Void Arcana

"You haven't been practicing, have you?" 
"..." 
"Lad, you can't just download memories and information into your mind and call it a day. You need to get a feel for casting those concepts yourself." 
"Yes, Hirra." 
"You're still relying on beginner's tricks. It doesn't matter if you fly a single Planck time or a billion years into the past or future. It doesn't matter if you hop into another timeline, anyone more than a novice will hit you." 
"Yes, Hirra." 
"Your next task is to train your Minor Arcana. I will plant a target in this reality that will randomly shift its temporal location each time you cast at it. It will also shift whenever you try to move to its temporal location. We will move on to the next part of your lessons when you can consistently hit it, without being in the same time period and timeline. We will work on getting you to properly countercast after this. Now, your practice begins." 
Hirra imparting lessons on Void Arcana to their student, Auderge 
Void arcana is a term that refers to the various non-Exaltation conceptual abilities that full Transcends are able to use through their Void field. These abilities are rated according to their speed of use and power. Void Arcana exists as a more powerful extension of Transcended concept manipulation, being generally more potent in its effects than freeform manipulation. 
== Description ==
Transcended Void fields of the same development stage differ very slightly in power, if at all. The power of a Transcend relative to their peers lies largely on their ability to leverage their Void field capabilities through knowledge, skill and finesse. Outside of their range, the largest limitation to a Transcended Void field depends on the overall metaphysical knowledge and their understanding of the knowledge.
Void Arcana is divided into several subcategories; Minor, Major and Ultimate. These subcategories are divided based on ease and speed of casting and potency. 
Minor Void Arcana refers to the effects that a Transcend is able to cast at the speed of thought. These effects are often easily countered by other Transcends of comparable skill level, but are useful in serving as probing strikes to gather information. Some more skilled Transcends may prefer to primarily rely on Minor Arcana, overwhelming their foes with the sheer variety and number of effects they cast on them. Typically, entry level duels between full Transcends will cast many millions of these effects over the course of a single exchange in an engagement. Minor Arcana also tend to be easier to avoid, as most can be dodged via moving into the past or future or across to another timeline. This ease of avoidance can be negated by a Transcend with skill and experience, allowing them to cast Minor Arcana able to propagate across these temporal locations. 
Major Void Arcana refers to slower, but more powerful and still combat viable effects that take a short time to prepare. Usually, multiple Major Arcana are prepared using the information gathered from the exchange of Minor Arcana to form a group of effects that target the weaknesses of a Transcend. With the widespread use of Opal Lights, Major Arcana are usually used in the form of immobilisation and/or slowing effects. Many Transcended engagements end once a combatant can cast an effective Major Arcana to create an opening for them to effectively use their Opal Light. While such exists, defensive Major Arcana is rarely utilised given the great difficulty in defending against an opponent without having complete knowledge of their understanding of concepts. Very skilled combat focused Transcends are known to be able to cast Major Arcana as quickly as their Minor Arcana, rendering them a formidable force in combat able to take on hundreds of other Transcends at a time.
Ultimate Arcana are the most powerful effects casted by Transcends. Continued usage of such effects is not regarded as combat viable, as they take a while to prepare before use. As such, they are rendered useless outside of alpha and/or finishing strikes or as a defense. Often, a single Ultimate Arcana requires several weeks to months of subjective time to prepare. Massed usage of Ultimate Arcana defenses is one of the few ways small numbers of Transcends can temporarily protect against beings such as Arish hosts and Ulemedi Lords.
A duel between two Transcends will usually revolve around Minor Arcana casting concepts and their variations; both the former and the latter of which there are potentially an infinite number of due to the nature of an infinite variety of realities, but in practice a Transcend can only make use of a concept and the variations they are familiar with, which they can come to learn and understand by travelling across realities with different physical and metaphysical laws. Once a concept/s has been casted on one Transcend it is up to the target to respond by casting their own counter concepts and its variations to protect against and/or dispel as many (and if possible, all) of the initially casted concepts and its variations. 
Any failure to protect against the initially casted concepts and its variations can be quickly picked up as information by the first caster to prepare their own Major Arcana versions of the casting to take down their opponent. Multiple such casts and countercasts happen simultaneously in an exchange; a combatant will both be casting effects on their opponent while defending against their opponents casts with countercasts at the same time. The alternative approach is to instead to rapidly overwhelm the opponent with Minor Arcana versions of the concepts they are susceptible to. 
Affecting not just Void derived conceptual abilities but all conceptual abilities in general is the non-interaction principal for opposing absolute effects. When an absolute conceptual effect meets its opposite, neither interact with each other or any entities under the other's power. 
== Applications ==
Outside of combat, the various kinds of Arcana also play a role in a Transcend's everyday life. Minor Arcana are the most commonly utilised, given their ease and speed of use. Minor Arcana is often used in everyday tasks, such as cleaning and waste disposal, to transport and operation of some technology.
Major Arcana is less commonly used, but is widely utilised in tool creation and manufacturing. The extra power granted by Major Arcana when imbued in a tool or device is regarded as a necessary part in allowing tools to be viable where one might use Minor Arcana for most of their needs.
Ultimate Arcana usage is almost unheard of outside of combat, save for specific occupations and situations requiring its extreme power, such as resource extraction from locations greatly hardened against manipulation or similarly hardening a location against damage and manipulation.
Category:Powers and Abilities