Devil Lore: Stars, Wishes, and Status

I. What are Stars and Wishes:

Devils are born with black five pointed stars on the body; the number of stars are dependent on the quality of the core possessed, the higher the cores chaotic energy capacity, the more wishes available. They function as a soul-level reservoir of chaotic life force that can be burned to enforce a wish. 

• Example: In Hannya’s case, the six black stars map to six wishes and the world treats that as a ‘Supreme’ tier. 

Stars are the engine that makes a wish work, by devouring a star, a black chaos sigil forms to carry out the command to the Chaos platform's best ability. Chaos energy originates from the plane's chaos platform, and it is one of the purest forms of energy generated from Neel. That energy is one of the few capable of ‘editing’ Laws. 

Wish magic, however, has clauses that forbid the direct modification of supreme laws from residents of Neel. Exceptions are possible, but to ensure minimal oversight; the Platform of Chaos is typically responsible for facilitating energy and form for wish requests.  

II. Who can use Wish Magic:

Wish Magic is exclusive to devils. Other races can ‘request’ a wish in a rare event with the right ingredients and catalyst. But the success is dependent on the amount of chaos energy a non-devil can channel and the favor of the Chaos Platform. 

Unfortunately, most races outside the demon and devil race don’t have the physiology to even touch chaos energy directly for extended periods of time. On top of the fact that accepted wishes are up to the Platform of Chaos’(Bigot) discretion.

III. How wishes are cast and consumed:

Casting “pulls on” or outright ‘devours’ a star, producing an absolute-black chaos sigil that enforces the phrased request; observers can count missing stars afterward. Example: In the story, a two-star devil spends a star to ‘get to safety’. This resulted in a black teleportation sigil to form ‘pulling on’ one of the devils stars. But before the spell was fully cast, it was cancelled; stopping the ‘devouring’ of the chaotic life force.  

IV. Hard limits and risks:

• If you overreach your personal chaotic limit, it kills you.

• Wishes cannot exceed Supreme Laws, it kills you.

• Spending all stars leads to mortality, then eventually kills you.

• Overdrafting a ‘Final wish’ downpayment will cast the wish, then kill you.

A. The penalty at zero wishes: mortality and rapid aging

• The firm rule is death if all wishes are spent, the Chaos Platform even locks a final star behind a Survival Clause to prevent accidental self-execution while an ongoing world-scale effect is running.

• Wish stripping(losing instead of paying) subverts the ashing penalty of a final wish. This leads to a devil core’s soul-resource loss, causing mortality until chaotic life force is recovered. Death is permanent if slain in this state.

• One immediate nuance with a devil falling to mortality is that very old devils who hit zero become mortal and begins to age rapidly. Note: Old looking devils are usually by choice. Don't think too hard about it. :)

B. ‘Last wish’ and down-payments for law-bending effects

• Last Wishes are what could be considered as folklore-level events tied to six-stars, including a precedent where a six-star’s last wish birthed the Dream Realm and the fissures that invade Neel today.

• A Last Wish is the polar opposite of a Promised Wish. Where Promised Wishes are like vouchers for small requests, Last wishes are like down payments for cataclysmic change, casting it will seize the stars it was promised the instant it triggers.

• Example: [Delusional World] itself shows the ‘down payment’ mechanic in concrete numbers, five of Hannya’s six stars are bound as power sources and five of six soul-binds are pledged to the world effect before it even iterates. Though the skill is technically not a ‘Last Wish’ the payment method is the same.

• The scale of a last wish tier effect is further proven by the system response. The use of [Delusional World] suspended world laws and triggered the Seven Platforms trial, since the wish tried to bend or brush against Supreme law boundaries without a death penalty. The event was, in a way, seen as cheating death.

V. When wishes collide:

• Simultaneous, conflicting wishes collide as sigils and unravel on contact, nullifying the effects in that moment. The ‘instance window’ that counts as ‘Simultaneous’ wishes depends on the complication of that particular wish request.

• Priority scales with star count when snap wishes collide. When stacking requests against someone with more stars, the majority wish would always win. Equal star-count devolves into pure timing.

• Counter-wishes must be explicit statements. Example: “Take me to safety.” ⇔ “Keep him here.” , “Get rid of this pink air.” ⇔ “Deny his wish. Don’t answer him again.”

• There is however, a noted battlefield exception currently revealed from the story(Vol.1): Condensed love energy; a rare pure energy generated from certain lineages, can fuel simple wishes ‘without the rules of confliction’ or ‘confliction clause’, letting small commands land inside a clash. This is one of the support skills that makes wish magic more combat viable.

VI. Capacity and tracking:

This idea will likely get removed, I’m not completely sure on a good approach for it after the evolution. After the great chapter purge it was kind of pointless, any ideas for it are welcomed lol. But essentially on Hannya’s original status screen, it tracked a raw total of wishes and a shifting ‘current capacity’ shown on the same panel as MP and Chi. 

The mechanic behind capacity isn’t really spelled out, but it was originally for limiting her wish use. But using wishes for literally anything triggers so many people lol, despite its possible implications and meaning. (Used wish = bad ). So removing this and just making wishes more traditionally ‘meaningful’ might be better for the story. 

VII. Regaining or stealing wishes:

Wishes can be gained in three known ways. 

• Chaotic lifeforce consumption(Theft). Some devils have the ability to strip stars from others, typically devils weaker. This is done through the use of special devouring abilities, pure brute core consumption, or high level grand array development.

  • Example: Hannya deployed a wish-harvesting array to siphon wishes from other devils. But she expected to only net one, wondering where the surplus would go, this is due to her understanding of the transfer and storage constraints.

• Contract fulfillment(Reward): Both the simplest and most complicated way. Fulfilling 666 consecutive contracts will grant a star from the platform of chaos. No stars are rewarded past a devils star limit, only favor.

• Purified Desire collection(Payment): Not yet mentioned, but only devils with paradoxical tenets can attempt this route.

VIII. Iterations, ‘Sixths’, and Culture:

Six stars are considered an apex authority in the world. People react to them as a Judge-class threat(See Power Scaling), and even mortals repeat the rule of thumb that a six-star devil can ‘break all curses’ and ‘bend reality’ when a Court is involved, which shows the social weight of the star rating even if the narration states that it as not entirely true.(I’ll try to separate that feeling more with the changes.)

You can see the social read of it in Hannya’s exchange with Baku post star reveal or the acolytes learning of her supreme status before she entered [deep pocket]. When Hannya’s six-star back is revealed, the acolytes drop to their knees in reverence and fear. (if not that’s fine lol, I’ll try to make it more obvious during rewrite so keep your mouth shut >:( ).

Iterations of natural devils have what is called ‘the 6th theory’. The theory states that every sixth iteration of a lineage has 6 stars, 6 tenets, and 6 gifts. This theory is considered one of the ‘Observable Secrets’ of Neel. Therefore, those that claim to know this secret are likely to be incorrect. And those that are correct are unable to share this information by conventional means.

Natural devil iterations are not always in order when spawned, and not all six star devils are a sixth iteration. On the other hand, Union devils are always in order, and union devils star count cannot exceed the parent star count. A six star Union devil can only appear with the blood of a six star natural devil.