Unless, you are living under a rock then Netflix's original series Stranger Things should be something that you are familiar with. Although, I typically write on my own world mythos, lore and world-building I came around this show. I finished it in a weekend, and was blown away from the way that I was enthralled to the characters, the pace and writing the show instilled on me. A week after I watched the show I decided that I would dedicate this week's blog post to this show and why I think it works as a show. This statement rests on three reasons, the overall writing of the plot, the characters and the blend of elements to create a unique experience that ushers back into 80's sci-fi/horror of old.


The show itself was created by the Duffer Brothers, and immediately starts off in a small town of Hawkins, Indiana a town after my own heart. The starting characters are four nerdy middle-school kids playing a game of Dungeons & Dragons, again this show really knows how to hook a nerd. The episode begins when Will, one of the boys mysteriously disappears and from that we are introduced to more characters including the Sheriff ,the mother of Will, and a cast of other important to semi-important characters.


The plot moves slow, but it picks up by the third episode when the plot and conflicts start to be brought to the surface with a series of weird and bizarre things occurring in the town. The main reason for this seems to build the setting, the time, and to establish the characters. This is set in the 80's in a small Indiana town, so getting the tone and the setting down to mold the viewer into a specific mindset. The plot wheels really start to go when doubts of our main cast of characters are thrown into motion.


Slowly, but surely small hints of a greater conspiracy including psychics, the government, and a a monster are brought to the surface, with a few more character arcs that slowly move the characters towards initial contact and conflict. Even when they give you enough that you understand what is going on, there are more surprises near the end of the show. These surprises don't jump out either as much as they are slowly given to you and the viewer has to put together the plot like a puzzle. Nothing is given too easily or too quickly.


The plot is itself in two main paths, unless we count the antagonists then there is a third path. These paths and plot points are really a series of rising and falling actions. We get some clarity occasionally and then something happens to screw up that clarity. We find a body of Will, but it is not the actual body. But, this causes the Sheriff to investigate even further and a huge reveal is staged after this event. Which escalates the character into more peril.


Which segways into my second great thing about this show is the characters. Not just their development, but their character arcs. The eight main characters particularly who have character arcs. The three boys Mike, Dustin, and Lucas; their psychic friend Eleven who goes by Eli; Chief Jim Hopper; Joyce Byers who is Will's mother; Jonathan Byers who is Will's brother; and Mike's sister, Karen. There is also Dr. Brenner as the main antagonist of the series, but we will discuss him in a second.


The characters themselves are very proactive bunch of protagonists who go out and try to solve the case of the missing boy and each have a character arc to boot. The boys sorta ties in with El's arc, but El has her own arc as well. Each of the boy's have a rising and falling action with Lucas and Mike having the more important roles that are tested in the story. Lucas is there for support, but as he is counted as one of the boys I feel he has an important role to play in the character arc of the boys.


Eleven or El has her own arc that is both coming in terms with her powers, but as she was in a lab for most of her life, she has to come to terms with being a girl in 80's society. Her character arc is probably one of my favorite from the series, and she is one of my favorite characters because of that. Her powers resolve what the boys can not, and because of that she is sort of their answer of finding Will. She is what moves the plot forward for the boys, and in reality the whole story is centered around her in a way, which we will talk about in a second.


Chief Hopper is tied to Joyce in terms of character arcs and support. He is trying his hardest despite his own trauma about his own daughter to help find Will. He pushes the plot along first, and is the first to discovery something is not quite right with the events surrounding Will's disappearance. He is one of the most proactive characters in this show, and along with El, my favorite character.


Joyce's arc is also tied to her sons, and her son to Nancy. The three of them have their own arcs that are very similar. Joyce's arc is all about her losing her sanity, but still wanting to find her son. Her brother gets emotional due to his brother's disappearance, and when Nancy's friend goes missing her arc collides with that of the others.


Each of these character arcs are eventually brought together near the finale where Dr. Brenner is featured as the antagonist of our protagonists. He is a man of science, and apparently has some relationship to El. He also is the one who might be responsible for breaking the walls between dimensions using El's powers. Yeah, there are quite a bit of science stuff, that is mostly theoretically addressed which is an important part of the story.


The way science is used, makes it a huge part of it's science fiction/horror genre plot and setting. The way this show blends multiple ideas about science, and pseudo-science in a somewhat historically accurate Indiana town is quite interesting. We have big government funded science and conspiracies as the main driving force of the antagonists and slowly our protagonists are sent to face this. Pretty much the sci-fi trope of the big bad government and corrupt science did something bad and unleashed a monster in the form of demogorgon a monster from Dungeons and Dragons.


Speaking of the Dungeons and Dragons themes in the series, they are quite appealing to me as a nerd and avid table-top player. However, they function not just as references for fanboys, but references to easily explain the science-fiction and horror aspects and world-building that this series tries to accomplish. It might help nerds like myself get into the series, but more importantly it is a starting point for the viewer. Since the show starts and ends with a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.


Besides science-fiction and horror the main source of conflict and plot point in the show is that of a mystery. Everyone is trying to find Will. His disappearance is what sparks the plot into motion, and draws all of these characters into the fray. But, it is not the only mystery as Hopper as he is trying to find Will ends up following the trail of not Will, but of Eleven. This allows for the eyes of the viewer to see Eleven's story play out in a very creative and mysterious way. Not only that, but it ties directly back into the evil government conspiracy. Everyone comes together, just like characters arcs and just like the writing.


So, in conclusion the show bridges it's characters, it's overall plot and it's elements to create a very nice homage to 80's science-fiction. If you enjoy stuff like The Thing, or enjoy the writings of Stephen King, then I recommend this show. I am not a huge fan normally of horror, but the way that Stranger Things is written I can respect. It was a wild and short ride with an ending that makes me hopeful of some sort of sequel series. My hat goes off to the Duffer Brothers and to Netflix, such a phenomenal show that takes it's influences and creates something new. Watch out Hollywood, Netflix is coming. 

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Today's blogpost will be discussing something I have briefly discussed in previous posts. The difference between mages and imagients in my universe. I briefly discussed this on my 'What is an Imagient' blog post, and I will go over the summaries there and then try to expand on the ideas I worked in that, to hopefully better separate between the two so that people understand that they are the same.


Imagients vs. Mages, the differences between the two can be seen by how they maintain and control their abilities, what powers their abilities, and the maximum potential between the two. I will also go into detail about Imagient Mages, and how yes, despite the fact that there is a difference, there is also a blend of both, because I need to make myself more confusing.


In the 'What is an Imagient' blog post I discussed how both Imagients and mages are limited by the laws of magic, but that an Imagient can somewhat bend these rules, but they must at least make rules for their own imagientechs. Pretty much Imagients manipulate reality and make it their own, that being said control for a mage is actually much more simpler and less metaphysical.


Control is one of the defining factors on what makes a mage capable of doing magic, and an Imagient from not destroying themselves or others when using their powers. A mage has either been training with his or her powers at some type of academic or home school setting. Be it some fancy mage's school, home schooled by their parents, or in the case of a cleric or a priest at a temple. There are also those sorcerers, witches, and druids who are either have innate abilities or train pretty much solitary like monks. All of these 'mages' have to learn to control their power, and generally can with years of practice, master their art.


For a mage control comes from practice and materialization of their powers. It occurs because of training of some sort, which rely on generally a type of magical theory to make all of their control of power necessarily. It may be an actual theory like an arcane school, or specialization such as a cleric's holy spells to ward off demons. A monk could train for years under a waterfall channeling their ki or spiritual energy (ki,chi, spiritual energy is all the same thing in my universe) into devastating weapons or defenses.


Mages are called such because they manipulate magic, and use it in ways that only they can do because of their training. A mage who has trained for years can control their powers and is much stronger than an Imagient who just trying to understand their abilities. They are generally unless they are super specialized have a variety of spells or abilities to interact in most situations. Control of their powers, and knowledge about their own abilities make mages their own category of magic users.


Imagients on the other hand don't necessarily have this type of control through training. Yes, Imagients gain power by using their powers and training, many can go to dojos, mages schools, and the like to increase their power. However, they are not tied down by those magical theories and arcane schools, they don't get their powers from divine sources, it is inherently theirs. But, Imagients still have to deal with control, in fact probably even more so.


An imagient has to deal with the fact that they must make rules for all their powers. If an imagient doesn't learn from their parents the rules of their abilities and/or manifest them later in life, they are called a 'wilder' which is an Imagient who has a very vague, and very limited control of their power. This can be a blessing and a curse for an Imagient.


