![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Powers
Some call it powers, others call it magic, but it's all the same in the world of Stay Silent. Those who have been gifted powers in some form or another will be able to continue to use their powers in the game as well, but it will come with some rules and limitations.
Luonto - the source of power
Finnish people in this world have three souls: the Henki, the Itse, and the Luonto. While all three of these souls are needed for life, it's the Luonto that pertains to magic use. Best translated as a person's 'nature', the Luonto is what a person draws on to use their magic. The stronger a person's Luonto is, the stronger their magic will be.
All Luontos are animal-themed, and the powers they grant are normally related to their shape. So for example, a person with a bird form for a Luonto might be able to use their magic to fly or to enhance their eyesight, and someone with a bear-shaped Luonto may be able to call on it to enhance their strength. Additionally, as a Luonto is a person's 'nature', they may exhibit personality quirks that match their animal. You can expect someone with a dog Luonto to be friendly and excitable, and someone with a rabbit Luonto to be quick on their feet and easily startled.
When a person overuses their magic or is injured, their Luonto will leave them for a short time to recover. During this time, the person cannot use their magic, may feel a bit 'out of it', and may sleep more than usual. Think of it like overtaxing your physical strength: if you work out too much, you need to rest! And overworking your Luonto means it needs to rest.
All Luontos are animal-themed, and the powers they grant are normally related to their shape. So for example, a person with a bird form for a Luonto might be able to use their magic to fly or to enhance their eyesight, and someone with a bear-shaped Luonto may be able to call on it to enhance their strength. Additionally, as a Luonto is a person's 'nature', they may exhibit personality quirks that match their animal. You can expect someone with a dog Luonto to be friendly and excitable, and someone with a rabbit Luonto to be quick on their feet and easily startled.
When a person overuses their magic or is injured, their Luonto will leave them for a short time to recover. During this time, the person cannot use their magic, may feel a bit 'out of it', and may sleep more than usual. Think of it like overtaxing your physical strength: if you work out too much, you need to rest! And overworking your Luonto means it needs to rest.
Luontos and Otherworlders
All characters apped in will receive a Luonto upon entering the game. They will be immediately aware that something about them has changed, but it will take some time and power-use for them to figure out what their Luonto is and how it relates to their powers.
All power use will be tied to the Luonto as a form of power capping. Using powers every day will slowly drain a person's energy until the Luonto needs to leave and rest. Additionally, big uses of powers will drive the Luonto out immediately and require a period of rest before powers can be used again. Minor uses of power will put less of a strain on a Luonto than major uses of power will.
Minor power use would be something along the lines of "enhancing eyesight to scout an area for 15 minutes" or "freezing a small bridge of ice so you can cross a river". Major power use would be "burning down a large section of forest" or "pushing your presence outwards to feel for all of the living creatures in a 5-kilometer radius". If you're not sure if something counts as a minor or major use of powers, contact the mods to ask.
As a guideline, roughly ten minor power uses or one major power use a month is a fair amount of use. If your character pushes beyond those numbers, their Luonto would need to rest. We won't be keeping track of this specifically though, so use your best judgement!
All power use will be tied to the Luonto as a form of power capping. Using powers every day will slowly drain a person's energy until the Luonto needs to leave and rest. Additionally, big uses of powers will drive the Luonto out immediately and require a period of rest before powers can be used again. Minor uses of power will put less of a strain on a Luonto than major uses of power will.
Minor power use would be something along the lines of "enhancing eyesight to scout an area for 15 minutes" or "freezing a small bridge of ice so you can cross a river". Major power use would be "burning down a large section of forest" or "pushing your presence outwards to feel for all of the living creatures in a 5-kilometer radius". If you're not sure if something counts as a minor or major use of powers, contact the mods to ask.
As a guideline, roughly ten minor power uses or one major power use a month is a fair amount of use. If your character pushes beyond those numbers, their Luonto would need to rest. We won't be keeping track of this specifically though, so use your best judgement!
Gaining Powers
If your character doesn't have powers in their canon, then don't fret! You have the option of giving them world-specific powers upon entry to the game. Feel free to pick one of the below powers for your character to use.
Additionally, sometimes Otherworlders will lose their powers from home and gain one of the powers listed below. If you would like for your character to lose their canon powers and gain one of the powers below, specify that on your app.
Troll Sense: This is the sort of 'traditional mage' people think of when they hear the word mage. Your character is more in-tune with the presence of trolls and how to deal with them. This makes them particularly adept at dispatching trolls. Minor power uses include sensing the presence of a troll, being able to track a troll over long distances, and guiding the soul of a troll to the afterlife (once the troll body is destroyed). Major power uses include making large barriers to protect others from being attacked by trolls, and scaring off trolls with a sudden burst of power.
Elemental Control: Your character can control one of a number of elements: earth, fire, wind, water, ice, plants, stone, and light. Minor power uses include using their element in a mundane fashion (lighting a campfire, making a small ice bridge to cross a river, motivating plants to grow faster, etc) or using their element in an individual combat situation (making a wall of stone to protect themselves from an attack, launching a jet of water at an enemy to knock them down, using light trickery to hide their movements, etc). A major power use is using their element in a way that affects multiple people or a large area (burning down part of a forest, swamping a ship and making it sink, eliminating all light in a 50-meter area to make it impossible for anyone to see, etc.)
Dreamwalking: While all of those with powers can experience the dreaming world, only certain individuals can go dreamwalking. Dreamwalkers can pass through the dreaming world largely undetected by the trolls that live there, allowing them to safely travel to other dreams and contact others that may be far away. This makes Dreamwalkers effective messengers for distances beyond what can be reached by radio contact. Additionally, Dreamwalkers are the ones who can kill the trolls that live in the dream world, making it safer for all magic-users to sleep at night. Minor power use includes breaking into someone else's dream (normally the other dreamer must let you in) and tracking down people or trolls in the dream world. Major power use includes using your powers to kill a troll and creating a shared dream space for several dozen people to occupy together for one night.
