Introduction. Ownership

Author's note: This is an introductory chapter about ownership, the power that replaced magic in the Fates of Meriel series. At your discretion, you can skip reading this section and return to it at any time. Explanations are found in the narrative.

To start our journey, we need to know something. After all, this is a power that no longer exists in Meriel, and the knowledge of its use, like many names, is now lost. The word 'magic' was not used, because the true name of the power is ownership; and the one who embodies it is called the owner.

Meriel was different before, full of power and grandeur. And perhaps ownership will awaken in you, my friend.

About ownership in Oira

The energy of the spiritual world slumbers: in a pebble, in a blade of grass, in a mountain range, in a dense forest, in a drop of rain, and the endless ocean.

The owners can become a beacon for this force, directing it into the world of matter and thus influencing reality.

Ancient legends tell us about flying, about moving for miles in the blink of an eye, about turning into dragons, about illusions and haze, about rising from the dead, and even that time can be turned back or accelerated.

But these are just fairy tales; they reflect the desire of storytellers and bards to impress listeners or readers and embellish their narrative, giving flight to ours and their imaginations.

Ownership has certain limitations; the force is not as powerful as we would all like it to be. But that does not make it any easier regarding development. It may seem much easier at the very beginning of training, but it is not. It takes a lot of time and hard training of your body and spirit to master this gift and discover it.

The ownership classification

Calidia is the ownership of temperatures: high and low. The owner is a Calidite.

Shidia is the ownership of water and wind. The owner is a Shidite.

Terrestry is the ownership of ground and rocks. The owner is a Terrester.

Ferrax is the ownership of metals, the subtype of Terrestry. The owner is a Ferrodite.

Arba is the ownership of plants, the subtype of Terrestry. The owner is an Arbor.

Conxury is anti-ownership. There are names: neutralization or absorption. The owner is a Conxur.

Vakkari is the ownership of effects on animals. The owner is a Vakkar.

Escura is the ownership of darkness. The owner is an Escuride.

Luxis is the ownership of light and healing. The owner is a Luxor.

Podrema is the ownership of the body change, which is considered a type of Escura. The owner is a Podrem.

One type of ownership is more common than others, some of which are unique. Therefore, there are common and rare types of force.

Classification of common types:

A Calidite (Calidites) is the owner of temperatures. They can change the temperature of their bodies and their surroundings by summoning cold or heat. A common form of power is to set everything around you on fire or plunge it into the shackles of ice.

Among humans and elves, there are two specializations, but everything depends on the nature and personality of the owner, and nudars only have cold skills.

As a rule, the owner can either raise the temperature or lower it. Exceptions, where the calidite can do both things, are infrequent. Such owners are called combinators.

This type of ownership is used for battles, but there are also many uses for it in peacetime. Sophisticated calidites can control the temperature of the air so that the climate of the harsh regions becomes milder for growing crops and easier to live in, but it does not turn into a hot desert with scorched earth.

A Shidite (Shidites) is the owner who controls water and wind. They calm bad weather, call for rain, and thunderstorms. Shidites can also help navigators.

Ownership has two uses: in naval battles and navigation, for a call out of storms or wind and water monitoring, as well as for crop growth. It is equally common among all races.

A Terrester (Terresters) owns the earth and can cause rocks to shake, shatter, and explode, as well as create gemstone crystals.

It is used both for battle and for mining, stone processing, and jewelry making. It is quite common, especially among humans. Terrestry is less common among nudars and even less common among elves.

A Ferrodite (Ferrodites) is the owner of metals. This ownership is the subtype of Terrestry.

It is rarer than the above-mentioned forces and is most common among nudars, but other races also own it.

It is used for mining and processing ore, creating products and weapons from metals.

An Arbor (Arbors) is the owner of plants, which allows them to grow at an incredible speed. It is also the subtype of Terrestry. It is widely distributed among the elves who made Meriel so green and fertile, but less often among other races.

Classification of rare types:

A Conxur (Conxurs) is the absorber of ownership that can neutralize the effects of already used power in a short time after use, or prevent it from being used at all. A rare ability, previously found in many races, now awakens only in humms.

Usually, but not always, conxurs do not own another ownership; they are called pure conxurs, or the combination of absorbers is very weak. Their mission is to protect kings and the peace.

Conxurs from different parts of the world are united in the Order of the Shield.

A Vakkar (Vakkars) is the owner who can control the minds of animals and redrins. The vakkar can both calm beasts or redrins and enrage them.

Vakkari will affect complex creatures with developed brains; worms, snails, insects, and fish will not be affected by it.

