What follows are the general rules of this setting for your perusal; please feel free to ask questions and tell me if you’d be interested in playing an RP in this setting. We will be using a variant of the FURSONA system Feathertail posted, but I haven’t actually developed it yet.
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The world as we know it is not unique. It is one of many. The vast cosmos is filled with an infinite number of worlds. Some are almost identical except for a few minor customs. Others have differences so profound that it is a wonder they manage to exist at all. The main link between worlds is the Veil. This realm is curious in that it does not technically have any traits of its own. Matter, rules, and energy from all worlds bleed into the Veil, and the result is an every changing plane that weaves its way throughout all creation.
Aer
One thing that all worlds have in common is aer (pronounced the same as ‘air’, but people can usually tell the difference when it is spoken due to context or emphasis). Aer is a force produced by sentient thought, will, and emotion. It is largely intangible, and its properties are not fully understood. Aer is attracted to more aer, and this attraction is strongest when the aer shares similar origins. This is why the aer generated by a person won’t just fly away, since it prefers to stick around its own source. Having said that, aer is found everywhere in some form or another. Aer is not required for life, but any area devoid of aer is not naturally occurring.
The Veil
The main link between worlds is the Veil. This realm is curious in that it does not technically have any traits of its own. Matter, rules, and energy from all worlds bleed into the Veil, and the result is an every changing plane that weaves its way throughout all creation. Aer flows freely through the Veil from all creation, and with it carries the dreams, thoughts, and feelings of an infinite number of minds. It is the world of dreams, intangible and real all at once. Any travel or contact with other worlds must first go through the Veil.
Magic
What most people know about magic is that it requires aer. Aer is an energy both fuelled by and composed of emotions and will. If the will is strong enough, then the aer will force a manifestation of a person’s wishes. This is called casting a spell. The first time someone uses magic, it is usually involuntary, often triggered by unusually heightened emotions. It is not uncommon, for instance, for a child to lose a beloved pet and cause a rainstorm in their grief. While one might think such a system of magic results in an unstable world, this is not true. The emotional range required for unintentional spell casting becomes more specific as a person grows older, similar to how it is easier to make a child cry than an adult. As understanding of the world grows, so too does control over one’s aer. Magic is strongest near places close to the Veil, and it is generally believed that this is because the realm’s ever-fluctuating nature makes the aer more malleable and controllable. Magic possesses certain limits, as outlined below.
1.Specific is Better: Magic is, usually, easier to cast the more specific the target is. Names, images, cherished objects, and more can all both aid in a spell’s effectiveness and one’s defence against spells. Trying to stop a rock from falling on a civilian is harder than stopping a fragment of Mt. Tallstone from falling on Molly Jones.
2.People are Harder to Enchant: Certain types of magic are harder to use on people than objects. This is because a person’s sense of self causes their aer to subconsciously shield them and make unwanted changes to their person harder than normal.
3.You Cannot Create, Only Change: Magic cannot create something from nothing, but it can change things. A toothpick cannot become a sword, but a stick can. You cannot increase an object’s size, but you can shrink it down and restore it to normal. This restriction comes up less than one would think, but it is still a limit. A general idea to keep in mind is that, when changing something, the conservation of mass still applies, but you have more leeway in where any leftover matter goes/is stored.
Paradoxes
Magic has its risks, and the most dangerous is a Paradox. This event occurs when a spell is effectively rejected from reality. Only a handful of events can cause Paradoxes, and they can range from the mild to the severe. These categories are not definitive by any sense of the word, but most Paradoxes tend to fall within them. Keep in mind that ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ are relative terms here—Paradoxes of any form are dangerous to both the triggering individual and anyone around them and are to be avoided at all costs.
1. Disbelief: This is the weakest form of Paradox, and it occurs when someone is forced to cast a spell that goes against their beliefs. This is caused by the caster truly believing that what they are trying to make happen is impossible or horribly wrong, and usually causes the spell to backfire upon anyone nearby. It should be noted that in order for a Disbelief Paradox to occur, the contradiction must be severe. A pacifist forced to shoot a fireball for instance, won’t do much (though any restraint they have will weaken the spell). A monk who has been raised to reject all conflict, however, can trigger one if they are forced to use offensive magic and their faith is strong enough. As dangerous as backfires are, those caused by a Disbelief Paradox are not the worst of the bunch.
