You definitely do not need to know everything on this page in order to be able to follow the story. lol. This page is simply here to serve as a comprehensive reference for anyone who is interested.
As mentioned on the About page, HFV is "low fantasy", and has its own magic system based around five different magical blood types. All humans have one of these five blood types, and all humans are capable of using magic, should they attempt to learn it. It is possible to become quite powerful this way, but in modern times, this level of dedication to the craft is very rarely seen outside of those who consider themselves magic enthusiasts.
Development of society, technology, etc. has presumably remained almost exactly the same as it is in our real world. Magic only comes from within living beings, so it is unable to be used as an even remotely reliable power source for anything at all; when something dies, the magical energy within it very quickly dissipates.
There are a total of five named blood types within the universe of HFV, in place of the letter-named blood types we know of in our real world: Hepar, Zesti, Azote, Krait, and Theriac. With the exceptions of the Krait and Theriac blood types, the differences among them are typically not very significant. Everyone is able to use magic if they so choose, because the energy that powers everyone’s body is a special magical energy referred to as simply "life force".
The Krait and Theriac blood types are special because they each contain a secondary type of magical energy, in addition to the same life force that everyone else has. For Krait blood people, it is dark magic, and for Theriac blood people, it is Aether (light) magic. I’ll explain those things more in their relevant sections.
About 3/4ths of the population has the Hepar, Zesti, or Azote blood types. Hepar is most common, followed by Zesti and then Azote, but they are still generally just about as common as each other. The other 1/4th or so has the Krait blood type. What about the Theriac blood type? It’s actually an extremely rare mutation of the Hepar blood type, occuring in only about 1 out of every 500,000 people. Adair is the only character with the Theriac blood type that will ever be shown in the story.
The blood type that all other types are believed to have originated from. People with this type tend to have the strongest life force magic, leading to them having higher tolerances of pain, stress, and extreme temperatures. Chronic health conditions are much less commonly occurring among people with this type, compared to the other types.
The most "energetic" blood type. People with this type have warmer internal body temperatures (averaging around 40°C/104°F instead of 37°C/99°F) and ~5-10% faster average heart rates than people with other blood types. People with this blood type are prone to anxiety and sleep disorders; however, they have naturally higher stamina, and tend to build muscle more quickly than those with other types.
The most magically adept blood type. People with this type have cooler internal body temperatures (averaging around 34°C/93°F instead of 37°C/99°F) and ~7-12% slower average heart rates than people with other blood types. This type has a slightly thicker consistency, allowing it to retain and sense magical energy more easily; it will also clot extremely quickly over external wounds. However, the slower blood flow resulting from this type's unique composition results in people with this type being vulnerable to infectious illnesses.
The blood type infused with a sinister power. People with this blood type have some of their life force made up of dark magic, which results in their blood having completely unique properties. This is the only blood type able to wield dark magic; however, they are also completely unable to wield any other type of magic besides it. Having to function partially off of dark magical energy causes people with this type to often feel fatigued, short of breath, or even dizzy at times (the severity of these symptoms may vary between people.) It is widely known that these symptoms can often be alleviated by frequent physical activity, so it is not uncommon for people with this type to be very athletic.
(Also, just to be clear, Krait blood people are not pre-disposed to "being evil", or anything like that. It's just a blood type like all the others, and has no inherent effect on who a person will become in life.)
The "holy" blood type of "absolute purity" (supposedly). This special mutation of the Hepar blood type is partially infused with an enhanced form of life force magic: a mysteriously powerful and conductive magic known as Aether, rumored to be a gift from the heavens. Aether itself has restorative properties, and can be wielded in the form of an unearthly prismatic substance. While all blood types are believed to have technically originated as mutations of the Hepar blood type, just like the Theriac blood type, it is currently completely unknown whether or not a "Theriac gene" even exists at all; currently, the occurence of Theriac blood in a child seems to be entirely unpredictable.
People with Theriac blood all seem to possess a prominent sixth sense that only strengthens as they age, being able to accurately perceive things about others and the world to a degree far beyond current understanding. While not all Theriac blood people may be able to perceive the same things as each other (or to the degree that each other can,) they are most commonly able to perceive things related to magic and the subconscious mind. Being able to immediately sense others' blood types and magical capabilities seems to be an innate ability of all Theriac blood people, including very young children. A few examples of some other potential abilities of perception may include things such as being able to sense the exact number of people within a crowded room, knowing the exact ages of others (including a person’s exact date and time of birth), or even the ability to recall others' recent dreams, albeit vaguely. With nowhere else to turn to for a potential explanation for this phenomenon, it is theorized to be caused by the presence of the powerful Aether magic in the blood of the brain.
