Quintessence

Quintessence exists as corpuscular packets in a liminal static state that is both matter (particle) and energy, yet neither. It can be harnessed and cast as matter or energy but will rebound back to liminal state, it’s unstable. It can do damage while in it’s temporary state of matter/energy. 
Quintessence is not visible to the naked eye unless concentrated into matter or energy. As energy it has a moving atmosphere distortion (like heat) signature and sometimes a grayish color to it. Mages describe it as feeling tingly. 
It is the stuff that mages and shifters use to accomplish their supernatural abilities. Mages change quintessence into either matter or energy through the act of casting. Longer term small castings can be locked to matter until they are broken, called Siphons.   
Shifters can use it to manipulate their own form. If there is no ambient quintessence they cannot shift. 
In nature, it exists in a grey state, or stasis, at which it's stable. Once in use it becomes unstable and will return to it's gray state usually as some kind of noise (unless tethered to a stable object). 
It used to be mostly regulated to a dome (referred to as a Quintessence Sphere, The Sphere of Quintessence, or simply The Sphere) in the Earth's atmosphere, but after Super Saturation, it flooded out and filled the air on ground level. Essentially is is a scientists way of explaining magic. 
== Subdivisions of Quintessence Users ==
=== Civic Mages ===
Are humans with Q manipulation abilities (this was once called excess soul) they are subdivided into 3 types based on 2 factors: amount of Q controlled and time of that control.
* Siphon: Siphons are low volume sustained casters. Can pin small amounts of Q for longer periods of time. Used for wards and sustained casting. Most common type of Civic Mage. They are used for delicate time-released workings, that link either a now-matter quintessence or a now-energy quintessence to a stable object in reality.
* Sluice: Sluices are usually medium volume sporadic casters. Sluices are used for necessary everyday instantaneous needs. Can act in the present with medium amounts of quintessence for medium amounts of time, usually no longer than sunset or sunrise. Sluices can usually do several casts in a row if well trained. Considered the most practical Civic Mage. Spells last for the length of a day or a night, usually, as quintessence is sunlight reactive.
* Surge: Surges are high volume single blast casters who have no ability to anchor in time or place. They can handle large amounts of Q very briefly, and are thus usually used in weaponry. This kind of sudden casting is usually dangerous, and rare. Surges are prone to being volatile and violent, and they usually opt for energy blasts. Mostly military applications. Considered the least practical.
=== Sumages ===
A potential mage that fails to properly access quintessence. Sumages have no access to ambient quintessence, they can only work with a Civic Mage's casting. They can’t draw quintessence themselves but they can absorb it when hurled by others. Depending on the type they can counter an out of control shifter or mage. There are three types of sumage to counterbalance the three types of Civic Mage.
* Pincher (Siphon muffle) — this type of sumage “pinches the Siphon,” they can diffuse set casts, but they will also do this accidentally. Trace lines on their arms. 
* Plug (Sluice muffle) — this type of sumage “plugs the sluice,” they can diffuse casts as they occur, or accidentally interfere with larger more intricate works. Trace lines on their leg.
* Placer (Surge muffle) — this type of sumage “places the surge,” they are pretty unheard of, only useful if they can be present when a Surge goes postal, they can diffuse a hit of major power. Trace lines all over their body except hands, feet, and head.
=== Magistars ===
Magistars blend both civic, sumage, and savage abilities through the use of familiars. Very little is known about them except they’re powerful and skilled (able to access and use quintessence in all 3 ways) and require a pair bond. They can afford to keep to themselves because they are too powerful to be coerced. There are maybe a dozen in the whole world.
=== Non Humans ===
* Savage mages: Additional abilities some shifters have to manipulate quintessence beyond just changeing form as a result of rank (Alpha VOICE), age (Kitsune hover), or training (assisted healing). Access is ingrained but only for specific skills, like shape shifting. Often physically evident to the naked eye. Some shifters have component quintessence abilities (e.g. merfolk have siren song, mermaids have stasis hold, kitsune have illusions, werewolf alphas have VOICE). No one knows how these work, possibly by shifting quintessence into something else, something neither matter or energy, like sound waves.
== Other Q Rules ==
* Nothing IS quintessence, quintessence is a tool, a substance that exists in the world to be tapped.
* Ability is entirely a matter of the amount of quintessence you can wield, your control over it, and/or what kind of creature you are. 
* Shifters can be made or born. Or, in the case of most, both. (Born werewolf but also bitten to become werewolf— quintessence brith — as an adult.)
== Links ==
* Aether in the Parasolverse
== Quotes ==
* "Quintessence always preferred to be potential with no fixed purpose." (The Sumage Solution, Chapter Fifteen)
* "Quintessence is there. It's all around you, all the time. It's air and light and sound and scent, but only the possibility of those things. You have to tell it what it should be. You must be firm with it, son." (The Sumage Solution, Chapter Eighteen)
* "Did you know, before Super-Saturation, when quintessence was confined to the Sphere, and mages only existed in nascent form, that Victorian scientists called the possibility of power excess soul? Quintessence was different then. Rarer, harder to find, more confined. They called it aether." (The Sumage Solution, Chapter Nineteen)
Category:San Andreas Shifters