Otherwise CYOA Author Clarification

Arrival.
Upon arriving on Wanderworld you are imported into a customized human body of your choice. It covers everything for the most part, at least as far as cosmetic or minor features, like knowledge of languages. You could make yourself the apex of local humans too--unaugmented by local powers--but other than cosmetic changes no crazy baseline capabilities. This can vary from otherwise copypasting your previous form in an idealized state to fully reincarnating into a whole new life complete with memories and history; placed in an existing family or one you created entirely.

The Limits of a Template.
Generally you can imagine each are capable of pretty much most things the local power equivalent of their respective colors can do--and vice-versa to a lesser extent--as well as generally the things the classes they are based on can do. In a broad sense, not necessarily directly of course; vigor and states are not interchangeable for instance. There are few things to pin down that they specifically can't do, limited more by the requirements of their template instead (ie Glints/sources of States/Obligations).

Each template was an archetypal fragment of a profession system, abstracted by the realm within the corpse of REDACTED, and modestly influenced (as well as some of the trinkets) by the various entities that passed through. They however represent the pinnacle of these local powers, in potential if not right away. Finally, each template naturally has plenty of room for growth by itself, as well as a high skill ceiling for its user's capabilities with it. These templates can also be improved and modified in the future, even just with the resources they themselves generate--as well as other powers you may gain access to. Abstract Matter is only one of these, though it's far easier with it than not.

On Augments.
All of the starting augments for each template (ie, the Progression/Weapon/Death options) can eventually be replicated or improved on with just the resource the template has access to, with the weapons being the easier of them. As well as entirely different ones. Though of course having them right away is a substantial head start. These can likewise be modified and improved.

= Glint Dancer =

Glint Dancers don't benefit as much from preparation and are almost nothing but improvisation--though certain gadgets can be made with Focus and Glints; perceptual devices, cognitive equipment as well as more traditional artifacts, if with the same perception bent to them. Craft armors of imaginary plates that only exist when you're being observed, powered by mechanisms that can convert Focus into kinetic energy. Fire unrelenting arrows that only exist for their target, parting every wall and mountain in its way, and shattering into a hundreds of exact duplicates of which only the ones that land retroactively exist. These are difficult to make however, as they involve refining residue from Focus, infusing it into and altering substances into unreal forms which can then be appropriately molded. This infusion process is delicate and difficult too, but the benefits of these devices can completely change how a Glint Dancer approaches a situation. Their second drawback is mainly the need to generate Focus actively, and being limited to perceptual effects/perception-based reality warping, which means they have to utterly master their foes to have a substantial reserve of Focus to waste like this. Additionally these devices will likewise constantly decay, and must be imbued with a buffer of Focus to ensure they last between exchanges.

The strength of a Glint Dancer is obvious however, as their ability to gather information and act on it is tremendous even from the beginning. Most importantly, the ability to always be aware of observation through Glints, paired with the fact that Focus can be easily used on time dilation means not only can't a Glint Dancer be ambushed properly, but they also almost always have time to consider the situation between frozen moments. Further, even if their speed cannot naturally keep up with what they need to do, Techniques can readily bring the body into line with perception. Finally, esoteric avoidance and infliction of harm as well as their simple ability to punch far above their weight, puts them in the unique position of being both the most fragile start while simultaneously being capable of killing most of the greatest figures of the world on the first day--a feat the other templates simply can't do. Shoring up defenses and otherwise improving baseline attributes is the only thing they need to do, beyond of course mastering their own abilities.

Focus.
Focus decays from almost anyone who observes you, hostile or neutral. It does however exclude known allies, and even then you can still communicate to neutral parties or compromised allies without revealing enough to be observed with the right Techniques. Though allies don't count as observers under most circumstances, there are some when they can. Such as a casual spar when their intention is 'bad' (as in they want to hit you) but their goal isn't even actually hostile. Under similar states of mind, or of course actually changing allegiance, this can be triggered. Though this is just as much of a drawback as a benefit, but they can just close their eyes to be convenient when you're topped up. Don't cheat too much though!

