Auka

Auka is one of two forms of magic in Palidovas along with Krauja. Auka is a naturally occurring phenomena found among many creatures. The origin of Auka is unknown, but ancient texts of the Predecessors claims that they had released this magic on the world after destroying a mystical barrier around the planet, causing the Great Quake. This is most commonly utilized entirely on accident, as all creatures use this magic to heal themselves when injured due to their desire to make the pain stop. However, those that can ignore this urge are called aukars and will sacrifice parts of their self to gain temporary power. These sacrifices involve cutting, burning, breaking bones, and bruising. More powerful users can even sacrifice abstract concepts of the mind, such as memories or their mental health, but this is exceedingly rare and requires much discipline.

There are a multitude of known abilities that are directly associated with the type of pain inflicted upon the caster.

This magic is inherently addictive and extremely dangerous to use and control.

## History

Little is known about the origin of this magic, and research on the subject is volatile at best. Judging from ancient texts found in the word, scholars have determined that a civilization of Predecessors existed in the world long before the Dovasi inhabited the world. The world they inhabited had a sun that kept the world in a state of warmth and light, and their civilization was prosperous and powerful, but it was a world without the naturally occurring magic. However, their scientists discovered a barrier surrounding their planet that kept the magic at bay. They found a way to dispel this barrier and flooded the world with magic, but this also destroyed their sun, causing the race to be extinct. Because of this, some have hypothesized that the magic comes from the Great Void.

## Utilization

For each ability, a certain action needs to be taken by the user upon themselves, so that they can power an ability. There are a number of ways of doing this, though all are dangerously detrimental. There are varying levels of abilities that are gained by varying degrees of actions, each more dangerous than the last.

### Physical Injury (Tier 1)

1. Bruising - Hitting oneself hard enough with blunt objects causes large bruises to form on the body. The force of the blow delivered is transferred from the body into another limb to create a more powerful strike.
2. Cutting - Cutting oneself causes large gashes and scars to form on the body. Turns the blood into a physical but single strike weapon.
3. Bones Breaking - Breaking one’s bones through blunt trauma or force. Allows the weakened bone structure of the bones to solidify another bone/skin to soften blows.
4. Burning - Burning oneself to the second or third degree allows one to gain this ability. Gives one the ability to manipulate fire.
5. Shocking - Putting oneself in the path of electricity or lightning bolt allows one to use their ability. Gives one the ability to manipulate lightning.

### Mental Deconstruction (Tier 2)

Uses a pool of abilities as follows

1. Create hallucinations
2. Mental protection

Ways to achieve above abilities

1. Memories - Removing one’s memories of the past to use an effect proportional to memories lost
2. Sanity - Sacrificing one’s ability to reason and react to stimuli to use an ability
3. Mental Stress - One puts themselves in precarious situations to achieve a state of ability casting
4. Emotional Trauma - One puts themselves through great emotional pain

### Life (Tier 3)

Uses a pool of abilities as follows

1. Reincarnation - bring dead person back to life
2. Reanimation - utilize dead person’s body, but they are not alive
3. Sudden Death - kills someone instantly without touching them

Ways to achieve above abilities

1. Age - Sacrifice years off of one’s life allows them to use an effect proportional to time lost
2. Life - User sacrifices themselves for great effect
3. Extraction - Removing or splitting one’s consciousness from their physical body in order to control another physical form

## Training

Auka relies on an individual’s willpower and ability to control themselves, therefore any user is capable of training themselves to use them. Physical injury is the easiest to control, as it only relies on an individual’s ability to ignore the physical pain, which many have accomplished. Failure here is typically not severe, as most will simply heal from their injuries.

To achieve the second tier, a user must be able to control their emotions and understand their thoughts and personality. Failing to train properly here can result in a variety of mental disorders, such as dementia, PTSD, extreme depression, or permanent hallucinations. Because of this, effective users are typically rare.

Achieving the third tier is incredibly difficult. Training for this requires years of focus and meditation on life and of death and an ability to reach into one’s own subconscious brain functions to manipulate them. The next step is for them to seize control of their subconscious. While in control of their subconscious, a user must manipulate their total conscious into achieving a desired effect. However, they must also be able to stop the effect once manipulation has begun. Doing so is often difficult, as once manipulation begins, the effects of said manipulation begin to take their toll on the user, causing them to have less control over their changing conscious. Failing to control and stop the amount of manipulation will cause an almost immediate death. Therefore, users of this magic will train by meditating and slowly easing into their subconscious to the point of total conscious control only to release themselves from it again. This takes hours of total concentration, and varies from person to person.

Traditional training by a mentor for this magic is offered but rare. Tier one magic can be fairly easily learned, so teachers are not really needed. Tiers two and three are typically feared, which forces any who attempt to train others in these forms few and far between, and typically very secretive.

## Addiction/Side Effects

This magic feels incredibly good to all users, therefore many people will use this magic constantly in order to achieve that euphoria. Casual users will continuously injure themselves and allow their healing factor to fix them before re-injuring themselves. Controlling this urge to self injure is difficult for the average Dovasi, and overcoming it is an important aspect of becoming an aukar.

Aukars themselves are in a constant state of emptiness when not utilizing their abilities. Many seem cold and emotionless as they constantly attempt to suppress their abilities. The more powerful the ability, the more potent the effects of the magic and the more difficult it is to fight the urge to use.

## Cultural Opinion

Since this magic is universal among all Dovasi, it is not frowned upon by most as they can’t stop the healing factor. Tier 1 is actively used by many, but many are wary. However, tier 2 and 3 users are considered exceedingly volatile and dangerous and are almost universally hated and feared.