Occumancy

The casting art of Occumancy is the study and application essence to manipulate soul vessels, or take physical possession of a body. Most famously utilised by the possession class of Devoid, theoretical Occumancy is taught to Apprentices so they are able to identify the techniques, and protect themselves from them. However, due to the ethical concerns of using Occumancy, a majority of techniques are only taught to Spires at tier 3 or higher, even then, practice restricted to self-use, plants, or inanimate objects.

It should be noted that most Occumancy techniques can only be applied to entities with a soul vessel.

### **Occumancy Techniques**

* **Shape:** manipulate the meta-physical shape of a soul vessel. (Vessel only)
* **Fracture:** cause intentional fracturing, or shatter a soul vessel. (Vessel only)
* **Fuse:** accelerate the joining and repair of soul vessel fractures, or shards. (Vessel only)
* **Sever:** remove a soul vessel from its body. (Vessel only)
* **Unify:** return a soul vessel to its body. (Vessel only)
* **Contain:** trap a soul vessel and its essence in a specified location. (Vessel only)
* **Puppet:** manipulate a physical body within its capabilities.
* **Overshadow:** cover one soul vessel with another foreign soul vessel to take possession of a body. (Vessel only)

## **Casting Practices**

When practicing Occumancy the best form of essence for a caster to use is a strong emotion to overpower the casting target, or an emotion the said target is susceptible to in order to cause soul harmonisation, with fear or anger being the most commonly used. The most common casting flow techniques utilised within Occumancy are **penetration**, **separation**, **unification**, and **projection**.

Most Occumancy techniques are temporary, as soul vessels naturally resist being separated from their original body, or being changed artificially, with this resistance only increasing with time and distance from said body.

While separated from a body, a vessel remains conscious, and is able to retain some dulled senses related to the environment they find themselves in, however these senses only extend out a short distance. If a vessel’s body is also conscious, they will also retain dull senses from said body, although this often leads to confusion, and the body is unable do complex actions while separated from its vessel.

It should also be noted that excessive time spent separated from a body can cause temporary motor skill issues, with it’s severity increasing with the time spend separated.

Separated vessels are able to move freely in any direction as they have no physical presence. Although the further a vessel travels from its body the more difficult it becomes, and if left uncontested, a vessel will naturally drift back towards its body. The distance a vessel is capable of traveling from its body, also known as its **tether distance**, can be increased with practice, but it also increases the risk of injury for both the body and vessel.

As a caster is still able to cast from their soul vessel, some have used Physimancy techniques to allow themselves to speak audibly, retain a visual presence, or even a surface level physical presence from their vessel. Similarly, Resomancy techniques can be utilise them to extend their senses past their typically dulled state.

Unify Occumancy is mostly an automatic process, merely requiring the contact between a soul vessel, and its original body. If a vessel’s original body has passed away while it was separated, it is possible for a vessel to attempt to use puppet Occumancy on inanimate object(s) that contain traces of their soul essence to take possession of them until the last of its essence is expended.

## **Trivia**

* Sever and unify Occumancy are the only casting arts that can be done by non-casters; however, it does require them to have had their soul vessel severed by another source before they are able to replicate it on themselves.
* While unconfirmed, it has long been rumoured that members of the Hands of Fate have used sever and unify Occumancy to search for their targets without alerting them.
* In recent years sever and unify Occumancy have become popular within the Spire Academy, as it allows students extra time to study while the body sleeps. As a result of its popularity, study halls now allow students to leave books open on a flagged desk, or place books in automatic page flippers, before the hall is closed for the night.
* It has been observed that separated soul vessels are able to sense runes at a much greater distance and clarity in comparison to the rest of their dulled senses.
* In 34AT it was recorded that identical twins Bry and Ant Hillseed reported that they were able to share one body via Occumancy after a devoid took possession of Bry several years prior.