Addendum: Record (Patreon)

As part of my undertaking to complete the Records, today I’m doing a close analysis of Caelestaya (that’s what the native humans call the planet), the homeworld of the latest Incarnation, Soul.

Unlike most worlds, Caelestaya suffers from constant pressure on the reality buffer. Too many Aligned and powerful entities alive at one point in such limited space caps the number of strong individuals there can be in a given time. In this case, Caelestaya’s lesser Incarnation bandwidth is of a single Incarnation or even less. Having multiple incarnations present, let alone Primordials, collapses the integrity of reality.

Space and I can bypass this restriction, but the others are unable to.

Caelestaya has given birth to four lesser Incarnations, those being: Record, Inevitability, Magic, and Soul. Only the latest of the bunch is currently alive. This proves the theory that Incarnations are mortal, even if they possess limitless power. (Further research needed.)

This world’s power system is of Magic, meaning it uses a combination of Arcane and Information to compose itself.

Magic is separated into two main factors: complexity and affinity.

Let’s start with affinity because it’s the simplest one. As an offspring of Arcane, Magic allows anyone to recreate any other element, this is shown by the elemental affinity. To be able to use an element, you need to have an affinity to it. For easier comprehension, just assume it works similarly to Alignments. I cannot stress this enough as there has already been enough confusion: affinities and Alignments are not the same. They are just eerily similar to each other.

Affinities are ranked in tiers of well... affinity. They follow the next structure: null, low, mediocre, medium, high, superb, and true.

To do magic of a given element you need a minimum null-low affinity. Beyond that, the connection is no longer of Magic, but a higher linkage to Information. True affinity supposedly gives an absolute understanding of the given element, but I have not reached conclusive answers.

Note: True affinity does not correlate with Aligned or Touched status. Nor it means you instantly become an Incarnation.

Next, complexity.

The main classification for the complexity of a spell is the ‘Starry Tier’, which goes from one-star to twelve-star. A curious fact about the stars is that the number before doesn’t indicate the number of stars but the number of arms of the star. One and two-star are normally represented as a needle and rhombus respectively as they aren’t possible to represent normally, the rest is mathematically possible and cohesive.

Stars are separated into two sets of nine (obviously).

The first set goes from the first star to the ninth, each subsequent star increases the difficulty of the spells by tenfold. And this set can be separated into three parts.

One to three-star (Low Stars): One-star magic is usually called unstructured magic, it is an unconscious thought to manipulate mana (the resource associated with Arcane). Two-star magic is the ‘cantrip-level’, here magic commences to add real computation. Three-star magic is the end of basic magic, and also where we can consider the true magic begins.

Four to six-star (Middle Stars): This third of the first set is practically homogeneous, increasing tiers correlate to higher power and complexity. Six-star is considered the beginning of an actual mage. Lower starred mages are called practitioners and are not considered actual mages.

Seven to nine-star (High Stars): Alike the previous third, there isn’t much to say. Curiously enough, even if there’s no change in difficulty growth, most people have difficulties reaching the seventh star. They call it the ‘seven-star wall’.

As for the other set, you may have noticed I said there are two sets of nine, yet I have mentioned there are only twelve stars. That’s because each star here is their own part, as they no longer increase their difficulty by ten, but a whole order of magnitude. Meaning that each subsequent star is a thousand times more complex than the previous one.

Ten-star: This star is known for the appearance of ‘field-type spells’. This category of spells allows the caster to imbue the surroundings with their element, therefore empowering themselves.

Eleven-star: Here the caster has grown powerful enough to interfere with reality. Caelestaya has an uncommonly thick planar barrier, meaning this star is not as powerful as it should be. My theory is that the barrier has thickened itself so the reality buffer does not collapse instantly, handicapping the mages of the planet in consequence. In other worlds the eleven-star would nearing the realm of gods.

Twelve-star: The last tier of Magic. This tier is known for its ‘ascension-type spells’. This category of spells allows the caster to partially rewrite their element, empowering themselves by interfering with Arcane and Information.

Now, it has reached my eyes the existence of a ‘thirteen-star’ tier of Magic. I consider this to be impossible. There are only two sets of stars, and a thirteen one would break the balance.

What I think that it’s happening here is that Incarnations born through Magic can interfere with their respective incarnation with the usage of Magic. This manifests as a thirteen-star spell.

Describing this tier of Magic would be impossible to as there is not enough evidence, but an approximation would be: Using their innate abilities as an Incarnation, the caster can manipulate their given element to the utmost level, either exceeding their expected limits or rewriting reality through their connection with Magic.

I will need to investigate Magic further on, as it’s one of the most open-ended power systems in The Existence, but for now, I will redirect my many eyes to other planets as I have already established contact with Soul.

More Incarnations are waiting to be born.