Second, there is some stuff I had thought about adding to my website, but since I don't have my own website anymore, I'll post it here. I had submitted my book to one reviewer who said I had an unclear magic system. I would like to explain the magic system here, starting with this handy venn diagram chart.
So we have a total of five categories of special powered individuals; robots, cyborgs, espers, bioroids, and shinto. Strictly speaking, only shinto and espers have any actual use of magic or anything even resembling magic.
- Robots - humanoid machines that are designed for warfare and are typically more efficient by design, their primary advantage is that they are made of metal which is more durable, and they may also have special modifications that can make a type of robot more effective for particular tasks. The downside is that they follow programming and except for Seichei exhibit no free will which makes them effective servants but erratic without a master.
- Cyborgs - humans who have had machine parts added to them giving them certain mehanical advantages like robots, but still have free will as well as other possible biological advantages. Only four are in this story, Baz, Aka, Hidariude and a surprise at the end of the story.
- Bioroids - genetically engineered humans, they have a variety of advantages over humans but all are derived from existing biological examples, so while their abilities exceed human limits, they are not exceeding the limits of biology, physics, or any other science.
- Shinto - Japanese spirituality, blessed followers have access to certain powers that involve spirits, inhabitants of a parallel universe that does not strictly adhere to the laws of science in our dimension. However, while spirits are unrestricted in their own world, to exist in our world they do have to follow certain rules or else our world rejects them and expels them to their world.
- Espers - bioroids and cyborgs that have access to shinto powers that allow them use of psychic abilities that exceed normal abilities. Only five characters in the story have reached this level of power, Hidariude, Keisei, Kichiku, Douji, and Hime, although Hime's powers are limited because she is not a true esper.
Psychic powers are technically not magic, they are abilities that are possible due to neural resonance. Resonance is a natural phenomenon in which materials will vibrate at a particular frequency, triggered by proximity to vibrations of another object. Since such vibrations are due to waves, and the human brain emits measurable brain waves, this means that it is hypothetically possible for brain waves to resonate with other waves and allow for brain activity that extends beyond the brain. There are four specific abilities that come from this.
- Psychokinesis - this is the broader umbrella category for three more specific abilities, pyrokinesis, geokinesis, and electrokinesis, and usually an esper can only use one. The reason for this limitation is that using these abilities is already a strain beyond normal human abilities, even an esper's enhanced mind simply cannot stretch far enough to use more than one without breaking the esper's mind.
- Pyrokinesis - brain waves resonate with heat energy, since fire is simply heat energy released from rapid exothermic oxidation or combustion, this allows an esper to manipulate the energy to control fire, including its direction, as well as igniting flammable materials by focusing heat energy in one spot or delaying a fire by holding back the energy. Pyrokinesis is limited by the fact that fire can't be created without fuel, so a combustible item is required, without a ready supply of natural fire, this ability generally doesn't work.
- Geokinesis - brain waves resonate with seismic waves, the energy measured during earthquakes, this allows an esper to manipulate the earth to cause tremors and move stone. This ability involves a lot of heavy lifting, and like lifting with the body, lifting with mind causes strain. While the ability to move earth with the mind tends to be greater than the ability to move physically, it still has limits by the amount that can be moved and how far, for example, moving a small stone is much easier than moving a boulder, and moving a boulder is easier than cracking the ground open, and trying to make movements beyond what the esper sees is all but impossible for the esper to retain control of.
- Electrokinesis- uniquely, Hidariude exhibits this power somatically instead of through his brain, although Douji and Hime could exhibit electrokinesis by synchronising their brain waves with the electromagnetic spectrum. Hidariude has an electrogenic organ in his arm that normally allows him to produce enough electricity to operate his cybernetic arm, but with trainign he can double or even triple his output in short bursts, and even direct the field as long as it remains in physical contact with him, his retractable blades, or his sword. However, once he releases the electricty, his control diminishes with distance and overuse strains his body so that he can be faigued if he attempts to increase his output beyond triple or use it multiple times in succession and this fatigue leads to him not being able to even produe enough electricity to use his cybernetic arm.
- Telepathy - neural resonance between espers, allowing them to share thoughts by synchronising their brain waves. This ability is limited to espers and they can only use it with each other, like many forms of communication, it requires both a transmitter and a reciever, meaning an esper can project thoughts only to another esper that can read the thought projections. They cannot read the minds of non-espers nor can they project their thoughts upon a non-esper.
