Primal Essence (Concept)

One of the only concepts from the lore that will be properly named on this wiki during the current period. The **Primal Essence** is a source, a pool of energy that resides on another plane of existence, yet inside all living beings at the same time. It is from this pool of energy that all living beings can draw from in order to perform magic.

## Overview

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There is no way to directly make physical contact with the Primal Essence, as it resides in another plane of existence entirely. At least, no way that anyone knows of.

## Use

### Magic

As stated before, Primal Essence is the energy source that all living beings draw from to perform magic, which includes wildlife and people. Magic in this case is control over elements and energy, usually for combat, but sometimes for performance arts as well. As far as people are concerned, a **catalyst** is heavily recommended to use when casting magic, as it helps to control, focus, and suppress the energy generated. Most any object can be a catalyst, whether it be weapons, tools, or even symbols (the type of magic that uses symbols as the catalyst is known as [name tbd]; however, most practitioners often make use of specially made staves that are designed to channel the energy. Using magic does consume the body's energy much like most physical exertion does, which is why it's recommended to eat a big meal before preparing to cast something really big.

Theoretically, one can use magic for everyday tasks such as cooking or powering electronics, but it can be difficult and very taxing on one's energy. For example, one normally cannot light a tree on fire with fire magic if they're using a catalyst; they can scorch the tree, but the fire won't stay to burn it down. The caster would either have to keep pouring their energy into keeping the fire going, or use a certain technique to pour 'reserve' energy into the fire magic to have it linger after it's cast; in the latter case, the time the fire would stay burning would depend on the amount of 'reserve' energy spent on it. When cooking, one would have to pour lots of energy into keeping the fire on the pan going, and make it hot enough to actually cook their food properly. As for powering electronics, knowledge of the internal circuits would most certainly help to avoid any complications, and the user would effectively be using themselves as a battery. For the most part, using magic for everyday tasks isn't very practical, but are usually done in the case of an emergency.

It is possible to cast magic without a catalyst (IE using your bare hands), but it is very dangerous and difficult to control, and is guaranteed to harm the user in the process. At the same time however, since it is not being suppressed by a catalyst, it also has the most potential, and can grow powerful enough to level cities. But to get to the point where the user can do that will require immense control and skill over the magic as they charge it up, so much so that 99% of people who attempt it lose control and end up getting themselves killed before it can even make it halfway to that point. One thing to note, is due to the inherent chaotic nature of it, magic casted without a catalyst is capable of lingering with less effort than it takes in the paragraph above.

Wildlife are capable of using magic without a catalyst (or in some cases, have evolved with a catalyst on their body that they can use) without being harmed from it, but judging from most cases they seem to be less powerful/have less destructive potential than the kind used by people.

In addition, as exhibited by Lamm, it is possible to use magic to manipulate physics rather than elements, but it takes a skilled practitioner to do so.

#### Symbol Magic

As stated above, it is possible to use symbols as a catalyst for magic, and magic used this way works somewhat differently from regular catalysts. [Not many examples right now, but stuff similar to hexes, curses, things relating to one's mind, and potentially suppressing the magic of others. In gameplay terms, they can be used for debuffs, buffs, and even anti-magic]. There is debate over whether or not the symbol itself has any effect on the magic cast, as there are many cases where inappropriate drawings have been used to cast magic without much issue.

#### Elements

The elements controlled with magic and the Primal Essence operate on a spectrum from Dark to Light.

Dark - Ice - Water - Wind - Earth(or Nature) - Shock - Fire - Light

Ice Water and Wind are referred to as Darkside magic, while Earth Shock and Fire are referred to as Lightside magic.

[tbd]

## Other

### Essence Springs

Scattered around the world are Essence Springs, which a significant amount of the Primal Essence's energy pours out of. Novice Magic practitioners often use these for training. It can also be used to charge any items that use magic/Primal Essence as a power source.

## Article Dispute

### Erm, Excuse me

But what exactly does this have to do with the RUC?