MoIs (Magic systems) (Manifestation of Investiture):

Shifting (CoderDrag0n8’s MoI) (Branch of Fellcasting MoI): 

Base mechanics: There are levels of power that are called cracks in the shifter’s society. They would be shapeshifters and would gain powers as they gain cracks. The shifter’s shifting powers are similar to dragon’s and there are many dragons among the order. They are powered by Corrupted investiture (Corruption’s investiture) from corruption himself. There are few of them, and are Corruption’s elite force to control. Corruption can also corrupt (A bit like Sja-Anat) other investiture and their forms. Shifters have some abilities similar to Awakeners. Fellcasters can Fellcast Shifters, it’s just very hard. However, many shifters can immediately shift out of the Fellcast, and some of the highest crack counts are completely immune. They can also use investiture too enhance portions of their body. Some basic powers don’t need investiture (Like powers that Kandra can use) but most do, and expend lots of it. They can shift aluminum (They can shift things into it without as much cost similarly to soulcasters) but it expends a LOT of investiture.

Some powers: (Ranging throughout crack counts) are: Self-shifting (Changing the shape and look of yourself) Other shifting (Shifting the shape of other things[like soul casting, but without needing permission]) Spirit Shifting (One of the most powerful, can shift and change your spirit web, giving other MoIs. Only very very high crack counts can access it) Realm Shifting (Can shift between realms[Can also open up a minor perpendicularity at higher crack counts]) Vaw Shifting (Can summon a Vawning) Tendril Shifting (Similar to varium shifting in creation, costs investiture to create tendrils, gain investiture when removing. Can create partially physical tendrils that the shifter can control. Similar to solid lightweaving. Can be invested into things to have the things be controlled by the shifter. Starting out black and tendril like, the more powerful the shifter, the more and more they can change the tendrils.) Corrupted Shifting (Can corrupt other investiture[Can make stormlight become corrupted investiture]) Investiture Shifting (Can transform matter into investiture, investiture into energy, ect[Highly dangerous and likely to backfire]) Invest Shifting (Can invest/uninvest objects with corrupted investiture/vaw. Can also enhance traits of objects/self by investing it along with intent. Can strengthen mental defenses in focal point. [Ex: Ward of emotional allomancy by investing the brain, charm by investiting the heart. The farther gone a shifter is, the more investiture is needed to defend.]) and Varium Shifting (Certain shifters can summon Varium and shape it at the cost of corrupted investiture[You may shift the Varium back into its pure corrupted investiture form][Like Nomad]).

Initiation: To become a shifter or you must consume a poison, Lamonade, made from the lemons in the lemon fields (You need to obtain it through a specific technique that nullifies the danger), that produces temporary madness that creates the cracks in the spirit web. This is an extremely dangerous process and requires training in order to survive even then some either still die, or become completely insane. When becoming a Shifter, you gain Kandra like qualities while still being your original species and power set. Shifters are very secretive and very rare. Shifters are usually originally a Fellcaster. When a Fellcaster becomes a shifter, they lose their Fellcasting powers, and slowly regain them as they rise the ranks.

Chemalurgy: Spikes made of varium (corruption’s godmetal) can steal shifting. And they have Chemalurgic gain. This means that it effectively doubles the power lost. This is used to make twisted and incredibly powerful Chemalurgic constructs. Chemalurgy is the art of hemalurgy with varium. Shifters, however, are the only ones who can take advantage of this Chemalurgy. 

Varium/Corrupted Investiture: Varium works as a physical manifestation of corrupted investiture. Varium can appear in many forms, and vials of varium are usually used by shifters to get easy and quick corrupted investiture. The best way to gain corrupted investiture is from the Vawning (See more in Fellcasting). High enough cracked shifters can summon corrupted investiture straight from the spiritual realm. Varium can also be used, if shifted into the right form, as a partial biological construct, and can be affected by Varium spikes. Varium is also used by the shifters to create mechanical constructs. Another form of corrupted investiture is Vaw.

