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-Soul Unison- =Contents= Overview Mechanics & Techniques of Soul Unison Tiers Redlines Overview In a world where beings of unimaginable power or worlds of vast emptiness impart the ability to do fantastical feats that mortals could only dream of doing, one begs the question. Are mortals themselves powerless? Must we rely on these other beings and worlds to gain our own strength? Are we as mortals, totally and utterly helpless in the grand scheme of things? Many would say yes, but perhaps, we haven’t been looking in the right places. The idea of Soul Unison lay in the ideal of unity, something which the Four Brothers sought out but ultimately failed in the face of Iblees’s evil. While many other evils in this world and others remain to disrupt the ideals of peace and unity amongst the Descendent Races, that should not stop us from utilizing the power inherent within each and every one of us, not just during times of war against such evils, but in times of peace so that when the time comes; we will be a true force to be reckoned with. The Mechanics of Soul Unison Like Ascendant Magic, the art of Soul Unison does not come granted directly from an Aengul, Daemon, or the Void. It is a power directly related to the very core of a being, their soul. Unlike the Ascended who possess a soul fortified by a boon of Aeriel, Soul Unison utilizes the inherent soul, or Superior Soul, as many scholars refer to it. Accessing such a power requires meditation and physical training to not only understand how Soul Unison affects the body, but also to prepare themselves for the physical undertaking of activating and using one’s own soul as a spark to the fire that is Soul Unison. Unlike those who partake in Voidal Magics or Dark Arts, a Soul Unison user must be physically capable and active as the power they are able to share is proportionate to the power they have to share in the first place, be it magical, or physical. On their own, a Soul Unison user, or for the remainder of this journal, a Conjoiner (as use their ability to conjoin their souls to act in unison), is quite nearly useless save for whatever other abilities they have. Soul Unison is not an offensive magic, its inherent nature lies in the ability of the user to seek out allies and increase their abilities through Soul Unison. The nature of the soul requires that for a Conjoiner to use Soul Unison, they must be compatible with each other. What this means is that the soul cannot be Warped, disfigured, or affected by an outside being. Thus this eliminates all souls affected by Dark Magic, Chimeras, Draconians, and those who utilize holy magic outside of Ascended. Interestingly enough, it may be possible for Shades are compatible through the nature of their Original Souls still being whole but corrupted by the Shade itself. At least this is what some scholarly articles on the nature of Shades indicates. -- So to boil it down, as of primary research, only Void Magic Users, Ascended, Shades, or anyone who doesn’t use magic can benefit from Soul Unison. Between these three types of souls, being Shade, Ascended, and normal Superior Souls, they all interact in vastly different ways. Starting with Shades, Soul Unison with a Shade is referred to as a Corrupted Soul Unison, due to the nature of the Shade’s own Soul. The Shade’s abilities are not shared with the Conjoiner on the basis that the Conjoiner themselves will most likely not have their own Shade within them. It is highly improbable a Shade Conjoiner could exist due to the nature of the Shade preventing Resonance with other souls, including other Shades. This Soul Unison is highly unstable due to the amount of stress it puts on the Conjoiner with having their Soul overlap with the Corrupted Soul. Imagine two souls like two balls, a normal Superior Soul transparent and clear, easily malleable. A Shade soul would be darker, less tangible and offer resistance to overlapping and forming a Unison Soul. It may give a larger boost in power than other Soul Unisons dependent upon the skill of the Conjoiner, but no matter what the Unison will not last long because of its nature. Next, Ascended interact in a far more passive manner compared to the Corrupted Soul of the Shade. The Fortified Soul of the Ascended creates a Fortified Soul Unison, granting the Conjoiner some a brief taste of what the Ascended feel, sharing in the warmth of Aeriel’s flame; but not their inherent abilities. An Ascended Conjoiner is entirely possible, being able to further augment other Ascended’s Fortified Soul and grant a Fortified Soul Unison to non-Ascended. They become COMPLETELY incompatible with Shades because of Aeriel’s flame that is bound to their Soul. A Fortified Soul Unison is considered stable as the Fortified Soul is meant to allow better combat with darker beings. It it does offer resistance, however. It takes slightly longer Resonance period between a Non-Ascended and Ascended, but not between Ascended. Finally, normal Superior Souls interact with each other in the way one would expect. This is a normal Soul Unison that bestows no other feelings based on those involved souls. These will be the most common types of Conjoiners, as hopefully this magic will be spread amongst those that seek to perpetuate unity amongst all peoples. A normal Soul Unison offers the least resistance between two souls and is the easiest to establish and is a stable connection like a Fortified Soul Unison. It does not matter if those involved has