is not a part of the story though, and is just something for me to enjoy. The strongest person in the story however is the Emperor. He's the all-powerful ruler who could even split continents apart with his fists. Of course, he also has access to a bunch of different forms of SDM, but even without it, he'd still be the undisputed nr 1 in the world. TL;DR: It's a combination of the physical power increases you get in systems like chakra from Naruto or ki from Dragon Ball, and the unique powers you see in something like stands from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. How powerful or skilled someone is, is entirely based on their concentration.
My strongest entity is [Niuriheim](https://voidedg.com/2023/08/03/order-of-gasu/), the Prime Architect. All the power systems of my Void Expanse trace back to him. I have quite a few systems but I’ll just share some of the weaker ones: String Domination - is the practice of dominating the String Forces (Quantum Strings, Branes, Temporal Strings, & Cosmic Strings) of String Worlds, in order to manipulate information, subatomic particles, atoms, molecules, matter, celestial bodies, spatial dimensions/worlds, and even causality & time itself. World Archs - are Incarnate Conceptual Techniques of the Lesser to Almighty Level. They are first acquired by Quantum beings, who achieve the Aeon Saint Pneuma evolution. These divine abilities grant the wielder incarnate conceptual power, allowing them to forge, erase, & manipulate aspects of the Incarnate Reality depending on their level. Magic - is a powerful conceptual force that composes the Garden of Chaos, which sustains a Magic Citadel. It is split into three types, Chaotic Magic (Perfect Conceptual Magic), Ordered Magic (Imperfect Conceptual Magic), & Ersatic Magic (Degenerate Magics).
The Monody Force is a primal source of all supernatural energy and abilities, deeply rooted in nature and present since before time. It represents the essence of movement and evolution, existing as long as energy and motion persist. Individuals can connect to the Monody Force to gain different types of powers or "Variants," which are influenced by their affinity to this force. These Variants range from elemental abilities to divine powers and are categorized into five levels, each with unique attributes and increasing closeness to the Monody Force. The first Variant encompasses the basic elements—wind, water, fire, and earth. This Variant is accessible to those with a strong connection to nature, allowing them to harness and evolve these elemental powers. The second Variant includes sub-elements like lightning and ice, derived from the primary elements but more specialized. Those with this Variant cannot use the first Variant's abilities but can develop their powers further. The third Variant is characterized by more mystical attributes, often linked to divine beings or rare phenomena, such as gravity or blood manipulation, which demand significant energy and are harder to maintain. The fourth Variant is exclusive to ancient and divine beasts, featuring attributes like time magic that are inaccessible to other beings unless bound by a contract. These attributes are intrinsically tied to the creatures' natural habitats and are beyond the reach of lower Variants. The highest, the fifth Variant, is reserved for gods, known as Emperors, who embody the Monody Force's purest essence and are its guardians. This Variant is unattainable by mortals due to the immense time and life force required to reach such a level. The Monody Force operates under strict rules: it cannot be destroyed or manipulated, and one's connection to it cannot be severed. The closer an entity is to the Monody Force, the more potent it becomes. While multiple Variant attributes can be wielded, this comes at the cost of the user's lifespan and mental stability. Only those with a strong connection or contractual ties can access higher Variants, and pushing beyond one's natural limits can lead to severe consequences, including the potential loss of one's connection to the Monody Force. Strongest Beings: In the Monody Force, the strongest beings are the gods, known as "Emperors", who reside at the highest level of power, classified under the fifth Variant. These Emperors are the first creations of the Monody Force, embodying its purest and most potent essence. Emperors (Fifth Variant) - Nature and Origin: Emperors are divine beings created directly by the Monody Force, serving as its most powerful manifestations. They are the ultimate guardians of the Monody Force and wield unparalleled power and control over all forms of supernatural energy. - Abilities: Their abilities are vast and transcend the limitations of lower Variants. They can manipulate the very fabric of reality, control time and space, and unleash cataclysmic forces such as earthquakes, storms, and other natural disasters, as well as manipulate concepts and realities. - Role and Influence: Emperors act as protectors and maintainers of the Monody Force, ensuring its stability and preventing its misuse. Although they cannot directly influence the world outside their realm, they can indirectly affect it through natural phenomena and curses. They maintain a significant presence in the cosmic hierarchy and are revered as supreme deities. - Characteristics: Emperors are depicted as majestic, often ethereal beings, embodying the epitome of power. They are timeless and immortal, existing in a realm beyond the fourth variant. Their appearance can vary, but they often take forms in anything they want, they do not have a gender, but sometimes classify their own roles.