Examples.
Focus doesn't just revolve around changing your perception though, others are fair game too. Though you can't do it as effortlessly as your own mind, or as efficiently. Additionally, though most applications are perceptual, evasive or offensive that doesn't mean there aren't some defensive options. Certain Techniques can be used on foes that make them 'less real' (in a not beneficial way), weakening their efforts against you, as well as ones that make you less real (in a more beneficial way).

Flow.
Power Ups are a lot like supercharged self-performing Techniques, that can squeeze a lot more out of a portion of Focus than you could manually. Though they tend towards generic boosts in the majority of cases, some Power Ups can take more esoteric forms when the situation really demands it--especially if you're fighting something you couldn't hurt before.

Shard.
Though fairly plain and straightforward, this weapon essentially scales directly on your Focus, and is capable of reaching arbitrarily high states of abstract lethality.

Its targets just have to be capable of perception to be hit by its blades, with no regard for if they can see or hear it in the moment. Though due to their perceptual nature even a wall of paper will block them, unless upgraded or modified.

Fracture.
Whatever you send to die in your places has to have a minimal level of importance, it might be a skill, a field of knowledge, a portion of memories, a finger or entire limb or even organ. No shedding a single atom every time you die, even if that would be funny. A greater sacrifice will naturally give you a far greater state of Sharpness afterwards too--truly giving up your whole being for one last shot could easily give you the power to shatter a universe. There's nothing stopping you from regaining what you lost afterwards, if you have the ability... barring the latter example.

= State Striver =


State Strivers benefit the most from preparation and build up, and need time to build up, though outside of using their own transformed body parts they can't really externalize their power into equipment directly--a feat that requires the right States to begin with. With properly built up Decks there is little that can stop one in their tracks, and scaling their attributes comes naturally to them unlike Glint Dancers and Exotic Painters. State Strivers are the ones the most limited by the world around them, but also the ones that can leverage the world the most of the three Templates.

States.
Most anything can be a State, as long as it effects you directly you can convert it; whether it comes from a spell that enhances your strength or nanomachines that harden defensively to protect you, or even simply gravity itself. You can also choose how you convert them, if an effect could be interpreted in different ways--a wound to specific part of the body can be interpreted as it is or just as a wound in general. In the case of a wound you also could switch what part of the body it belongs to even afterwards, or convert it into a non-physical but still deleterious form until you can 'spend' it, through State transformations. Even if converted specifically into a maimed State, having lost a limb, transmuting it into a severe general injury instead and regaining a severed limb is possible. Negative effects like poison or paralysis can be reduced in intensity in exchange for long durations to give you time, until you can get your hands on a positive State capable of allowing you to withstand them at full intensity, and allowing you to burn them out rapidly.

Examples.
You offload the improvement you would have made some time after the training to gain a Strength State or perhaps a Strengthened State would be more accurate, perhaps also creating a negative Exhaustion State too--burning it out quickly for rapid recovery with a quick nap. Adjusting and micromanaging the ratio of duration and potency can squeeze a lot more out of a State than natural, so it's usually a good idea to reduce the power of States when you don't need them, so you can hold onto them longer. Since States don't really have an inactive form the best thing you can do is flatline their effect for ludicrous duration until you can find a refresh. They're always ticking down.

After accumulating a sufficient number of these Strength States you might realize they aren't doing much by themselves. This is because two States with fully overlapping effects don't provide additional benefits per copy, not without arrangements at least. Though of course producing more of them regularly does still mean that when one runs out there's still a whole line that can take over, provided their durations aren't running out at the same times--generally your latest State of the same type will be prioritized in effect however.

At this point you might start considering making use of basic arrangements, as well as the synergistic arrangements you can put States in, such as Hands and Decks.

