The power system is a quasi-elemental magic system that relies on the senses of words—their denotations and connotations.
In this world, Tilmun, people essentially speaking two languages: Arabic and English, basically. Those that speak "Arabic," mainly humans, call it Tamtheel—representation, acting, analogue, simulation, and modeling. The "English" speakers, who are a race called Lykins, call it Shaping.
The powers of Tamtheel are split into two kinds. Attributes, which are quite self-explanatory. Each person has only one attribute, usually, and these are: fire, earth, wind, ice, lightning, sand, light, and dark. The second kind are simahs or manes, as Lykins call it; they're inherent abilities that creatures are born with and are separate from attributes, and where a person can only have one attribute, he has access to all the simahs of his race, like the jald, jass, hidayah, and muhakah of the humans, or the dimming, latting, bremming, and bying of the Lykins.
The thing that activates Tamtheel is ma (water)/might. But there's a key difference in activating simahs and attributes. Attributes require the Mumathil's/Shaper's own ma, while simahs only require the ma that exists naturally everywhere, but attributes have no physical effects on the Mumathil, while a simah drains his stamina.
This difference in naming, produces a difference in perception between humans and Lykins, and the difference in perception produces differences in effect. To humans ma sensed through jass is sometimes is placid like a puddle after intense rainfall, or a raging whirlpool, or a gentle wave. or a crashing one. To Lykins, might sensed through latting is a glowing abstract shape of pure power: sometimes it is barely giving off any light, or it might be blazing like a miniature bluish sun, or like a raging turquoise fire. Also, both experiences are separated from the usual senses. A Lykin won't go blind nor a human get crushed from its intensity. They're senses that exist on a separate plane, so to speak.
Moreover, the manes of Lykins are quite different to the simahs of the humans, as the Lykins' manes all manifest physically or in a physical-like experience. The word mane comes from the old word mægen, which is where we get the word main, but mane has retained its old denotations and connotations of bodily strength and physical power. So, while they both can sense ma, as I have stated above, humans can't see it nor hear it; they can only feel it pushing on them, like you can feel the wind.
A common ability amongst light mumathils is enlighten, an ability that makes the person it is used on less rash, more logical, and more comprehending. This only works because light, even if metaphorically, is perceived as informing or inspiring. You can even summarize it in phrases like light is knowledge, light is perception, light is clarity, and so on. These perceptions of light makes it possible to create abilities that reflect these perceieved qualities of light.
Lykins, who speak English, for example, have the phrase "to plant one's feet in the ground," which means to be firm and insistent, and so when earth mumathils literally plant their feet in the ground, they become resolute and determined, making them harder to intimidate. Humans don't have this idiom, and so this effect doesn't manifest.
The difference in perception, and therefore in effect, isn't exclusive to wider perceptions. While the difference in simahs between individuals of the same race are quite minute and almost imperceivable, as they're hard-baked into them, the difference between individuals that have the same attributes grow more pronounced as a mumathil gets more experience, and his attribute grows more unique to him. Also, the perception a mumathil has of his own attributes shapes it.
For example, two people can have a fire attribute, but if for some weird reason, the other can't feel heat, but experiences burning, his fire won't be hot, because doesn't know what hot is, and it won't be producing the pain associated with fire, but it will produce the effects of burning in his victim. Or if a wacky fire mumathil think his if his fire gets hot and big enough it will push people, then it will literally push people physically when he feels like his fire is big and strong enough.
This is also why there's no water attribute while there's ice. Humans already perceive themselves as using water because they use ma. I.e., water, while the Lykins are a relatively primitive in Tamtheel and haven't had the time to manifest it nor is water major enough in their culture for there to a pressure to make it manifest.
Because of the effects of perception, lexicographers, rhetoricians, and grammar have worked very hard to document language to prevent semantic shifts in words and keep the connotations of words as consistent as possible, making teaching an attribute to a new mumathil quite easier, especially as education became mandatory 360-ish years ago.
All mumathils that have the same attribute learn the same basic abilities, but it is up to them to develop these abilities and create new ones. For example, some mumathils lean on the more abstract aspects of wind, and so you see a wind mumathil who interprets the ability swift step as himself becoming light like the wind, becoming faster, while another manifests wind that propels him off the ground, and he glides on the earth. With experience, the former might only become faster, while later his winds get more intense, and they develop into an entire new ability that lets him fly.
And that's about it without getting into all the details. There's more to this, as well as a secondary power system, but I don't want to make the post too dense.