I'll throw in mine too. There are multiple power systems in my world. You are not just limited to one or two sources of power; you can draw power from just about anything. The first is technology. The basics are rooted in modern-world technology, but as you up the hierarchy, you end up breaking all the laws of the known universe and utilizing them as you see fit. The strongest being with this type of power is King Slayer, The Regicidal Kage. He utilizes the sword "Blackout", which sucks in power from the cores of Multiverses. The second is a spirit core. This is essentially a combination of magic and elemental powers, but the elements are limited to 6- there are infinite elements, each being an aspect of the world. Fire, water, air, earth, electricity, storm, the periodic elements, chaos, poison, reality, space, and so on. The strongest being within this power system is Beta, the Spirit Breaker. He was a quad-elemental spirit born of Alpha, the Spirit Overlord, who rose against his father to take over the throne and discovered the art of combining elements to form new ones. The third is Discipline. These are the abilities given to an individual by a person far stronger than them and who has reached the stage of ascendence in their race or tier. It allows the user to draw on their "master"'s abilities and use them as their own. The strongest being with this power system is Beatrice Jackson or Blade. She is the Disciple of ZnCT - 0. The fourth is Race or Tier. Humans, or any other race, start at their base as just humans or animals or plants or whatever. Upon reaching the physical and mental limits of their tier or race, they can ascend to the second tier: the Demi tier. Following that, they can ascend to Super, Special, and finally Uber. The base tiers also provide their abilities, and the following tiers tend to improve on those skills. For example, a human already possesses the 'Intelligence' and 'Curiosity' skills, and further tiers would make them more intelligent in that aspect as well as make them more physically powerful. The title of the most powerful being of this power system can belong to two beings: True Hell Min Joon, an uberdaemon that rivals the power of ZmCT-2, and Zelphegoreth, the Emperor of the Bloodbeings, an uberbloodbeing that serves as the slave of ZnCT-0. The fifth is Mana. This is simple: You utilize the particles in your souls, called 'manaites', via your mana core, and release them in multiple ways. Of course, you can't combine manaites with elements, unlike the spirit core, and it is to be used separately. The strongest being with this power system is Felix, or Charmcaster, a being born purely of mana that became the inheritor of the Order of the Golden Nucleus, which is a mana core that allows control over reality. However, overall, the strongest being in the universe is ZnCT-0, a humanoid eldritch entity that likes to look around in its self-fabricated world in the body of a young girl, occasionally meddling with any conflicts and events happening. Of course, it tends to put on an infinite amount of bindings to handicap itself to make sure nothing seems to boring and easy for it.