used magic or not, they as long as their Soul is not Warped, they are compatible with Soul Unison. A Warped Soul would offer far too much resistance and a connection could not be established. To reiterate and put into proper wording of what Soul Unison boils down to, the user of Soul Unison, henceforth known as the Conjoiner, activates the mana that is inherently bound to their soul, creating a Resonance, so to speak. When Resonance is being used, their aura begins to manifest around their body in reaction to the active mana, acting as a beacon for other compatible souls to initiate Soul Unison. Untrained Conjoiners will find their Resonance coming out explosively and their ability to maintain Soul Unison limited as they most likely will not have proper mana control. What separates a master from a novice is the degree of energy released during Resonance, the tighter the aura is around the body, the less energy released and clearly the more experienced the individual. This technique is the first step to using Soul Unison. When a Conjoiner has successfully Resonated with another person, which involves the Conjoiner and person who wishes to perform Soul Unison to touch each other physically, most commonly holding hands or placing a hand on their back or chest. Harmonization occurs and takes a few moments to create the link between those involved. While Harmonizing, a Conjoiner must remain within a certain distance of those involved, else the connection will be automatically severed. Harmonizing overlaps compatible Superior Souls, thus creating a power that is shared, forming a Unison Soul. This increases the mana output, allowing for the Conjoiner to utilize the full-range of their techniques on parties in the Soul Unison without directly drawing upon anyone’s mana and harming someone in the process. (See: Soul Unison Figure A). A Unison Soul, Figure A As of writing this journal, the Conjoiner’s repertoire is only limited by the Conjoiner’s own abilities physically and mentally. To augment the abilities of those involved in Soul Unison, including the Conjoiner, Synchronization, the technique used to level out the amount of energy being shared amongst all party members must be used to maintain a stable connection. If one tries to augment the abilities without leveling the energy out, an unstable connection may occur and disrupt Soul Unison entirely, resulting in a drained Conjoiner and a very painful, but brief disconnection amongst everyone else. With Synchronization, this allows the Conjoiner to utilize the following augmentation techniques based on their own personal abilities. These techniques can only be used one at a time; if another one is used, the effect of the previous immediately ends and takes a moment before the new effect is established. Allegro: This technique increases the speed and agility of those involved proportional to the physical ability of the Conjoiner, allowing for more fluid movements and faster reaction time. The feeling is described as a lightness in the body, feeling like a leaf in the wind. Forte: The technique used to increase the physical strength of those involved proportional to the physical ability of the Conjoiner, being able to hit harder, lift heavier objects, and push the body to its physical limit. The feeling is described as an invisible swelling of the body, like a fire has been stoked within the stomach and the hot air has filled the body’s muscles. Brio: The technique used to increase the physical endurance of those involved proportional to the physical ability of the Conjoiner, enduring stronger hits, but not being immune to pain. The body itself becomes tougher and stamina increases as well. The feeling is described as the skin feeling like stone and your breath is endless. Deciso: The technique used to increase the overall magic ability of those involved proportional to the magical ability of the Conjoiner, if any. If the Conjoiner possesses little to no magical ability, Soul Unison still grants an overall boost to mana. Depending on the abilities of the Conjoiner, another overall boost is to the power of the caster, but not inherently to their spells or skills. It would be akin to a child using a powerful sword, it may be strong, but if they don’t know how to wield it, it is useless. Magic casters may find the magic of the Conjoiner seep into their own spells, adding interesting effects. These four major techniques form the basis of Soul Unison and its capabilities. However, there are two techniques that in theory should work, giving Soul Unison users some sort of offensive tactics should they need to use them. The first is Dissonance, a forced connection between a Conjoiner and another person. Using this technique creates an unstable Soul Unison between the Conjoiner and person involved, it is a far quicker process, but is far rougher on both parties involved. It could be seen as an emergency technique when there is no time to use Resonance, but it is very easy to disrupt the connection. A strong enough blow (enough to knock the wind out of them) to the Conjoiner will result in an immediate disconnection and similar disruption effects to that of augmentation without Synchronization. The second, and final technique of Soul Unison is one I have termed, Cadence. The very idea of the technique is contradictory to the nature of Soul Unison, as it only requires the Conjoiner itself. A Conjoiner resonates with their own Soul, creating a false Unison Soul through a feedback loop. While this will augment