DevLog #12: Gift of Creation

Ah... m-m-magic. At first I was hesitant to involve any supernatural forces, except, of course, Meora and the Serpent. But considering the a

Ah... m-m-magic.

At first I was hesitant to involve any supernatural forces, except, of course, Meora and the Serpent. But considering the already inrooted existence of Aspects/Angels, and paracausality of anything related to the Serpent, it would be disappointing to leave regular children of Meora powerless. And so the Gift became to be.

On a very good side, it is a great toolfor creating heroes: Those who are empowered by the Gift, those who can overpower Engifted with their own pure natural physique or intelligence, and those who can suppress both through technological supremacy... because even if most powerful Engifted can burn mountains, live longer and regrow lost limbs - there is a reason why the only being who holds the title of "the Headless" is the first Angel of Courage.

Another use for the Gift is to have an excuse when I create altered character designs when I want to deviate a bit from established biology, like the already shown Vammabelle al Apole, whose body coloration are absolutely not natural for Ardem, or Flatia Bellus III, who is absolutely not like the other Zemali .

Of course, there are some simple boundaries and restrictions that prevent this world from getting into a narrative stupidity when it comes to Engifted characters or events. One of the main rules is the increased degradation of one's mentality under the weight of the Gift - this averts situations where a very powerful and intelligent characters, does a lot of unintelligent and stupid things with their powers. For that, cunning Engifted are not powerful, while powerful Engifted are not cunning yet they still efficient because the Gift is the Gift.

The same goes for the personal goals of these most mighty individuals: they would be hard to understand, they do what is logical for them, and not always helpful nor meaningful to others. If only they were reasonable enough, they would actually rule the world... though, few of them rule over small territories because they decided so. In case of Flatia Bellus III, the most "sane" of living (not anymore) Solsticed, she united Waist Nations into a prosperous Kingdom of Tum through the help of first allies, symbolism, and the soothing effects of her Anomalous Presence, rather than wily politics which she don't even like... that is, if we don' talk about the Herquisition involvement, who were using Flatia Bellus image to manipulate public and unite Talia Kingdoms in a single powerful entity... but that is just a conspiracy theory, don't listen to anyone who say so!

Some rules are... complicated. But because neither I nor people of Meorenell can understand why it works the way it works, and not in a different way. The Gift comes from Meora, only she may know the truth, and we should not question thing we can't comprehend. These rules can be barely explained scientifically, and Meorenell scientist have only theories. But at least they try to understand and separate miracles from reality - because for may Engifted the Understanding is important to become stronger, and for those who are Muten its is important to understand what they can do without the Gift.

Most complicated rules and explanations would be for Domains. It is much easier to give an examples of how these rule work: a Domain of Endless Ocean will never flood Meorenell; all that Endless Ocean will just evaporate into absolute nothing and Domain will disperse when its creator stops supporting it; in such case anything brought there from actual reality, every single particle, will return as if Domain never existed. Most complicated of most complicated would be an explanation of interactions from inside to outside: If you bring a bucket inside the Doamin, fill it with water and carry it out... a bucket will return empty from the Domain, yet its surface still be wet, and if you drink that water inside the Domain and return - only water your body still haven't digested will disappear from your stomach. Meorenell scientists believe that when any physical matter of actual reality directly interacts with "physical" matter of Domain origin, or the elements of Domain origin attempt to leave Domain borders, that Domain consumes physical particles from real reality, and converts own particles into real particles upon... something about quantum physics and superposition probably.