Semblance

**Semblance** is a power exhibited by certain people around Remnant. It is developed from a person's Aura and typically helps in battle though some types are used in other ways, like for business. Semblances are different between people and can range from super strength, manipulating objects to disorienting opponents.

## **Description**

A "Semblance" is the manifestation of one's innate and personal power as an ability unique to each individual, with the effects varying from user to user. The nature of one's Semblance is noted as representing an aspect of their character. However, a person's Semblance can be similar to the Semblances of their parents or other family members.

Any being with an aura, which means that have both corpura and animura is capable of unlocking their semblance, the animura code of the soul is the one that determines the specific semblance the user unlock. One semblance can't never be completely identical to other, even those that look similar have differences like way of activation, limit or even in raw potential. A person can name their Semblance legally when they fill out a special document though people who are criminal normally just name them even if they don't have the legal permission. For example Nathaniel Vital calling his semblance "Overload" when its true scientific name is "Energy Manipulation Type II". Even if an aura is necessary to unlock a semblance, it isn't always needed as fuel afterwards. With the use of Dust or magic certain individuals can modify their Semblances with elements, overuse of one's Semblance for prolonged periods may adversely affect its user at certain times.

It seems that emotional turmoil or stress can affect one's use of Semblance, either negatively or positively.

## **Types of Semblances**

Curiously the experts have never been able to agree in a single way to classify semblances so there exist many types depending on different factors.

### **Unlocking Method**

* **Birth:** As the unlock method states, this type of semblances is unlocked at the moment of birth, generally they are passive ones and even if they weren't, users can get a hold on their semblances almost instinctively.
* **Hereditary:** Same as birth method but is more complex, this type is directly related to certain families like the "Glyphs" from the Schnees or "Nine-Lives" from the Khans. They might not get to control their semblances easily in some cases but since their whole family have it, they have an advantage at the moment of mastering it.
* **Training:** There are some types of semblances that only need basic combat or aura training to be unlocked.
* **Circumstancial:** The hardest type of semblance to unlock, these require a special method for each type, even sometimes its crazy or completely unexpected like be hit by a lightning, be tortured, be in an experience close to death or even die.

### **Power Class**

* **Biological-Physical:** As the name states, this kind of semblance modify the user in a biological level, focused on the body, for example super-strength or hardened-skin.
* **Biological-Mental:** This kind of semblance modify the user in a biological level but in the mind, some examples could be memory manipulation or mettle.
* **Energetic-Aura:** Most of energetic auras are based on unlocking aura manipulation to the user in a certain predertimened way. It's true that anyone can train their aura to create barriers or strings but with the help of a semblance its not only more efficiently but also requires significatively less training, though their talent only resides on the kind of aura manipulation they received. In other words, someone with an aura barrier semblance can't learn aura detection any easier.
* **Energetic-General:** A few types of energetic semblances are reserved to other kinds of energy like radiation, heat or electricity these or even rare types like "probability" which is a special kind of energy that can modify circunstances for good or for bad.
* **Elemental:** These ones are quite simple, semblances related to the elements, either immunity or manipulation. Fire, Water, Earth and Air. There also exist some other variants which more limitations like Ice or Steam.
* **Spiritual:** They could either be related to souls or divine energy. The ones related to souls have many variations like force many souls into a single body, reanimate dead people and use them as puppets or simply talk with a soul in the afterlife. Meanwhile the ones based in divine energy grants either destruction or creation powers.
* **Spatial:** This group of semblances have connections with "overlapping dimensions" either created by the semblances or already existing ones. For example, "Intagibility" allows the physical body of the user to go an overlapping dimension while not breaking the connection with their original completely by projecting their image or "Paradise Hell" which allows the user to teleport into the already existing dimension of the same name.
* **Temporal:** Quite easy to understand, these semblances can interfere with time itself.
* **Animura Configuration:** Perhaps one of the most complicated semblances to explain for the experts. These semblances grant the user with the ability to manipulate the animura in the environment, a power that normally would only belong to the Gods.
* **Universal:** With just one semblance in this category, depending on certain factors, this semblance could either take control over the universe or create a completely new universe.