Werebeast: For most mages, their Luonto remains mostly out of sight and out of mind. They know it exists, and they can feel when it is present and when it has left their body. For Werebeasts, though, their Luonto takes a much more active role in their powers than just "provides energy for magic". Werebeasts have the ability to manifest traits of their Luonto onto their body, giving themselves those physical adaptations to use. An owl Werebeast might find themselves able to grow wings and fly, while a bobcat Werebeast may be able to transform their eyes to give themselves night vision. The key thing is that they can only take on the traits of their Luonto, nothing else. The difference between "minor" and "major" power use for Werebeasts is largely based on how much they transform and how long the transformation lasts. Transforming fully into a crow for a 2-minute flight would be a minor use, while transforming your legs into wolf legs to run quickly for an entire day would be major. Use your best judgement here, and ask for help if you're not sure what counts as minor or major power use.
Healer: Sometimes you get hurt! It happens in this world. And while modern medicine does still exist, you're not exactly going to find any hospitals out in the middle of nowhere. That's where it pays to have a Healer around. Healers use their magic to treat minor wounds and broken bones, speeding up the recovery process and helping to fight off infection. They are also vitally important to protecting the non-immune, as if they heal a troll bite within an hour of it happening then there is a very good chance that the non-immune won't catch the rash. Healers are also capable of rescuing someone from the mental influence of some of the more powerful trolls that attack the mind as well, though this also needs to be caught early. Minor power use includes heaving scrapes, cuts, bruises, breaks, or infections that are in a small, localized area (so a broken finger, or a bite on an arm that just happened, a burn from picking up a hot pan, etc.). Major power use includes healing an injury or several injuries that take up more than half of a body, healing a serious illness, or fixing something that healed wrong in the past.
Additionally, sometimes Otherworlders will lose their powers from home and gain one of the powers listed below. If you would like for your character to lose their canon powers and gain one of the powers below, specify that on your app.
Troll Sense: This is the sort of 'traditional mage' people think of when they hear the word mage. Your character is more in-tune with the presence of trolls and how to deal with them. This makes them particularly adept at dispatching trolls. Minor power uses include sensing the presence of a troll, being able to track a troll over long distances, and guiding the soul of a troll to the afterlife (once the troll body is destroyed). Major power uses include making large barriers to protect others from being attacked by trolls, and scaring off trolls with a sudden burst of power.
Elemental Control: Your character can control one of a number of elements: earth, fire, wind, water, ice, plants, stone, and light. Minor power uses include using their element in a mundane fashion (lighting a campfire, making a small ice bridge to cross a river, motivating plants to grow faster, etc) or using their element in an individual combat situation (making a wall of stone to protect themselves from an attack, launching a jet of water at an enemy to knock them down, using light trickery to hide their movements, etc). A major power use is using their element in a way that affects multiple people or a large area (burning down part of a forest, swamping a ship and making it sink, eliminating all light in a 50-meter area to make it impossible for anyone to see, etc.)
Dreamwalking: While all of those with powers can experience the dreaming world, only certain individuals can go dreamwalking. Dreamwalkers can pass through the dreaming world largely undetected by the trolls that live there, allowing them to safely travel to other dreams and contact others that may be far away. This makes Dreamwalkers effective messengers for distances beyond what can be reached by radio contact. Additionally, Dreamwalkers are the ones who can kill the trolls that live in the dream world, making it safer for all magic-users to sleep at night. Minor power use includes breaking into someone else's dream (normally the other dreamer must let you in) and tracking down people or trolls in the dream world. Major power use includes using your powers to kill a troll and creating a shared dream space for several dozen people to occupy together for one night.
Werebeast: For most mages, their Luonto remains mostly out of sight and out of mind. They know it exists, and they can feel when it is present and when it has left their body. For Werebeasts, though, their Luonto takes a much more active role in their powers than just "provides energy for magic". Werebeasts have the ability to manifest traits of their Luonto onto their body, giving themselves those physical adaptations to use. An owl Werebeast might find themselves able to grow wings and fly, while a bobcat Werebeast may be able to transform their eyes to give themselves night vision. The key thing is that they can only take on the traits of their Luonto, nothing else. The difference between "minor" and "major" power use for Werebeasts is largely based on how much they transform and how long the transformation lasts. Transforming fully into a crow for a 2-minute flight would be a minor use, while transforming your legs into wolf legs to run quickly for an entire day would be major. Use your best judgement here, and ask for help if you're not sure what counts as minor or major power use.
Healer: Sometimes you get hurt! It happens in this world. And while modern medicine does still exist, you're not exactly going to find any hospitals out in the middle of nowhere. That's where it pays to have a Healer around. Healers use their magic to treat minor wounds and broken bones, speeding up the recovery process and helping to fight off infection. They are also vitally important to protecting the non-immune, as if they heal a troll bite within an hour of it happening then there is a very good chance that the non-immune won't catch the rash. Healers are also capable of rescuing someone from the mental influence of some of the more powerful trolls that attack the mind as well, though this also needs to be caught early. Minor power use includes heaving scrapes, cuts, bruises, breaks, or infections that are in a small, localized area (so a broken finger, or a bite on an arm that just happened, a burn from picking up a hot pan, etc.). Major power use includes healing an injury or several injuries that take up more than half of a body, healing a serious illness, or fixing something that healed wrong in the past.