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•info post (SUPER WIP)
•History
The world Q-103 - or Kaede, to friends - is a world that has recently discovered there’s so much magic they don’t know. Magic has always had a strong presence in every country of the world since the beginning of recorded history, and many assume magic played a role in the creation of world or at least the creation of sentient life - so finding out that nobody knew how it worked was quite a shock.
This discovery came about as a result of a decades long war between Etrana and Troujan. The mages each army were using magic so much more than they had in their normal life, and in ways they didn’t typically. The most frequent uses of magic were to make life easier in the past century, with combat magic being an old art resurrected for the war. The mages quickly discovered that their bodies were being changed by the use of their magic, and as they relied on one type of magic their ability to use other varieties diminished or became impossible or painful to attempt. (A healer in the army found they couldn’t use harmful magics and vice versa - or someone who relied on fire magics would find that trying to manipulate water was painful.)
Once peace returned and the countries began preparing treaties, the brilliant minds of the world wondered if there was a way to study magic in a way that it had never been studied before… The easiest way would be with a blank slate, but they couldn’t just raise children for this. Children were expensive and needy and it was unethical - and then Salome Williams, the king of Etrana’s advisor and head researcher had the brilliant idea to create their own blank slates. She began researching ways to create life, which turned out to be surprisingly easy if you were replicating it. The first few subjects were volunteers - Salome herself, other researchers, and some nobility from Etrana and their war ally Sciet - and Salome devised a way to extract their energy and essence into something she called a Signature. Pumping the Signature full of magical energy and providing a few alchemical components created a copy of the donor - not always a perfect one, but the Signature would only deteriorate with time, not uses so they could keep making new copies.
Kaede was one of those copies, from the Signature of Quentin Shishido, a young noble of Sciet. He was the fifth copy ever made - the first of the Q line. Studies began immediately, to see what Q was capable of. With each study he underwent his designation was updated - from Q-0 to Q-1, all the way to Q-103, meaning he has been through 103 experiments. Most of these studies were into magic use - specifically how to be capable at all areas of magic while using magically frequently at high levels. There were also some dalliances into medical experimentation, as finding new procedures that didn’t rely on magic became very important with the limit of healers the world was facing, as well as some vanity projects on lasting youth. (Kaede stopped aging two years after creation!)
It quickly became apparent that Q-103 and the other copies were capable of things that humans weren’t - perhaps due to the nature of coming from Signatures? They were a mystery in and of themselves, and the researchers eventually ended up with 26 donors - some willing like the first few, some not so much. Hundreds and hundreds of copies would be made - some were culled immediately upon creation for being an imperfect recreation, and some were culled once they were no longer providing useful results. Very few got to a higher designation than 15, and only five ever made it beyond 50. Q-103 was the second ever to make it to 100, and the only one who seemed to retain mental function. (A-101 is still on campus but kept in isolation as he is still a valuable test subject.)
For 20 years, Kaede accepted the studies he was put through, no matter how painful or traumatic they were. He became known in the facility and among the research teams for being incredibly gifted with magic and capable of doing things no human or other test subject could even attempt safely. Was it because of his Signature? His age? The sheer number of experiments conducted? It was a mystery they were desperate to crack, and Q-103 voiced no complaints… At least until the discovery that A-22 was culled for subpar results.
A-22, a replica from the same Signature as A-101, was something of a friend to Q-103. He was a friend to basically all the other replications, making sure all of them were comforted and taken care of, and he was one of the few who insisted that despite how the researchers treated them and there could be dozens of them who looked the same… All of them were their own person and should embrace their individualities. He gave anyone who gave him the time of day a name, sometimes doing extensive research (which largely meant bartering with the researchers to give him books or teaching him themselves about the world outside the facilities) before deciding on one. He gave himself the name Ace, and decided that Kaede suited Q-103. But he had been killed for not performing well enough, and Kaede felt nothing but despair in that moment.
The magic that had been building up in him through experiment after experiment boiled over, and all of the researchers in that room were killed as Kaede lost control of his emotions and his powers. Eventually, he was sedated and the magic receded. This was a new reaction from Kaede, and magic in general - a response due to emotion that was uncontrollable by the caster. While some pressed for Kaede to get killed due to the threat they saw he now posed, Salome thought that keeping him around, just like they did with A-101, would be more valuable to their research. He was taken into isolation, and observation and study into magic repression - to prevent another outburst - began.
•Abilities
•"Voildling" - Not technically an ability so much as the result of magic use. A voidling - an informal name given by Kaede - is a solid manifestation of excess magic, commonly found on the sites of incredible magical feats or battles. They tend to take the form of animals made of solid shadow with one or two features that make them seem especially alien - horns, wings, extra limbs (including tails), or extra features like mouths and eyes. One with a feline form and excess eyes was created after Kaede's outburst.
