SporeWiki:Fantasy Universe/Old/The Source



The Source on Koldenwelt is a force that permeates existance and can be used by creatures within to access seemingly unnatural powers. It is known by many names, including Magic, Mana, Essence, and Energy. "The Source" is a name given by those who consider the force to be a conscious being.

The Archipelago is believed by some to contain a nexus of the Source, underneath the sea floor. This would explain the various mysterious phenomena that have affected the region for thousands of years. The most obvious manifestation of this nexus would be an apparent psychic disturbance that is centred within a half-sunken pyramid near to one of the northernmost islands. It is also known that an ancient magical artifact, the "Eye", is somewhere underneath the Archipelago. This is not the cause of these phenomena, though, since it was not placed there until the end of the War for the Eye.

Powers
Magical powers are ultimately divided into three categories. Psychokinesis involves manipulating the movement of things, extrasensory perception involves sensing or obtaining knowledge about them, and teleportation involves moving them across distances without actually passing through the space in between. "Things" for these powers can be matter, energy, force, or even the Source itself. All individual powers make use of one or more of these three main powers. For example, telepathy is either psychokinesis (manipulating brain activity for sending messages) or ESP (mind-reading).

Likewise, magic does not have "sides", such as light and dark sides, and there are no different "types" of magic. However, many different races have developed their own techniques and rituals to access magical powers, some of which can appear to those not familiar with them as being completely different energies.

Deities
The Source appears to have a consciousness of some sort, as magic sometimes appears to have a "mind of its own", and unlike the physical universe, it does not necessarily follow a logical system of natural laws. However, whether or not it should be worshipped as a deity is up for debate, and there are many people in the world who have not seen proof of magical powers and so doubt that they even exist. But some cultures believe, that The Source was created by Supreme God, who also created the whole world.

Many other deities are and have been worshipped on Koldenwelt. Some of them seem to be personifications of the Source, and others are probably purely mythological. Others may have been powerful sorcerers who managed to become incorporeal beings after death using the Source, a process sometimes known as "ascension". It is even possible that some are truly supernatural entities, although these might be nearly indistinguishable from ascended sorcerers, or even the Source itself.

One category of entities, known as "thoughtforms", are probably the closest things to being true deities. Most of them are beings that only truly exist in one creature's perception, although they still have a small degree of influence on the real world. However, there are others, such as Inato - a being created by the Eye to protect it from being obtained and misused - who are far more powerful.

The Five Elemental Deities, Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Nature are very close to being true deities too. It was proven by thousands of Tragnon, that they sometimes have physical form. As the Tragnon believe, they are forms of the Supreme entity, what created the world and The Source too. Tragnon believe, that Supreme Entity has also one Tragnon form, what cares especially about Tragnons, but probably this form looks to every civilization as another. But it is unsure, if these gods are true deities, or only ascended or descended normal beings.