In the world of Atryna, the gods of Evolution and Magic have both enforced rules that interact with each other. While they do change over time, this takes centuries, as each meeting between the gods is a century from the last.
Put simply, all life requires some amount of mana, and all life produces some amount of mana as well. The size of the life in question determines roughly how much mana it will generate, while the complexity determines how much it requires. Due to this, plants tend to generate far more mana than they require, while animals often require more than they generate, though this is far from always the case.
Mana is also capable of causing sickness and mutation if it exceeds the amount that is safe for a being to contain. The strength of the body determines the amount that can be passively stored, while strength of the mind controls the ability to manipulate it, including the ability to prevent it from reacting even if it is an unsafe level.
Due to the above, mages are able to survive far higher mana than should be possible, for short periods of time, and can store much more mana than their body can safely handle, so long as their mind is functional. However, an untrained mage relies on the conscious mind rather than how trained mages can maintain their focus subconsciously, restricting their ability to hold mana significantly when they need to rest.
When it comes to mutations, mana typically follows one of two paths - that of improving the mind, or that of improving the body. All mutation caused by mana overload is beneficial in some form or another, though it may not be ideal, or even widely beneficial. Additionally, mutations that improve the body also reduce higher intelligence, bringing the beings closer to an instinctual level. Due to this, it is possible, and even common for creatures to become practically mindless beasts due to repeatedly exceeding their safe limits of mana capacity.
Also on the note of mutations, they often are based on the desires of the being at the time of the mutation occurring, and without focus mostly tend towards improvements to the body's survivability. This, however, only occurs with physical mutations. While physical mutations occur suddenly due to significantly exceeding safe capacity, mental mutations instead occur due to consistent slight overload. The combination of these factors means that it is incredibly rare for a non-intelligent being to receive mental improvements, and very common for predators to become more powerful physically, while reducing them towards being limited by instinct.
As an additional note, all life expels some degree of mana, causing ambient mana to be higher anywhere there is life. More simple forms expel a higher percentage, which matches with their lower requirement to act as perpetual mana factories. More complex forms, however, require intake of mana to replenish the smaller percentage they lose.
When it comes to complexity of life, practically all non-mutated life generates more mana than it requires, while each mutation increases the requirements, regardless of if it is physical or mental in nature.
Mana is gained in multiple ways - each being generates its own mana, but also absorbs ambient mana based on the local density, as well as from anything it consumes. Combined with the expelling of mana, this means that in areas rich in life, it is very common for beings to become mutated due to having multiple sources of mana contributing to overload consistently.
Each species also has certain forms of mutation being more common, based on their nature, and likewise, each environment tends to increase the chances of certain mutations as well. As an example, foxes tend to maintain a high level of cunning, develop innate illusion abilities, and have stronger senses with higher dexterity. Meanwhile, bears tend to gain tougher hide, larger size, and assorted foraging and protection benefits. And in the case of plants, many develop novel forms of defense, such as igniting on contact, producing and storing electrical charges, becoming nearly immune to fire, or even extracting and storing buoyant gas so they can float out of reach.
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Mages and Society Votes: 3 27.3%
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Mana and Humanity Votes: 1 9.1%
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Awakened Creatures Votes: 6 54.5%
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Types of Magic Votes: 5 45.5%
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Mutations and Humanity Votes: 3 27.3%
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Future Plans (Spoilers) Votes: 0 0.0%
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Other (Comment below) Votes: 0 0.0%
Imagining that the one talking is one of the three knowledge seekers.
How exactly do the human lands remain devoid of mana if there are large stretches of empty, grass covered fields? The grass should produce an abundance of mana, not to mention how difficult it is to ensure no smaller creatures get in there and mutate, or the grass itself for that matter. One would expect these rules to result in towns and cities actually having lower concentrations of mana than everywhere else, with the grasslands being more mana rich than even the forests, given that they are covered in nothing but mana producing simple plants and nothing to absorb it.
It'd make more sense if they were barren stretches of dirt or had some frequent visitations to drain all the mana, but that doesn't seem likely if bandits can set up shop, because they'd have to be very frequent.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the story. There are several factors that play a role in the lack of mana. Larger life generates more mana, and the grass, though growing quite tall, have lower mass compared to trees in the forest. Trees are a bit more complex forms of life, and require more mana for themselves, but due to their far larger size, they generate significantly more in the same footprint.
In addition, the villages on the outskirts of human territory make frequent patrols around their sections of land to kill off any larger life that gets to the plains. As you mentioned, it is difficult to prevent smaller creatures from slipping by, but that is largely resolved by continually burning the plains. The bandits stay mobile, and have no difficulty clearing areas to avoid being burned during the cleansings. There are firebreaks to avoid burning absolutely everything all at once, but every area gets burned multiple times per year.
As to mutations, simpler life is harder to mutate, to a degree, otherwise everyone would be dead due to insanely deadly bacteria. Since grass is quite simple, it takes a fair amount of time for it to change, and the frequent burnings do not give it enough time. While there are some smaller creatures like burrowing animals and insects, they do not tend to do well long-term due to the continual burning removing the base of the food chain.
Hopefully this has answered your question in a satisfactory manner. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask at any point.