Resonances: Currently, the only known resonance is with BioChromatic Breath, or just Breath. Shifters can tighten the aura of color around themselves to make them look like they don’t have any, or to restrict it to a specific place. They can transform investiture into Breaths. When they get to Invest Shifting, their awakening powers change into an ability similar to Divining, except without any of the unnecessary prerequisites. When BioChromatic Breath interacts with Invest Shifting, the shifter can use this new Diving like Invest Shifting, and a new shifting power called Awakened Boio Shifting. With Awakened Boio Shifting, you can fully awaken an object to have sentience. You can also ‘dislodge’ the sentience of the object to make it become a spirit so that you can un-awaken it without killing the boio you created. Resonances also cannot be found through spirit shifting. So the only way to find resonances are with hemalurgy or breaths.

Spiritweb/Cracks: Whenever a shifter uses their powers, their spirit web is more and more cracked (This process is very slow). Corrupted. The ‘cracks’ that the shifters use to add structure to their powers is merely the continued corruption/decay of their spiritweb (To speed it up, drink Lamonade again to get cracks significantly faster. The more and more their spiritweb breaks apart, the more and more access they have to the abilities of shifting. Chemalurgy only works to double their powers because of how destroyed their spiritweb becomes. In fact, taking out a Chemalurgic spike will then work to advance their powers more (This works with any spike). They have to constantly keep their mental barriers up to keep from being mind controlled with emotional allomancy or by shards. The higher their crack count, the better the mental barriers are, but the worse their sanity is. Many shifters have gone so crazy that it would make one of the Fused that went insane, look like the most sane person ever. In fact, hemalurgic spikes get attracted to shifters and shifters have to work to keep them away. Their spiritweb just wants to be filled again, even through hemalurgic constructs.

Mental Stability: Because of how unstable Shifters are, they can consume Vaw/Investiture to stabilize their mental state. The higher the crack count, the more Vaw they need to consume to stay stable. The only way the second in command is still alive is because corruption itself is fueling Vaw to his spiritweb. Without it, his spiritweb would fall apart, breaking him into pieces. That, or he would need to stick himself with many hemalurgic spikes to try to stabilize his ruined spiritweb.

Misc: The first power a shifter gets is ensured (That’s Self Shifting). The next powers a shifter gets are more and more randomized. Certain powers are always near the end, some usually near the beginning. Investiture does somewhat stabilize a person’s mental state when they drink lemonade.

Diviners (CoderDrag0n8’s other MoI):

Basic Info: If you make paper from the lemon trees of Zion and ink from the swamplands of Arvus’s invested mud and write down a string of Divining Words (Also known as a Divining Enchant) and push intent into it, a proportional amount of investiture is leaked from you into the pages. (Working like Nightblood, if you don’t have investiture in you, it will use life force). You will then have a Divining Page. This divining page will change properties depending on the Divining Words used in the Divining Enchant.

Shard: Partially of all 3 shards of the [Enter Name Here] system.

Fellcasting (entr0pic’s MoI) (Branch of Shifting MoI):

Base mechanics: fellcasting is like a weird mesh between awakening and soulcasting.There are 3 types of fellcasters: physical, mental, and spiritual. Spiritual fellcasters are by far rarer than the other two, and are more limited; both by their lack of knowledge of the power and certain limitations but in place by corruption.  Fellcasters of each variety can change aspects relating to what kind they have (ex a physical fellcasters could manipulate physical attributes). To do this, a fellcaster must be touching someone and say a command correlating to what part of someone you want to fellcast. The command structure is “be [what you want to change]” ex, a physical fellcaster could say “be weak of body” as a valid command. You can use any language to do this, including sign languages. generally, the more complex a command, the more power you need to achieve it (which will be explained shortly) . An example of a complex command would be “be strong of body, with hazel eyes, a round face, and keen senses”. It is impossible to fellcast yourself, as that is reserved for shifters. It is also impossible to fellcast an animal (This is not actually true, you can fellcast an animal. It’s just harder to do so. For example, animals don’t have sentientince like humans or dragons, so there’s less to actually change with mental fellcasting. as for the first one, you would need to do some weird identity shenanigans to make it work, but it is possible). Changes, no matter what, are temporary and expire shortly. The nature of corruption denies permanent change. how a change manifests is largely based on perception and intent. For example, if a mental fellcaster said “be weak of mind” that could make someone emotionally unstable or slow of thought, depending on the intent and perception of the fellcaster. However, a fellcaster cannot replicate forms of investiture without certain additions. They can't just say “be a mistborn” and make a mistborn. More dramatic changes in fellcasting are easier to do than more subtle ones, as corruption likes dramatic shifts. For example, the command “be morally corrupt” would be more efficient when used on a virtuous person, when compared to an already vain and jealous person. Fellcasters have a harder time fellcasting shifters, but it is possible. Shifters, however, lie and say that it is impossible 

