The Universe

The Warlocks

In the beginning, there were beings so powerful and so vast, they could not be perceived. They were named after their most dominant characteristic, and they could not be anything else. They observed a planet, one well established, long alive and changing for millenia, and decided they quite liked it. They would not ruin it, and take it for themselves, of course. They would make their own, in its image. Their power unmeasurable, together there was nothing they could not do. They ovserved, they remembered, and they replicated.

A different universe, a different star system, a different world, perhaps, but identical in every visible way. They placed the core, then the mantle, then the crust and lithosphere, then the gasses aerosphere, until it looked quite like they remembered it. The continents, those two connected, and those two barely touching, and one at the bottom, a big one, and perhaps some went missing or were not put there for a reason, we may never know.

They settled on this planet, planet they built and named after its original, Earth. It would not be called that, due to its placement, when its future inhabitants would observe it. The warlocks, it turns out, put the planet a bit closer to this system's Sun. They had no choice, after all, for there was already a planet in the distance where the original Earth thrived so well. It was not as close as they would like, and would only be in the way, if they tried. The new Earth's humans would call their home Summer, after the hottest season, and its twin orbiting next to it, meeting each other every other year, would be called Winter. These were only their common names, however. In reality, in documents and scientific papers, they settled on Eartheros and Algarth.

Eventually, they would discover the other planets to be habitable, after processing with the technology they would discover, but not before it is relevant. Not before the events of this story, which happens when Summer was at its worst, according to many. But don't let me get ahead of myself.

The warlocks, satisfied with their work, settled on this planet. They each found their place, continents so monumental and massive they would not need to meet each other for years of walking, if they wished. We do not know how long they lasted, living on their world, deep within the forests they placed all over it, deeming it more satisfying and pleasing than the original, whether they slept, did activities we could not comprehend, occupied their minds in ways we could not understand, but eventually, they became bored. Each one of them, though in their own pace, would realize their Earth is missing something vital the one they observed had. Inhabitants.

First one to attempt to create its children was known as Sloth, for it needed servants to do its tasks and bidding it was too lazy to perform. Second was Avarice, yearning for its own material gain. Third was Torture, for its name would bear no meaning with no subjects. Fourth was Wrath, its anger and hatred not confined. Fifth was Insanity, for reasons not so different from its predecesors. Sixth was Envy, jealous of its companions. Seventh was Hubris, aiming to prove its capabilities better than the rest. Eighth was Chaos, not afraid to join in. Injustice would be the ninth, seeking to cause trouble as it should. Tenth was Vengeance, not long after the recent addition to population. Eleventh was Gluttony, history dare not repeat what its motivations were. Deceit would be claiming to have done this long ago, and would not be embarrassed in the end. Twelfth in line, Cruelty's children would not find their life any better than others. The lone one in the mountains, Lust, would keep to itself long enough before succumbing to the rest. And the last, powerful warlock named Murder, would be met with a fate only befitting someone of its name bearing children: stillbirth.

Fifteen they were, and in this order, their magic and powers would be passed onto their children. However, as they did everything, they would not know how to have children resembling those humans they observed once. They would know what they should look like, to give them darker skin if they were to be on the sun, to give them lighter skin and sharper eyes if they were to live in the forest, to give them each organ, each part of the body they would need to survive, to give them brain and heart and personalities, but what they did not know, was that they would need to fade. Their skin, organs, insides, all of their atoms, were as endless as their parents. They were smaller, had physical form, moved through the world, and yet, they would not be humans. Like angels of Gods, they were powerful, and immortal.

Colors of Souls of Mages, in order

Immortal Beings

The Angels of the Gods, commonly referred to as the Immortal Beings, would take the task their Gods were not capable of, and in their human looking form, they knew they would pass easily amongst the real ones on the Utopian Earth their life was supposed to be based on. Their magic, after all, consisted of all their Gods did, and they were capable of travel across different dimensions. They could move objects, as well as themselves along these dimensions. They could move across their physical world, of course. With a bit more strain, they could walk across the path of time, a circle that would repeat upon reaching the end, resulting in their ability to reach time of the past. They could walk across minds of their fellow beings, but more easily, the less intelligent, less resilient beings of the world, such as animals, and as they would find out later, humans with no magic in their soul.