"absolute purity"......"sinister power".........sounds a little. erm. Faschy.....?Does it not? Well. It sure does. However this is not a story about blood magic racism race wars Dear god i do not want to write about that so Dont worry about it guys ^_^ because.really the "holiness" aspect of Theriac blood only exists for epic religious trauma metaphor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Also as for the "dark magic sinister" part thats tbh only for the cool edgy factor really and nothing else. Ok moving on
Everyone constantly emits their own aura of magic. With conscious effort, this aura can be masked, but this is EXTREMELY taxing and usually not worth doing at all. The stronger your magical capability, the more powerful your aura will be, and the more sensitive you will generally be to the presence of other peoples' auras. Some people, however, are more (or less) sensitive to auras than average. Theriac blood people are incredibly sensitive to all things magical, and Azote blood people tend to be a little more sensitive than most as well (but still almost never coming anywhere close to the degree of the average Theriac blood person.)
Krait blood people have the weakest auras out of everyone. While Krait blood people do still have some of the same life force magic as everyone else does, which is what inherently emits an aura, dark magic does not emit any kind of aura unless it is "active" (being used and/or affecting another person in some way). This also makes them the least sensitive to other peoples' auras. Krait blood people are, instead, highly sensitive to the presence of active dark magic, immediately able to tell when someone within a certain distance is using or affected by it.
Theriac blood people all have incredibly powerful auras, even those who have never spent a day in their life practicing magic, and especially those who do so regularly. Theriac blood people are almost nauseatingly sensitive to each other, and can detect each others' presence from remarkably far away. Frequently, whenever someone touches any given Theriac blood person for the first time, they will have some sort of brief involuntary response (usually something like a sneeze or a chill down one's spine). This is because, in addition to the inherent power of Aether magic being generally overwhelming, this touch creates an unconscious link between the Theriac blood person and the person who just touched them. Some Theriac blood "sixth sense" abilities are only able to sense information from people with whom this link has already been pre-established.
The collective subconscious holds a whole lot of power in the HFV universe; particularly when it comes to dreams.
While everyone can have "normal" dreams like you'd expect (being able to take place in any random settings), everyone also has their very own mental playground of sorts that is representative of their psyche. These mental worlds are called dreamscapes. The sizes, complexity, properties, etc. of dreamscapes can vary wildly from person to person. Dreamscapes will naturally reshape themselves in different ways as the people they belong to grow and change.
How a person is represented in their own dreamscape will usually just be a direct reflection of how they currently appear in real life. However, people who have more significant attachments to the thematics of their dreamscapes (e.g. Kiva with her fairy princess kingdom dreamscape) may have differences in their appearance that match the thematic. These thematic changes in appearance will often also affect anyone else who enters that person's dreamscape while they are there.
For systems, whichever alters in a system are or are not tangibly present/aware of time spent within the system's dreamscape may depend on the relative strength of their presence within the system as a whole. Alters' appearances will reflect their own perceptions of themselves. Additionally, if the system becomes the "guest" in a shared dream, then all alters present in the dreamscape will enter the "host's" dreamscape together.
Sharing dreams is rare for individual people, but it is a common experience among the populus as a whole. The specifics of how, why, and when they occur are largely unknown, but they seem to only happen between individuals who have a strong enough relationship to both be willing to allow each other into their respective minds.
One person will be the "host", meaning that the shared dream takes place in their dreamscape, and the other person will be the "guest" within the host's dreamscape. If the host wakes up, the dream immediately ends; but, if the guest wakes up, the host may still remain asleep afterwards. Both the host and the guest will be fully lucid the entire time, and both will be able to remember things about the dream with a level of clarity similar to if it had been an in-person interaction. Because of this lucidity, both parties will always know without a shadow of a doubt that the dream was shared upon waking up. Shared dreams rarely last beyond 5 to 10 minutes maximum, even if both parties remain asleep the entire time.
Of course, people can still have dreams containing representations of each other that are not shared with the actual people they reflect. However, while mysterious things may happen sometimes, it seems that, regardless, it can be safely assumed that these alternative representations of other people are not the actual people themselves, at least not in any capacity of independent consciousness.
Humans of all blood types except Krait are able to train themselves to channel their life force magic into manipulating certain elements, as well as forms of energy. Each person may resonate more or less strongly with certain types of magic based on their personality, making those types of magic easier for them to learn. Although, everyone has the potential to learn any types of their choosing (except for Aether, which only Theriac blood people have access to.) Generally, people only hold the potential to achieve mastery in the usage of up to two types of magic at once (maybe even three, if they’re REALLY determined.) Thusly, when learning to use magic, people tend to only pick one or two types of magic to focus on. If a person knows multiple types of magic, they are able to use them all at once. This can lead to the creation of interesting new techniques.
Due to the presence of magical energy within all living beings, humans are unable to use their magic to manipulate each other's internal bodily functions, vital or otherwise. Their inherent magical energy protects them from this. (Because, otherwise, that would be too OP for the story's universe. Lol)
Since Krait blood people have more dark magic in their blood than life force magic, they are unable to learn to use magic related to elements or energy forms. Instead, Krait blood people all spontaneously develop 2 "Krait Powers" between the ages of 11 to 16. Any other magical techniques they may learn must be able to be performed using only dark magic. Unlike non-Krait blood people, they can only use one Krait Power or other technique at a time, and they do not get to choose what their powers do.
