MANA
Mana literally means “meaning” in Imperial, what is meant by a word, text, concept, or action. It is not a coincidence that some authority users name the energy they use like that. Because for some, it is the meaning of everything, larger than life.
The naming changes when a specially attuned type of energy is preferred for casting authority over reality. Some call it chi or qi especially when the source is internal and some call it essence or aether especially when the source is external. Personally, I even have heard people calling it split.
Call the energy itself as the source, prana, chakra, quintessence, or the way of using it as casting, molding, weaving, projecting… It simply doesn't matter. You can even name it after certain famous authority holders and define it as the energy required to combust a certain mass of acorns. Not that it has not happened before.
The authority holders of this place call it "erke", the ability to do work, the textbook definition of energy. It loosely stands for "the source" in Imperial. The root of the word is, "erk", which literally means the power to do whatever one wants and unsurprisingly, it loosely stands for "the authority" in Imperial.
As interesting as it gets, erke can also mean the validity of one's word, which does not only emphasize the heavily skewed oral traditions of these people but also emphasize the shackles they willingly put on themselves.
The erke -in their delusional minds of natives- is not only an external source that can only be collected from their immediate environment and attuned to the user with time but also the energy they wiled by words of power.
No need to say, this type of thinking not only complicates any type of casting without a verbal component but also hampers their internal source wielders.
The irony of treating internal source holders such as me as inferior individuals aside, the crippling the poor souls inflict upon themselves while trying to obtain what they already have is harrowing.
It is also the main reason that they can't exercise their authority in this dead zone, Tamag as the way they call it.
Being a dead zone, the external source density of Tamag is minuscule compared to any other part of this sphere, Acun. Still, it is significantly higher than the source density of Cihan overall, which puts any traveler that wields an internal source in an extremely advantageous position against the natives, but only if said traveler can survive the initial shock that is.
One must not only adapt to the sudden increase in gravity, air pressure, and magnetic field strength but also the sudden increase in external source density, erke, as fast as possible to stay alive in this sinkhole.
Don't forget the oxygen, it burns. It burns especially the eyes and lungs but it hurts everything from the nose to ears and especially skin where it is thin like eyelids and... Yeah, you get it.
Still, if one makes it out alive, the long-term effects of higher external source density are beyond dispute, especially for internal source wielders.
Putting the short and the long terms effects of erke on people aside, what I am doing here can hardly be described as organizing a rebellion.
Although it was never my intention, it should be considered a revolt that seeks revolution. Maybe even the advent of a new religion.
In my defense, it was already beyond me the moment I came and used my first will construct. I put a predecessor, an idea of possibility amidst the realm of the impossible.
No one knows how it is going to end. But some things are certain because ideas are as contagious as they are dangerous.
You know how it works.
What do you think when someone says don't think about The Dreamblind?
That was the main reason why no traveler was allowed into Tamag in the first place.
Essays
Agâh H. Ates
571 AR + 002 AC