For it was the soul that carried the ancestry of the Warlocks, and it was the soul that would take the color and life of these beings. And after they observed, studied, fit in and passed among the humans of Earth, they returned, and knew, they all knew how to make their own children. To each one, a part of their soul was given. The parents kept their own, of course, and passed along a part that was missing the smallest part, which would grow bigger with each generation, but only compared to the first. The more generations of children there were, the weaker would the current generation be, as it happened. And as children of their parents, the immortal beings had children of their own in the order, and significant space between them, like their parents. Sloth would be the first, and Lust would be the last, not counting for the inability of Murder to conceive any immortal beings at all. And so, often was the act of creation of humans that would live on Eartheros be contributed to the Warlocks themselves, when their children did all the work.

With their souls, shared and passed along, came a visible difference between the humans, and an invisible one. The childrens' powers would not appear until they were six years old, a cusp of childhood and maturity, and after that, the parents have found, the child born after the previous one's powers have appeared, would not have any magic in its soul. They could see it too, using their eyes that could, after all walk over minds of beings, they could see the lack of color in their souls. Wrath's yellow souls, Envy's green souls, Pride's purple souls, Lust's blue souls, Chaos' turquoise souls, or Vengeance's dark red souls, to name a few, would be easily recognizable if they were there. The people have learned, that if they were not careful, humans resembling the Earth's own would be born, and live amongst them.

Despite everything, whether they had soul of a mage or not, the Immortal Beings were not so careful to make them quite the same as humans. They were, after all, immortal in all the ways, and could not imagine being any less. Simply put, aging was the only way to kill a human on Eartheros, born of the warlocks, and verage human would live up to 150 years, a small mistake in their calculations and observations of Utopia's humans. Any lethal wound, though it would drain the body, would be healed within a week. Death,and the upcoming week of waiting for people to return, became a common and well expected phenomena. More on this.

And so, they started counting the years, long after they've forgotten their parents, not knowing where they went, whether they left at all, or how they would search for them, they let their children take over the world, and tend to themselves. In the year of 2583, the bloodlines keeping track of their ancestry, would know Wrath ancestry has been alive for over five hundred generations. They would know Pride ancestry has been alive for over two hundred generations. And, for example, Lust, the youngest one, would be less than hundred generations.

With this deminishing power, passed along the generations, they found, eventually the humans capable of bending their soul to their will, that they could not do all their parents could. As of current year, the weakest ones, children of Sloth, Greed, Torture, Wrath and Insanity, are so dimished they can can barely walk across the world, only capable of moving small objects to small distances. The children of Envy, Pride, Chaos, and Vengeance, know how to walk cross timeline, and all across the land within the reach of their world. And children of Injustice, Gluttony, Cruelty, Deceit and Lust, still remember to walk the minds, and the space between universes. They are the only ones capable of walking to Utopia, name they use for the universe where Warlocks' beloved Earth is.

The Angels, as far as the current population of humans, mages and non-mages both, are gone as well. However, an ocean awaits...

The Sun

Due to current climate and environmental restrictions, in year 2583, and for over five hundred years before, the planet of Summer has been enveloped in thick, brown to orange colored clouds produced by dangerous gasses released by factories manufacturing technologies, including the ones making Mechanical Pets.More on this.

Other than the gigantic ships that fly hundreds of people seeking new life on planet Winter, and even they barely get to see the Sun, the denizens of Summer of these past few generations have not seen the star itself.More on Winter.

The Sun has become mythologized like God would to many, as the official public education does not involve curriculums about the Warlocks, nor even Immortal Beings. When people are in environment where they cannot perceive one of the providers of their life and health, they do tend to mythologize it to have powers they are not aware of.

The imagery of Sun and Sunbeams are considered particularly divine. People tend to use phrases like "oh my sun" and such.