The most basic form of magic. Relates to manipulating the elements already present around one's self.
While energy is technically also considered to be an element, it has several subcategories within its classification. Energy magic involves forceful conversion of potential energy into a new, specific form of energy.
Aether magic can be used to accelerate the natural healing processes of living things, and is commonly regarded as having a calming effect. Similarly to the "Dark Arts" that can be performed using dark magic, Aether magic can be used to perform special "Light Arts" as well. Not much else is known about Aether magic, however. It is believed to be an enhanced, "ultimate" form of life force magic, but even this is still very commonly debated.
In its wielded form, Aether magic is an amorphous, prismatic substance. Its malleability (how stretchy or stiff it is) is decided by the person manifesting it. It is able to act as a conductor to other forms of magic, reaching its full potential when used alongside them. That being said, it is also able to be attached to part of a person's body as a sort of protective shell. It is able to "cling" to a person’s body, by means of the inherent magic within it; think of it like how static electricity works.
This conductive property of Aether also applies to it being able to conduct dark magic. Unfortunately, this means that Krait powers are especially effective on Theriac blood people; however, thankfully, Aether also has the ability to "neutralize" any dark magic that enters the body, so the effects will also not last as long.
Dark magic is technically fully manmade; it is a manifestation of negative energy from the collective unconscious. Only Krait blood people have access to dark magic, and it is the only type of magic they have access to at all. The dark magic that exists within Krait blood is harmless to everyone except for the one whose' blood it flows within. However, dark magic can easily be weaponized. The only limitations to the power of dark magic are the physical and psychological limitations of the person using it.
Oh...you're wondering what I mean by "physical and psychological limitations", are you? Well, in order to use dark magic on another person, one first must create more of it. To do this, the pre-existing dark magic within a Krait person's blood must have something to consume as a power source. Negative emotions, such as pain, anger, and sadness, are the fuel it seeks to consume. With enough practice, one can learn to control their emotions enough to where they can provide enough of these emotions on command to use their magic properly. However, if you are unable to provide this emotional "fuel" to the appropriate degree for the amount of power you're attempting to channel...then the magic will begin to force them out of you on its own.
Specifically, it will cause you PAIN. It will start to rip the skin apart in places around where you're attempting to channel and create dark magic (so, usually, the hands), until it has produced the appropriate amount of emotional "fuel" required to finish the job. Therefore, those limitations are your pain tolerance, and how much your body will tolerate of being wounded in this way before instinctually "shutting off" the flow of your magic to protect you from, uhh...coming too close to risking literally killing yourself.
Every Krait blood person will have innate access to two different powers that can cause a variety of different hallucinatory effects when used. They are also able to learn "Dark Arts", techniques that push dark magic beyond its ordinary limits.
A person's Krait powers will both develop naturally somewhere between the ages of 11 to 16. At the moment that they develop a power, they will experience the power's effect themself for around 3 to 6 minutes. Afterwards, they will be able to use it.
There is a widely accepted theory (based on confirmation bias) of how Krait Powers develop, which refers to the first and second powers to develop in a Krait blood person as the "Trauma" and "Morphe" powers, respectively. According to this theory, the first power a person develops ("Trauma") will have some effect related to a previous or ongoing traumatic experience, and the second power they develop ("Morphe") will have some effect related to a twisted aspect of their own personality.
To use a Krait Power, one must be touching their target, so that they can channel small amounts of dark magic into the body of the target. The potency and duration of a power's effect will depend on how long the user was able to channel for. Dark Arts usually do not require the user to touch the target in order to work, with a few exceptions.
The types of hallucinations these powers can cause upon a target are sorted into six categories: Impairment, Infection, Overload, Distortion, Paranoia, and Override.
When a Krait power is used to target a Krait blood person, its effects will be diminished. However, when a Krait power is used to target a Theriac blood person, its effect will be intensified, but also last for a significantly shorter period of time due to Aether's power to "neutralize" dark magic. Aether acts as a conductor to other forms of magic, and dark magic is no exception to this.
Every power is only causing a temporary hallucination. Krait powers do not actually alter the target's physical or mental state in any other way.
An individual can only be affected by one Krait power at a time. It is impossible for someone to be the target of multiple powers at once, whether they be coming from the same person or different people.
Excluding the initial development period of a power, a Krait blood person cannot use their own powers on themself. Dark magic is able to be channeled to the target through almost any part of the body, so if the target were to be one's own self, the effects would be extremely intense; and, since Krait powers cause the target to fully believe that they are experiencing the power's specified effect, it would become nearly impossible for the effects of said self-inflicted power to be able to dissipate. Therefore, the instinctual mind does not allow it, similarly to how you can't "un-think" your heart from beating, or something like that.
Similarly, Krait powers cannot directly suppress functions of the brain stem. Breathing, consciousness, blood pressure, heart rate, the maintaining of homeostasis during sleep...if it's a vital function for life, a Krait Power cannot restrict it. This rule's more of a fourth-wall breaking one, actually. I put this here to say that it is literally just impossible for anyone to develop Krait Powers that are this powerful.