Some examples of common commands are:

“Be strong of body” Used by physical fellcasters 

“be keen of senses” used by physical fellcasters

“be swift-footed” used by physical fellcasters

“be weak of emotion” used by mental fellcasters

“be easily coerced” used by mental fellcasters

“be an amnesiac” used by mental fellcasters

“Be weak of identity” used by spiritual fellcasters

“be connected to X location” used by spiritual fellcasters

“Be strong of luck” used by spiritual fellcasters

(People in verse don’t know this, but what fellcasting does is manipulate the spirtweb shortly. This means that anything with a spiritweb is theoretically able to be fellcast. However, perception also applies here. People don’t see a building as something that can be fellcast, even though it’d have a spiritweb. But, it is possible.) 

Power source: fellcasters are powered by “vaw” (pronounced like “maw”, but with a v). Vaw is obtained via what are called “vawings” where vaw rains down in the form of a purple-ish flaky substance. These happen every 3rd day naturally, but can be induced by Corruption or a higher level shifter. Vaw will break down within ~2 days if left alone, and is largely harmless. A fellcaster can ingest vaw to power themselves. Vaw reserves last for a longer time, ~6 days. However, the more vaw you have, the longer it stays as a whole. As mentioned earlier, the more complex a fellcaster is, the more vaw you need. Vaw can be unkeyed, but is it extremely hard to do so. Unkeyed vaw acts like unkeyed dor. Certain groups have taken an interest in vaw due to this.  Vaw can power all kinds of fellcasting.Crushed varium can also be used as a substitute for vaw, but it’s less efficient. Fellcasters can use their power anywhere, so long as they have fuel. It is hard for them to leave the system without the help of an experienced spiritual fellcaster.

Initiation: fellcasters are chosen directly by corruption himself, bestowed upon those he thinks would make “good use of the power”. You can become a fellcaster at any point of your life, but they’re usually chosen at the ages 12-20. Roughly 1 out of 500,000 people are chosen, although there are booms and depressions, depending on the time and location. Corruption will sometimes appear to the chosen upon choosing them, and will congratulate them. He has even been noted appearing to a select few fellcasters consistently. 

Ranks & Order: there isn’t a very rigid structure among the fellcasters, but there is some order. Most fellcasters of the same variety will often meet with one another, and are generally hostile to the other varieties. Corruption does not mind this, as he actually enjoys the conflict and the changes it leads to. Fellcasters are Corruption’s soldiers, but not in the most literal sense. Since most fellcasters are people who want major change, such as revolutionaries, activists, conquerors, etc, they further his goals. Corruption’s most favored fellcasters are sometimes called the “Taf’ir”. How this name came about is unknown (the name came about because a fellcaster asked corruption “What am I?”, to which he responded “Taf’ir” this word actually means “a good person” in corruption’s native language, but the fellcaster took it as a special rank. [Characters in verse don’t know this.]) For his literal battles, while he prefers shifters and Chemalurgic constructs, there aren’t many, so fellcasters are used often as a substitute. 

Misc: a fellcasters powers can be stolen via an Atuim, Lerasuim, or Varuim (Corruption’s godmetal) spike (See more about Varium in Chemalurgy). While his main magic systems are fellcasting and shifting, being part cultivation and ruin, he has access to the old magic and hemalurgy. He has bestowed knowledge of Hemalurgy and Chemalurgy only to his most trusted chosen. There are also legends of corruption bestowing gifts on his followers, which he achieved via the old magic. He is still willing to give boons, should someone find him. Fellcasters are viewed differently depending on the region, but most have some measure of respect and fear towards them. a fellcaster savant can hold vaw for longer, and can fellcast more efficiently, but will start to shift to what they fellcast, like how a soulcaster savant turns to what they soulcast. a fellcaster savant is harder to turn into a shifter.This art is obviously of corruption, and is considered to be more of cultivation than ruin. Shifting Is more of ruin. The fellcaster is not physically affected until they turn into a savant.  