A wilder technically has a very vague idea of their powers meaning they are pretty limitless, but that also needs a great deal of control. Sometimes that control and focus can be too much for an Imagient to handle and it overloads or they end up not controlling their power and it can in fact injure those around the imagient and even lead to the death of the Imagient. That is why wilders are generally seen as freaks in some circles, and in others bad omens. More so than not 'wilders' are seen as people who still need to master their powers.


The main way for Imagients to control their power, is to give it specific rules that only the Imagient knows. The more rules and imagientech has the more specific and specialized the ability is, but it allows for greater control. One could say 'less is more', but for an imagient more rules is more like 'more is more' which means more to work with and more imaginative ideas can come out of this. Playing with rules, and bending them at times, allows an imagient to pretty much control their abilities and know their own weaknesses and faults and then work around those areas to make sure that they know their boundaries.


Because Imagients can bend their own rules, and since they have a much greater imaginative process than a mage who is doing stuff via some type of school or limited ideas of power will generally lose. It doesn't help that Imagients don't necessarily power their abilities the same way that normal mages, monks or other magical people do. Imagients and mages all use spiritual energy or ki, or chi or whatever you want to call it. For a mage that spiritual energy is their battery fuel for their magic. An Imagient the fuel is just the canister, and their imagination is the fuel.


There are three types of spiritual energy flow which is how spiritual energy is regulated in a body. These are burst, focused, and cycle. All spiritual energy exists outside the body and inside the body and will enter and exit the body at various times. The three types of flow exhibit how mages and even imagients use spiritual energy.


Burst is a very powerful and forceful use of energy. It drains a lot of spiritual energy from the user, but is very strong. For instance someone could shoot spiritual bullets out of their and or a massive beam of energy, both would be considered burst type.


Focused is more so what mages aim to have in their spiritual control. It takes energy from outside the body and inside the body to create a more focused and concentrated use of both energy sources. For instance clerics take energy from divine sources outside the body and control that source with their own spiritual energy, while a druid does similar things with their spiritual energy except the source is natural.


The third type is called cycle, and generally is regulated by the spiritual points or chakra points of energy entering and exiting the body. It doesn't use that much spiritual energy, and allows more spiritual energy to enter the body. Abilities that use a cycle flow are generally not as powerful, but those who use cycled flow can use more energy.


For mages these flow types are important because they ensure that a mage has enough spiritual energy to cast a spell. But, as I previously eluded for an Imagient that is not the case. These flow type are just canisters to use their energy. For an Imagient as long as they have the imagination to fill that canister of energy flow their power regulation depends on other factors such as other imagientechs, and in some cases the environment where the ability is being used.


Making most of their imagination is what defines an Imagient, and the main difference between a mage and Imagient begin. A mage is limited by his potential for a variety of reasons. Not saying a mage can not become godly or very powerful. On the contrary mages especially master mages who have trained in their craft can make giant fireballs, cause storms, and defeat dragons. However, they are generally limited by the rules of magic. An Imagient is not limited by these things, and in fact their potential is only limited by their imagination. If an Imagient has the ability to control and power a world catastrophic dilemma, geuss what they can do it.


Imagients are scary to many non-Imagients because of this fact. It is why mianthi control and regulate Imagients in their country of Legosolith. It is why earlier humans kicked Taisha Taika and other Imagients out of Neona, because they feared Imagients. That being said mages and Imagients are not so different.


An Imagient can learn a lot form how a mage studies, and using the magical theories and understanding them can make an Imagient Mage, an individual who uses their imagitechs like a mage's magical abilities. This may seem as a weird fusion of ideas, but it can still happen and create some of the most powerful beings in the Imagience. The Mage's School that is located in the Sutonite Confederacy is just one place where this is not only common, it is the norm. Of course non-Imagient mages also exist there, but it is still a place where these two theories I talk about work together in harmony as much as I have stated that mages and Imagients are different.


Imagients and mages are indeed very different. Imagients and Mages both use spiritual energy, but while a mage is limited by their own spiritual flow and Imagient is limited by their Imagination. A Mage can control their abilities through training, although Imagients can do that, the easiest way for them to do so is to add rules to their imagientech. Imagients are not limited by their potential as mages are, but by their own imagination. Despite these differences Imagients and Mages are not that different, but there is a difference in a very metaphysical sense. Both will be encountered in The Imagient King.

​Today's blog post discusses the modern or at least at the time of The Imagient King, the various contries and even factions within the Imagience. 



