World fabric

"Able-bodied" (Magical person)

The number Seven

The number seven is a very important number in fabric of this world. The most powerful people are called “Sevens” because they have seven magical abilities and there are only seven of them at any given time.

However, the limit is doubled for “sixes,” where there can be 14 sixes. The limit is 3x with “fives,” meaning that the number of magical people in the world in total is fixed:

• 7 powers, 7 people
• 6 powers, 14 people
• 5 powers, 21 people
• 4 powers, 28 people
• 3 powers, 35 people
• 2 powers, 42 people
• 1 power, 49 people
• Total: Only 196 people have magical powers.

Obtaining power

When a abled person dies the next baby that is born on the continent becomes the next magical person with the same amount of magical abilities, maintaining the magical balance. Thus, if a Seven dies, the next child born will be a Seven. The child doesn’t necessarily have all the same exact powers, however. Because of this dynamic, abled are considered either nobility or high value targets. It would not be unheard of to capture a lower level magical person (a 1 or a 2) in order to sell the option of killing them right when the buyer’s baby is born. Magical people whose abilities are not defensive or combat based often chose to not reveal themselves for this reason.

Magical people’s growth

Much like puberty, a magical person’s abilities will always start to form at a certain age: seven. If you have but one ability, you will start to have access to that ability in limited ways starting at 7 years old. If you have two abilities, the second one won’t reveal itself until you are 8 years old, and so on. This means that if you are lucky enough to have seven abilities, you wont have access to all of them until you’ve turned 13 years old.

Energy and ability casting

Most non-passive abilities require energy. This “energy” is not a separate magical power or resource that they must store up, like “mana” or other similar mechanics – it is the modern day definition:

noun: the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity

It is the same energy that a non-magical person would need to lift a heavy box or get through a long day. When someone is low or out of energy, they are exhausted, tired, and ready for sleep. The activities a person fills their day with often determine how much energy is expended and how tired they are. Magical abilities are no different. Casting a shielding spell expends the same amount of energy as lifting a box. Casting a particularly powerful shielding spell expends the same amount of energy as lifting a particularly heavy box. This means that if a magical person is literally lifting boxes AND casting magical shields, they are draining the same energy pool.

Some actions are so intense that people can’t cast them more than a few times a day, much like modern day people don’t work out more than a few times a day. As with real life, our actions often drain two pools of energy: short term and long term (Modern day text books will often call short term energy “ATP”). If someone is lifting weights constantly, eventually they will burn out and run out of short-term energy – such it is with magical abilities. But the overall act of working out also drains the person’s long term energy. The same principles for physical and mental actions in the real world apply to most magical abilities in the same way.