[quote]This eventually ended in the Afternoon Revolt of 1460, when countless rebels and innocents alike were killed by the Clockwork Queen, and no Rekordians received any dreams from the violet woman after that. All who dreamt of her were killed in the carnage caused by the queen, apart from one man. That man finds himself locked in the dungeons beneath the Sacred Record to this day, on the queen's orders, and will never see the sun again until the day he dies.[/quote] Ey, Nanaya, to confirm (because Otis's backstory involves this), all who dreamt of her were killed, but that doesn't mean that all who rebelled were killed, ye? Also, for literally all of us now... [quote]This is in contrast to essence manipulation, which is the practice of combining and moving essence without restrictions. Those who do so are called 'manipulators', and are rare at an advanced level due to the impracticality of it. Many with knowledge of essence will manipulate at some point in their daily lives, but those who use it in combat with any kind of efficiency are rare indeed. A fireball or heal will take minutes to manifest when done by the average manipulator, while a spellcaster could achieve such things in seconds at the cost of the three restrictions and more expended essence than a manipulator would use. Some rare prodigy manipulators have existed, such as Shaktis Wund, but it's typically a practice not relied upon in moments in which time is of the essence. The parsing and specific fusing of essences of different types within or around oneself required for manipulation, combined with the need for intense concentration, simply don't allow for the same instant usefulness of spells.[/quote] Time to start coming up with incantations and shit, y'all.