Cyphic Kingdom
With it's capitol at Cyphar, it is the largest country in the Imagience. It is ruled by an aristocracy and the most powerful are either related to or serve the Cyph family, although the Cyph family alone do not control the country, only around the city of Cyphar do they directly control. It was created by most of the Sycamor lords aligned with the Cyph family when they rebelled. The currency is Cyphicals which are coins with various Cyphic leaders, princes, and wolves on it.
Cyphic culture is based on Roman culture, and it's infrastructure includes Roman tropes such as aqueducts, paved brick roads, and a large urban sprawl. The larger cities have coliseums, and instead of slavery there is a feudal system that makes criminals work in mines and farms if they are not sent to be executed. The Cyphic Kingdom is a patriarchy, and has very little place for women advancement, it is the only place in the Imagience that is like this, oddly. Dispite this there are quite a few powerful women in the Cyphic Kingdom, and as Civil War looms in the kingdom, the old rule might be shaken up by anyone with power to maintain peace.
In War the Cyphic Kingdom primarily uses light cavalry as it's main strike force. The Cyphic Wolves are medium infantry who uses spears and medium shields. They are defended by archers and generally move in very Roman formation. The light cavalry generally comes to flank around the enemy while the arrows inflict damage from afar. The Cyphic have fought against Kasite, the Omi Empire and the Southland Kingdom of Kirkia not to mention their previous enemies the Garfield, Southview, Anderson, Albanu, and Macedons.
The banner and symbol of the Cyphic Kingdom are three wolf heads, which some say is reference to the three sons of Erik Van Cyph. But since he only acknowledges one as an heir, one as a bastard, and the other one as his son who doesn't have any legitimacy this theory is not correct. It actually references the three trinity of the Cyphic unity, The King, his men, and his countryman. Because of this, many refer to Cyphic loyalists as Cyphic dogs.


Empire of the Omi Islands
Originally formed by the famous Imagient Taisho Taika, the dragon general. The Omi islands is a feudal society ruled by a joint Imagient-and Magic families. They are based on Japanese, Chinese, and Korean societies, but have no shogun, only an emperor. The Liang and Omi families are the two strongest. It's capitol is Ondai Yo.
The currency is Onyo which are square gold coins that go on strings. These strings and sashes are attached to clothing via netsuke which are ornamental. The currency itself is mostly golden with square hole in the middle that allows the string or wire to be placed through.
Omi Empire is based off Confucius Asia and has traits of Japan, Korea, and Han and especially Tang China. Interestingly there are Omi diaspora throughout the Imagience outside of the Omi Empire including in Sutite, their colonies along the Cyphic territories, and in the Zulgan city states. An interestingly very Vietnamese culture has been encountered on the mainland in Omi occupied Cyphic prominently in Andersona/Nesson.
The Omi Empire's military is split into three factions, the navy, the military, and the mages. It's navy is very Korean and Ming Dynasty influenced while it's military ground troops are mostly Japanese inspired. Lords bring soldiers and are led not by army type, but by allegiance, and mages come from either religious institutions or self-trained dojos that combine either Imagientechs with martial arts or magic/spiritual training with martial arts are are more of a special ops.
The symbol of the Omi Empire is a dragon, known as the great Dragon of the East. Some have mislabeled Omi as snakes, to mock the eastern looking dragon and not acknowledge it as powerful.




Great Southland Kingdom of Kirkia
One of the oldest kingdoms in the Imagience formed by Kras Kirkia, it is mostly a jungle nation now, but had powerful temple complexes where the old Iron Priestess religion was formed. Currently led by Dan Kirkia, at his grandfather's capitol of Kirkian. It is an oligarchy controlled by Dan Kirkia jointly with his local lords many secretly are aligned with the return of the Sycamor hier. The control is ruled as a Meritocracy, only giving people roles who show their merit.
Kirkia is a southern kingdom that takes its culture primarily from Peruvian, but especially Incan culture. Also like the Sycamor and Suttonite culture it takes certain ideas from the Iroquois League and Native American culture as well. However, many Kirkians attitudes are very Italian and are lax and are deemed by Cyphic and Zulgans as lazy.
The currency are idols made from clay and painted various colors. Brown is common and worth 5, Green is uncommon and worth 10, Silver rare and worth 20, and golden idols are worth 50.