Other religions include: Earth 1.0's religions that have been brought over by mages in the past, including Christianity and Hinduism, often referred to as Utopia's Gods, belief in Warlocks as Divine, and praise of Nature and its nymphs.

The name Summer was chosen as nickname for the planet due to its environment, both by contribution of the biohazards and pollution, and by the fact that the planet itself was literally put closer to the Sun than Earth 1.0, making the yearly seasons switch between the dry and wet summers.

To speak of the year itself, Eartheros' cycle is 180 days long. There are 9 months in the year, and each month consists of two double weeks - 5+5 days in one week. One day of Eartheros is 27 hours long, and hours are 90 minutes long. Minutes are 60 seconds, the rest is familiar.

The day begins at first hour, which is in the morning when Sun rises/daylight starts. Most jobs/shops open/school starts at 4, lunch would be eaten around 8th hour, hour 19 is when sun sets/evening. As for the school year, the month that is divided into two double weeks consists of one double week of school, and one double week of break, each month. School days last up to hour 12.

The first day of the New Year is at the end of dry summer season, and is the most celebrated holiday across the planet. The New Year is also an universally celebrated birthday - meaning, each year everyone's 'age' on papers and official documents stays the same and only is changed to the next one on New Years. The cycle completed around the Sun should, after all, be the most important.

The months do not have names, each are referred to by their number.

Summer and Winter

Algarth, or commonly nicknamed Winter, is a planet orbiting the Sun close enough to Eartheros to be visible to naked eye, were it not for the clouds in current age. Every 2 years, there is a point when they are the closest and during this time, ships deliver people and resources from Summer onto Winter. It is significantly smaller compared to Summer.

Winter has become somewhat populated by people willing to leave their home forever, and move to live there. There are only few settlements as of year 2583 and its generation. The decision to move comes either because of circumstances making it living on Summer impossible or at least highly inconvenient, or as a retirement. If person would be rich enough and think they would enjoy colder environment, there's nothing stopping them but the bill and prospect of building a new life.

All the settlements are around the equator of the planet. The frozen poles are only explored with technology, due to it being unsafe for humans or even mages to explore.

Source & Technology

Source is (although the people working with it are not necessarily aware of this little fact) an inherently magical material that helped the Warlocks shape the world of Eartheros, and many veins that produce this material are still deep within the forests of the planet.

After processing, the Source is used to power technology and mechanical objects, including everyday house appliances, the lighting and powering of residential houses or public buildings, to powering up mechanical pets and even androids/Dolls.

In its natural state, it is somewhat solid/slimey material that only activates when heated up to boiled point. The gasses it produces are the most powerful, and are extremely toxic to humans.

It is divided into four categories, with three important to distinct and one that is a catch-all/used for small and common objects.

One of the most powerful technology used all around the world are high-speed railways that span across the oceans and connect the continents. Due to the environmental hazards in the sky and clouds, flying is not optimal way to move around the world, and with blue source, they built rails between continents that only take up to four hours to pass.

Mechanical Pets

Fully sentient, mechanical beings that take form of an animal in their idle form, but can envelop a body part/most often dominant fighting hand (left).

When they are produced, they are sold in an egg and owner cannot choose nor see or predict what type of animal it will evolve to. During its bonding stage, it hatches into any type of small animal, and needs training to change into its true form. This form is often of a predator, unless its owner is particularly resistant to it.

Red Source flows through them, and its main container that heats up the material is placed near the chest, part of it exposed. The Source container when on arm is placed near the bicep.

Fighting

While most humans will rarely experience death, and the inevitable act of returning back week later, this practice is taken advantage of to create the planet's most popular sport. Simply referred to as fighting, the professional fighters participate in matches once or twice a week according to their preference, and move on an universal ladder up or down according to their wins.

The fights are to death or resignation. Each tier has a type of weapon and armor allowed, and lowest ones do not have mechanical pets allowed.

Professional fighters after certain tier may be recruited/called upon to act as soldiers if needed.

