Anima

Though it pervades every aspect of existence and is increasingly studied each year, the natural phenomenon referred to as Anima remains perhaps one of the universe's most impenetrable secrets. Like magnetism, gravity, or light, the force which is Anima exists as an energy that permeates all life and reality. Imbuing the air we breathe, the earth we live upon, the fire at its core, the water rushing over its surface, and the essence of life itself, Anima is wholly invisible but interacts in the daily life of everyone and every thing. Highly malleable, Anima is incredibly receptive to being molded and shaped. Everyone possesses such an ability to psychically interact with Anima, and this interaction is called Willing as it requires the exertion of one's will over Anima itself to accomplish. The amount of Willing that an individual is capable of is limited by their Mana, or psychomystical energy reserves. There are two predominant schools of thought regarding Anima and the inborn ability to engage with it through Willing. Some individuals consider their interactions with the universal force to be creative acts of ingenuity, artistry, and sheer imagination. Molding and manipulating Anima to cast spells, craft enchantments, and perform alchemical transformations is seen as a triumph of supreme sentience and willpower over the natural world at the most extreme and a utilitarian use of a practical tool at the most moderate. Others who are disinclined to such an egocentric view in which the individual is placed before the natural phenomenon itself tend to view Anima, a word from a long lost tongue meaning "spirit," "mind," and "breath," as the breath of life which permits the mind, body, and soul of every being to flourish and fall in the natural cycle of life. The Willing of these individuals, then, is perceived as a breathing of the mind, body, and soul's desires to life, and these people often characterize their relationship with the force as one of mutualism and synergism devoid of the need to title one participant in the exchange victor and the other loser. That being said, both schools of thought ultimately do both get something right about Anima regardless of their philosophical disagreements and practical utilizations: whether a tool to facilitate life or the foundation of life itself, Anima can make nearly anything possible through attunement to it and a thought alone. Although all individuals can psychically manipulate and mold Anima, many rely on additional tools to make the task easier or to amplify the effects of their Willing. Perhaps two of the most immediately recognizable and quintessential tools used to sharpen one's focus are the staff and wand. Depending on their composition, staves and wands can provide many benefits beyond simply enhancing focus, though that can be said of most supplemental tools of the Willing trade. Less common though by no means rare items which people tend to utilize include crystals, gazing balls, jewelry, and ritual daggers. Those individuals who have combat training and / or who find themselves frequently in the line of danger tend to wield more aggressive tools which can improve their focus, strengthen their spells, conserve their mana, and act as non-mystical weapons in a pinch. Such tools are often weapons of some sort, though this is not to say that none of the other previously listed examples of tools cannot be used as weapons. In some cases, a wooden staff can be mightier than the steel sword. Anima can be used to manipulate reality and the elements of the natural world, and while everyone is capable of Willing Anima in such a way, not everyone has a natural talent or inborn affinity for using Anima in every possible elemental way it can be used. In fact, most individuals can only accomplish middling feats of Willing in a single elemental application of Anima—almost always Orinna as it is the element of the self and most readily knowable—though this does not stop them from attempting to branch out from their elemental specialty. Many people enjoy pushing their limits to experiment with the different elemental applications of Anima but very few are ever able to master and become proficient in any more than two or three elemental applications. Below can be found a list of the five elemental applications of Anima:

Manifestation

While Anima itself is completely unnoticeable to the eye, the act of manipulating it creates a mystical byproduct known as dweomer, an aura which radiates outward from the site of manipulation. Just like people, no two dweomers are ever exactly alike as the dweomer is produced from the interaction of a person with Anima, thereby making it something of a mystical fingerprint of the individual. Though the initial aspect of dweomers which most notice is their visual existence, dweomers are often multi-sensory experiences. For instance, one person's dweomer might appear like a violet glimmering in the air and taste like lilac and gooseberries while another's could appear as a veridian mist and perfume the air with the scent of petrichor.

In some places, Anima is particularly potent and especially malleable, facilitating the casting of spells and permitting the practicing of rituals which might otherwise be completely impossible to enact without the additional energy that such places can provide to a person. Locations like these are called leylines, and they crisscross the world and carry with them remarkably raw Anima in in a linear fashion. Geographic points where leylines happen to intersect each other are places of particularly intense power and energy. Such places are not necessarily few in number, but most are incredibly well hidden, innately concealing themselves from discovery through the production of natural cloaking and warding effects. At these places, Anima seems to possess vitality of its own, some semblance of life and consciousness, imbuing the land, sea, and sky around them with a similar degree of sentience. Currently theorized by the brightest scholars of Etheria as being akin to mystical sinkholes in the warp and weave of reality itself, these places of leyline convergence are aptly named nexuses. At these nexuses, the divisions between different realms and planes of being grow unimaginably thin, permitting flashes of sight and sometimes actual contact with and entrance into other realms and planes. As one can reasonably assume, the dangers possible at these sites are manifest and manifold. In Etheria specifically, four nexuses have been documented and studied, each noted as playing a key role in the cycle, maintenance, and regulation of the seasons on the Etherian continent and being the haunting ground of the Horae, deities of the seasons who aid Thanatimetra the Merciful Mother in shepherding the seasons. The Winter Nexus, below a burial mound, is a rime-covered cave alleged to have once been the den of an abominable snow beast many millennia ago and can be found in Jötnir. The Spring Nexus, found in the Elaeusian polis of Dasikos, is a lush garden behind Thanatimetra the Merciful Mother's temple where plants remain evergreen year round and ever-flowering vines naturally shape themselves into a series of arches, pagodas, and other architectural structures. The Summer Nexus, an ancient jungled oasis where dark green leaves form a canopy through which the harsh sunlight of Thamra is cooled and diluted, is a favorite resting spot for desert animals of all kinds and is a place where predator and prey gather in momentary peace. The Autumn Nexus, located on the much-disputed border of Llychlyn and Heamoor, is a bountiful orchard where golden apples grow and a basalt arch leads into a narrow cave where a fire is kept burning at all times in honor of Orodamas the Ringing Hammer for heating the earth year-round. Though invisible to the naked eye, manipulation of Anima at a leyline produces a markedly more vivid dweomer. A much easier way to pinpoint a leyline, though, is to simply observe the sleeping and resting patterns of cats, who can often be found napping and lounging on a leyline. What cats do with the energy they absorb from the leyline, though, as one of only a handful of species in existence capable of absorbing raw Anima is quite the enigma.