2.Impossibility: This is the most common type of Paradox. It arises when someone tries to manifest something that reality can’t properly handle. Usually it occurs when someone attempts a spell that isn’t fully thought-out. The most common occurrence of this Paradox is when someone overextends themself when casting a spell. Trying to affect too large an area, or casting too strong a spell with too little aer, causes an Impossibility Paradox. The result of this is usually a backfire, though depending on the severity of the contradiction there might be a temporary warping of the area (solid rock might become like quicksand for instance) and a person might end up marked in some way. This can be anything from a change in hair colour, to some unnatural bodily trait that cannot be removed or magically hidden. Depending on what was attempted, the mark may fade.
3.Violation: The most severe, and thankfully, the rarest of Paradoxes. To cause a Violation is to try to break one of the fundamental rules of creation. The spell will not just backfire, but strike with vengeance as reality itself exacts punishment. The specific causes of a Violation are not fully understood due to the fact that many cultures have taboos about magic. These prohibitions have evolved over time into beliefs that certain spells will Violate. This has spread a great deal of misinformation about what can and cannot trigger a Violation Paradox, but woe to any who stumble upon a true cause.
Spirits and Ghosts
Spirits and ghosts are at the most basic level, sentient masses of aer. Spirits are aer that exemplify one specific aspect of the world. These aspects can be elemental, metaphysical, or otherwise, and the resultant spirit can draw power from any aer that aspect produces. There are a myriad of different types of spirits, each with their own name, but they all share these basic traits. All spirits have a ban, a type of restriction that they are incapable of breaking. Each type of spirit has its own ban, but they are usually related to a spirit’s nature. Anger spirits, one of the most common types, has the well-known ban of being unable to back down from an opponent. If a spirit grows strong enough, its ban can change to one more specific to that individual.
Ghosts are sentient masses of aer imprinted with the essence of a deceased person. When someone dies, the aer in their body is gradually released into the environment as decomposition occurs. If a person experiences a sudden, powerful emotion at the instant of death, however, this can cause the aer to instead form a ghost. Ghosts resemble the body from which they came from, and often possess some of the knowledge of the person that birthed them. A ghost’s temperament and actions depend on what emotion created them, but it becomes the centre point of their existence. Stories tell of ghosts that behave just as they did in life, but the volume of such stories outnumbers actual occurrences. In order for a ghost to retain full faculties, a person would need to experience an instant of true clarity at the moment of death. Ghosts do not have bans, but they usually react to objects related to their death. These reactions can range from avoidance and fear to outright rage and fury, so it is unwise to count on such things without foreknowledge.
Both spirits and ghosts have potent, if limited, magical abilities due to their composition and natures.
Other Worlds
Most worlds are not fully aware of their place in the grand cosmology. All worlds have some awareness of the Veil, and quite a number have theories that other places might exist through it, but few actually know that other worlds exist. There are, however, certain terminologies that come up.
Parallel Worlds: These are just like your world, except for a few small differences. Maybe a war turned out differently, or a different son succeeded the king, or maybe a person died from an illness instead of recovering. Worlds are closest to their parallels, and even contain different versions o the same people. These versions have the same innate nature but grew up under different circumstances, which can lead to wildly different positions between worlds. Sometimes an aer disturbance, such as that caused by a Paradox, can make a person swap places with a parallel self. This is never permanent, but is certainly jarring. Time flows at the same rate among parallel worlds.
Outer Worlds: These are close to your world, but they aren’t very recognizable. The geography might be close, but there are always land masses or features that simply have no correlation. Cultures are usually wildly different, and some Outer Worlds even have a different dominant species. Nonetheless, those living in Outer Worlds still have versions of themselves in your world. While they retain the same innate natures, they grew up in wildly different cultures, landscapes, or even as a different species or gender, and can be in any number of different positions. These differences are more drastic than in Parallel worlds, and it is more likely for someone to find that their Outer selves in wildly different situations (married to an arch enemy, different sexuality, dead, ect.) than in Parallel worlds. Travel can occur to Outer Worlds, but this is extremely rare and has to be done intentionally (not necessarily intentional on the traveller’s part though...).
Far Worlds: These are not your worlds. They are alien in either geography or natural laws, sometimes both. Their populations have no versions of people your world and you have none with theirs. Some aren’t even habitable. It is incredibly rare to make contact with these worlds, and travel is so rare as to be legend.