Also, I know there are many made up words, but I'm making it for a novel, which I hope to make into a series, and hopefully, God willing, I will introduce the elements incrementally
In this world, Tilmun, people essentially speaking two languages: Arabic and English, basically. Those that speak "Arabic," mainly humans, call it Tamtheel—representation, acting, analogue, simulation, and modeling. The "English" speakers, who are a race called Lykins, call it Shaping.
The powers of Tamtheel are split into two kinds. Attributes, which are quite self-explanatory. Each person has only one attribute, usually, and these are: fire, earth, wind, ice, lightning, sand, light, and dark. The second kind are simahs or manes, as Lykins call it; they're inherent abilities that creatures are born with and are separate from attributes, and where a person can only have one attribute, he has access to all the simahs of his race, like the jald, jass, hidayah, and muhakah of the humans, or the dimming, latting, bremming, and bying of the Lykins.
The thing that activates Tamtheel is ma (water)/might. But there's a key difference in activating simahs and attributes. Attributes require the Mumathil's/Shaper's own ma, while simahs only require the ma that exists naturally everywhere, but attributes have no physical effects on the Mumathil, while a simah drains his stamina.
This difference in naming, produces a difference in perception between humans and Lykins, and the difference in perception produces differences in effect. To humans ma sensed through jass is sometimes is placid like a puddle after intense rainfall, or a raging whirlpool, or a gentle wave. or a crashing one. To Lykins, might sensed through latting is a glowing abstract shape of pure power: sometimes it is barely giving off any light, or it might be blazing like a miniature bluish sun, or like a raging turquoise fire. Also, both experiences are separated from the usual senses. A Lykin won't go blind nor a human get crushed from its intensity. They're senses that exist on a separate plane, so to speak.
Moreover, the manes of Lykins are quite different to the simahs of the humans, as the Lykins' manes all manifest physically or in a physical-like experience. The word mane comes from the old word mægen, which is where we get the word main, but mane has retained its old denotations and connotations of bodily strength and physical power. So, while they both can sense ma, as I have stated above, humans can't see it nor hear it; they can only feel it pushing on them, like you can feel the wind.
A common ability amongst light mumathils is enlighten, an ability that makes the person it is used on less rash, more logical, and more comprehending. This only works because light, even if metaphorically, is perceived as informing or inspiring. You can even summarize it in phrases like light is knowledge, light is perception, light is clarity, and so on. These perceptions of light makes it possible to create abilities that reflect these perceieved qualities of light.
Lykins, who speak English, for example, have the phrase "to plant one's feet in the ground," which means to be firm and insistent, and so when earth mumathils literally plant their feet in the ground, they become resolute and determined, making them harder to intimidate. Humans don't have this idiom, and so this effect doesn't manifest.
The difference in perception, and therefore in effect, isn't exclusive to wider perceptions. While the difference in simahs between individuals of the same race are quite minute and almost imperceivable, as they're hard-baked into them, the difference between individuals that have the same attributes grow more pronounced as a mumathil gets more experience, and his attribute grows more unique to him. Also, the perception a mumathil has of his own attributes shapes it.
For example, two people can have a fire attribute, but if for some weird reason, the other can't feel heat, but experiences burning, his fire won't be hot, because doesn't know what hot is, and it won't be producing the pain associated with fire, but it will produce the effects of burning in his victim. Or if a wacky fire mumathil think his if his fire gets hot and big enough it will push people, then it will literally push people physically when he feels like his fire is big and strong enough.
This is also why there's no water attribute while there's ice. Humans already perceive themselves as using water because they use ma. I.e., water, while the Lykins are a relatively primitive in Tamtheel and haven't had the time to manifest it nor is water major enough in their culture for there to a pressure to make it manifest.
Because of the effects of perception, lexicographers, rhetoricians, and grammar have worked very hard to document language to prevent semantic shifts in words and keep the connotations of words as consistent as possible, making teaching an attribute to a new mumathil quite easier, especially as education became mandatory 360-ish years ago.
All mumathils that have the same attribute learn the same basic abilities, but it is up to them to develop these abilities and create new ones. For example, some mumathils lean on the more abstract aspects of wind, and so you see a wind mumathil who interprets the ability swift step as himself becoming light like the wind, becoming faster, while another manifests wind that propels him off the ground, and he glides on the earth. With experience, the former might only become faster, while later his winds get more intense, and they develop into an entire new ability that lets him fly.
And that's about it without getting into all the details. There's more to this, as well as a secondary power system, but I don't want to make the post too dense.
Also, I know there are many made up words, but I'm making it for a novel, which I hope to make into a series, and hopefully, God willing, I will introduce the elements incrementally
Myth Weaver
