How does magic work in the setting?
Ethereality and the Abzu
Rather than being a 100% hard sci fi setting, Buried Deep in Damnation's features (space) magic which is known as “
ether” and comes from a dimension known as the
Abzu. Rather than being a realm of recognizable deities, demons, angels, devils, and whatnot it is more akin to the eerier microscopic world of the open and deep oceans.
It is filled with amoral and eldritch beings, some planet sized, that feed off of the psychic waste-byproduct of both sentience and sapience. This byproduct, known as
qillatu, is dangerous and essentially “radioactive” in concentrated quantities in our world. While normal cognitive processes can generate, usage of the ether can as well causing it to cling to the void-signature and even body of ethereal-capable objects and entities. While it is harmful to more corporeal entities, in the Abzu it forms the basis for “vegetation” and various simple organisms which begin a food chain of increasingly larger, more complex life forms.
These organisms tend to resemble aquatic creatures such as siphonophores, jellyfish, worms, tardigrades, giant isopods, spider crabs, sea spiders, amphipods, squidworms, bobbit worms, eels, snakeheads, lake Baikal amphipods, sea cucumbers, and so on. Some of these creatures live off of “worship” though their minds are not truly considered “intelligent”, possessing alien psychology that we are only just beginning to decipher. They benefit those who follow them by feeding to them fragments of the ethereogenetic material that allow for the manipulation of ethereality.
Typically one can be born with this power but it can also be acquired through extensive testing and exposure to the beyond, often regulated with ethereal, biological, and/or cybernetic implants. Robotic beings are unable to utilize it without some sort of living biological components. Natural users typically have an easier learning curve than those who had to have the skill implanted into them.
However, all usage comes with side effects. Physical bodies are not truly adapted to contain its power; while naturals have evolved glands, organs, nerves, and cells to deal with the qillatu feedback when they utilize the power, they are no less vulnerable than others. Qillatu is emitted as a kind of radiation that is absorbed, blocked, deflected, or otherwise dealt with by by inborn bio-components and/or implanted augmentations.
One's qillatu resistance has a threshold and as one nears it from continued use they will begin feeling various physical symptoms – dizziness, nausea, great heat or cold, stiffness of limbs and even all the way up to hallucinations, spouts of paranoia, emotional instability, or black spots in their vision. If that threshold is broken, ethereal power will flood into the body and with it, often extradimensional organisms that will begin eroding, infesting, and consuming one’s consciousness.
Oddly enough, this is rarely outright fatal but it will result in one going comatose as their consciousness is “cocooned” in a flux of their own degraded psychic waste in order to protect itself rom external forces. This is reversible but it is difficult, risky, and can leave long lasting damage. Augmentations and ethereally adapted biology usually will activate failsafes to cut off ether-flow to stem qillatu generation the source or short-circuit one’s capabilities among other methods to prevent severe feedback and its effects.
Ethereality can manifest in a number of forms and due to how well it is studied, it has many uses from assisting with lifting heavy objects, maintaining internet connections, and even providing power and fuel all the way to assisting in FTL travel, treating radiation poisoning, and cutting-edge psychotherapy. Armed forces have found just as many uses. Typically ethereal powers work like spells in a fantasy series though there are limits – you cannot change the weather to summon lightning bolts or transform your enemies into chickens. Most of the time, ether acts as a raw force, similar to the energy in laser or plasma guns. It can be shot as bolts, detonated, used as a whip, and even form fields that slow or shock targets within the area of effect. However, it can also be used to create barriers, enhance weaponry, and obscure lines of sight.
Many use it to momentarily enhance physical capabilities such as resilience, reflexes, speed and strength. Using it to momentarily “blink” forward up to currently 60 metres maximum (at great cost) is also possible as well – tossing oneself through a tunnel made in the Abzu. There are even discussions of weaponizing qillatu although this is highly controversial. Another new though fairly recent field of study is using ethereality to summon creatures from beyond though actually controlling them is a field in its early stages. Otherwise, it is highly risky even for non-carnivorous or “docile” creatures due to the fact they too are natural ether users.
This power while commendable has many weaknesses. Unless you are incredibly skilled or have access to high end forms of bio/ethereal/cybernetic components, it will leave a trace and signature even for minor uses. This can be detected by both particular organisms, persons, and technology. Without said high end components, most people will also be visible on certain spectrums in a way similar to electro-magnetic or thermal vision. Certain weapons and even animals specialize in damaging and hunting ethereal-capable beings. If one’s focus is broken while attempting to use this power, it can backfire or cause a more severe feedback effect, often jolting and stunning them.
There are armour and shield types that can resist ethereal power very well. While nobody will publicly admit it, banned weapons are on Caracosa that can cause horrific damage to ethereologists. Ethereal powers can also be overwhelmed by raw firepower and brute force; barriers and energy beams sometimes simply can’t match overwhelming force. While ethereal power is highly important, it is never ever a pure substitute for solid knowledge of weaponry, skills, and tactics. Many an over-confident drugged up ethereologist has met a humiliating end at the hands of simple ballistic or bladed weaponry.
A fetid, reeking, and wet domain of unusually (semi) physical matter existing between realspace and the Abzu that mystifies ethereologists even to this today. It is believed that this almost mangrove swamp like region of the beyond filters out the Abzu's excess energies, stopping it from overwhelming and devouring realspace. It is also known to serve as a habitat of creatures that at once seem more solid and developed than the Abzu yet are just as cryptic. Many of them have a similar general bodily shape but more seem to distantly resemble some sort of mutated serpentine fish sliding through the filth, lengthy combinations of centipede and mantis shrimp, eight winged ball-like creatures, enormous spiders disguising themselves as algae-ridden roots, and other such enormous and often disturbing and unpleasant.
It is comprised a large part of what seems to be something between heavily rotted flesh and mushy moistened mud though there are also areas overgrown with what tough, dense flora whose veins, leaves, and branches occasionally pulse with gibbering power. An often reddish or sometimes purple mist lightly shrouds the lightly reddish waters while the sky seems to be a sickly faded brown and white.
In spite of how unpleasant it is, the Abyssic Plne is technically a less dangerous place than the Abzu. The organisms within are too caught up in their simple, primodial lives and the dense "ground" seems to easily absorb ether before sucking it deep below, filtering it back into the Abzu. Qillatu seems to remain longer, capable of hovering in the air, but will often quickly attract creatures to feed if it becomes concentrated enough. Vegetation exposed to it appears to begin shuddering and whispering; research suggests it is essentially reflecting the radiation from the qillatu which manifests psycho-sonically as what at first seems to be whispered language but in reality, are air vibrations reacting against ether-exposed consciousnesses.
Some abzu-dwelling creatures are known to enter the Plane, with many inhabiting it during their larval or juvenile stages, but it is not necessarily safer for them in spite of their power. Their natural etheralist abilities are partially muted by the Plane and those of its natural inhabitants are not to be scoffed at.
The kind of ethereal power that derives from the Plane does have some overlap with that of the Abzu. It can be destructive and enhancing, but it tends to be more esoteric as well. It can cause those summoning it to seemingly blur in and out of view, making them appear to blink in and out of realspace. Gravity can be weakened in an area causing heavier objects to begin floating for short periods of time. Clouds of festering supernatural matter can be summoned out of it and launched at targets, erupting into a haze of psyche-overwhelming, qillatu generating miasma.
The very muck as well can be evoked then hardened to create solid barriers or even "filters" that break down ethereal spells into their raw underlying formulae and sub-reactions. With great skill, its eldritch life forms can even be summoned into the abzu or realspace! These are only some examples of what one can do with the Abyssic Plane's power.
The main problem is that it is difficult to tap into it and those naturally able to do so while not unheard of are either rare or are struggling to fully develop their usage of it. The Gnosis Eater Sect has a larger number of them than anyone else but their research on it is the most secretive part of their organization. Independent research groups have found ways to capture small amounts of the Plane's power to be used by etherealists but is a clunky, awkward process that is still undergoing much refinement. They typically require chipping and tagging abzu-dwellers or the occasional abyssic organisms then attempting to track it and record the readings but this is highly difficult process.
Much of the current research, including some supposedly leaked by the GES, suggests that the Plane is capable of "deciphering" and "deconstructing" ether. Its ability to filter it is potentially due to the fact that it may be a gigantic pile of semi-living void-matter that essentially both maintains and feeds upon the Abzu. Its true size is unknown but it must be potentially even larger if it can withstand and feed on it simultaneously. It is believed however breakthroughs in this field could revolutionize galactic society as we know it.
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