Powers

What powers are in the world?

This is a complicated questions. Two of the most obvious examples are the Virtues and Vices. These are aspects of an individual, whether mortal or immortal, that draw power to them. They also influence how that power may be used. See Virtues and Vices for more details, but the basics are Virtues may only be used to bless, and Vices may only be used to curse and only according to the nature of the Virtue or the Vice.

The Whispering Word, Angels, Demons, and the Devil are all covered elsewhere, though they will be touched on here, but that leaves several other basic powers. (If there is more detail else where it will be indicated.)

First Powers are divided into three categories:

The Benevolent Powers 

These beings are generally are kindly inclined towards mortals and the world in general, though this does not translate to blatantly approving any sort of behavior. They will oppose evil. They are, as far as anyone can tell, universally aligned with the Whispering Word, how close that relationship is can vary greatly and is often opaque to those tied to the mortal realm.

The Malevolent Powers. 

These are forces of destruction and evil in the world. In the case of the Devil and his minions the Demons (as well as his other minions) they are openly allied against the Whispering Word. The other Malevolent powers are in opposition to the Whispering Word’s factions, but they may not be aligned, other than by similar goals, to the Devil and his faction. Evil is fragmented. Not all of these powers seek to destroy the world, though some do. They are all forces of destruction, malice and cruelty.

These are some of the more mysterious powers in the world. Some are straightforward such as Leylines and Pools. These are natural flows of magic in the world, placed there by the Whispering Word in the creation of all things. They follow the rules He has laid down, unless they have been corrupted or otherwise meddled with, in which case they won’t follow the ideal rules, but even the Devil cannot escape the Whispering Word’s laws. He just knows how to game them better than anyone. Neutral Powers fall into two sub-categories: Knowing and unknowing.

Most Neutral powers are Unknowing. The aforementioned leylines and pools fall into this category. They cannot decide anything for themselves. They simply exist like water or lightning exists. They follow natural laws, and can be manipulated as you’d manipulate a stream or corrupted as you’d poison a well. Because they cannot decide, they cannot be either good or evil by nature, save in that all creation was once deemed ‘good’ by the Whispering Word. Alas, as all has been touched by the First Corruption, it is impossible to say what that perfected state is.

The Knowing powers are much like the Fae. As a whole the Fae have not declared themselves Malicious or Benevolent. They can be either as they individual choose, and some individuals chose to remain neutral between benevolence and malice. There is a belief amongst the knowing neutral powers, that if they can remain stalwartly in between until the end comes, they will be allowed to go their own way. It is from these knowing neutral powers that many of the Great Legends have come: The Green Man, the Celestial Dragon of Cathira. Most of these legends are highly unpredictable. Wise Mages and Power Thieves approach such powers cautiously and do not deal with them. The Church of the Whispering Word cautions against them, though there are legends of times priests have commanded aid from such powers. The church is being closed lipped about those occurrences, either because the living priests do not know the truth of the story (and this is the most likely explanation to be given from said priests.) or because of some other factor. (Those who follow other powers suspect there is another factor, but what that other factor is no one can seem to agree upon. If you ask three people you will likely get six guesses, each of them expressed with near certainty.)