Tangent: Stacking.
One of the most basic arrangements, with a more refined Hand form. Stacking is for maintenance, determining order of effect, and providing the buff from the arrangement. Stacking is only done with identical States, but they don't all have to have identical durations or intensity, and they can include greater versions of that same State--just not variants. Stacking by itself however isn't suitable for endless scaling, just using the same State over and over again, due to some degree of diminishing returns. But by folding them into larger arrangements, Hands and Decks; using variations, alternates, greater and even sublime States within them, you can keep pushing that threshold further and further.

In a Stacked Hand however, each State in a Stack are enhanced in all qualities by the each of them in that Stack, tending towards 'generalizing' the qualities of them all in a way that sort of rounds up their durations and intensities beneficially, even if they might all be moderately inconsistent in qualities. Further, an additional portion of their collective enhancement is given over to the priority State. Placing a State at the 'top' or 'bottom' can allow you to determine prioritizes States, whether prioritizing the longest duration or most potent effect. A 'top' State can also augment the rest of the States beneath it with an additional modest portion of its qualities, though this is a different arrangement than Stacking, that can be used with it.

By now you might have a substantial Strength Stack, but Stacking isn't the only way to arrange States. Instead you might move towards assembling some other Hands. Hands are more like, well, a hand in a card game. A lineup of States with synergistic purpose. You might have also gathered a few other States through similar training too, like a Toughened State, a Restful State and an Alert State. Using these similar States you might form a Themed Hand of Physique that draws power from their shared theme, and feed in some supplementary benefit in the form of a few effects that could have also fallen under that theme, like dexterity or something, though to a much lesser extent than if they were actually present.


Small Tangent: Hands.
Themed Hands are not the only way to use a Hand arrangement. There are different Hand arrangements for each basic arrangement; Locked Hands which cannot be moved out out of a Deck, Sacrificial Hands that work like you'd think, there's also the Fanned Hands which is like a Themed Hand but instead of the theme they augment a particular State in the Hand and of course do don't do the 'filling in the gaps' thing. There may be more Hand arrangements depending on whatever other basic arrangements you find too. You can use the basic arrangements even within Hand arrangements too, even multiple at once, depending--some are mutually incompatible. This essentially lets you customize a Hand more without resorting to multi-Handing, since generally a Hand itself can only be in one Hand arrangement.

Decks behave in the same way as Hands with regards to the mechanics above, based on arrangements of the Hands that compose them.

You might also get more specific about States, like a Burst Strength State vs an Enduring Strength State and even use them together alongside the generic Strength State. Further, you might stuff in a bane too, a sort of reverse-hand, ie a Hand of negative States, perhaps a bunch of maluses to scholarly ability and other qualities that don't provide as much benefit in situations your Hands are intended for. This could push the Hand much further, and you might throw in a bunch more Hands later too, around say Martial Arts (Motion), Weapon Mastery (Reflex/Learning/Talent), Tactics (Intelligence/Perception/Wisdom) and Will and form a Warrior Deck.

Other arrangements like locked-in States, can also be used with those previously mentioned, an arrangement that prevents you from modifying a State in any way until it runs out, all in exchange for a fair chunk of extra effectiveness. There's also States you are sacrificing/feeding to other States, fanning a Hand around a singular overarching State and so on that can be used to further the power of your States. You might discover more arrangements over time, too.

Plan. Little elaboration is needed here, just a straightforward boost. Though the part that adjusts new States that fit an existing arrangement can be exploited to trickle upwards in effect. This is because the new State's adjustment scales off the end output of the arrangements rather than the generalized input of the States before being augmented by said arrangements.

Bone.
The Bone can take the form of a ranged weapon like a bow, potentially even a crossbow, but things like guns or electric drills are far too complex. Its arrows and bolts would shatter on impact and return to you afterwards--unless you want them stuck--just as it would if the weapon had been broken, but without actually breaking said bow/crossbow itself.

By 'applicable' States, the Bone can only convey States to something that can actually experience them. So no wounds passed off onto rocks, and no stealing the enchantments off a magic sword for yourself. But that's only by itself, with access to other powers and the States derived for them, you might be able to form States that can work on either, or anything.

Deathstate.
You can make use of this State much like any other, even converting it, though you might want to be careful with it--it's you after all. Naturally, due to its endless duration, any arrangement it is placed into may be augmented significantly. Though the duration is infinite, this State doesn't necessarily have an intensity quality either, due to its 'perfect' intensity. It cannot be any less or any more you than it is. Some States due to their nature eventually cap out in effect like this, a door cannot be any more shut than shut or more open than open, for instance.

= Exotic Painter =

Exotic Painters have to be able to imagine what they want, and thus require plenty of creativity and imagination to really take advantage of their abilities. To an extent they must also be capable of dealing with people--though not necessarily productively. They are limited by their need for Paint, and start in a relatively vulnerable position due to their need to engage with Opportunities, similarly to a State Striver--though a State Striver only needs to put themselves under some kind of effect rather than involve themselves with anything. But in the end the an Exotic Painter has the greatest versatility of them all, and the only thing restricting them is their willingness and their Paint--time too, but that applies to them all.

Paint.
You can hold onto your Paint for as long as you want, and there's no limit to how much of it you can use on a single Painting barring the time investment of Painting it. A more complex Painting isn't necessarily the same thing as a more complex effect, and vice versa, though obviously they can often correlate. Further, Painting takes no more effort to do than a real painting, and you even do it in your head on top of that. Themes and visuals are important for producing the effects you want too, however symbolism works too--you don't need to paint a sword to make one.

Painting doesn't require complete focus in the vast majority of cases, at least not to the extent of meditation, and usually only when producing some kind of magnum opus besides. Simply idly daydreaming with light attention is sufficient, and when it comes to very simple Paintings, like say a splash of flame, this can be accomplished in moments. Additionally, you can be assumed to understand what the effects of a Painting will be before you use it, though it is possible for it to have unexpected effects in areas you hadn't considered when you Painted it.

Painting can also be used to create 'permanent' and permanent effects, though with more effort than otherwise. Whether that be just using a significantly thicker coat of Paint for the same effect or using a special kind of Paint aligned with immortality or permanence or something similar--an appropriate Title could produce a Tinge like this, too. An enchantment that will last for hundreds or thousands of years is still a lot easier than one that lasts eternity. These effects may be tied to existing items too, or be items--items anyone can use, unless you placed restriction on that. Though this can add on more effort as well, on top of the effort of permanent effects. Creating items that need to be recharged or that eventually crumble to dust can make this much easier though.

Theoretically you could use Paint alone, if suitably pressed. It would not have the coherency or power of a Painting, but in a pinch, with all your cards played, it could still serve as a good last resort. You would not have much control over it, but it would behave roughly as expected. A Paint of Revolving Waves might splash over your foes and knock them down, but a Resounding Success might help your opponents rather than hamper them.

Examples.
Opportunities don't scale with you, for the most part, and grant you their reward after you fulfill them. To give an example, slaying a powerful beast most consider an unassailable terror will still remain impressive no matter how easy it was for you--though that will still have a small impact. However conversely if it's rather unimpressive, you probably won't get much either--washing someone's dishes isn't exactly a grand quest. You can expect your first Opportunity to be the hardest, presuming you don't have any appropriate skills or abilities, but past that point you'll likely never be as vulnerable again. Preferably not something too dangerous, but also enough to get you a Painting or two for your next Opportunity--just don't expect to get much more than a tiny droplet of Paint out of a trivial task like helping someone carry some heavy objects. Some Titles can change these factors to an extent though.

