LORE - ORACLE BONE

Czi is the metaphysical force of life running through all living beings, not just the sentient ones. Czi is the force of life, and so, it is never static. Czi exists in everything, often in its natural form called annczi. Rain falling, the tide coming and going, and the creation of life itself are considered annczi. Czi can also be artificially manifested by kild through constructing wards called czi-ju. The language of czi-ju is called kanczi (written czi), and was given to the kild by Kel Cziva, hence his title of Lord Magic-Bringer. It is a language of sigils used to produce certain effects, big or small, temporary or permanent. Outer borders define the usage of a sigil and if it is continual. No border indicates the sigil will be used once, then expire. Circle borders allow it to be used continuously, on or off, and square borders allow it to be permanently on unless destroyed. Inside a sigil, there are different categories of characters. There are articles – characters that describe objects – and modifiers – characters that dictate what to do with articles. Then, there are marks that define the duration of an effect, its range or distance, or size and intensity. Sigils can refer to smaller sigils within them on a conditional basis. In the hands of a talented magician, one can create a sigil that is an intelligent computer.

Byohhczi

Czi encompasses the energies of both life and death, and byohhczi is the term for dead and sick energy. But, byohhczi is not just the state of death but a state of disease and rot, decomposition until czi is reborn. In the cycle of life, it is the new moon. Byohhczi can occur on the small scale of a single death, in which case it eventually dissipates and recycles into regular czi, helped by the presence of burial wards around the corpse. But, in en-masse cases of death, byohhczi's effects are brutal. Saiverh was essentially caused by the total buildup of byohhczi, and the occurrence of natural phenomena caused by byohhczi, including widespread disease, total death of plants and rusting of metal, and the dead coming back to life. Clouds travelling into the miasma would absorb byohhczi and rain poison onto living cities. On the large scale, it forms a miasma that living kild cannot breathe in.

Czi and the Five Elements

Mortality, as a concept, extends past what we traditionally think of life forms. Czi runs through the five elements (water, earth, air, metal and flesh), and when one reaches the end of a lifespan, the czi transforms into its alternate state. Forces usually seen to us as inanimate, are as susceptible to getting sick, spreading disease, and dying as a kild. The natural existence of czi means that metal, water, air, and soil all have lifespans and their health is important to the kild who rely on them. Each of the five elements has a dead form which byohhczi runs through, however they also have charged forms. Attempts to create power sources involve exploiting the various states of czi inside the elements, both charged and uncharged. A windmill, for example, can harness both the kinetic and magical force of the wind if sigils are drawn onto its blades. Flesh batteries involve getting a target into a charged state and then using czi-ju to hypercondense their czi into one body part, typically the heart.

What are the dying and charged forms of each element?

METAL (rust | electrified metal)
AIR (fouled air | tempest winds)
WATER (fouled water | roiling water)
EARTH AND PLANTS (dry earth and rotten plants | earthquakes)
KILD AND ANIMALS (rotten bodies | exercise/sex )

Turning Byohhczi Back Into Czi

While death is necessary to create new life, kild tend to avoid byohhczi as much as possible to limit their own sickness. Fungi consume the byohhczi in dying elements and recycle it slowly into living czi. They are seen as unclean, but used in healing and clearing byohhczi from the environment. In medicine, fungi are often used as cures, though some are poisonous. Kild who aren't cavefolk generally don't eat them.

Fire is the main way of destroying dead elements, whether it be melting dead metal, burning corpses or plants, turning dead water to steam, or smoking dead air. Ash is tilled into dead or sick earth to return its health. Funeral practices rarely involve preserving a corpse as it threatens the health of the environment, and cremation is the most simple and common way of disposition. Instead, kild cremate the dead, and often keep a plot of land called an ashyard or ashwood to scatter ashes. Mushrooms frequently grow inside of them.

Along with mushrooms, many plants and animals are considered to have a special relationship to byohhczi. Some of these are scavenger animals, such as hyenas or vultures, and plants that often grow in razed soil. These animals are considered akin to kild with the Ill Gift, since their bodies are adapted to the consumption of dead energy.

The Ill Gift (Byohhan)

Czi-ju works by absorbing either a power source or small amounts of radiant czi in the atmosphere, and normally it can only work with living czi. Remote sigils cannot use byohhczi, the energy of the dead, nor can they interact with it at all, and czi-ju cast through the body typically don't work either. This is dependent on the person casting it, as a certain amount of czi must pass through their body when they use themselves as a power conduit. With living czi, using the body as a conduit is a safe thing to do, as long as too much energy isn't taken out at once. However, some kild are born with the natural ability to work with byohhczi, also called the Ill Gift. They're able to use their body as a conduit to pass dead energy through in order to reanimate the dead or curse others. While highly reviled, they are also sought after by those with a vengeance. Using their bodies as conduits to dead energy, however, accelerates their own sickness and demise. Kild who use their byohhan often fall sick with delirium or lose their limbs to numbness.

Things Czi-Ju Can't Do: