Blunt
The first blunt human was born in 3029 RN. 1 out of every 5,000 humans are born blunt, which is entirely independent of environment or whether the parents were blunt, psychic, or arcanists themselves. In fact, a blunt parent can have children able to wield arcana or psionics.
Blunting works with little to no effort, being a field that is similar to a person's aura, which can be expanded or shrunk at will if one is highly skilled and has been training to do it for years. The fields often measure anywhere from 5-20 feet at rest, and up to a recorded 50 at maximum push. When inverted, the field lays just under the skin, rendering the blunt temporarily ineffective, but still immune to most arcana and psionics.
While an alpha blunt can completely nullify an arcanist or psychic, people lower (but technically a higher number) on the blunt scale are gradually less effective, until one gets to around the Tau/Lv6 rank and lower, where their field is all but useless. It also a noted common occurrence that those ranked this low on the scale, while unable to actively sense any metaphysial goings-on, tend to experience nausea of varying degrees when powers of any kind are used on or around them for more than a few seconds at a time.
Everyone on the negative side of the psychic scale is a blunt, and each rank indicates how much of arcane or psychic powers they can stifle. To figure out where on the scale one lays, a blunt is tested against a psychic or arcanist, and gauged on how much power they're able to suppress. A lamba/Lv14 blunt, for example, will only throttle about half of the psychic or arcanist's power, while a beta/Lv23 will stifle all but the barest threads of power.
Technology based off blunts, such as field generating bombs and wearable devices, is always maximum suppression.
Psychic Table
| Rank Name | Rank Letter | Psi Scale | "Level" |
| Alpha | Α | 100% | 24 |
| Beta | B | 95% | 23 |
| Gamma | Γ | 90% | 22 |
| Delta | Δ | 85% | 21 |
| Epsilon | E | 80% | 20 |
| Zeta | Z | 75% | 19 |
| Eta | H | 70% | 18 |
| Theta | Θ | 65% | 17 |
| Iota | Ι | 60% | 16 |
| Kappa | K | 55% | 15 |
| Lambda | Λ | 50% | 14 |
| Mu | M | 45% | 13 |
| Nu | Ν | 40% | 12 |
| Xi | Ξ | 35% | 11 |
| Omicron | Ο | 30% | 10 |
| Pi | Π | 25% | 9 |
| Rho | P | 20% | 8 |
| Sigma | Σ | 15% | 7 |
| Tau | T | 10% | 6 |
| Upsilon | Υ | 5% | 5 |
| Phi | Φ | 4% | 4 |
| Chi | X | 3% | 3 |
| Psi | Ψ | 2% | 2 |
| Omega | Ω | 1% | 1 |
| Null | NU | 0% | 0 |
| Omega | ω | -1% | 1 |
| Psi | ψ | -2% | 2 |
| Chi | χ | -3% | 3 |
| Phi | φ | -4% | 4 |
| Upsilon | υ | -5% | 5 |
| Tau | τ | -10% | 6 |
| Sigma | σ | -15% | 7 |
| Rho | ρ | -20% | 8 |
| Pi | π | -25% | 9 |
| Omicron | ο | -30% | 10 |
| Xi | ξ | -35% | 11 |
| Nu | ν | -40% | 12 |
| Mu | μ | -45% | 13 |
| Lambda | λ | -50% | 14 |
| Kappa | κ | -55% | 15 |
| Iota | ι | -60% | 16 |
| Theta | θ | -65% | 17 |
| Eta | η | -70% | 18 |
| Zeta | ζ | -75% | 19 |
| Epsilon | ε | -80% | 20 |
| Delta | δ | -85% | 21 |
| Gamma | γ | -90% | 22 |
| Beta | β | -95% | 23 |
| Alpha | α | -100% | 24 |
Regarding Vampires
There have been several attempts over the millennia to turn a blunt into a vampire, but they have always ended in tragedy. The vampire's curse does not play well at all with what seems to be a divine gift, and it overloads the blunt subject to the point where they suffer hemorrhaging of the brain, which kills them in under a minute. It is theorized a weak enough blunt might also succumb to the same fate if oversaturated with any metaphysical power, but such testing is unethical, and it has yet to be observed in the field of battle.Causes
The cause seems to be entirely random, but it is said that the ability to blunt is a divine gift, granted to humanity to counter powerful individuals who would abuse their own gifts.
History
Said to have been a gift from the gods when the first blunt was born on July 8th, 3029 RN, the infant and its family were soon taken in for study by an organization whose name has been lost to time. When more blunts were born within their reach, those were also taken, but before long there were too many reports across the planet for the organization to do anything about. Eventually all were released and allowed to live normal lives, but not before extensive studies were done on just what the blunt fields could suppress.
Cultural Reception
Mundanes and low-scale arcanists and psychics are generally fine with blunts, or even like them, because it gives some sense of safety in case someone with more power than sense decides they want to start causing trouble. However, blunts are an unnatural-feeling 'hole' in the environment, which can leave even low-scale sensitives uncomfortable around them.
More powerful arcanists and psychics are wary of blunts most of the time, and outright hateful at worst, especially if they've ever experienced getting shut down by one. Many have described the sensation as 'suddenly stopping an overflowing bottle,' only painful, often causing a sudden, stabbing headache which leaves one reeling.
Militaries value blunts as much as they do potent arcanists and psychics, and try to recruit as many as possible.
See also:
