Yoki

Yoki in "The silver eyed angel" is much different than in the concept. In the cannon yoki was just a demonic energy which was used by Claymores that emitted a yoki aura. When it was overused, it would be transferred to the claymore's awakened form where their latent ability was released, turning the Claymore into a monster.
== Fundamentals ==
In "The silver eyed angel", yoki is a fragment of another higher dimension, the void, a dimension existing above the real world's 4 dimensions (length, breadth, height, time). Yoki's possibilities are limitless. A number of these infinite possibilities "intersect" with reality, allowing pieces of yoki to exist within the confines of reality (and allows for pieces to enter into existence or be removed from existence). When brought into reality, a lower dimension, it can change a portion of reality (see below), warping it in some way. Yoki takes on and perfectly copies/replaces a portion of reality. This process of contacting, "devouring" reality/time, and taking on its properties is called "corruption". Yoki devours time whenever it is brought into reality, essentially eating away a portion of reality and plugging itself into the "hole" that is formed. As all yoki users technically are from another dimension, one that does not respect the rules of reality, they are considered Angels, although the terminology may be more limiting.  
Yoki was created by Messire as a way to execute his plan.  
Yoki is equivalent to raw energy and is a fundamental part of the world of "the silver eyed angel". Like energy, it is indestructible, only capable of existing or changing form. Yoki also has a potential like energy. Yoki can change reality a certain amount, depending on its quality and quantity (see below).  
Yoki works on the basis of observation. Yoki "observes" reality, changing it like how the Observer shapes the Observed. The degree to which yoki can observe is dependent on its power, which is its imagination. Imagination, and extent of observation, is dependent on how much yoki has "devoured" to allow it to observe, the devoured parts adding onto the mental capability of the shade in imagining a different reality. Yoki does not need to exist in reality to change it, just merely have a way to observe it (which often entails having a physical body or mental projection within reality). 
Since yoki appears to stem, at its source, from living beings, the majority of yoki that exists in reality is living, as it has taken on the existence of living creatures. Yoki is thought to be a changing creative element with a will of its own (created by copying the wills of existing beings), although the degree of life varies greatly between different pieces of yoki. This process of copying is typically referred to as corruption. The point at which the yoki becomes dominant over whatever it is interacting with is called succumbing. It is not uncommon for pre-existing pieces of yoki to re-attach themselves to other beings. For how this happens, see below. 
When yoki contacts a living creature, it copies its Body, Mind, and Soul, or pieces of the three. Using what it has copied, it creates its identity. To do this, a price in time needs to be paid to engrave the user's soul into the yoki.  
Yoki itself is shaped under differing circumstances, and as such, has different "truths", each truth being the way that yoki wishes to observe reality, the eventual "dream" of the yoki user (as yoki's dream would be reality). Unbreakable contracts can also be made through yoki, as no deception or failure to comply is possible through yoki, which is at its core, pure truth. 
Yoki works on the process of equivalent exchange. To change a part of reality, yoki must expend a certain amount of its observational prowess into changing what is sees. Similarly, when yoki devours a substance, yoki replaces it exactly how it was by taking on its properties, again, an equivalent exchange. 
Yoki aura is created by the conflict of wills between the yoki and its owner. The conflict that exists between the yoki and its owner/master causes an incomplete merge between the two parts. However, naturally, the mortal parts of the being aren't immortalized in yoki and thus, with time, die off, while simultaneously, the yoki has devoured more time and thus, grown in strength, allowing for a forceful assimilation of whatever the yoki is contacting in the real world.  
Yoki is unique to each individual and loyally tries to aide its master while constantly, in the case of many awakened and claymores, being abused by them to perform their superhuman abilities. When too much abuse is sustained (going over the limit) by a claymore's yoki, it results in awakening, where the yoki becomes dominant. In this process, the mind of the master is completely destroyed, assimilated into the now controlling mind of the yoki.  
== Yoki Properties ==
Anything with yoki emits a yoki aura unless it has gone through THUMA. The only being who has no aura naturally is Grace although this may not be because of a lack of fight between her and her yoki as clearly, although she has not imposed her will on Aezathol, she hates herself and fights against Aezathol. This aura can tell about the personality, abilities, and condition of owner of the aura. Beings that do not have detectable auras do not exist at all in reality, and thus, cannot be observed by yoki (which sees other sources of yoki as yoki auras). Yoki can only observe reality, so anything outside of it cannot be detected. Beings that have not reached this state still have some part of themselves left in reality that makes them detectable. 
For all beings except for Naturally born hybrids (not awakened), a being with yoki has a Y.I.D. Silver reserves, or possibly only Constance, have no Y.I.D., as they essentially already are awakened beings in body and cannot awaken a second time. Naturally born awakened usually have two Y.I.D., one animal, one plant, sometimes, but not always, relating to the Y.I.D. of its parents. 
All beings with yoki fall under a subclass. A being may be aligned with multiple subclasses, but only the most dominant class becomes the class that the being's ability falls under. However, these recessive alignments affect the form of a being and show up in a being's potential as skills and techniques that a being can learn. Beings can have different subclasses of skills, and are not simply limited to skills of the same subclass as the being's ability.
Yoki itself can be sensed by individuals in a variety of ways as a gut feeling, waves, textures, lights, scents, or sounds.  Yoki can be seen most clearly in the Dark Abyss. Yoki also has a distinct color to sensors who rely on sight. It is usually blue but Grace has red Yoki as perceived by Sharon.↵Uncoincidentally, time, when perceived by Shades, is also blue, as yoki gains all of its outstanding properties by eating time, shaping its existence around the time it devoured. Humans with a Sixth sense appear to be capable of sensing sources of yoki with feelings of revulsion, fear, or even unconscious changes in behavior. This unusual occurrence, possibly a result of trace amounts of yoki in humans, appears capable of sensing even a being with no aura, suggesting that potentially, physical scrutiny and sharp senses may play a role in a human's sixth sense.
Yoki is inherently tied to hearts for all yoki-users. The heart of a yoki-user contains their essence and is the only required part of their body. To give away or share a heart is to give/share one's entire being. Yoki aura is produced according to how many heartbeats a being has. More heartbeats equals more yoki being used while the opposite holds true with less heartbeats (allowing many awakened and claymores to have hearts that beat very slowly). Synchronization occurs when two beings match their heartbeats together, and an unconventional way to sense is to look not for an aura, but for a heartbeat, which allows beings with no aura to be seen. 
== Yoki and Time ==
Although yoki "feeds" on time, the events of the past, present, and future of reality are already defined (time notwithstanding), and cannot be changed by even yoki. The events that occur with respect to changing time will be the same, because at a given point in time, regardless of what has happened or been changed by yoki, reality will have looked a certain way, making it 100% predictable, given the right means.
Unlike humans, Yoki users season as they grow older. With growing age, yoki grows stronger allowing to develop new abilities or simply cover up weaknesses.   Seasoning can be seen as growth rings, one being added each year the being in question has been yoki-imbued. The strength of a yoki-user is measured by their seasoning, or the time that the yoki has had to create an armor around its master's soul.  The more seasoning, the more complex the armor and the stronger the user. 
Yoki's seasoning can be sped up by devouring (voracity) and mentally digesting (see below) other sources of yoki, increasing quantity which is immediately converted into quality in the form of new skills. In this process, pieces of yoki being eaten have a weak will compared to the one eating them, and thus, function as part of the one that ate it, increasing its strength.  
Yoki's strength can be increased through converting time as stated above (seasoning). Time itself comes in many forms, most notably, time exists as all physical objects (matter of the real world). This is because all matter has existed for a certain period of time (and within the confines of reality, which is defined by a passage of time), and thus, by being devoured by yoki, can give yoki time to use. However, in the case of awakened, only time in certain physical forms (raw meat) can be converted, likely as this is what the yoki first "ate" when it was formed (the flesh of its master), and thus, has become shaped in such a way that it can "eat" only human flesh, or more specifically, the components in human flesh. However, awakened eat human guts as these materials most closely match the materials composing their original, uncorrupted bodies, and are the most appealing to them, with even animal guts tasting bland and human foods being largely indigestible due to containing little to no materials that composed a human body (raw, organic, human materials). 
=== Yoki's Corruption Process ===
When yoki comes in contact with anything containing time (all real matter), it creates a shade. All yoki-using beings can be thought of as the infinite sum of an infinite number of infinitesimally small shades, each shade existing as an infinitesimally small piece of time. When yoki first contacts an infinitely small piece of time, it merges (creates a contract and bond) with it, obtaining its properties, and thus, gains an infinitely small quantity which immediately becomes quality as the yoki takes on the object's properties (shaping and differentiating it from raw yoki). When the first shade contacts an object, it devours the object's time fully or in part, removing it from existence. By yoki's equivalent exchange, a second shade is born from the time that was devoured. However, this new shade that enters the real world immediately (in 0 time) merges with the first shade (merging essentially is the combining of multiple shades into a single one). However, the quality of the first shade is infinitely larger than the second shade (an infinitesimal amount (something) versus the second shade's absolute 0 quality (nothing)) and thus, a perfect merge is formed, with the second shade taking on all the properties of the first shade and adding on its quantity. This process is repeated infinitely as yoki proliferates and is the reason why each shade cannot change once created and has one single set of possibilities for future growth rather than an infinite amount (each of the shades, had they been the first, would have become the dominant shade). This entire process takes zero time, but the entire corruption process may take some finite amount of time, as there are still an infinite amount of pieces needing to be corrupted/devoured over an infinite amount of time (as time does not exist for yoki). The time taken for yoki to corrupt a finite amount of matter is referred to as a being's rate of seasoning and is dependent on a variety of factors. However, unless a being is an ascended angel (where it no longer needs to eat and has 0 time acting on it), a being can still be influenced by merging with an outside finite source of time (see below). Such sources include food eaten by awakened ones and other sources of yoki (as each yoki piece devoured an infinitesimal fragment of time, thus, possessing time that can be devoured as well). These sources, when devoured/converted into shades, have a net finite amount of quality and upon merging with another finite quality source of yoki, produce a being that is the combination of the two pieces merged together (see below for the mechanics behind merging). It is for this reason that awakened in Mucha are capable of gaining poisons from devouring poisonous animals and why voracity (see below), particularly of high-quality foods, produces mental instability from the merging of two dissimilar sources of yoki.  
Yoki likely can only grow/form from things that have a sense of self/being, or more specifically, have a Soul. All yoki, including yoki seen in inanimate, nonliving things, appears to derive from some sort of living being before it. Superficially, this may be explained by yoki requiring a Body, Mind, and Soul to be stable, characteristics of living things, although an observational explanation offers greater insight. If yoki were to initially contact an inanimate item, the yoki would assimilate a piece of the item and look to spread itself further. However, since the item has no sense of self, no soul, the yoki assimilates its lack of existence, thus forcing itself to not exist as well, preventing corruption. However, with a being with even the slightest fragment of a soul is capable of recognizing itself, including at times a physical Body. This allows yoki to spread to whatever the soul recognizes itself to be and thus exist. Corruption of inanimate objects may proceed from here, as these objects that solely physically exist can be corrupted by pieces of yoki that have bonded to a soul of some sort. For this reason, yoki is always referred to as living. This also suggests that it is impossible for yoki to exist wholly without a Soul, although it may be so miniscule it may not be detectable.  
== Yoki and the Body, Mind, and Soul ==
Yoki can infest and corrupt anything, living or non-living and take on its properties.  When combined with something living, the yoki takes on the person's bodily, mental, and soul form, reflecting the soul and mental state onto the body. This form can be seen by the yoki itself as its Mental World. The mental world is a world that each fragment of yoki observes, giving it a unique appearance. The size of the world represents a being's strength, or more specifically, the size/amount of what the yoki can observe. Within the world, the yoki appears as it imagines itself in real life, a mental image, its mind, allowing for an interaction between the soul and body (the observed Mental World around it). Within the mental image resides the soul, the fundamental core of a being. From outside, in the Dark Abyss, these mental worlds appear as unique stars.
The order of influence on the yoki's characteristics, from greatest to least, is the soul, mind, and finally, body.  After bonding to an object, a change in "shape"/"path"/"truth" is difficult.  Changes in yoki can only occur:
# When the yoki is first bonded to an object or person
# Voracity. When a significant outside source of yoki or foreign objects are assimilated into a being, changing the being's composition when the outside and original sources meld together into one being.
# Permanent melding-a more general case than the above case. May occur when two beings merge together to become a single being and also when a child is made between two sources of yoki. 
# Soul-links-an even more general case of the above cases. Can occur when parts of beings merge together. Different parts have different "truths", so the resulting being created from the mixture is different.
# Having the soul ripped apart from yoki for any reason (Vanguards, Heart of Darkness). Doing this would require the separation of time from the yoki and is extremely painful, far more than a dissimilar merging
Awakening, soul-rips, resurrection, and abyssal ascension do not usually change the form of yoki as person-wise, the yoki user is still the same person they always were (the yoki can only change fundamentally if the soul is changed).
Yoki can act as any part of the trinity of life (Body, Mind, Soul) and fix/patch any piece that is missing to complete this trinity and become stable, eventually merging all 3 together. However, yoki, in order to maintain its existence in the real world, must constantly sacrifice something in the real world and take its place. Here is the order that yoki replaces in: (This section may be subject to change)
# Regular human-no yoki at all
# Claymores-No longer human, The entire body has been replaced with yoki (upon surgery). The yoki begins feeding on the mind. The inhuman nature of the body is suppressed, which keeps their forms human while using over 10% yoki.
# Semi-Awakened Claymores-The human and yoki minds are in equilibrium. Exhibit awakened characteristics even while using little yoki.
# Awakened-The yoki has replaced the entire body and overpowered the human mind, copying the instincts and thoughts of being inhuman directly to the mind, causing a craving for raw human flesh. It begins to try to take the soul and mind (which together, are the entire mind and will of a being) by creating an armor around it, reflecting what it received while it was suppressed. Awakened must eat human flesh (animal flesh has components of human flesh so it is edible too) to feed their yoki (they have no more human left in their bodies) and grow stronger like their yoki requires.
# Abyssal One-The yoki has formed enough armor around the soul to create an abyssal aura, an aura that comes from deep within the dark abyss. With seasoning and without threats, all awakened beings should naturally eventually reach this state. 
# Ascended One-The yoki has achieved a perfect union of the body, mind, and soul and yoki. The entirety of the yoki is bonded and has merged with the entirety of the being. This can occur anywhere from claymore to abyssal one. See THUMA
# Eternal-The most powerful of Ascended ones
Naturally born hybrids are born already merged with their yoki and thus, have only human forms in appearance. Regardless of the type, they are both similar to regular awakened in that their entire bodies are made of yoki and they are unable to suppress themselves without knocking themselves out. However, depending on the characteristics of the parent yokis which birthed them, hybrids can take on characteristics of awakened or hybrids dominantly, although they have characteristics of both. Naturally born hybrids or awakened are typically stronger than the equivalent hybrid or awakened due to possessing increased purity from birth. However, naturally born hybrids appear to possess a greater purity than naturally born awakened, and have authority over a single concept due to their exceptional purity, similar to a Drach. Naturally born awakened seem to be most similar to regular awakened.
Yoki acts as a reflection of the true nature of its master.  This is why semi-awakened claymores are emotional and awakened have matching forms to their own abilities, because the yoki reflects their emotions and soul and upon combining with either their mind or soul, returns those true emotions and forms back to its master. Yoki amplifies the natural instincts of all beings to eat as well in some cases, to reproduce, creating beings which have a strong desire to eat, the typical choice being humans due to the yoki itself being "familiar" with eating human after it devoured the body of the individual that brought it into existence.  Yoki also has survival instincts, copied from its master.  If a yoki-user is put into a life-threatening situation, his/her yoki will take control of the body and make them run away.  In the case of starvation, this causes blood mist which means that no claymore or awakened can ever die of self-imposed starvation, since their bodies would be forced to find more food and devour it (and without food entirely, they would enter a comatose state). It is possible that in ascended beings not made from awakened beings (which possess survival instincts as part of their very nature), these forceful instincts can be forgone as the will of the yoki is fully combined with the human will which can ignore these self-preservation instincts and choose to die.
Physical damages can be permanently etched into yoki if they aren't healed (if the user is unable to remember what their body was like) or if they occurred before the yoki was bonded (and thus, the yoki copied the physical damage and integrated it as part of its true self). Lacking memory of a human form can result in awakened being stuck in awakened form permanently. In anything using yoki, the true body of the user is anything corrupted by its yoki and may include nonliving objects as well. These corrupted pieces are what is observed by a being's yoki, and thus, are under its authority to control. 
Yoki can bind to non-living things and create Wraiths. These corrupted objects have unique properties similar to the originals but have fundamentally different characteristics from the original, uncorrupted materials.
Abilities, Skills, and Techniques all stem from yoki's corruption of the body, mind, and soul. Essentially, abilities, skills, and techniques are fragments of the copied body, mind, and soul of yoki, given power to change reality through their capability to observe and modify reality as they wish.
Yoki causes disturbances in the Mind, Body, and Soul not normally possible under normal conditions. Mental instability is common among strong yoki users and through yoki, bodies, minds, and souls can be split apart or merged. To be stable, Yoki needs to have a Body to corrupt, a Mind to control it, and a Soul to contour to/follow the will of (the trinity of life). Stronger sources of yoki can overpower weaker sources of yoki. Typically, systems with yoki tend to be more stable with a single mind and if two or minds are involved, the minds will eventually merge if no outside force of yoki stops them. This results in awakening for claymores where the yoki's will merges with it's owner's will (the yoki's will is practically a mirror of it's owner's will so person-wise, the awakened is still the same person).
== Yoki Phenomenon: Melding and Voracity ==
Yoki is universally compatible with itself, leading to a wide variety of unusual situations. Particular yoki-using beings exist as egos recorded into yoki. Melding two sources of yoki together causes the two parts to become one, more powerful being, which has properties of both parties (it should be noted that due to incompatibility, the resultant may be effectively weaker than either of its original parts). Melding can be done on the physical level to produce bodily changes. However, melding also can occur on the mental level, in which the mind of one being is swayed or altered or given new memories or emotions from the undominant part of the meld. This mental melding is practically permanent (removing it would require the yoki to be ripped apart, which can only be done to a limited extent by Eternals). In some cases, the soul of a being can be completely destroyed, or completely merged together. Sometimes, the ego of each fragment of yoki can remain after melding, putting a strain on the dominant mind. If the dominant mind isn't strong enough, it will succumb, become unable to recognize itself, and turn into a corrupt being. If one yoki thinks it is exactly like another type of yoki, they are the same yoki by yoki's universality. The body of a yoki-user is anything corrupted by its yoki, and multiple yokis can inhabit the same body, exerting their control over it proportionately to their strength. Yoki be used to split apart bodies and minds. Bodies can exist in multiple forms, and a mind can control parts of the body, even if they aren't physically/neurally connected to the brain of the user. Multiple personalities can be formed from yoki which can, themselves, become unique individuals (or alter-egos). Yoki can be split into small pieces, containing a specific property it has copied and become one with, and often, can switch or give these pieces to other sources of yoki. These pieces are typically skills and techniques, although physical traits and memories can be swapped as well. 
Yoki can get stronger by assimilating similar sources of yoki (small to no difference in ego). The smaller the difference in ego, the greater the ability to synchronize between the sources become. If the sources become so close to each other, they will undergo melding and become one source. Sometimes, this melding can occur between two sources of greatly differing ego, although it requires effort and energy to do. The greater the difference in ego/mindset, the more seasoning is required (and the more painful it is). Most beings do not truly merge with each other but forcefully suppress each other, leading to a division of power and resulting in weakness. The minds of beings in such a relationship are at odds with each other, and do not recognize each the other as the same being. In cases like these, when two yoki-sources are merged, sources of higher qualities, which have more of a being's mind and soul preserved, take dominance over beings of lesser qualities. Lesser qualities always provide an influence on a higher-quality source unless the higher-quality source is from an ascended angel (which has essentially infinite quality and completely overpowers the lower-quality source in a complete, one-sided merge). However, if the quality of the lesser yoki is small enough, the merge will essentially produce a mental digestion, creating one being with the mind and soul of the dominant power with the combined quantity of both pieces. Excessive voracity, particularly of high-quality materials, causes multiple personality disorders and mental instability as fragments of the devoured pieces start building up and influencing the dominant mind. 
For more defined rules on some of yoki's phenomenon, click here. Category:Terminology