their own power greatly, the nature of Cadence will kill them as they will most likely burn their entire mana pool out in the process as this technique utilizes all of the Passive Mana within the Conjoiner’s body. It is a suicidal technique that will end in death. It is not recommended to ever use, but the idea exists should such a cause require its use. Tiers Tier 1 - A total novice to the art of Soul Unison. They have only begun to learn how to use Resonance and activate it. It will feel like turning a mechanism on and off, flipping a switch to use Harmonize with at most, one person. Without breaking the connection, they can move up to 5 meters away from them to maintain Harmonization. The boost in power they can provide is negligible, even if they are physically or magically capable. They have yet to fully understand the techniques of Synchronization to utilize them. Resonance - 4 emotes Minimum Harmonization - 8 emotes Minimum 5 meter max distance from each other. Tier 2 - The apprentice level of Soul Unison, a Conjoiner would be able to perform the basics of Resonance without extreme exhaustion and understand the fundamentals of the technique and increase the speed at which they can Harmonize with another individual. Without breaking the connection, they can move up to 7 meters away from them to maintain Harmonization. The apprentice has finally begun learning how to Synchronize, being able to use the four Augmentations at the most basic level, even if they are physically or magically capable. Resonance - 4 emotes Minimum Harmonization - 6 emotes Minimum Synchronization - 4 emotes Minimum + 2 for Augmentation 7 meter max distance from each other Tier 3 - The level where the student has learned the basic techniques from their master and can now perform the Resonance technique easily and Harmonization has reached it’s peak speed, however they can now Harmonize with up to two other people. Without breaking the connection, they can move up to 9 meters away from them to maintain Harmonization. By now their own power should be spread out amongst those they have Synchronized based on how physically and magically capable they are. They have amassed enough knowledge at this point to be able to teach new Conjoiners. Resonance - 3 emotes Minimum Harmonization - 6 emotes Minimum Synchronization - 4 emotes Minimum + 2 for Augmentation 9 meter max distance Tier 4 - An expert in Soul Unison has mastered the basic techniques of Soul Unison, Resonance comes naturally, Harmonization happens more smoothly and they can now Harmonize with up to three other people and maintain a distance of 12 meters. The technique to Synchronize would by now have reached a level of competence that they can Synchronize and use an augmentation almost seamlessly. Continuing down the route of Soul Unison, an expert can pursue the study of Cadence and Dissonance, being able to use Dissonance in lieu of Resonance and Harmonization. They will have the capacity to learn Cadence, and it must be taught. Resonance - 3 emotes Minimum Harmonization - 6 emotes Minimum Synchronization - 3 emotes Minimum + 1 for Augmentation Dissonance - 5 emotes Minimum 12 meter max distance Tier 5 - A master of Soul Unison. They are able to perform Resonance at a perfectly stable rate, maintaining mana control even under the most stressful situations. Harmonization has reached its peak in terms of how many people the Conjoiner can handle in Soul Unison at once, and has the ability to link their Unison Soul with another Unison Soul, although this can ONLY be done between masters of Soul Unison. The max amount of people they can harmonize with is four other people and they can maintain a distance of 15 meters away from them. They can Synchronize and Augment a person seamlessly, increasing power overall by a notable margin. As a master, they can perform Dissonance without trouble and can use, and teach Cadence, should it be required. A master does not automatically learn Cadence, they must learn it from another master who knows it while they are either an expert or master. This is the peak and when connecting with a master, an empathic connection is formed. Those involved can feel each other’s emotions through the power of the Unison Soul’s bond. Resonance - 3 emotes Minimum Harmonization - 6 emotes Minimum Synchronization - 3 emotes Minimum + 1 for Augmentation Dissonance - 4 emotes Minimum Cadence - 6 emotes Minimum 15 meter max distance Redlines (cus powergaming is for suckers) While in Harmonization with another, you must be able to see them, when there is no more line of sight the connection drops instantly. There MUST be consent IN ROLEPLAY for Harmonization to take place, Dissonance however does not need in roleplay willingness Harmonization cannot last forever, a Conjoiner is using their mana to bridge a connection between one or more souls and thus are limited by how much mana. If they do not stop, they can and will die from using up all of their mana. Only one Augment can be used at a time, and they must be emoted swapping out based on the emote requirement for tiers. Credits - Lark - Writing this piece of **** Tahmas - Answering Shade related questions Jallentime - Answering Ascended related questions LotC - For your constructive criticism and feedback I am most likely going to recieve OOC Notes: It ain't formatted pretty like other magics but this is meant to be a good or at the very least, neutral magic. We have a lot of dark magic that pertains to souls, so why not one that is at least good, eh?