On hyperorbs, 2019-11

o, my idea - Orbs are always present, but you normally cannot even see or touch them unless you have enough magic of their type, in the form of treasures.
10 treasures in their native land and in any lands in which they are secondary (probably ones that share some similarities to their native land), and hub lands, and 25 treasures from their native land specifically for most other lands.
There are exceptions, of course. If you are near someone (or perhaps something) that is attuned to a given Orb's magic, you can notice the Orbs with your senses and use Orbs as they can. This effect persists as long as the Orb itself has any charges left.
This explains why, say, you can get Orbs from such beings as Fire Cultists and Water Elementals even if you haven't normally unlocked them, why Brown Raiders avoid only the Orbs that the Rogue has unlocked, why you can find Orbs in the Land of Power without having them unlocked outside (the Land of Power itself is permeated with the magic in this case, so you don't have to be near someone else for that), and so on.
However, most monsters cannot use Orbs even if they are near the Rogue. In fact, they aren't acting very smart, even if you would think they would be intelligent. I have a grand explanation for this, but I'll leave it for my narrator later.
Those who can use Orbs in the special way I said earlier (keeping it active pretty indefinitely, but only being able to have one at a time and only being able to actually use it once even if it is normally multiple-use, but being able to use it even when the Rogue arrives...) get this ability by rigorous training in special conditions.
The idea is that they know how to normally store magic, but in the case of Orbs that require an active expenditure of magic to use (as opposed to just a passive effect), they lose any ability to control the amount of magic they expend. Also, mixing different types of basically-undraining magic is dangerous, so basically everyone trained that way knows not to do it. No one has found a way around these limitations yet, although researchers are working...
As this requires training to change the normal way Orbs are used, it isn't passed on by the "nearby-attunement effect," which instead, just passes on the "instinctive" way of using Orbs that is like the Rogue does.
So far, it seems that most Rogues haven't really questioned these differences in Orb usage, much less even tried to find a way to use Orbs like that. (Although such training could be a net loss for them as it would deprive them of a lot of versatility).
Honestly, this seems like if the tone and wording was changed, it actually could have been written as an in-universe scholarly work. Maybe I'll try revising it to be that way sometime.
I mean, I could fix this up to be part of the Grimoires, but I would think that it would be more commonly known than that, maybe a wizardly (or witch) text or even something anyone can learn.
Finally finished. (It was so long and I had to try to make sure to maintain the tone I wanted throughout, I typed it up in a word document first).
(OOC note: The following document is written from the perspective of someone who lives in the Orb Strategy world, where Orbs are usually obtained by collecting treasures rather than just found on the ground. I have an idea that Orb Strategy is a separate universe (maybe multiverse) from the “normal” world. But this document presents Orb Strategy stuff as normal because for them, it is normal. And yep, this author, though a scholar, is biased towards certain theories. Plenty of scientists and teachers are like that in the real world.)
On the Nature of Orbs in the Bound-Orb Worlds
Orbs are, essentially, a manifestation of treasure. When someone collects enough treasure from a given land, its magic combines with the soul of the possessor, producing an Orb and draining that part of the magic away from the treasures. The interesting thing is that while the first Orb from any given land will always be obtained after possessing 10 treasures, when the next Orbs will be obtained is greatly variable. (There have been claims that this number is lower in certain other types of worlds, notably the Realms of Chaos, but as few explorers have managed to return from them with their lives and sanity intact, it is particularly difficult to study this. What in-depth information there is on that topic is beyond the scope of this document and can be found in other ones, although the suggestions that the fundamental principles are similar, but with different numbers, should be noted). Generally, the more Orbs are obtained from one land, the more treasure it takes to get to the next Orb, although as stated before, there is variation in the exact numbers. The reason for this is still not entirely proven, despite the vast amount of studies upon this topic. The most common theory is the “Soul-Orb theory” - that there are three basic principles: 10 treasures is necessary and sufficient to start the connection between treasures and souls that produces Orbs, after that, the more power a soul has used already, the less it is likely to use when affected by treasure, and that each type of treasure uses a different kind of soul power, so collecting one type of treasure does not affect Orbs from another land.
There are some commonly raised objections to this theory, however. The “Extra Orb issue” is perhaps the most well-known. It should be noted that Extra Orbs always found at 10 treasures do not significantly challenge this hypothesis, as they are only ever obtained once by collecting treasure. After all, the hypothesis states that the soul power separation is by treasure type, not Orb type, so it is very possible that the first collection of treasures combined with the soul contains enough magic for two or even more Orbs. A bigger issue is the Extra Orbs that can be found at any point between 10 and 50 treasures. They appear to break the Rule of 10, as they do not always appear at 10 treasures. While some have argued that this disproves the entire Soul-Orb theory, an alteration to the Rule of 10 has been suggested that would explain this phenomenon. The idea is that there can, in fact, be multiple forms of soul power for the same treasure, but all of them are connected. The “main” soul power affects the main Orbs, but also governs when the connection is made for the other related powers. Furthermore, the “extra powers” are always special, in that while their quantity for each soul varies, it is always very small, and gaining the Extra Orb depends more on soul power than treasure power, so only one such Orb can be gained that way.
