1. **The Universal Path: The Path of Divinity**
This is the ultimate, overarching path that all other power systems eventually lead to. It represents a being's fundamental progress toward godhood.
- **Seeker:** One who desires divinity and has acquired a single piece of lower knowledge.
- **Legacy:** A Seeker (or higher) from a divine bloodline.
- **Apotheosis:** A being who has overcome mortal limits. Their body becomes inhumanly durable, and their soul ignites with a small flame, strengthening their existence.
- **Ascendant:** A being for whom all mortal powers are meaningless. Their soul burns with a bright, unquenchable fire.
- **Transcended:** (Unknown)
- **Initial Concept Creation:** (Unknown)
2. **The Sources of Power**
All known power in this world stems from three primary sources:
- **Aether (Ambient):** The natural energy of the world itself. It is "gaseous," present everywhere, and neutral. It is the raw, base-level energy that can be refined.
- **Faith (Refined):** A superior, higher form of energy. The Church's methods are techniques for absorbing Aether and converting it into Faith through the crucible of human will and prayer. It is the fuel of Order.
- **Corruption (Alien):** Power that "leaks" from the alien will of the Great Ones. It is fueled by the psychic and emotional energy of sapient beings—all emotions and thoughts, from agony to joy. It is the fuel of Chaos.
3. **The Path of Faith (The Church)**
This is the disciplined system practiced by all major churches. It is a path of absorbing Aether and converting it into Faith, which is then refined internally.
- **The Path of the Word (Priest):** This path focuses on channeling Faith through a personal Spiritual Attribute to externalize it as "miracles."
- **Rank 1: Acolyte**
Individuals (often children) who are identified by the Church as having a high probability of awakening a Spiritual Attribute. They begin their theological and martial training.
- **Rank 2: Priest**
An Acolyte who has successfully awakened their Spiritual Attribute. They are fully trained in the Knight's Inner Crucible and can use their attribute to channel Faith for healing, barriers, and offense.
- **Rank 3: High Priest**
A veteran Priest who has broken their spiritual barrier, achieving a new tier of power. They are powerful warriors who command legions.
- **Rank 4: Arch Priest**
The apex of the Priest path. They answer only to the Pope and possess the power to level cities or confront an Ascendant.
- **The Path of the Shield (Knight):** This path focuses on internal refinement, turning the body itself into a "font" or "crucible" to convert Aether into a personal, condensed store of Faith.
- **Base Technique:** Flame Breathing Method (absorbs gaseous Aether for stamina).
- **Core Technique:** Method of the Inner Crucible (the primary technique for converting Aether into liquid Faith within the knight's spiritual core).
- **Stage 1: The Liquid State**
- **Rank:** Holy Knight
- **Process:** The knight fully masters the Inner Crucible, successfully refining raw Aether into a stable, internal core of liquid Crucible Faith.
- **Result:** The body is "forged," becoming inhumanly dense, heavy, and durable.
- **Stage 2: The Solid State**
This is the true path to mastery, often requiring an awakened Spiritual Attribute (like Inhuman Insight) or a mind of "absolute zero." It has three distinct sub-stages:
- **Sub-stage 1:** The Viscous State (Semi-Solid)
- **Process:** The knight learns to temporarily compress their liquid Faith, making it thick, heavy, and viscous.
- **Result:** The ability to "penetrate" rather than just "hit," shattering the Corrupted Carapace of "Formed" Tainted.
- **Sub-stage 2:** The Singularity Core (Solid)
- **Rank:** Great Knight
- **Process:** The knight achieves a stable, permanent, and true "Singularity" in their core. Their Faith is no longer liquid but a condensed, solid-state core of power.
- **Result:** This is the mark of a Great Knight. Their power is immense, allowing them to channel solid Faith to shatter "Conscious" Tainted. (Kalean's current stage).
- **Sub-stage 3:** The Perfected State
- **Process:** The final refinement. The knight's control over their "Singularity" becomes absolute, effortless, and perfectly efficient, wasting no energy.
- **Result:** Total mastery. (The state Kalean seeks, and the one used by the Holy Swords).
4. **The Path of Corruption (The Tainted)**
This is the evolutionary "system" of the enemy, fueled by the spectrum of all human (or sapient) thoughts and emotions.
- **Rank 0:** Whisper: The non-physical "seed" of Corruption.
- **Rank 1:** Echo: A mindless puppet in a dead vessel (e.g., Grave-kin).
- **Rank 2:** Formed: A bestial, instinctive monster with a "Corrupted Carapace" (e.g., Greater Husks).
- **Rank 3:** Conscious: A sapient, intelligent Tainted that wields its power.
- **Listener:** A psychic "priest" (uses "Lament" storms).
- **Bone-Knight:** A physical "knight" (uses solid-state Malice).
- **Rank 4:** Ascendant: A world-ending, "Apex" Tainted that can warp reality.
5. **Other Known Paths**
These are other, less common paths to power that exist outside the mainstream Church doctrine.
- **The Argent Hand (Spiritualists):** A powerful and secretive order. They do not worship gods but instead worship the potential of the soul itself. They refine their own souls directly through brutal mental and physical trials, seeking to achieve a form of godhood on their own terms.
- **Witchers (Old Bloods):** Remnants of an ancient practice, now banned. They are humans modified in infancy through potions and spiritual rituals. This process "burns away" their humanity, leaving them as cold, efficient killing machines who use the world's Aether to fuel their inhuman abilities.
- **Spirit Containers:** A heretical path where an individual uses their own soul as a "cage" to trap a Tainted Spirit, seeking to steal its power. This is a path to guaranteed corruption and madness, as the trapped entity grows alongside the host, a "ticking time bomb" that will eventually devour their soul.
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