BioChromatic Breath

BioChroma, also known as Breath, is the power of life on Nalthis. Every living being is born with a certain BioChromatic Investiture. Humans are able to use their Breath to perform Awakening as well as gaining benefits from having more than one Breath.

Types of BioChromatic entities

Type I

Spontaneous Sentient BioChromatic Manifestations in a Deceased Host, also known as the Returned, are the only known natural BioChromatic entity. They retain sentience after being Returned following death, and are endowed with a divine Breath. Returned are able to Awaken normally using any Breaths on top of their divine Breath, but giving away the divine Breath results in death.

The divine Breath, a single powerful Breath that grants them the Fifth Heightening, is a Splinter of Endowment. Giving away the divine Breath to another person will instantly heal that person, at the cost of the life of the Returned.

Type II

Mindless Manifestations in a Deceased Host, also known as the Lifeless, are non-sentient reanimated human remains. They have a functioning brain, and are able to interpret old Commands and have new Commands given.

Type II entities are cheap to make, even with awkward Commands. This is due to the Law of BioChromatic Parallelism. However, Breath sticks so firmly to the construct that it is impossible to remove afterwards. They are able to be Awakened using a single Breath using the right Command, the knowledge of which was a contributing factor to the Manywar. Ichor-alcohol can also replace the blood of the remains to make the Awakening process easier.

Type III

The process generally thought of as Awakening creates Type III entities, a BioChromatic manifestation in an organic host far removed from being alive. Examples include Awakened ropes, cloth, or skeletal remains.

Type III objects can take a great deal of Breaths, often over one hundred, to create. However, since the object being Awakened is far from being alive, the Breath can be recovered afterwards. For this reason, much more is known about the Commands to Awaken Type III entities.

Someone who has reached the Ninth Heightening is able to Awaken things like stone or steel, which were never alive. Such Awakenings require enormous amounts of Breath.

Type IV

Type IV entities are Awakened objects with sentience. The only known such object, Nightblood, required Shashara to be at the Ninth Heightening and to expend one thousand Breaths. No other research into Type VI entities has been conducted.

BioChromatic Laws

Law of BioChromatic Parallelism

The closer a host is to a living shape and form, the easier it is to Awaken.

This is easily understood since BioChroma is the power of life, and seeks patterns of life.

Law of Comparability

The amount of Breath required to Awaken something isn't necessarily indicative of its power once Awakened.

A good example is that a piece of cloth cut into the shape of a person and a piece of cloth cut into the shape of a man take very different amounts of Breath to Awaken, but will serve essentially the same function once Awakened.

Collecting Breath

In order to achieve the most interesting and extravagant Awakening, more than one Breath is required. Since each person is born with a single Breath, an Awakener must collect Breaths from other individuals. The method by which this is done is itself a type of Awakening, using the Command "My life to yours, my Breath become yours." The person imparting the Breaths must be in physical contact with the recipient.

Heightening number	Approximate number of Breaths to reach this Heightening	Effects of the Heightening
row 1, cell 1	row 1, cell 2	row 1, cell 3
row 2, cell 1	row 2, cell 2	row 2, cell 3
row 3, cell 1	row 3, cell 2	row 3, cell 3

Notes

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