Obligations can be relinquished at any time, and they can be as quite simple--though overly simplistic and easy ones won't be particularly rewarding either. You can expect an Opportunity equivalent of an Obligation to pay off better in more one-off situations, but Obligations offer a useful and reliable buffer that constantly throwing yourself into Opportunities left and right can't. Even things like restrictively not eating certain foods, or a certain degree of modest exercise each day can be an respectable Obligation for a starting Exotic Painter, before they've done anything but the most minor of Opportunities. Though such minor Obligations are completely negligible later on. Conversely being a court witch of a powerful kingdom assaulted by tides of monsters every year would likely remain a potent supply for a long time.

Much like Regalia, Obligations tend to be more useful the more interesting, inconvenient or dramatic they are, and they don't necessarily have to correlate with danger. Certain Obligations can even be automated as long as you're responsible, even sending conjured creatures or followers to fulfill them works--provided the Obligation is some task rather than a restriction on your actions.

Titles can vary a lot, much like Opportunities and Obligations. Something like doing an all-nighter to finish an excessive amount of paperwork in an office can qualify for the most minor kinds of Titles you can gain. The Boons these Titles offer will tend to be at least useful, though appropriate for the impressiveness of Title, but usually nothing that would completely change how you approach things as an Exotic Painter. A Title's Tinge tends to be the more beneficial part of it though, in the long term. Exact effects will tend to depend on the Title and circumstances; they're usually simple and straightforward, but they can be detailed and modestly complex sometimes too.

Cloak.
The Cloak can benefit a lot from a sufficiently generalized Painting, using as many Paints as possible in the most encompassing scene you can conceive of, all to create an all-purpose Painting that would otherwise be a prohibitive waste--and then turning it into a powerful trump card or a weak but spammable convenience akin to a superior Prestidigitation.

Your Painting can be retrieved from the Cloak if necessary, or if you wish to switch it out. Placing it the same one back inside would resume its own cooldown, however.

Regalia.
Generally Regalia are items that are imbued with fragments of your Template and provide straightforward boosts to various existing aspects of your Template. They can provide minor but practical effects like speeding up your Painting process, as well as more powerful ones that allow you to produce a second Painting each time, enhance the effectiveness of Paintings and so on. These Regalia can also be enhanced directly by Paintings themselves, though this won't necessarily enhance their effect on your Template it can make them harder to destroy or take from you.

Existing effects on a given item can however enhance its Regalia results, regardless of the source of their abilities. Though they would have to be fairly powerful to have much of an impact. Turning say, the Dream Banner into a Regalia might allow you to create a sort of Stained Glass with additional Painting time, an Exotic Painter's equivalent to a Mosaic--a regenerating painting. Or maybe use it to endlessly refine lower-tier Paints into higher-tier ones using extra Paints as a resource. Recreating the Cloak using a powerful artifact like that as a base wouldn't be too hard.

Legacy.
...walk right out of a portrait, or even possess a historian researching you.

Legacy transcends space, and marks left behind on other worlds will still hold for you no matter where you end up. Getting back is up to you, though.

= Trinkets =

Crackling Disk.
Essentially allows you to remotely 'steal' from others. Attune it to your foes and it becomes practically impossible for them to wield any weapons against you, without you simply seizing them. And even while away you can simply dump the contents of their homes and vaults from anywhere in the world. Though it isn't directly intended, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to get it to do the reverse either--as in delivering objects directly to those it's attuned to instead. Objects like high velocity explosives.

Eerie Beacon.
The Beacon cannot be shut off entirely, as it is; you can however reduce the signal to the point only a few Abstract Beats will show up a each year or so. In conjunction with the Entrancing Sphere however you can embed the Beacon within its space for safer usage, where they will continuously accumulate without being able to reach you until you open the door. Letting them build up for too long unless at a low signal could get quite dangerous though.

Abstract Matter by itself won't necessarily allow you to build super powerful Trinkets without constructing them around something to begin with--like the pieces in the system graveyard you salvaged yours from. Though local powers and devices like the Godking's artifacts can serve as a good base for relatively potent Trinkets. Making weak Trinkets with mostly Abstract Matter alone can still be useful too, and quantity has a quality of its own.

Entrancing Sphere.
It's definitely not the most compelling by itself, made better through its synergies with other trinkets. Though it is a good way to have a dramatic battle with your foes, dragging them in to prevent either party from fleeing. Theoretically a good prison too. Provided with other power sources or something like abstract matter though, and you might be able to get a lot more out of it.

Torrential Abyss.
Torrential Droplets don't actively improve as your capacity does, and instead you must force the Abyss to replace them as necessary with your new threshold. You can create more than one for a given 'energy' however each one will happen more irregularly and with greater acclimation periods. This only applies to duplicates, rather than in a global or categorical sense. It is also possible to extract these Droplets from this space, and even embed them in objects or others, but these still count as duplicates however.

The energy these Droplets create behaves as it would normally, and does not need to be used up immediately in certain cases, such as supernatural energies that are meant to be stored within their user. Though some may still be subject to other influences, like Focus, which will still drain from an observed Glint Dancer. Though in that case it will first drain from your personal pool before it saps your Droplet throughput, potentially giving users a fairly generous buffer.

Energies can include mundane ones of course too, such as light, heat or electricity, as well as dangerous supernatural ones that aren't meant to be wielded. As the Droplet provides no defenses, it is paramount to maintain control carefully and gain defenses through other means. Though energies like these cannot be stored, and what is not used simply dissipates into nothing within the Abyss.

States can be used to condense Droplets, however since accumulating States requires specific interactions, scaling this is much slower than Focus or Paint.

In cases like Paint, you will condense Droplets at both the specific quality and type that was used--in addition to the quantity of course. As for the actual details beyond 'a constant outpouring of energy according to the peak the Droplet was condensed from' is up to interpretation. Numbers are messy. Fanwank as thou wilt.

Erupting Core.
'Elevate its archetypal qualities twicefold' is purple for double your Template's general baseline abilities. Nothing special, but practical.

Flickering Point.
You can buy things fitting your local context (and you are always in your local context) so some of the things you can find here are things fitting for your template. Equipment, even a Weapon like the augment you can start with--fairly expensive though. Better yet though, you could buy consumable Focus capsules, a supply of Paint or even a pack of States. These can show up semi-regularly, but they're slightly more expensive than mundane supplies and tend to be lower end most of the time.

You could buy buffs through the store too, whether something like a haste spell cast on you that is immediately transferable into a State, or something indirect (much more common) in the form of vigorplasts or potions for example. You can also buy things like skills or knowledge, like Focus Techniques for instance, or mosaics near the Witch Mountains.

You could easily afford enough amenities to live with relatively modern comfort for weeks on just a day's worth of points, buying tents, toiletries, food, water, clothes, weapons and so on fairly cheaply. A month of points could buy you a mosaic from a lower end witch clan. A year might get you an artifact comparable to one of the Godking's creations. Maybe things might go on sale sometimes, too.

Silver Gap.
The 'no going further back than any previous time' is a little vague, assume it means that each time you go back you lose roughly an hour of potential timeline. Or day, or whatever works better for you.

Invisible Line.
When encircling a quality with the Line in order to create an ability, there are two factors in play. One, you are essentially constructing an apparatus around it--an extension. This gets you a better ability and potential than if you had defined one from nothing, on top of the benefit from previous prestiges. And two, you are using it and other qualities you encircle this way to give the ability context. This allows you to have much more detailed and precise control over the ability you construct, and can allow it to serve as an extension for several of them as well, potentially. Whatever quality the ability arises from is itself completely untouched by the Line, unless it was created with a growth function as an extension of the quality.

The ability you define can be entirely passive if desired, rather than something you actively use. Only one ability can be retained at a time however, though the Line can encircle more than one quality--and thus more than one influence. When reforging an ability you can improve its broadness, just as its power and other qualities--and with a broad enough ability it may very well be indistinguishable from actually having multiple abilities.

You can produce a different ability each time you reforge it, if you wish, even use different sources of qualities. Overall progress in this ability is universal, regardless of its current incarnation, and the further you go in a given incarnation the greater the Line's growth. There may be ways of preserving these abilities even through recreations, or at least imprinting them in some form or another... not easily though. But flawed emulations are quite feasible.

These abilities can be based on your Template or Trinkets as well.

Violet Window.
Also works on the Templates and Trinkets, though you can be sure it had a better look at things where you found it, than what you can glean once you've escaped. And knowing isn't always the same thing as being able.

Brass Gate.
You might regain most of the Gate's functions at some point far later, including communication with other worlds, and potentially access through the right 'invitations' on their end. With time you could eventually have a proper multiversal guild set up, with access to a vast nexus of other worlds. With an Erupting Core this could happen much earlier though.

When it comes to the Trinkets your alternates have, the intention is they have access to a different selection entirely. Though they may have ones that are similar enough to ones you took or could have, though not quite duplicates. In case of multiple Erupting Core-like Trinkets, you might pull in a few extra alternates, perhaps with a different selection of Templates as well--a different rogue, warrior and wizard implementation entirely; even an artificer or cleric based on Celestial Affinity for instance. Or they might come from even further out into the multiverse (maybe from other CYOAs), or perhaps you might just end up with a whole legion of you.

= Local Powers =

Excellence and Gifts.
Spiritual devotion to something greater, manifesting as an energy of talent. Not what the Messengers themselves use, though. It can augment actions/skills based on the ideological bent of the Messenger it came from--a hunter of a Messenger of Might Makes Right could gain a Gift that rips the essence from the beasts they slay to augment themselves with their echoes. Though it is possible for an adherent of one Messenger to get their hands on the excellence of another Messenger and blend the two. That sort of thing is mainly how the Godking manages to make use of it despite being an exile from the Blessed Lands.

Vigor and Heartlinks.
Vigorplasts, altered flesh with vigor-induced mutations, are the local equivalent to cybernetics. Rare augmentations that mainly only exist in the Headless State. Though primitive versions do exist in the Crimson Wilds, in the form of symbiotic plant limbs/organs. Depending on how they were altered they may require a source of vigor for fuel, as is usually the case with ones from the Headless State, as they were made more complex and powerful at the cost of creating flesh that was pretty much nonviable biologically and in need of a marginal though constant flow of vigor to not fall apart. Without the infrastructure and supply chain many of these are more dangerous to their wielders than anyone else. Though conversely it is possible to make vigorplasts that are mostly mundane, and only otherwise enhanced by the flow of vigor rather than requiring it.

Mosaics and Will.
Mosaics are in essence just a diluted form of the Condensate, which granted past bloodlines with uncontrollable epic fantasy magic that followed their whims (like the sort of dramatic kind of soft magic, where narrative roles are more important than what exactly they can do), and every use they used it for was later crystallized into the mosaics of their bloodlines. Mosaics thus do all sorts of things, basically whole schools of magic--just schools that were established by eccentrics with magical incontinence. You might get an elements focused school, but because some of the founders played around with body transformation you can do that too. Or someone might have had a habit of conjuring cheese regularly as a favorite snack and now that's baked into your mosaic. Generally though the easiest way to think of mosaics is what roles the various founders adopted in their clans and thus the ways they used it.

Witches mainly just temporarily bring those parts back, though they can do this partially and mix and match, and avoid the loss of self-control through the long-term crystallization of their mosaics and traditional foundation, as well as the fact that they only draw back parts. Will was an experiment of the Hare's to see if he could avoid the control issue with the Condensate, though it doesn't help with the overgrowth it otherwise seems to succeed.

Celestial Affinity and ACM.
The Celestial Affinity is a seemingly intelligent, though perhaps not self-aware force residing in the matter of the Starwalker's universe. These properties likewise can only be invoked by those from this universe, that is, only Starwalkers can build their tech--using it is another story. Though the fact that they've had access to this force since the dawn of their civilization leaves their mundane technology, unaugmented by Celestial Affinity, quite lacking; their main focus being medical tech assisted by celestial intelligences. Bereft of materials to build ACM devices and Starwalkers would struggle to put together contemporary technologies, though they're of course not incapable of learning--they just never had a need to.

