Strength of the Varr
CATALOGUE: Magic System
DESCRIPTION:
The word strength is used to describe the magic in Variland, because all adults and children from the age of ten possess the Strength. Thus, the Strength is the main resource of the Varr in the world’s economy; a barter system which depends on the product or service they give through their Strength.
The Strength gives a different outcome from each individual depending on their profession. However, this outcome can be categorized in five different group which the Varrs like to refer them in clans: Shapeshifter, Examinator, Motionsenser, Storageholder, and Influencer.
Origin of Strength
No one truly knows how the humans evolve to possess the Strength in the first place. Most of the Varrs assume that it belongs to the human’s essence when the gods create the world with its entity inside. As in how Gramunu and Tapamata bore the humans according to the Qabu’s Jaqinism. Or Hiihaan, one of Mara’s Haan Deities, created the cycle of life, and one of them is the life of the humans with Strength. In the tale of Bhraneshkism among the Rae, only the Three Paladins possessed the Strength, until when the last Paladin, Ironclaw, died and gave his blessing to the humanity in the form of Strength. The tale of Syranism says that Mhlu’ana gave the first five humans Strength through the touch between her beak and the human’s middle-finger, and the Northern Calixes assume that those five humans were the Unknown Ancestors. The Central Calixes on the other hand preserve the knowledge that once the Unknown Ancestors didn’t possess Strength at all, but the part how Strength exists among their descendants remain unknown.
Nevertheless, one thing that unites all the Varrs around the world — including the Border Calixes and the Ikvs who never bother to find out about this lost historical aspect — is the existence of natural element that is called as Aura; an element that is gained in the breathable air.
Aura particles: main source of the Strength
“Aura is not to be seen, not to be heard, not to be tasted nor felt. Yet without Aura, our passage of time won’t pass.”
The journals of Kaliczelsk, one of the Calix Philosophers originated in Border Nos, are the only existed historical documents that mention about the term Aura. SInce then, Scholars of Sorcery use the term to describe as the source of Strength that is roaming freely between the breathable air.
The term Aurabreath afterwards came from the Ikv in one of their folklores: Those who dare to approach Holy Khunnus won’t be let to breathe the Aura. It describes the transition of a child in their tenth birthday gaining the ability that resembles one of their parents. The Varrs like to describe this as “gaining Aurabreath”.
According to the basic knowledge about the Unknown Ancestors that is taught under Association of Primary School, the main source of Aura particles come from the activity of Guild of Waste Management (biggest headquarter in Mara and Central Nos) and decomposition of human’s dead body.
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
The decision of which Strength someone will gain comes from parental figure; either hereditary (biological parent) or through intimate observation (surrogate or adoptive bond).
Physical and mental condition also plays a huge role in the usage of Strength. Fatigueness and injury can affect their ability to use Strength. In worst case, the loss of one’s sanity can cause someone not being able to use Strength at all.
The Five Clans
The main form of Strength can be categorized in five groups, which the Varrs refer them as clans.
Shapeshift
The ability to turn their body into twolegs or fourlegs beastial creature. The transformation is called as ‘shapeshifting’. This also applies when they enhance their senses to increase multiple time sharper than their humane senses. The Varr in this clan is called as Shapeshifter.
Examinator
The ability to possess an X-ray-like vision toward the object they are (e.g. blood vessels under the skin or molecular movement in a melted ore). Some professions train their eyes to act as a magnifying lens. When they Examine, the veins on the corner of their eyes will bulge under their facial skin. The Varr in this clan is called as Examinator.
Motionsense
The ability to navigate the worlds’s time or direction, depending on their held profession. All of this information is carried through the air current they’re sensing on the exposed skin of their arms, or through the vibration or magnetic field underneath the ground surface that they catch on the exposed skin of their soles. The Varr in this clan is called as Motionsenser.
Storageholder
The ability to have a “second brain” to store additional information through their perception and memory. This “second brain” is called as Storage. The Varr who possess Storage is called as Storageholder.
Influence
The ability to manipulate the natural elements and change it to produce desired product through their hands. Water, earth, metal and wood are the elements they can interract. Each Influencer — the Varr in this clan — can only interract with one element.
Peculiar Strength
In some cases, the Strength takes a quite uncommon from the norm. Each clan has one Peculiar Strength. Most of Peculiar Strength has a power to impact a scale of civilization (either in a good or bad way). Therefore, Scholars of Sorcery decide to document their life that is referred as the Deed (the author is called as a seeker, a Storageholder who works under the Scholars).
Five categories of Peculiar Strength, from the most to the least case:
Mindbending (Influencer clan)
Halfeye (Examinator clan) — the only Peculiar Strength that isn’t documented under the Deed
Scatterer (Storageholder clan)
Synesthesia (Shapeshifter clan)
Tapamata’s Eyes (Motionsenser clan) — the most recent found Peculiar Strength
Crossing profession & the “extreme rare case”
Crossing profession is a term to describe when a profession can be held by more than one clan. It can be from the common one such as a blacksmith held by an Examinator or a Metal Influencer until a medical occupation led by a Storageholder or a Water Influencer instead of an Examinator.
In some cases of Strength, someone possesses an uncommon trait but can’t be classified as Peculiar one. The Scholars call it as the “extreme rare case”. In each generation, there will always occur in one subject from every clan. No Deed is documented for them, but the Scholars keep their name and condition. Most of the documented extreme rare cases come from the subject’s training on the application of their Strength.