Miathi Kingdom of Legosolith
Ancient Spacial elven kingdom, mostly deluted by non spacial-elven dna and even imbreds with Imagients. Based at Myvandium, the oldest city in the Imagience, found by the Spacial Elves or Mianthi. It is a queendom ruled by a motherly doting queen, and female elves. Males are used as soldiers and other occupations such as smithies. Imagients must have a register to a family or are enslaved to work in camps. Only those with elven blood even half-imagients can have political power. Only pure blood elves can rule the country. Imagients are treated like second class citizens in most of the kingdom, but Myvandium is a popular stop thanks to the Library of Myvandium. The border is guarded with towers, walls, and troops and has strong immigration policy. If the border guards seize someone illegally in the country they force them into slavery.


Zulgan City States
Consisting of various city states in the Tomas Sea and on the border with Kirkia and Cyph. Run as various plutocracies who all trade and regulate with each other.. Merchants, free trade, and freedom of choice are paramount here.
The Zulgan city States are all unique cities that are all primarily based on Southeast Asian city states such as Tomvan being a port version of Hong Kong, Tomas Port being similar to Singapore, and Zulgan is based off of Jakarta, other cities such as Adra Grif are based off of Bangkok, and other smaller cities are based off of Angkor, Malaka and other trade cities in Asia.
The various city states are mostly controlled and led by merchants or at least a council of merchants. Tomas Port is run by a council of five prominent families including the Reis, Poluff-Sheridan, and three other families. Andra Grif is controlled by a council which itself is loyal to the Thief King and so on. Although, one would think that people can just buy their way into politics in the Zulgan city states there are rule of engagement, and courtesy that are paramount in the delicate political games of the Zulgan City States. The only place where this is different is Tomvan which has become very Cyphic since the city states opened their trade doors back with Cyphic.
Zulgan City States have private armies based on the merchant, none of them are standing armies and act more like mercenary bands, but many bands have loyalty to a city. Adra Grif and Zulgan are the only two exceptions to this rule as Adra Grif has a partial standing army that only acts in time of war. These two places also have an active navy, unlike Tomas Port which has no navy, but instead hires pirates during times of war.
Zulgan use gold, silver, and bronze coins called Zullians. They are all uniform, and flat, but many people plaster stamps on them to make them look artistic. These stamps can be washed off and applied. Many people who store and invest with tons of money decorate their stamps and coins in very ornament fashion.




Sutite Confederacy
Once controlled by the Kirkians, now by the Cyph and then later the Omi. The Sutites are people who are multicultural and desire freedom. They favor liberty and independence.
The Sutites are descendants of the Great Suttonite Kingdom which was one of the kingdoms that formed after the death of Taisha Taika's kingdom. They were then destroyed by the original Kirkian Kingdom. However, some Suttites fought back against Kirkian oppression and retained cultural heritage. This faction then split once more once the Omi invaded. You have the Mienes family who claim allegiance to the Sycamor, but aligned with the Omi during the invasion.
The other two factions are the Southviewit Knights who are a Templar Knights like Satari organization and The Mage's School. The Mage's School of the Imagience are mostly human mages who live in the Imagience. The leader of the school is a dragon, but leds mostly human students. Both of these factions support independence form Cyphic and Omi rule.


Kasite
Great monarchy to the north ruled by the Konkan family and their various allies. They consider themselves more than the Sycamor as heirs to Taisho Taika. Their capitol is Konite which lies inside a mountain.
Kasite is a Kingdom ruled by Patriarchs who rose during the end of the Michianan War. The dynasts claim descendancy from the Munshi much like the Sycamor. But, they claim they have a more purer bloodline since Lyander Sycamor married into the Sheridans.
Culturally they are based off Carthage, but many see them as northern barbarians like the huns, or mongols.
The Kasite in war use heavy cavalry that are built on strong war horses that can endure the elements. They also know how to use the mountains to their advantage. Kasite has trade networks down into Nubyar which allows them to obtain gunpowder, black imagicite is their largest export which means that in war the Kasite also use black imagicite in new and exciting ways including black imagicite wire and dust.


Nubyar
On paper, an autocracy, sometimes considered an oligarchy and in theory a theocracy who follow the teachings of Sect Lie eventually. Who worship the fertility goddess Sian-nah.
Nubyar is a Persian and Indian influenced area where merchants export exotic goods. They also have access to the Great Portax of the Imagience which allows trade outside of the Imagience. Making this area somewhat at times more technologically superior. At the time of the Imagient King, though trade and tech has been slow do to various trade deals and international/intergalactic problems.
Nubyar is actually home of the oldest Imagient civilization in the Imagience, a fact that many don't want to forget. Learning about history via poetry, writing, and oral history is important and much like in Zulgan City States museums and monuments depicting this are found all around.
Nubyar like the Zulgan city states not only value trade, but have war elephants as their main war machines. Their army uses gunpowder units, cavalry, infantry, archers, and a variety of tactics. 