- Precognition - The ability to predict events, limited to a few seconds at best, this ability is really only useful to evade and counter attacks. It is triggered by adrenaline and involves synchronising with an opponent who has simple thoughts from their lower brain regarding movements, and also suffers the restriction that the body must be able to keep up with the rate of perception, if for any reason the esper's reaction is slower than the opponent, the ability will prove ineffective.
- Transdimensional transcendance - the one ability useable by non-espers, though with extreme rarity, this alows an esper to interact with a parallel universe across a dimensional divide. excpet for a rare few nexus points where the dimensional divide is thin and the two universes overlap, the other universe is completely inaccessible to beings of this universe, but the spirits that inhabit it can exist interdimensionally, but have their own limitations that prevent most humans from being aware of their presence.
Transdimensional Powers
There is a dimension that is beyond mortal comprehension that seperates the world we know from a paralell universe where our laws of science do not apply. Simply put, the inhabitants of this other world are spirits and they are capable of magic. However, while spirits are fully aware of our world, they cannot interact with it directly without a compatible vessel in this world, either an inanimate object known as a yoshiro, or a living being known as a yoshiromi. Using these vessels, spirits can enter into our world by using them as physical bodies, a process known as shintai, but their powers are limited once they do. Only three spirits can use their powers fully during shintai, the Golden Dragon Shinryuu, his countepart the Shadow Dragon Kageryuu, and thunderbeast Raiju. Raiju can use electrokinesis and prefers connecting with elctrokinetic espers so their abilities synchronize better. Shinryuu and Kageryuu are able to fully manifest, but strain their vessels in doing so and must either surrender their vessels after a short time to allow for recovery or risk destroying their host completely and be unable to return to this world at all, the amount of time they get depends on how much power they use during shintai. Aside from these exceptions, spirits are limited to being able to animate the inanimate and enhance the abilities the host has already. This means that they cannot impart any ability the host doesn't already have and prefer hosts that have similar abilities already. Aside from the the dragons and Raiju, other spirits include souls of the dead, shikigami, and the yokai demons. Souls of the dead are humans whose minds were able to synchronize with the other dimension so that when they die, they continue to persist in the spirit world. Typically, the souls of the dead attain a status of bodhisattva and reincarnate in the living world after serving their purpose and fulfilling their duties in the spirit world, becoming more powerful with each reincarnation. The yokai demons are powerful beings that serve Akuma, their king who subdued Kageryuu and forced the otherwise omnipotent being to join their ranks. In the spirit world, the yokai are tyrants that claim a territory called Jigoku where they torment human souls and attempt to corrupt them into yokai, and they want to enter our world so that they can torment the living as well as the dead. Finally, the shikigami are the random lesser beings of the spirit world that only come to this world when summoned by those who know how. Shikigami differ from other spirits in that they their lack of power and intelligence comes with the trade-off that they can inhabit any physical object without needing it to be a dedicated yoshiro, but otherwise face the same restrictions.
Magical Objects
Yoshiro - as mentioned before, yoshiro are physical objects that can be inhabited by spirits. The only yoshiro mentioned in this story are the blades of Kyutsume and the Genji gauntlet that collectively form the yoshiro of Raiju, the Masamune Shinryuu that can be a vessel for Shinryuu or the souls of its previous wielders, and the statue of the Golden Dragon, which is supposed to be used for Shinryuu, but never functions as such during the whole story.
Yoshiromi - as mentioned before, yoshiromi are humans that act as vessels for spirits. Technically, this means that the espers are all yoshiromi as well as Seichei as the Tsukomogami and the bioroids as reincarnations of the yokai, but formal use of the term is reserved for Douji and Hime as the intermittent hosts of the dragon spirits, and Hidariude as temporary host of Ryu and Shinryuu. Otherwise, they are reincarnations, the difference being that reincarnations inhabit their vessels for their entire mortal lives.
Shimenawa - a rope decorated with zig-zag paper lightning bolts that protects yoshiro or yoshiromi, in this case allowing for others to control shintai, meaning that it can be used to stop shintai and expel a spirit from its host.
Onifuda - written prayers, which in themselves lack any significant powers, except when a miko (female shrine attendant/priestess) or kunoichi(female ninja) makes one using flashpaper by writing in ink made with sulfuric acid on cotton sheets, then it becomes an explosive that is particularly compatible with pyrokinesis.
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