### **Fuel**

* **Nothing:** There are some kind of semblances, normally the biological type that only needs one activation and the effect remains until the death of the user. for example, hardened-skin, mental reistance, heat immunity, cold immunity or even temporal immunity from the temporal type.
* **Aura (Corpura):** Most semblances use aura which means both animura and corpura, however, corpura always get drained before animura which means that the limit is actually the corpura and thats why it could lead to fatigue if overused.
* **Animura:** Some semblances use only animura, it could either be the user's animura, other people animura or even the environment animura. There is a limit to how much animura someone can use before rest to recharge, if one overuse it past that limit can lead to paralysis or even death as some organs stop working or directly there is no enough animura in the body to mantain the link between soul and body.
* **Vital Energy:** Semblances with this kind of fuel consume the health and the lifespan of the user, or in other words, it consumes the body itself shortening its life.
* **Animura Capacity:** The semblances that use animura capacity will deal with permanent paralysis or death. The limits of animura also applies here but in this case the loss of animura is permanent and can't be recharged since it actually consumes the soul (source of the animura) instead of the energy itself. An example of this would be "Life Gift" in which the user give parts of their souls to inanimated objects to give them live and the chance of having their own soul and even developing their own semblances if they posses corpura.

### **Quality**

They get classified into positive and negative, negative semblances aren't always bad but they are the complete opposite, for example, Cold Control is the negative of Heat Control and the both belong to Temperature Manipulation Semblance. Quality also refers to the ammount of energy someone have. Normally there are also limits, for example basic energy manipulation needs to be in contact with the source energy while advanced can do it from a distance.

* **Neutral:** Neutral is the lowest quality. The users with this kind have a low capacity for aura and their semblances are quite weak.
* **Basic:** Basic has an average ammount of energy and decent strength on their semblances.
* **Advanced:** Above average energy and strong semblances perfect to take on multiple enemies.
* **Legendary:** Maximum ammount of energy a body can hold without incinerating, their power is also compared to a one person army.
* **Myth:** Only the hermit monk is able to enter this state after train his aura manipulation for many decades and meditation while completely isolated and without distraction. To access myth level you must be of legendary quality and exploit your limits so that for a short moment (One hour like maximum) you are able to expand the ammount of energy your body can hold and absorb animura from the environment.
* **God:** Only U.D.A.I from the universe 1245 is able to use it as he is the first being who possess semblances and absorbed two Gods.
* **Universal:** Only the semblance "Parasyte Universe" can exist in this category as it consumes the energy inside of the universe to work which would mean it is even above Gods as they were also creations from the Universe.

### **Others**

There exist people who added even more categories to classify semblances like "Fuel Consume" (None, Low, Medium, High and Total), "Influence" (User, Other, User/Others, Environment, Area and Universal) , Action (Single Activation, Passive and Active) or "Distance" (No, Contact, Distant and Universal). However they aren't that well known and accepted by the scientific community so not many people classify under those parameters.

## **Modifiers**

The modifiers are not considered actual semblances by the scientific community, yet they work in the same exact way. These are semblances that appear exclusively on people with Integrated Semblances however not always are present.

* **Fuel Swap:** As the name says, this modifier allows the other semblance to be used with other kind of fuel instead of just the predetermined one.
* **Instruction Manual:** User receives all knowledge about their other semblance.
* **Passivity:** Allows the person to use an active semblance in a passive way.

## **Evolution**

### **Mastery**

Mastery or Short-Term, as it says it depends completely on the user of the semblance. The more training someone does with their semblance, the stronger it becomes, with a limit of courses but power could even double with enough mastery or even break all laws and "cheat" life with loopholes. For example, Ruby Rose can achieve certain intangibility while she turns into a cluster of red petals, ability she didn't have when simply activated her semblance to increase her speed or Nathaniel Vital who virtually possess unlimited energy by transforming sunlight and other sources of energy into aura energy or in other words he wastes aura while using his semblance but also is constantly creating more aura energy to continue using his semblance.