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What is the Imagience? The wold in which The Imagient King book series takes place. Is it a world? A planet? Well, not really, and in this blog post I hope to explain what exactly is The Imagience.


Most fantasy books are set in fictitious worlds much like our own, a reflection of society, but The Imagient King is placed in a somewhat different universe and a somewhat different type of world. In fact it isn't a world or a planet, but rather a spacial plane in between two different universes.


The Imagience was created by the mianthi or some say by an elder race much older than the mianthi as a spacial distortion between the Computus Galaxy and the Imagined Realm. This connects the Imagience with my greater world building or rather universe building aspect. The Computus Galaxy is where most of my other stories will take place, and I might make a blog post about that later. However, for simplicity sake in today's post I will limit it to the Imagience itself. The only thing you will have to know about the Imagined Realm is that in it exists every story or idea ever imagined. So all of your fan-fictions go there.


The mianthi were the first settlers to the Imagience, they fled to the Imagience eons ago during the 'Great Flight of the Elves' a world changing event that occurred in the Computus millions of years ago. This sent the various elven families diverging into their modern variations, the mianthi were one of these variations and they made this their home.


The mianthi would routinely expand the Imagience with giant spacial distortion pillars imbued with their power made from Imagicite. The pillars are what both keep the Imagience intact, but also stabilize it so it doesn't collapse. For all intense and purposes, the Imagience shouldn't exist as it is a spacial distortion between two different universes it is on the periphery of a multitude of physics breaking calamity, the only thing that stops the Imagience from being ripped apart is those pillars.


It is unknown if the mianthi terraformed the area or if it was already terraformed. There exists the main continent and various islands. It isn't that people haven't tried to explore beyond the ocean boundaries they have, but once they get to the boundaries there are literally a spacial distortion of walls. The sun is one of the suns of a somewhat near solar system. The moon really isn'ta moon, but a floating piece of spacial debri. The Imagience is a lie, and nobody not even miathi know this.


Historically there have been various miathi kingdoms and empires, but most of those are not important to the story of The Imagient King. The first one that might be mentioned is Loranthil which was the first kingdom that Taisho Taika defeated when he and his Imagient horde arrived to the Imagience. It was here at the Battle of Galdrewa'weol that the history of the Imagience was forever changed. The Imagients would shape the history of the Imagience, and eventually get to the events of The Imagient King.  

My novel series The Imagient King in it's title brings up a world of fantasy, but it also brings up a good question, what in the world is an Imagient? How is it pronounced and what does it have to do with today's blog post? Those answers and more will be addressed in today's blog post. Today we will discuss what is an Imagient, why they are different than normal humans, a brief pre-history of Imagients, and how being an Imagient in the Imagience affects ones life.


Imagients pronounced i-maa-ji-ent are humans that have a special mutation that makes them different than normal humans. Technically all Imagients are humans. That is they look like humans, share all biological and cultural traits with humans. Imagients can breed with humans and produce offspring. The difference between Imagients and humans starts on the magical disparity between the two.


Normal humans can naturally learn magic and have inherent abilities to control magic. Although throughout human history, magic has either been seen as either a blessing or a curse, depending on the society and culture at the time. Magic in at least my universe is generated by using one's own spiritual energy or manipulating spiritual energy from outside the body, such as getting magic granted by a god or getting energy from nature like a druid.


Humans are forced to be limited by laws of magic, pertaining mostly to the various magical theories of thoughts and in most cases limited by their own knowledge as well. There are indeed powerful mages that have powers that rival gods, some of these will meet in later books in The Imagient King, but to keep things simple at first we focus on Imagients, and what makes them different than mages.


Imagients are different than their human counterparts thanks to a mutation that allows them to take everything I just said in the previous paragraph and bend the rules. Imagients cheat the system of magic, they don't necessarily have to be limited by the laws of magic instead they substitute those laws with their own imagination, allowing them to break and bend existing magical laws and properties.


