Animancy

The casting art of Animancy involves the study and application of essence to observe, or manipulate memories left by meta-physical sources. One of the more complex, and potentially dangerous casting arts, Animancy is only openly taught to Seekers, even then, there are subjects which may only be used under extreme circumstances due to their potentially unethical nature.

It should be noted that some Animancy techniques can only apply to entities with a soul vessel.

### **Animancy Techniques**

* **Trace:** view the originator of a source of essence.
* **Imprint:** contain a memory into a receptive inanimate vessel.
* **Probe:** locate and view a specific memory. (Vessel only)
* **Sever:** block access to a memory. (Vessel only)
* **Unify:** regain access to a blocked memory. (Vessel only)
* **Transplant:** place a memory from one vessel to another. (Vessel only)
* **Stage:** replicate a specific memory.
* **Alter:** change aspects of a memory. (Vessel only)

## **Casting Practices**

Due to the unpredictability and complexity of memories, the most effective essence source to use in Animancy is life essence, as it reduces the risk of being emotionally overwhelmed. Depending on the technique being applied, Animancy can use a large number of casting flow techniques, however **penetration** is used across a majority of said techniques as most require interactions on, or within a vessel.

The nature of memories as Animancy describes, is that essence absorbs the actions done by, or to, its container which can be read as sensory information, whereas soul vessels alter their meta-physical texture to contain thoughts and feelings related to said actions.

While all Animancy techniques require some degree concentration to perform, techniques which work with soul vessels, require more intense concentration due to their complexity, and to also ensure the safety of the vessel, as soul fracturing, or even soul shattering is possible if a technique is performed incorrectly. Due to this, most Animancy is typically practiced while sitting, or lying down.

Similar to Resomancy, all Animancy techniques by default, are only visible to the caster, however the information gathered by the caster can be projected and replicated to a local area for a higher cost of essence, and requires deeper concentration to maintain, both of which also scales in intensity based on the size of the visual projection.

## **Trivia**

* The art of Animancy goes back to before recorded history, used primarily by chroniclers to pass on detailed accounts of history to their apprentices, however due to Irog a large amount of this history was lost.
* Within soul vessels, the most recent memories are stored in the outer most layer of the vessel, making them the easiest memories to access.
* Natural memories can never be completely removed from a vessel, rather they are only severed from being recalled consciously, however transplanted memories can be removed safely.
* Trained Animancers can identify transplanted memories as each soul vessel has their own texturing patterns, similarly they can also identify any alterations to natural memories.
* When transplanting a memory, there is a risk that the receiving vessel may reject it, causing a soul fracture around the transplanted memory.
* While it is possible for a caster to apply Animancy techniques to themselves, certain techniques are considered too dangerous to self-operate with; mainly sever, recover, and alter Animancy.