Celestial intelligences are AI achieved through ACM, running on optical computers and programmed with starting conditions that consistently produce an intelligent if extremely enigmatic and cryptic mind. Though there are a variety of celestial intelligences--and the Starwalkers don't really understand them--but while poor communicators seemingly rambling in some kind of gibbering or unreadable celestial language, they are very good at operating ACM devices in the optimal way. Usually getting a CI to do a specific task involves creating an ACM device that is simply designed for that task, and they naturally gravitate towards fulfilling those patterns. Some CI do exhibit anomalous lucidity though, simply more capable of actual meaningful communication, though they're extremely rare and sometimes pose as ordinary non-sapient CI. It is generally believed by the Starwalkers that CI are conscious bubbles of the Celestial Affinity itself.

ACM is readily capable of many sci-fi feats, though all have at least some grounding in space phenomena. Warp drive, artificial gravity, nuclear transmutation, wormholes, cold fusion, heat/cold rays, mass-energy conversion, gravity-based fabricators, hardlight and so on. Gravitational, electromagnetic and nuclear applications are the most common though, but they're not even close to fully drawing out the potential of Celestial Affinity. One of their most recent advances, following their improvements in zero-G 3D printing to outright fabricators, led to celestial alloys.

Celestial alloys are strange substances with exotic behaviors, with structures that can't quite be observed anymore, and are poorly understood. A sort of shadowy matter, capable of utilizing gravity and shifting mass without an active ACM device and pairing well with them besides, allowing further miniaturization of devices and easy seemingly weight-shifting devices. A semblance of nuclear pasta, not quite comparable to the real thing yet, compounded matter of such density as to be ultimately indestructible and only safely usable with gravity altering ACM devices. A greater form of hardlight that doesn't require active support from an ACM device for stability, leading to more complex forms of photonic matter, and even photonic life. More things are in the works.

= Setting Details =


General Overview.
Wanderworld is a fairly decent sized world, maybe half-again as large as Earth and growing slowly over time, thanks to the Tortoise. The locations are each fairly big too excluding the Alien Compound, so despite most of them being neighbors you can expect travel between them to take a while without the assistance of things like vigorbeasts, flying carpets, teleportation, excetera. Depends on what you have access to really, though. Not far enough that people would die of old age crossing the whole world, mind, unless they're walking on foot.

The Headless State is spread out like the roman empire across the central landmass, with the Crimson Wilds being scattered along the lands outside and mainly along the natural borders. Witch Clans typically end up being positioned on these borders between the two. The Blessed Lands is halfway across the world, reached from an artificial landbridge the Messengers set up. Finally the Starwalkers are set up in their own little zone somewhere in the Crimson Wilds. The Burrows are... around.

General Timeline.
The Messengers are responsible for pretty much terraforming the planet from a rugged fungal shell into something only a little more exotic than Earth, though it was relatively slow. They're been around for a while, though I don't want to give any hard numbers. The Hare was only alive on Wanderworld for a fairly short period, as in maybe less than a day (he was panicking and overcharged the Condensate), and it took a little while for humans to leave the Blessed Lands and spread across the rest of the world; a little further to settle on the mountain he died on, and even further still for them to not only experiment with the Condensate but for it to crystallize over many generations. As a result of this long involved process the Tortoise had already spread the vigorwoods all over the world some time after arriving, and had countless tribes becoming proper vigorhearts well before the Witch Clans were established. The Kingdom of Man had been around a fair while before the Starwalkers, who themselves have only been around for maybe a decade or less. The Endless Warrens predate all of this, though the Wonderlands are pretty isolated. They're relatively accessible here due to the weak barriers, a relatively unique circumstance.