Spiritual Abilities

This is for all magic that manipulates spiritual energy and spiritual matter.

Backlash & Side Effects:

* compulsions
* obsession
* delusions
* paranoia
* anxiety
* soul erosion
* loss of identity
* mana leakage
* vulnerability to possession

## Abilities:

Note: These are any and all abilities that relate to the soul, auras, spiritual energy, or spiritual essence.

### [ Soul Speak ]

Soul Speak is an ability that essentially allows the ability user to speak telepathically through a magic made link between souls. Basically what happens, is that when the ability is used, the users soul will send out thin spiritual strands to link itself to the target soul. This spirit strand cannot get caught or tangled with anything else, including another spirit strand, but it does have its weaknesses. These include the first weakness: The strand will grow thinner and weaker as the strand has to stretch farther to reach it's target. So the farther the target of the connection is, the weaker the link and telepathy will be. The second weakness is involved with an extra feature. The extra feature is that a person can use Soul Speak to link up with multiple other people and not just a single target. The weakness is like a catch to this ability, being that the more people who are linked together using Soul Speak, the weaker the connection will be. Both of these weaknesses can be compensated for with the use of extra fuel such as mana, but only those who are willing to expend the extra mana can push this ability that far.

Note: Soul Speak does not allow the user to invade the target's mind, but is more similar to calling someone on the phone. The user can link up with their target, but it is up to the target to respond or not, and if the target does respond, only thoughts directly intended to reach the recipient will, meaning that both the user and target will not be flooded by every single thought the other person has, it will be more like a simple conversation.

Note 2: In addition to words being transmitted, pure unfiltered emotion & intention, as well as things like images or other data can also be transferred between those using Soul Speak.

In order to perform Soul Speak, the user must first close their eyes and fill their soul with a feeling of intent. While doing this they must think of the name and identity of their target. By doing this, the spirit strand will know who to link up to. When the target is linked to, they will feel the identity and intent of the user within them and will know they are being prompted by Soul Speak. A person on the target end of Soul Speak can also choose to block the presence of the user trying to prompt them which will mean that in the future they will not even feel a prompt.

### [ Soul Anchor ]

This ability is only useful in relation to Soul Speak. Soul Anchor is a more complex ability to perform and is therefore performed by less people, and also requires more mana than Soul Speak. The good thing about Soul Anchors cost though is that it only needs to be enabled once and then it becomes a passive ability, unlike Soul Speak which needs to be activated each time and each time requires mana. Soul Anchor basically acts as a sort of radio receiver for those who are using Soul Speak. It negates all negative effects of the range limits Soul Speak has. This means that a person with the ability Soul Anchor can receive a link through Soul Speak from anywhere, including separate dimensions.

Additional Note: Most people do not get or use Soul Anchor because of two things. It is complex to initially cast, and the second thing is that for those who are famous, they can get a lot of prompts through Soul Speak, and even though they can keep blocking each individual, it can quickly get annoying. So those who do use Soul Anchor will either keep it a secret, or use another advanced technique which allows Soul Anchor to block all Soul Speak attempts by default and only those white listed will go through.

### [ Soul Sacrifice ]

This is an ability, by the nature of itself, can only be performed once by a single person. It is considered the greatest form of self sacrifice in order to help another. What Soul Sacrifice actually does is it dissolves and moves the soul and all of the mana of the user and turns it into a unique form of spiritual energy. This spiritual energy is then transferred to the target where the target absorbs the energy. From this energy a unique and usually legendary tier ability will form and attach itself to the soul of the target. The cost for this spell is the soul of the user and therefore, their conscious existence. This is a fate worse than normal death because with normal death, the soul continues on to experience and feel, etc until it lets itself fade eventually out of apathy from existing so long. With Soul Sacrifice, the soul is forcibly destroyed and causes the user's consciousness to cease existing abruptly. It is actually similar to the theory in our world (earth) that there is absolutely nothing after death and that we simply cease to exist.

### [ Smoke Shift ]

This is an ability that allows the user to change their physical body into a smoke like substance for heightened agility and overall mobility and then shift back. The black smoke that the user shifts into when using Smoke Shift is actually a form of spiritual essence and energy and this is why this ability is categorized under Spiritual magic and not material magic. When a user is in the Smoke shifted form, their entire body will have been transformed into the spiritual essence. This black essence will flow and shift to follow the users soul, which is now free to move by itself. The user can move in this form by forming thoughts into their head and their soul will move towards where the user wants to go, and then the transformed body will follow the soul it is attached to. Because of the spiritual essence's mysterious smoke / liquid like form, it can easily go through tight spaces or things like bars or grates, etc.

### [ Aura Armor ]

This is an ability that allows the user to utilize their own aura as armor. The way this is done is that they use magic to cause a reaction that makes the aura solidify around the user's body. One the ability is activated, the armor will form and if damaged, reform until the ability is deactivated. The catch with this ability is simply, every time the armor takes damage and has to reform itself, the more energy it will require to keep the ability active. On top of this, the energy requirement for reforming the armor is directly proportional to the damage taken by the armor. What this ability is particularly useful for though is two things. It has the same strength or higher than normal armor while being virtually weightless, and two, It is effectively invincible against normal physical attacks. Attacks using normal weapons won't be able to damage the armor since it is made of spiritual energy, though energy can be transferred through the armor like using a hammer or mace still. Only attacks using magic, spiritual energy, or objects made of spiritual essence can damage and break through this armor.

### [ Aura Prison ]

This is an ability that is derived from Aura Armor, and thus it is required to learn that ability before being able to master this one. What this ability actually does is very similar to Aura Armor, except it forcibly activates the ability upon someone else. It may seem that this is simply an ability that is used for allies, but this ability is actually used offensively. This is because Aura Prison, when forcing the target to activate Aura Armor, will put the ability into overdrive, which will cause two distinct things to happen which are not good for the target. The first is that it will constantly drain the target of their mana stores which will cause exhaustion, and if they are weak enough, death. The second things is that for those who don't die from the mana drain, will become encased in a prison. This prison is made from their own aura which will have solidified into a sort of unbreakable tomb in the shape of their body. The catch with this ability is that it requires a lot of mana from the user as well, and for it to actually work requires the user to break past the targets will power. This can either be done through brute force while fighting them, or it can be done in a sneaky way, like distracting them or activating the ability while they are defenseless.

### [ Multi-Shadow ]

This is the ability to hold multiple shadows with a single individual's soul and in addition can have them be bonded to the soul. Normally this is a natural ability associated with Pyrs, in which the Pyr forcibly steals & enslaves the shadow spirit of anyone they consume, but it is also possible for an individual to naturally be born with multiple shadow spirits. This condition is similar to how animals & humanoids can become pregnant with twins, triplets, etc.

Note: The frequency in cases of multiple shadow spirits bonded to a single soul goes up in rarity by a factor of 100 times per each additional shadow spirit. 1 Shadow (normal) = 99/100, 2 Shadows = 1/100, 3 Shadows, 1/10,000, 4 Shadows = 1/1,000,000, etc.

### { Espumancy }

Inspiration: Espu - (Esperit = Spirit in Catalan)

This is the ability to use any and all spiritual abilities. This means that the user can manipulate, create, and control spiritual essence as well as souls and spirits.