### **Natural Selection**

Natural Selection or Long-Term, it is more complicated as it doesn't depend on the user but in the environment. Some types of semblances go extinct while new ones appear over the years or even some change completely. For example, semblances like "Racing Passion" from Zack Xiong (A semblance that allows the user to drive any land vehicle as if it was for racing like he had done with even tanks) it didn't exist any semblance like that before the creation of cars and it probably would go extinct the moment Remnant inhabitants stop using land vehicles or semblances like "Slime" (A semblance that allows someone to turn their body into slime), it went extinct since the only one who got it never had descendants and also he only acquired it after his family lived in a swamp away from the Kingdoms for generations so once his family was wiped out, there wasn't any other reason for that semblance to continue appearing. Finally, "Retrogression" which is a temporal semblance that evolved from "Step Back" (Retrogression allows to go back in time to even before the birth of the user but with the one condition they can only make ONE change before be destroyed or create "safe points" in time to where he can come back if he dies as long as he dies in his own time and not in the past) (Step back allows the user to go back many minutes on time at day, this one consumes energy for each second reversed and also has the birth of the user as limit if somehow they get there.) Retrogression was a semblance unlocked in an apocaliptic future where U.D.A.I was trying to annihilate every living being so the semblance was forced to evolve into a stronger version.

## **Limits**

Anyone with aura is able to unlock a semblance however, there are some limits and factors attached to them:

### **Energetic Capacity**

A living body has a limit to the ammount of energy that can store inside, the limit is the same for everyone however the better the quality of a semblance is the fuller the body is, meaning that legendary semblances have so much energy that it almost reaches the limit. Normally the body generates a predetermined quantity of energy depending on the quality however if it receives more energy than it can hold, it will cause the user to suffer a spontaneous combustion.

There are some ways to increase the energetic capcity, however it involves some particular semblances and it affects in different ways. For example, the semblance "Madhouse" (A semblance that drag souls from the Afterlife dimension and force them to stay in a single body), this one modifies the body in a way that it can hold more souls meaning it can hold much more animura energy however the corpura doesn't increase. The "Integrated Semblances" that allows a person to have two or three semblances modify the body to hold even more corpura but still is capable of only holding enough animura for one soul.

### **Resurrection**

A semblance can be used with no problems after someone have been resurrected into perfect copies of their bodies however the semblance must have been unlocked before die since it becomes impossible afterwards. Once the original link soul-body is broken the unlock of a semblance is a futile concept since the new link doesn't have the conditions to allow it. The same is applied with vampires, once they resurrect as a vampire they can't unlock a semblance however if they unlocked it before there is a chance it is still usable.

Vampirism is a mysterious factor, most semblance users lose their semblance after turning however some keep them. Some vampire experts think it is because of the body changes and the almost unique bloodtype for each vampire while others say so much energy is being used in the regeneration to keep them alive that the semblance gets locked again as a defense mechanism but nothing has been confirmed.

## **Special Users**

### **Animal Users**

Both Grieve and Doku were able to unlock semblances even if not having a corpura of their own. That was a direct consequence of forming a pact with a snake faunus (Kobura Rose) in which they linked to his corpura not only expanding their lifespan but also acquiring a corpura source to be able to generate a defensive aura and unlock a semblance.

### **Android Users**

Penny and Buck Polendina were able to generate an aura and also unlock semblances by being granted a soul and therefore animura by the semblance "Life Gift" and having artificial corpura developed by Pietro Polendina in their mechanic bodies.

### **Self Summon Users**

Only Allistair Schnee has been able to pull it off so far, by killing himself with his sword seconds before someone else could kill him that way his Glyphs semblance recognized him as a "defeated enemy". Then many centuries later when he escaped the Afterlife dimension with Blake Belladonna, Team SSSN, Ochre Fall and Beis Fall, he tracked his sword to a museum. His sword was imbued with corpura back when he was alive so once he contacted his own corpura inside the sword he was able to reactivate his semblance and summoned himself into a living world with a loophole in the semblance "Glyphs".

### **Browndium Implant Users**

Developed by Rusito Dalton, the implant acts like an incomplete or raw soul with the requirements for a certain semblance but without a conscience. The device or implant acts like a body where a soul can be stored so it actually couldn't lead to a spontaneous combustion of the user however it is connected to the user's body so the incomplete soul in combination with the users corpura will grant them with the programmed semblance. That's a way to either get a hold on multiple semblances or giving a semblance to someone who can't unlock them.