[Comartemis]

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*Drops a package and RUNS LIKE THE WIND!*

Spoiler for Ki Adepts: Masters of the Inner Flame:

The current trend in the multiversal community tends toward the usage of magic, thanks in no small part to the spread of the Time-Space Administration Bureau and the Belkan Empire before it. In many parts of the multiverse, the usage of magic is as commonplace as the usage of technology is on “less civilized” worlds, and warriors are typically ranked by a combination of martial skill and magical power in the TSA’s military forces.

However, magic has never been the sole source of power available to an aspiring warrior. Since the beginning of human history, exceptional warriors all across the multiverse have made use of the energies of the human body. These energies are known by many names, but in the multiversal community established by Belka and the TSA, this power source is generally known and referred to as “Ki”. Those who are skilled with the use of these energies refer to themselves as “Adepts”, much like Belkan warriors refer to themselves as “Knights” and Mid-Childan warriors refer to themselves as “Mages” depending on their individual combat styles.

The differences between ki and magic are multifold, and the strengths and weaknesses that come with these differences define Adepts as a completely different class of warrior from a mage or a knight.

• Mages and knights make use of energy pulled from the atmosphere and bound into spells through the usage of their linker cores. Adepts use strictly internal energies created by the body.
• The linker core serves as a focal point or a sort of ethereal magnifying glass which concentrates mana into a form mages can use. Ki, being generated by the entire body, flows through a series of pathways set into the body, much like a second circulatory system, and does not depend on any single organ for creation and usage.
• Magic can take many forms depending on the type of spell template used to form the attack. Ki can naturally be converted into some forms of physical energy, but it cannot replicate the effects of magic damage, and converting ki into energy forms such as fire or lightning requires extensive training above and beyond what is already demanded of an Adept.

The strengths of the use of ki are also multifold…

• Adepts make use of their energies by shunting them from one part of the body to another in order to enhance the body’s physical performance and capabilities. Doing this does not expend any ki whatsoever, so an Adept cannot ever run out of ki or exhaust themselves as mages can with their linker cores.
• Because there is no need to cast spells or link mana together, the abilities of an Adept have no casting time and can be used nearly instantaneously as needed.
• Similarly, ki is completely unaffected by Anti-Magilink Fields, and Adepts can function completely unhindered in AMF fields that would cripple most mages.
• The training involved in enhancing an Adept’s ability to use ki is usually done through physical exercise and intensive training; therefore, most if not all Adepts have above-average (and occasionally superhuman) physical characteristics and abilities even when not making use of their ki.
• The emphasis on physical combat leads most Adepts to place an emphasis on martial skill that most mages (and even many knights) lack, allowing a typical Adept to easily overwhelm ranged attackers in melee combat. This often extends to both armed and unarmed combat, further enhancing an Adept’s versatility in melee combat.

…as are the weaknesses.

• Because ki is the energy of the body, its use is limited to an area around the body. At low levels, only personal enhancement (akin to Reinforcement magic) is possible; mid and upper-level Adepts can project their ki pathways a short distance outwards away from the body to imbue weapons with ki or affect their immediate surroundings, but even grandmasters—approximately equal to S-rank mages and knights—are limited to a distance of a few meters; even the most basic ranged techniques available to Mid mages and Belkan knights are utterly impossible for an Adept to perform, no matter how skilled he may be.
• The vast array of abilities available to mages and knights are largely unavailable to Adepts; notably, binding and cage-type capture spells, increase and decrease-type support spells, summoning spells, force field-type spells, shooting and bombardment spells, most area-of-effect and ceremonial spells, and all abilities which project power beyond a range of a few meters are completely inaccessible to Ki Adepts.
• The complete list of effects an Adept can reproduce with their ki is therefore limited to the following list: melee-type spells, magic-enhanced attack-type spells, shield and field-type defensive spells, and certain types of transport spells. Particularly skilled users may also gain access to physical-type healing effects. Miscellaneous “lesser” spells not seen in canon may also qualify for this list on a case-by-case basis.
• The intensive training and high learning curve required to successfully harness one’s ki leads to many prospective Adepts abandoning the system in favor of the comparatively easier-to-learn Belkan system and its’ spinoffs. As a result, Adepts are nowhere near as common in the TSA as Neo-Belkan or Mid-Childan magic users (though they are still far more common than Ancient Belkan knights).
• Specialized devices may be used to assist an Adept with his ki usage, but unless the Adept has reached the level where they can easily extend their ki flows outside their bodies, linking the device to the Adept’s ki pathways requires intrusive surgery and a direct physical connection between the Adept’s body and the device’s AI core.