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Difference between revisions of "Warbreaker"
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== Magic System ==
The book uses a system of magic which is heavily reliant on art. Magic users are known as Awakeners and their power comes from the number of BiChromatic [[Breath]]s they have stored. A breath can be thought of as a soul, but a better interpretation is that it is the sixth sense that we all seem to have. Without it, a person known as a drab has a harder time perceiving colors, the world seems muted, and they don't have an ability to perceive if someone is watching them (the feeling that someone has their eyes on your back). With larger amounts of souls amassed, a person gains new abilities. Each step is referred to as a Heightening.
Any amount of Breaths - Awakening : With any amount of breaths a person can, through specific commands, call inanimate objects to life by investing Breaths in them and draining the color from another object, usually pieces of cloth carried around by the awakener. The closer the object resembles a human already, the easier it is. Size also affects the amount of Breaths necessary as can the complexity of the commands. Breaths can be regained by the person who invested them with the command "Your Breath to mine"
The following is mostly from the Ars Arcanum of Warbreaker
First - 50 Breaths - Aura Recognition (The ability to determine how many breaths another person has)
Second - 200 Breaths - Perfect Pitch (The ability to determine musical notes)
Third - 600 Breaths - Perfect Color Recognition (Similar to Perfect Pitch, but with the ability to determine the hues of colors)
Fourth - 1,000 Breaths - Perfect Life Sense
Fifth - 2,000 Breaths - Agelessness (Also, immunity to toxins and most physical ailments though death is still possible from physical violence)
Sixth - 3,500 Breaths - Instinctive Awakening (Ability to use basic awakening commands without training or practice. Difficult commands become easier to practice and discover)
Seventh - 5,000 Breaths - Breath Recognition (Similar to Aura recognition, but for objects that have been invested with breath)
Eighth - 10,000 Breaths - Command Breaking (Ability to override commands of another awakener's awakened object)
Ninth - 20,000 Breaths - Greater Awakening (Ability to Awaken stone and steel, though it takes large amounts of breath and specialized commands)
Tenth 50,000 Breaths - Audible Command (Ability to awaken objects the awakener is not physically touching) , Color Distortion (Creates colors from a white object by bending the light around it), Perfect Invocation (Awakener is able to draw more color when awakening leaving objects white rather than grey)
Specialized forms of this magic that are pertinent to Warbreaker include the Lifeless and the Returned. The Lifeless are reanimated human bodies that require only one breath to awaken. They are sustained with a specialized liquid called ichor alcohol. Lifeless feel little or no pain and are able to follow simple commands.
The Returned are the god beings of the Halladren religion. They are people who are said to have died in such heroic manners that they were given the choice to return to this world from the afterlife to accomplish something. They lose their memories during the return trip but are guided by their own inherent prophetic powers. The Returned must consume one Breath every two weeks or else they die. They each contain a single powerful Breath that alone allows them to reach Fifth Heightening, granting them, among other things, Agelessness. The Returned also may spend this one Breath once in their lives to perform a miracle and upon doing so, they die.
* [[Awakening]], [[BioChroma]], [[Returned]], [[Breath]].
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