Dominion

The Asevla have access to energy that can command the laws of physics to obey their will. This form of magic is known as dominion.

The use of dominion may have its rules and requirements, but it is not a science. Science deals in laws, facts of the universe that don't change just because you don't like them or want them to work differently. Dominion is the ability to override the rules of physics in certain ways, and a person's beliefs about how dominion should work are as effective as the placebo effect is in medicine, and for similar reasons.

## Schools of Dominion

(I may need to rename these but the concepts seem solid)

### Life Dominion

The life dominion covers the manipulation of biology, and it is the most essential dominion of the Asevla. By using the life dominion, an Asevla can enhance or detract from any biological function. This allows them to rapidly speed healing, manually control the function of organs, and

But as important as all of that is, using the life dominion an Asevla can rewrite an organism's genetic structure. And this forms the basis of all Asevla advanced technology.

The soul provides the blueprint for Life Dominion to perform healing and restore an organism to full functionality. Anytime anyone willingly accepts a modification to their body, it alters the soul template in this life, and the Asevla believe in the life to come. Consequently, Life Dominion cannot heal a self-inflicted injury nor one that the person chose to accept against them. The Asevla have a massive cultural taboo against self-modification using Life Dominion by altering their bodies in any way different than the perfection the Creator intended for them. Thus, while they are free to modify other organisms, they may not modify themselves. The nature of what exactly constitutes self-modification is hotly-debated.

### Energy Dominion

Energy Dominion controls heat, light, and electricity. It sees frequent use in combat, being the most easily applied to destruction. It is also used to provide heating and cooling where needed as well as illumination. Starship fins usually incorporate energy repeaters to help smooth the expulsion of heat.

### Force Dominion

The force dominion covers motion; both causing it and stopping it. The most common use of this is levitation, changing the way an object moves. But force can also create sonic waves or protective barriers as well as gravity fields. And force magic is also responsible for opening doorways to warp.

Though the force dominion can create sound, the sounds made by the magic never count as true words able to command reality.

Upon contacting humanity, the Asevla learned of humans' concept of spacetime and were able to integrate that with some of their own theories. They are now researching the use of force dominion to interact with time through things like seeing the future or speeding the flow of time in a particular area.

### Mind Dominion

Mind Dominion is the oddest branch of dominion, and in some categorizations isn't counted as a dominion but something else entirely. Mind dominion deals with altering a person's thoughts and sensations. It can be used as a form of telepathy to communicate sensations and ideas, but it can also be used to alter a person's perceptions with illusions as well as place ideas in a person's head that, if applied subtly enough, they might mistake for their own. Someone powerful enough could use mind dominion to overwhelm another's will and control their body for a time, but the person being bound will always be able to break free eventually.

Mind dominion is the only one which requires no words of command to use. Instead, only thoughts are needed to cast a spell. This means that the only way to detect if someone is casting mind magic is to be reading their mind when they do it.

Mind dominion has found a new use in the Asevla's neural network that allows the coordination of minds from around the universe.

### High Dominion

High dominion is considered the noblest of all dominions, and it allows the user to govern the use of other dominions, altering the way they function. Someone with high dominion can counter the use of any dominion. They can also empower any use of any dominion or blend several uses into a single effect.

## Rules of Dominion

When casting dominion, the caster must shout the words of command. Though visualization and understanding of the effect is crucial, the volume at which the words are spoken also matters. The words command the spirit in the area to obey the caster's directive. The louder the shout, the larger the amount of spirit in the area that can be commanded. Gestures are not, strictly speaking, necessary to the casting of a spell any more than they are to carrying on a conversation. But not using gestures can hamper concentration in casting in the same way that not using them can make conversation taxing.

The use of dominion requires energy that comes from a person's spirit. Draining your soul makes you feel more depressed, fearful, and emotionally numb. High amount of spirit allows you to feel happy, horny, If there is local spirit available in the area, a caster can draw upon that to enhance their spells. Places can have a "personality," which determines what sorts of uses the spirit in that area will assist with magic. If a spell is cast that is in agreement with the area's personality, then the local spirit will be added to the spell, enhancing it.

When someone casts as spell at you, you get a sense of the intent behind that spell. It's subtle, and you might almost write it off to an odd feeling if you're not used to it. But this allows you to resist magic if you desire. Higher spirit allows for this.

Biotech and planets can have spirit, an even certain moons and mechtech ships have detectable amounts of spirit. Biotech manufactured on a planet will pick up a bit of that planet's spirit, and this makes certain planets better at manufacturing certain objects.

### Where Does Spirit Come From?

Every person has their own pool of spirit that they can draw from, and activities that bring joy or relaxation replenish the spirit. But locations and biotech can have spirit too, and few would say that a planet has a mind or feelings. There is much debate among the asevla about what spirit is, where it comes from, and how to increase or change the spirit in a place, but there are some facts that are agreed on.

* The more matter in an area, the more spirit it has. Space is practically devoid of spirit, asteroids have barely detectable traces of it, and all planets have it in good amounts.
* The more life in an area, the more spirit it has. Given two planets of equivalent mass, a life filled one will easily have 10 times as much spirit.
* The more natural the life is, the more spirit it generates. This can fluctuate wildly by life form, and is impossible to measure with anything approaching accuracy, but
* People bring even more spirit to an area than any other form of life. Their moods, choices, and actions can slowly shift the personality of the spirit in the area.
* The older an organism is, the more spirit it has. Older biotech devices can get strong local pools of spirit. Ancient biotech ships are powerhouses, able to rival mechtech ships in terms of the pool of energy they're able to draw upon.
* The Asevla homeworld has the most spirit of any planet yet discovered, by an order of magnitude.