•Magic - The manipulation of energy, this is typically raw (things like moving objects, teleportation, casting illusions, etc.) or elemental (summoning and controlling flames, being able to breathe under water, increasing the growth rates or being able to speak to plants, so on and so forth). Very few people can tap into more than one type of energy - they tend to be drawn to one type and do it very well, with attempts at drawing on other energies resulting in weak spells or absolutely nothing. Or, in dire cases, an unpredictable, uncontrollable, and incredibly dangerous reaction. The entire point of Kaede's existence is to find a way to use all types of magic and draw on every single type of energy, so he can do precisely that. He tends to prefer illusions and telekinetic magics over things that can cause severe, direct physical harm, and has a fondness for magic that manipulates the appearance of shadows.
•Magical Overload - Over time and repeated use, people get changed by the magic they use, typically relating to what that person expects from their magic. A person who favors water magic might grow gills, someone who views their fire magic as twisted or demonic might grow horns, so on and so forth. Due to Kaede's unique situation, his magic has simply... Replaced all of his biological functions. He doesn't need to eat or sleep as he is sustained entirely on magical energy, and he doesn't breathe or have a heartbeat unless he chooses to have one. (He still can eat or sleep, he just doesn't need to.)
•Enhanced Healing - Some of the experiments performed on Kaede resulted in him having incredibly quick recovery times from injuries. He can't quite grow back limbs, but he can recover from any non-fatal injury in a matter of minutes - but only as long as he's conscious. The healing relies on his magic, which means he has to actually be able to channel it.
•Enhanced Senses - Slightly enhanced vision and hearing - he can only see about twice as good as the average human, and his hearing is comparable to a dog's as far as what ranges he can hear in.
•Personality
anxiety go brrrrrrr
•Miscellaneous
Relationships
•Salome Williams - Kaede's creator. Sees her a few times every year so she can check on his progress. Holds some resentment for her, because he believes she is the sole reason people like Ace get killed for no good reason.
•Quincy Shishido - The man Kaede is cloned from. They have never met, and all Kaede knows about him is that Quincy excelled at illusory magic. No opinion on him otherwise.
•Ace, or A-22 - Part of the A series of replications. Gave Kaede his name, and insisted that "Kaede" should be what he tells people instead of his designation. Bright, friendly, and the only person who wasn't too afraid to have a conversation with Kaede. Culled.
•A-101 - The first A series replication, created around the same time as Kaede. Brutish and arrogant, he had been moved to isolation for violence against the researchers, which is typically something that would get a replication culled. However, he had been a part into their research on immortality, and killing him takes means beyond what the researchers are capable of.
•J - A clone of Salome William's wife. Kaede has not met her, but she has been watching his every move. It seems she might be planning something...
The world Q-103 - or Kaede, to friends - is a world that has recently discovered there’s so much magic they don’t know. Magic has always had a strong presence in every country of the world since the beginning of recorded history, and many assume magic played a role in the creation of world or at least the creation of sentient life - so finding out that nobody knew how it worked was quite a shock.
This discovery came about as a result of a decades long war between Etrana and Troujan. The mages each army were using magic so much more than they had in their normal life, and in ways they didn’t typically. The most frequent uses of magic were to make life easier in the past century, with combat magic being an old art resurrected for the war. The mages quickly discovered that their bodies were being changed by the use of their magic, and as they relied on one type of magic their ability to use other varieties diminished or became impossible or painful to attempt. (A healer in the army found they couldn’t use harmful magics and vice versa - or someone who relied on fire magics would find that trying to manipulate water was painful.)
Once peace returned and the countries began preparing treaties, the brilliant minds of the world wondered if there was a way to study magic in a way that it had never been studied before… The easiest way would be with a blank slate, but they couldn’t just raise children for this. Children were expensive and needy and it was unethical - and then Salome Williams, the king of Etrana’s advisor and head researcher had the brilliant idea to create their own blank slates. She began researching ways to create life, which turned out to be surprisingly easy if you were replicating it. The first few subjects were volunteers - Salome herself, other researchers, and some nobility from Etrana and their war ally Sciet - and Salome devised a way to extract their energy and essence into something she called a Signature. Pumping the Signature full of magical energy and providing a few alchemical components created a copy of the donor - not always a perfect one, but the Signature would only deteriorate with time, not uses so they could keep making new copies.
Kaede was one of those copies, from the Signature of Quentin Shishido, a young noble of Sciet. He was the fifth copy ever made - the first of the Q line. Studies began immediately, to see what Q was capable of. With each study he underwent his designation was updated - from Q-0 to Q-1, all the way to Q-103, meaning he has been through 103 experiments. Most of these studies were into magic use - specifically how to be capable at all areas of magic while using magically frequently at high levels. There were also some dalliances into medical experimentation, as finding new procedures that didn’t rely on magic became very important with the limit of healers the world was facing, as well as some vanity projects on lasting youth. (Kaede stopped aging two years after creation!)