Verities Mol (SpritOfWrath):

Passive: Consistent, Unwavering Truth - Strength. When fighting someone deemed "Untruthful" their attacks have more force behind them. These things scale with their investiture.

Active: Fleeting Falsehoods - They burn up some of the passive investiture, expending it permanently. This expenditure manifests as an SR explosion. They trigger it by lying or manifesting falsehood in some way - the investiture tears itself from the warrior as fast as it can, causing various SR effects (Can jack up Spiritwebs, etc. Will have to think on these effects further.). This kills the warrior.

The Worms (Argenti’s Mol): 

Fueled by free-floating Corruption investiture, the worms are a species of necrotic-flesh-eating seeds (They look like Maggots), that grow on certain trees. When picked from the tree and pressed into any dead animal, including humans, the seed animates and begins to feed, burrowing into the dead matter, and bringing it to unlife. When this happens in nature, the newly animated corpse moves as far from the tree as possible, so as to spread its seeds. However, a suitably invested individual can command this animated corpse upon creation- making something much like a lifeless, which can be used for whatever purposes you can dream of. However, unlike a lifeless, the body still the invested thing is the seed, not the body, and will eventually fall apart and need to be destroyed and replaced. 

 

Sin Crowns (Argenti’s Mol): Indulgence

 

Having settled in the system, Indulgence’s investiture began to leak into the planet and suffused its people and the land. While Indulgence attempted to hold himself back from fully investing, the power desired control and forced his hand to conquer Arvus and Zion. For about 300 years, Indulgence ruled unopposed,or rather, his delegates, called sin crowns, ruled unopposed, while Indulgence lived a life of decadence and barely paid attention, trapped between the hammer of his power and the anvil of the Ire. 

 

Sin Crowns are born rulers. Shortly after birth, their horns emerge, quickly developing into mighty “crowns” whose specific appearance varies wildly from Crown to Crown. From a young age, they are able to influence those around them to a strange degree (think emotional allomancy), often accompanied by a desire to protect and better their flock -on the assumption that they’re the only ones capable of doing so, of course. This Charm, however, isn’t their primary power.

 

The greater a Sin Crown’s flock, the people who follow and obey them, the more invested the Sin Crown is. This, of course, has many benefits, including a boosting of the aforementioned Charm, improved physical, mental, and spiritual resilience and power, longer lifespans, control over the local Flora and Fauna, and a sort of attunement to the land they rule over, subconsciously molding the weather and landscape to fit their moods.

 

Recently, however, this power comes with a cost. Ever since Corruption arrived, the power that once surged through a Crown’s veins goes sour with time, turning to black bile. As time passes, they suffer a growing taste for greater luxury and decadence, until eventually, the only thing that can sate a Sin Crown is human blood. As they age and their flock and power grow, their hunger for blood only grows until they’re truly consumed by it, and whatever humanity is left within them is consumed. At a certain point, circa 150 years, a Sin Crown needs to consume human blood, or they will die. 

 

Clarifications and Powers:

All of the Sin Crown’s powers scale with the number of followers they have, their “flock,” and their age. Followers are loosely defined, but it’s something like how many people have faith in them, and view themselves as the Sin Crown’s Follower’s. This does create a feedback loop of sorts because enough followers can extend a sin Crown’s lifespan by allowing them to be strong enough to defend themselves, and thus they become more powerful as they age, attracting more followers, and so forth. Now for powers:

 

Charm: Their Charm begins immediately upon birth, and comes in two variants, Grandeur and Domination. As with other magical effects, you can block this with the use of aluminum, but instead of on the head, over the heart. 

• Grandeur functions much the same as emotional Allomancy, able to riot and soothe emotions, typically fear, loyalty, or awe. Sin Crowns use this aspect of charm to inspire their followers and strike fear in the hearts of their enemies. 

• Domination, on the other hand, has much more in common with mind control. Working on similar mechanics as The Hemulugic Flaw, a powerful (Either Old or with a large Flock) Sin Crown can completely and utterly dominate a person’s mind, enslaving them to their will. While this does work on regular humans, Shifters and others with large cracks in their spirit web are particularly vulnerable to domination as well as a Crown’s grandeur.