This power is very ancient, belonging to the primordial beastmen. Given the exile of the redrins after the victory of Elfinate and the difficult relationship with them, there is very little historical or reliable data about Vakkari.

Other races, even if they owned this power in rare cases, could only understand the language and thoughts of the beasts, but they could not influence their behavior with the power of ownership. More often, there were false Vakkars, who gave out skillful training of animals as Vakkari for their selfish purposes.

An Escuride (Escurides) is the owner of darkness. Escura awakens the darkest aspects of any being, obscuring thoughts, causing pain and suffering in both soul and body, and possessing destructive power over both animate and inanimate beings.

It is a rare and dangerous form of ownership. If other owners draw power from the earth, air, water, trees, and everything else in the surrounding area while their bodies are just a guide, escurides use the life force of their bodies, which is mercilessly destroyed. Owners of darkness are jealous of other specializations because their abilities are not a gift, but a curse.

The force is unusable and prohibited from use, and if you try to harness it, the escuride will die during training. History knows of only one adept that enhanced his Escura by absorbing the lives of other living beings. However, the power was also consuming his own body, albeit at a slightly slower rate.

The owner can be any of the races, including the jarhis, the most mysterious inhabitants of Meriel.

A Luxor (Luxors) is the owner of healing light. The nature of Escura is inversely proportional to ownership of the light: the more and more frequently the luxor uses his power, the stronger he becomes, and his body and life are strengthened.

Power gives hope, heals illnesses and wounds, but it is not able to resurrect the dead. A rare species, but much more common than Conxury or Vakkari. Elfinate claims that only pure-blooded elves show light power.

A Combinator (Combinators): the owner can combine several types of force, usually two. Most often, there are calidites combinators, equally capable of both lowering and raising temperatures.

In childhood, a combination in its infancy is present in most owners, but the dominant force replaces the weaker one. The history of Meriel does not record cases of equivalent use of more than two specializations, except in fairy tales and legends.

A Podrem (Podrems) is the owner, which causes overgrowth and mutation of the body's parts and tissues. Inept use of power can frequently lead to uncontrolled growth, decomposition, and rot. Jarhis can be used to create on-body growths and symmetrical formations that determine the podrem's skill and noble lineage of the Podrema's owner. If Podrema is used on other creatures and races, it can cause incredible changes or death.

This is rare ownership, even among jarhis, as only they are capable of this type of power. The jarhis are an ancient eastern race who have no kinship or cultural values with any of the inhabitants of Meriel. Little was known about them then, much less now.

They must have come to Meriel from the Other Side of Oira long before the redrins and elves.

Those who happened to visit their country said that they live in winding caves and breed huge beetles instead of cattle, having increased them with their podrems. They also worship a creature named Yubhmaa.

According to legend, Yubhmaa was once the queen of jarhis. She used her power to protect her nation from a swarm of krenis, giant insects that were ruining her kingdom. Yubhmaa grew taller than the mountains and unleashed her power on the creatures, but she could not return to her former body, becoming an ugly creature hidden in the bowels of the earth.

Holluna is a part of Meriel, separated by impenetrable mountains. The jarhi state has always remained neutral, although it has participated in the lives of its neighbors on difficult days.

Other races feared them and preferred to stay away. Podrema is considered the subtype of Escura because of its ambivalent and intimidating nature, but it is separated into another rare category.

An elvin (elvins) are half-breeds born from the union of an elf and a humm or an elf and a nudar. There was no evidence of other races' connections with the elves in Meriel. It meant that such children did not own any skills if they were the fruits of the love of an elf and a human. Or their skills are weak if they are born of an elf and a nudar.

If a child's lack of power did not affect the position and attitude of others in Gladia, such a child in Elfinate was fated to be a servant or farmhand. So elvins most often lived in Gladia, where the lack of the owner was perceived much more mildly, and there was an opportunity to rise to a high position.

Elfinate did not impose any restrictions on mixed marriages or the birth of such children. After all, the more owners, the less valuable this phenomenon is.

The existence of the elvin caste, dependent on the owners of other levels of the hierarchy of elven society, has become a fundamental principle for preserving the Elfinate system.

Initially, marriages between elves and humans were a message of strengthening relations between the two states.

There were also the elvin owners, in whose kind all three races were mixed, but they could not prove themselves to be outstanding in ownership. Some of these elvins owned Escura, the ownership of darkness; this could not improve their situation by making them even more outcasts.

A humdar (humdars) is a half-breed born from the union of a human and a nudar. However, such children were not deprived of ownership.