The other “extra” objection comes from those lands in which it is always possible to get an extra Orb at a constant multiple of treasure. This constancy threatens the Principle of Likely Decrease as a universal explanation. However, there is a notable similarity between the involved lands – Elemental Shards from the Elemental Planes are known to contain magic from Elementals, the Holy Grail of Camelot is believed to possess great spiritual power, and Hell and the Graveyard have many disembodied or trapped souls. This suggests that in the cases of those lands, the treasure also contains soul power of its own. The fragmented nature of these souls means that they normally cannot generate Orbs by themselves but contact with an intact soul induces them to create an Orb without using up much power from the intact soul itself. Critics have argued that this explanation is ad hoc, but it is in fact highly coherent, fits the observed facts, and removes the need for totally discarding what has already been thought of.
Another issue is that of infinity, which has also been brought up in different ways. Some have criticized the idea of a different type of soul power for each kind of treasure, arguing that it would require each soul to have infinite types of soul power, which they claim would be absurd. However, soul power is non-physical, in the sense that its presence does not block another thing from being in the same space, and only has an effect when combined with treasure, so it should, in fact, be possible for an infinite variety of powers to all coexist in the same soul. Also, while often believed, there is in fact no definite proof that there are an infinite number of treasure varieties in the first place, or at least treasure varieties that can produce Orbs (although induction suggests that as all known treasures can allow Orb creation of some sort, unknown treasures are likely to be able to do so as well). Another argument is that there is no ultimate limit on how many Orbs can be obtained from collecting enough treasure, so the Soul-Orb theory states that there is an infinite amount of each kind (main kind, at least) of soul power in each soul, which the critics claim would also be absurd. However, while no limit is known, this does not necessarily mean one does not exist. Some of the considerations above should also be noted. Perhaps the most minor objection is that Orbs of the Mirror are always gained at a specific number of treasures. The idea that each soul has an equal rate of decrease of mirror power specifically is hardly implausible, even if its cause is still not known for certain.
However, with all of this said, it must be acknowledged that some Orbs of a completely different nature altogether exist. For instance, in lands such as the Kraken Depths and the Burial Grounds, among others, Orbs can be found lying on the ground, and picking them up automatically starts usage. It is unclear how those Orbs formed, and they do not seem to become Dead Orbs when used unlike normal Orbs (although some have theorized that once used, they do become Dead Orbs but immediately teleport to the Haunted Woods, explaining the Dead Orbs said to be found there on the ground). The Land of Power is particularly well-known for its wide diversity of Orbs present in this way, and it is mainly the Witches there who are researching this phenomenon. They have found a way to permanently preserve while using an Orb found on the ground but cannot safely use more than one Orb at a time in that way or control how much magic they use for Orbs that require a specific action to use. Certain Cultists in R’lyeh have been reported to use a similar method for Orbs of the Dragon, although given the dangers and secrecy of R’lyeh, it is unknown how they learned that method or how they obtain Orbs of the Dragon, as the Witches have repeatedly denied the accusation that they collaborate with Cultists. Water Elementals might also perform a similar process with Orbs of Water, although it is generally agreed that it is not quite using an Orb so much as the Orb forming from the remnants of their power after their deaths.
Perhaps the greatest breakthrough made in this field, however, was by the wizards who travelled to another universe, very similar to ours except in how Orbs work. In that universe, all Orbs are not gained merely by treasure, but are generally lying on the ground (collecting treasure does help in finding them), and Orbs of the Mirror apparently do not exist at all. An agreement was eventually made that that universe should be called the “Scattered-Orb World” and our universe (or at least every universe in which Orbs work similarly to how they do here) a “Bound-Orb World." For more information about that world and its Orbs, please see documents from there. So far, unfortunately, it has not been proven possible to transport Orbs between worlds without their magic completely failing, hindering research opportunities.
Bye! And something I hadn't written originally but I feel like doing now... The lecturer said, "I've heard that on the original document was also written something like this: 'P.S. I'm Melissa, I'm currently a Flash Witch. I hate writing in this fancy formal tone. I could get everything important across much more easily if I could just write like myself. And talk about myself. But just because they don't like being informal and writing in first person... If I just got my magi-bindings off, walked to the Desert, maybe Flashed some sand dunes or whatever away, and got a bunch of Spice, then I could be a Shield Witch who would be protected from editors.' Melissa. Always wacky as ever (except when you're being formal)."