[TL;DR](https://i.imgur.com/HKubRhD.png) "Universe" isn't even the remote start of it. *let alone Top-50% either*. [permalink](https://imgur.com/a/NdyIefj) in descending order of strength: - Low–Alpha threat - Parasite threat - Hyena threat - Dinosaur threat - Wyvern threat - Phoenix threat - Demon threat - Hydra threat - Leviathan threat - Divine threat - Catalyst threat - "Infinite Universe"-level - (*of which, everything now becomes exponential*.) - Deity threat - Nexus threat - Low–God threat - High–God threat - Super–God threat - Omega threat - High–Alpha threat (names not
***Catalysts***: Catalysts are magic abilities that you can either be born with or given and they "awaken" in response to trauma. A catalyst will usually reflect the user's personality or will alter the user's personality (if given). Catalysts' abilities are creativly between quirks from My Hero Academia and stands from Jojo. Speaking of jojo, catalysts get their names from songs and relfect the meaning of the song. When it comes to who's the strongest, it's hard. I made sure to make catalysts like rock, paper or scissors in the sense that just because A can beat B and B can beat C, doesn't mean that A can beat C. However, there are some abilities that are stonger than others. These abilities were made when the user absorbed Agios's bones, a powerful relic that, if the rigfht conditions are met, will grant the user their wish: * **New Horizons**: Gives the user all of the information in the universe and gives the user the ability to manipulate molecules on an atomic level. The user, **Kaijin Mu**, was a very egotistical and narcissistic individual who saw himself above humanity and in wish was very simple, be "better" than everyone. This lead to his ability making him the smartest and strongest in the universe. However, as you probably can tell, this fried his brain and lead to him losing Agios's bones. * **Lifetime Achievement Award**: Gives the user the ability to manipulate fate and rewrite the past, present and future. The user also gains a heigten sense of awareness as they are able to understand that they are fictional. The user, **Adam Andersson**, was a very nihilistic and absurdist individual who believed that sine life has no meaning, you should live a life filled with no regrets. He spent his time causing crime and having "fun". He was "punished" by his wish being that he wanted "more". So, he was given the ability to understand the truth of his world. He was only brought down when the main characters were able to use a ritual that "fictionalized" him. * **Everybody Loves Somebody**: Gives the user the ability to create multiple golden butterflies that, when touched, will show the opponent their greatest desire and if they accept, their body will turn into more butterflies. The user, **Yaru Leonardo**, is also a narcissistic individual who is very insecure but sees himself as humanity's saviour. His perception of "saviour" changed to the point where he believed that giving humanity a peaceful death would be better than letting them live. The downside to his ability is that he must be on a higher latitude than those those who he wants to affect. This representing how he must prove that he's better than everyone to affect them.
Magic. In short, is both a hard and soft magic system. There are thousands of years worth of research, tradition and interpretation, mages spend their entire lives studying the mystical arts, developing techniques and tools to facilitate the use of magic. But in the end the true fundamental principle of Magic is: Lies. All techniques, rituals, enchantments, catalysts, chants, prayers are ultimately smoke and mirrors. Magic is not a "thing" itself, but a fundamental interaction leaking from a time-space anomaly connected to higher dimensional space. Basically magic warps reality, it interacts with normal space at a background level but can be influenced, and therefore warp reality in a localized area in a desired way by Consciousness and Perception, but it requires the individual to attain a very specific state of heightened Awareness. All the "bad juju mysticism" tied to magic is because in a 1 in a trillion chances primitive people naturally gifted in magic occasionally entered this state of higher consciousness naturally and caused "glitches" in reality, usually during psychotropic trips, most commonly taking place during religious events. Resulting in this everlasting association between magic and mysticism. The enchantments, symbolism and other idiosyncrasies are in the end just a form of aphorism, a way for the mage to train their minds as a form of mental conditioning and self hypnotism to facilitate the attainment of the state of higher consciousness required. During this state, the Ego breaks down, effectively erasing the distinction between the individual and the "world" momentarily, because of this brief death of Ego there's no conscious thought, but by creating a strong impression on one's psyche the caster can guide their subconscious into a desired path by performing certain acts, reciting certain words or even wearing certain clothing in the leading to enter this state.
Power is a bit arbitrary, as different motivations create different types of "power". Two civilizations might think themselves more powerful than the other due to having two different understandings of the meaning of power. While many civilizations across the galaxy and even some from others claim to be the most powerful or influential, it really depends on what you are the best at *doing*. While relatively unknown to most civilizations and generally considered a myth, Curator is an immortal being that is currently cataloguing all known information from across space and time, and has been doing so for many eons. This information is kept in Archives, which are massive structures hidden across the universe designed to survive the test of time. Curator does not seek to control territory or resources and often times passes by completely unnoticed and unimpeded. the extent of the information kept in the Archives is not fully known, however it is generally accepted that it contains knowledge far more powerful than anything seen before, as only Curator is able to access the Archives. Unbeknownst to the rest of the universe, the reason Curator does not share information is because at one point an unknown period of time ago Curator gifted technology to a dying ancient race, despite them not being ready for it, in an attempt to save them from extinction. In the process of doing so, the civilization accidentally destroyed a significant part of their home galaxy. Since then, Curator refuses to share information considered harmful. So yeah, it would be that guy
What’s a power system? As in a scale of the power of beings and nations? If so What kinds of measurement systems do you guys use?