It quickly became apparent that Q-103 and the other copies were capable of things that humans weren’t - perhaps due to the nature of coming from Signatures? They were a mystery in and of themselves, and the researchers eventually ended up with 26 donors - some willing like the first few, some not so much. Hundreds and hundreds of copies would be made - some were culled immediately upon creation for being an imperfect recreation, and some were culled once they were no longer providing useful results. Very few got to a higher designation than 15, and only five ever made it beyond 50. Q-103 was the second ever to make it to 100, and the only one who seemed to retain mental function. (A-101 is still on campus but kept in isolation as he is still a valuable test subject.)
For 20 years, Kaede accepted the studies he was put through, no matter how painful or traumatic they were. He became known in the facility and among the research teams for being incredibly gifted with magic and capable of doing things no human or other test subject could even attempt safely. Was it because of his Signature? His age? The sheer number of experiments conducted? It was a mystery they were desperate to crack, and Q-103 voiced no complaints… At least until the discovery that A-22 was culled for subpar results.
A-22, a replica from the same Signature as A-101, was something of a friend to Q-103. He was a friend to basically all the other replications, making sure all of them were comforted and taken care of, and he was one of the few who insisted that despite how the researchers treated them and there could be dozens of them who looked the same… All of them were their own person and should embrace their individualities. He gave anyone who gave him the time of day a name, sometimes doing extensive research (which largely meant bartering with the researchers to give him books or teaching him themselves about the world outside the facilities) before deciding on one. He gave himself the name Ace, and decided that Kaede suited Q-103. But he had been killed for not performing well enough, and Kaede felt nothing but despair in that moment.
The magic that had been building up in him through experiment after experiment boiled over, and all of the researchers in that room were killed as Kaede lost control of his emotions and his powers. Eventually, he was sedated and the magic receded. This was a new reaction from Kaede, and magic in general - a response due to emotion that was uncontrollable by the caster. While some pressed for Kaede to get killed due to the threat they saw he now posed, Salome thought that keeping him around, just like they did with A-101, would be more valuable to their research. He was taken into isolation, and observation and study into magic repression - to prevent another outburst - began.
•Abilities
•"Voildling" - Not technically an ability so much as the result of magic use. A voidling - an informal name given by Kaede - is a solid manifestation of excess magic, commonly found on the sites of incredible magical feats or battles. They tend to take the form of animals made of solid shadow with one or two features that make them seem especially alien - horns, wings, extra limbs (including tails), or extra features like mouths and eyes. One with a feline form and excess eyes was created after Kaede's outburst.
•Magic - The manipulation of energy, this is typically raw (things like moving objects, teleportation, casting illusions, etc.) or elemental (summoning and controlling flames, being able to breathe under water, increasing the growth rates or being able to speak to plants, so on and so forth). Very few people can tap into more than one type of energy - they tend to be drawn to one type and do it very well, with attempts at drawing on other energies resulting in weak spells or absolutely nothing. Or, in dire cases, an unpredictable, uncontrollable, and incredibly dangerous reaction. The entire point of Kaede's existence is to find a way to use all types of magic and draw on every single type of energy, so he can do precisely that. He tends to prefer illusions and telekinetic magics over things that can cause severe, direct physical harm, and has a fondness for magic that manipulates the appearance of shadows.
•Magical Overload - Over time and repeated use, people get changed by the magic they use, typically relating to what that person expects from their magic. A person who favors water magic might grow gills, someone who views their fire magic as twisted or demonic might grow horns, so on and so forth. Due to Kaede's unique situation, his magic has simply... Replaced all of his biological functions. He doesn't need to eat or sleep as he is sustained entirely on magical energy, and he doesn't breathe or have a heartbeat unless he chooses to have one. (He still can eat or sleep, he just doesn't need to.)
•Enhanced Healing - Some of the experiments performed on Kaede resulted in him having incredibly quick recovery times from injuries. He can't quite grow back limbs, but he can recover from any non-fatal injury in a matter of minutes - but only as long as he's conscious. The healing relies on his magic, which means he has to actually be able to channel it.
•Enhanced Senses - Slightly enhanced vision and hearing - he can only see about twice as good as the average human, and his hearing is comparable to a dog's as far as what ranges he can hear in.
•Personality
anxiety go brrrrrrr
•Miscellaneous
Relationships
•Salome Williams - Kaede's creator. Sees her a few times every year so she can check on his progress. Holds some resentment for her, because he believes she is the sole reason people like Ace get killed for no good reason.
•Quincy Shishido - The man Kaede is cloned from. They have never met, and all Kaede knows about him is that Quincy excelled at illusory magic. No opinion on him otherwise.
•Ace, or A-22 - Part of the A series of replications. Gave Kaede his name, and insisted that "Kaede" should be what he tells people instead of his designation. Bright, friendly, and the only person who wasn't too afraid to have a conversation with Kaede. Culled.
•A-101 - The first A series replication, created around the same time as Kaede. Brutish and arrogant, he had been moved to isolation for violence against the researchers, which is typically something that would get a replication culled. However, he had been a part into their research on immortality, and killing him takes means beyond what the researchers are capable of.
•J - A clone of Salome William's wife. Kaede has not met her, but she has been watching his every move. It seems she might be planning something...