the stages of cultivation

All cultivators start in the gas phase of cultivation, called this because the cultivators energy floats around their energy pools like a gas, thin and wispy. As they absorb more energy from their surroundings and stretch their pool, they eventually reach the point where, either it is too painful for them to cultivate more or they risk rupturing their energy pools if they cultivate further (hard cap, usually at 10 times the previous hard cap), they are ready to advance to the next stage. To do this, they squeeze their pools while keeping their energy inside the pools, causing the energy there to condense. There are 7 stages of cultivation in the first tier, Gas, Liquid, Solid, Crystal, Fusion, Singularity, Knight.
There are two types of stages, growth stages and milestone stages. Growth stages, like the gas, liquid, solid, fusion and singularity stages, focus on gaining energy density and growing the energy pools. The milestone stages, such as crystal and knight stages, are when a qualitative change happens to the cultivators
The cultivator doesn't have to reach the stage cap to continue to the next stage of cultivation, but not doing so will cripple the height to which they can cultivate. The heighest a person can cultivate is called a "cap" and is 10 times the base value. Safe advancement happens after 7 times the base value. If they advance before safe advancement, then they run the risk of becoming energy starved zombies much like slave-cultivators. Even if they don't become energy starved, they have to reach above 7 times their previous cap before they can advance again. Since this goes over their new cap (7 times base value of the new stage), cultivating to the next level will be extremely dangerous and slow. (TLDR: if a cultivator skips to the next stage early as a shortcut, the cultivator will stay at the new stage for MUCH (think decades) longer than they would have.)
The second tier is where the cultivator starts to grow their domain. Lord>Baron>Count>Duke>Prince>King>Emperor

Type

Metaphysical, Divine