Don't misunderstand, Imagients technically still follow rules of magic, and their attacks are still are in abidance by the studly of elementology, which is the study on how magical elements interact with each other. That being said, while a normal mage might have to be limited by his power and his knowledge on a spell an Imagient doesn't necessarily have to.


For example let us say a mage who has trained for a decade casts his favorite spell a fireball. The fireball is pretty much limited to the size and duration of the caster. Magic is a skill in this case, it has to be learned and it has to be perfected. The same mage will cast the fire ball as an elemental attack and it will do damage. An Imagient who has an Imagientech, or Imagient Technique to control, manipulate and produce fireballs doesn't need a decade of practice to get to that level. The Imagient must still learn how to control and get to that level, but it is usually not in a decade. The other big distinction is that the fireball Imagientech is far more versatile than the fireball.


Imagientechs can do anything that magic spells can, and can do more. Think of an Imagientech in the same vein as an esper ability. They both do supernatural things, but one is explained by magic and the other one is by science. Although, Imagientechs are not science, they are a visible and tangible manifestation of an Imagient's imagination made real. One could say that magic is the same, but magic is generally taught as a skill and again is limited by the school of thought while an Imagientech is general birthed and grows with the limitation and aspiration of the Imagient.
Let's go back to the fireball analogy for a second. The mage casts the fireball, and it is done. Unless he has decided to place more spells into the fireball, it is over after it is cast. A fireball imagientech however could if the Imagient willed or imagined it could split into multiple fireballs, turn to different colors, and a multitude of other things.


For an Imagient an Imagientech is a reflection of their personality, just as certain people think that colors can reflect a person or personalities, an Imagientech is reflective on the wielder. It's an extension of themselves and can be as mighty or as minor as they want. The more Imagientechs an Imagient possesses the stronger the Imagient which led to Imagient culture wanting pure bred Imagients and powerful ones. Power was the key to early Imagient culture and success.


A pure-bred Imagient also known as Imagient Lords rule over most Imagients due to a couple of reasons. The main being a pure-blood has a total of four slots of attainable Imagientechs. But, what does that mean? All Imagients have Imagient potential or Imagined slots that hold abilities. Now an Imagient makes these slots due to rules of controlling an Imagientech. If they don't have rules their their powers and contain them, the Imagientech will overcome the Imagient and the Imagient will become a problem for themselves and for others.


Hence one of the reasons why pure-bred Imagient families keep their powers in house. They pass down one or two Imagientechs to their children and then let the Imagient find out their own abilties from there. This keeps Imagient families and powers very distinctive, but also creates a sort of bond to family to Imagientech and why one can trace lineage with Imagientech.


Purebred Imagients rule over non-pure-breeds, because those with more power of course can dictate to the powerless. This doesn't mean that half or even quarter Imagients don't have the tendency to become powerful or respected in purebred societies, but it is usually a minor population of non-Imagient Lords who rule over the population.


This very power hungry control over Imagients and their powers has led to many families and power struggles throughout history. It should leave very little to the imagination on why normal humans don't get along with Imagients. In pre-history past on the human home world of Neona, Imagients were called witches, demons, and other bad things associated with Imagients. They were rounded up, and slaughter, massacred.


Then one day a man named Taisha Taika from a small archipelago, rose up and created his own kingdom. He then sent out word that he was trying to recruit an align with other Imagients. Not all of Neona's Imagients followed his wish, and decided to not come and stay hidden from humanity. Then a group of human wizards, mutant sentient animals called Monjins, and some angels and even demons created an Anti-Imagient alliance to stop Taisha Taika's empire.


Seeing that his empire on Neona was crippled Taisha Taika took his kingdom and escaped through a portal called a portax and escaped creating a saga fit for it's own book series eventually to the Imagience. Then at the Imagience the Imagients began creating their new home in the desert region in the southeast. The Imagients would venture north and fight mianthi kingdoms who were at the time in a massive war. In the confusion the Imagients under Taisha Taika's reign would spread throughout the Imagience, and after his death would continue to spread until the mianthi would be regulated to western Imagience. No, wonder they are suspicious of Imagients and want to enslave them nor trust them.


Imagients have powers that are breathtaking, they are sometimes called one-man armies because the stronger ones in legends and tales have taken on armies of humans, mianthi, and even other Imagients on their own. They can defy reality with their imaginations, and have had a long way and a long journey ahead of them. The Imagient King is just the beginning on shedding the light on the Imagience and the stories of the Imagients that I want to tell.