The human ability to heal death extends to healing minor injuries as well. Most injuries will not leave a scar, unless a body part needs to be regrown. It is very common in hospitals and clinics to encourage patients to 'take a death' to heal off an injury, seeing as that is a set amount of relatively short time compared to the usual healing that would ensue. They can refuse and go along with the longer process, of course.

Effectively, the only way to truly hurt a person in a way that cannot be healed, is with magic. Very specific magic that ages down the cells of the body. Not every magician is capable of replicating this, but those who do (and most commonly on black market) make either weapons or guns with special ammunition. These are obviously illegal in official matches, and if fighters' weapons cannot be proved to be magic-free they must use the ones provided at the match ring.

It is legal to start fighting at age 12, but rarely happens that early. Needs doctor's approval and evaluation, as well as both parents and child's agreements.

Fighters are not required to attend school/have another job, the engagement in the sport pays for housing and food, while winning matches provides more.

Magic

To sum it up: Magic comes from the soul, and the colour of person's soul determines which warlock/immortal being they are descendant of. Each generation gets ever so slightly weaker, not even noticeable until it's 10-20 down the line, and even then only at excessive usage, otherwise the change is only noticeable when crucial parts of the abilities are not available.

The soulline would be the strongest if families go out of their way to find mates/parents of their children to be from same origin, but seeing as a lot of the origins are not strong enough to keep up, population is consisted mostly of non-magicians, and weaker magicians are not even able to see and double check person's soul, it is not very common for low class magicians to be pure soul

Non-magicians souls are white, so if magician were to look at half-soul magician, the colour would be half saturated

A lot of high class/royal families are powerful magician families, and they do go out of their way to marry in interest of keeping their souls pure, not often advertized to the outside world this way

The names of the Warlocks determined their most dominant personality trait, and while it could be noticed in some ways in magicians or even humans (for they all were magicians once) it does not stand out in way that could be clockable. Pride magicians may be rather proud, but it is not the only defining thing about them. Lust magicians may have easier time finding partners, but it's not that they're all harlots. Chaos magicians are not actual agents of chaos, wrath magicians are not anger-induced abusers, etc etc it's not the only thing about them, but if pushed you would notice it (just like any human with personality to be fair)

When using magic, magicians simply have to think of a spell/call if it is a very commonly used power they are trying to manifest, such as moving things, summoning them to their location, moving themselves around. If it is something more complicated, they need to know the combination of powers they have to summon, and if they do not know this, it takes bigger part of their soul to accomplish this.

Soul is 'used' as a resource to manifest magic, but in every day to day life, magicians barely use the tip of it. It replenishes/regenerates during rest or when not used, therefore it has to be great act of magic to use it all up. If magician extents themselves to use all of their magic, and there is no more soul to use, it cannot regain its colour again.

If magician does not know a spell/call and attempts to go out of their way to use more of their soul to cast it anyway, it may leave visible (to a mage's eye) stain in the world.

Magicians are able to store part of their souls this way in objects, most often used in weapons. Most common use to enchant weapons is to make them capable of hurting, that is to say - humans are only able to be truly hurt by age, for everything else regenerates or heals either on its own or during death - these weapons are enchanted to specifically age up the area they affect. Only magicians capable of time travel are able to do this. These weapons are rather rare, seeing as only more powerful magicians are able to produce them, and they do not often have the need to make that kind of money from this specific source.

Familial and Romantic Connection

Despite losing their power to be able to enter anyone's mind, some of the telepathic connection remained over for everyone. After child has discovered their magical powers, they also experience a connection to their close family (parents and siblings).

People are able to communicate simple sentences or ideas to the recipient if they focus directly on it. There is no accidental misspeaking in someone's mind, though there is a way to misinterpret the meaning - these ideas and messages are always delivered within the time frame of the sender focusing on them. It is possible to receive a message during sleep, and it would be incorporated into the dream recipient is dreaming.

Romantic partners are able to switch this connection - meaning when they form a telepathic connection with a romantic partner, they lose the one they had with their family. This connection needs strong, mutual bond that is agreed upon after multiple meetings. It can be established with multiple people, and is broken upon betrayal of trust.