@Vodith I see. So it's more raw biomass attached to a living thing generates mana, than any byproduct of conventional respiration? Otherwise one would expect trees and grass to be roughly similar, given they both take in the same amount of sunlight overall. Trees are also mostly dead matter which shouldn't? generate mana (wood, bark), but crazy magic biology can cover for that.
There are still a lot of creepy possibilities, like patches of grass escaping the burn and becoming heat resistant, or deadly mutant spiders (some are actually quite intelligent, which seems most relevant for complexity).
Over a long enough period of time an ecosystem would probably develop specifically around the burnings, like the australian outback, but that sounds like a future me problem. Let the mages deal with it >.>
Thanks for response. I've been enjoying thus far, though as feedback, I feel too much attention is paid to some menial facts of life, like for example Dawn cooking, feeding niphru, sleeping, etc. That stuff is fine to set the scene and give the reader an idea of what their life and journey is like, but we don't need a step by step recount every time thereafter unless it's plot related.
@Calcium_Initiative it isn't entirely biomass, but a combination of mass and complexity - more complex life requires more mana, but also generates more. So grass uses almost none of the mana it produces, while a tree uses a noticible percentage. This is also why monsters tend to stay in more mana-dense areas, as they often require more mana than they can produce themselves. This tends to be more of an issue in the oceans, which humanity can't exactly clear very easily.
And you are correct about mutant insects/arachnids and grass, but those tend to be rather rare due to the mana density required to form them combined with the continual removal of mana-generating life. Typically, it is more common in towns/cities for there to be mutated insects, rats, etc, and part of the mages' jobs is to occasionally purge them. In the fields within the human territory, there are occasional searches (once per year or two) that follow the fires to verify there is not any large buildup of resistant life, and in the areas with bandits, they often take care of such things without anyone else knowing. Naturally, not all bandits are 'nice' ones however, and this leads many towns to actively hunt them instead of leaving them alone, thus removing the 'free' maintenance which does occasionally lead to issues.
And you are correct about intelligence being highly relevant for the complexity thing, typically creatures that follow physical mutation paths generate more than they consume for a longer period than those who follow mental ones. Mages, almost universally, require more than they produce, though they are also far more adept at intaking mana from the local area, even doing so unconsciously. Due to this, it can seem as if they are less dependent on ambient mana at times.
And interestingly enough, the situation with the complexity and mutations actually leads to occasional intelligent beings far off in the wilds due to reaching a point where they can't over-saturate themselves for physical mutations, and instead start gaining intelligence due to lower saturation. But at this point, they also cannot leave high-density areas without dying from the lack of mana. This won't show up in the story for quite some time, however. This is also how the Awakened creatures came to be -- I wasn't originally intending for it to happen, but the rules of mana and mutation that I put into place meant that it wouldn't make sense for it not to occur, and thus I accidentally recreated familiars. Found that kind of amusing when I realized the side effects of my choices.
And perhaps a good point on the mundane stuff, but personally, I feel it fits, so it is likely just how I think and write. It is somewhat less common later on in the story, I believe. Partially because I've forgotten to mention things and only realized a chapter or two later. >.>
@Vodith That's some cool worldbuilding, though it raises the question of why a naturally born awakened hasn't roamed their way to civilization yet (bar our blessed fox). Surely they would eventually figure out how to intake mana from their surroundings as efficiently as a mage, or plunder the mana/stones of other forest creatures. Then it's just a matter of one getting bored and restless enough to go exploring (first human they'll find is part of that church, lol); guess it just hasn't happened yet or nobody's noticed they're intelligent...
As for the mundane stuff, I'm not saying you should cut it, just that it has to be handled naturally or risks becoming tedious and breaking the flow; nobody in their daily life pays attention to and remembers all the steps of their daily ablutions - washing, cleaning, cooking, etc. Only when it's new or interesting does it stick in your memory as noteworthy. I think that's a decent guide for writing a story, too. Having read a bit further now, an example would be
Dawn settling down to eat/sleep after healing all those people; it's a noteworthy point in her life and a new experience that can set the mood. Not entirely necessary to describe but not detrimental either, because huddling in a bandit tent isn't part of her daily routine.
Just uh, don't start overthinking things >.<
Anyway, thanks for the answers.
@Calcium_Initiative actually, the problem is due to how the mutations work - to gain intelligence, one needs a minor overload, while a major overload reduces intelligence in exchange for improving the body and instincts. Combine this with animals typically eating any time they can, and it is very rare for them to only minorly overload themselves, as they take in mana both from the ambient as well as what they eat. The few that are working their way to intelligence typically end up getting eaten by others. Even the herbivores tend to have difficulty managing a continual minor overload, as the flora is also often heavily mana-saturated beyond the border with the human lands.
Of course, the largest creatures reach a point where they simply can't intake enough mana anymore to maintain major overload, and thus slowly gain intelligence, but by that point, they are too dependent on higher mana areas to survive going near the human territory. There are a few exceptions, but we haven't gotten to them yet.
And thank you very much for both the compliment about the worldbuilding, and for being interested enough to stop and discuss it. It means a lot for me to see people enjoying what I have written.