Enhancements: As a Sin Crown grows in age and influence, their physical, cognitive, and spiritual aspects grow as well. This is a sliding scale, without a clear upper or lower bound.

• Physical: The average Sin Crown is about as strong as their own expected strength plus ⅙th of their flock's combined physical strength- sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on their age and the fervor in which their flock believes in them, increasing as each of those factors increases. In addition, Sin Crowns are significantly harder to kill than the average person, with both enhanced durability and a healing factor. This enhanced durability starts off as a resistance to scratches and bruises but grows in power with the Crown. Once they reach a certain point (around 500ish followers and 80+ years), they’re immune to non-invested blades and edges, save for aluminum, (Varium is invested and can still pierce their skin, though it’s not supernaturally sharp) however, their skin offers extra resistance to those as well. At an even higher point (~5000, 160+), Varuim and aluminum blades will bounce off their skin surely as iron. They also have enhanced reflexes.

  • Healing: Healing for most Sin Crowns is faster passively, rather than actively- so they need to survive while it heals. What this means is that while a Sin Crown who leads a village of 50 people couldn’t have their head cut off and survive, a cut-off limb could grow back within a week or two. This does go out the window once they reach a certain point, where very few things can keep them down, otherwise they’ll just regenerate. (They’re unable to heal around aluminum, and pouring Vaw down their throat can weaken or stop their healing factor)

    • An aluminum stake through the heart is a particularly good way to kill them, though any major artery works.

  • Their horn Crowns and Eyes begin to glow a brighter and brighter orange as their power mounts.

• Cognitive: Sin Crowns gain greater memory, awareness, mental fortitude, and will as their flock grows and they age. 

  • Memory: A Sin Crown has a gift for remembering faces, names, and facts about people’s lives, meaning it’s extremely easy for them to know the names of each and every one of their flock. They are quite good at remembering battle strategies, slights, and ways of war.

  • Cunning: A Sin Crown thinks faster than the average person. In the average Crown, this effect is negligible, but in extreme cases of sin crowns with very large flocks, (Numbering in the thousands), their minds begin to race and scheme far faster than meer mortals. 

  • Mental Resilience: Sin Crowns have an extraordinary will, and are harder to affect with mental influences (Such as Charm) or the acts of mental Fellcasters. They’re also less likely to break under the pressure of ruling and other mental stressors.

• Spiritual: Sin Crowns gain an enhanced Spiritual aspect, and form connections more easily. They have a stronger identity than the average person, which contributes to the difficulty Hjackers have when affecting them.

Domain: Along with a Flock, a fully grown Sin Crown has a Domain, where their Flock lives and their belief thrives. While present in this domain, which, like a flock, is defined by people’s perceptions, the Sin Crown is aware of Blood Shed, Fire Made, and Fast Movement, (See what I did there?) as well as the weather and any intruders, though again, this can be blocked by aluminum around the heart.

• A measure of Control: As the ruler of their domain, the domain is easily influenced by their moods and conscious will. Within their domain, a Crown can call rain, allow plants to grow faster, calm the wind and wildlife, or drive them to a frenzy against attackers.They are unable to control Vaw rains.

Blood Hunger: Ever since the arrival of The Great Other, there has been a flaw in the great power of the Sin Crowns- a growing hunger. Sin Crowns, as Indulgence’s investiture demands, crave luxury and decadence, with their desire for luxury growing over the years until it reaches a fever pitch, and they begin to crave the ultimate luxury, human blood. Consumption of human blood does have its benefits, strengthening the tie between Flock, Domain and Crown, the invested nature of human blood also strengthens the Crown physically and mentally. As they age, they eventually need this strengthening aspect of the blood more and more and grow reliant on it to continue their life. Before the Great Other, lifespan was measured only by the size of your flock, but after? Blood flows as water. 

 

Clarifications and Investiture Mechanics: 

• For obvious reasons, a Sin Crown can not be a Fellcaster, the investiture interference is too great. They can, however, become a shifter- although this places a great strain on their spirit web and both their need for blood and the speed of their mental decline increase. Under this rare circumstance, the Crown’s healing factor is no longer repressed by Vaw, and blood can help ease the cracks in their spirit web as Vaw does. 

• Sin Crowns are born, not made. They have a specific connection with both Indulgence, the people around them, and Arvus that is difficult to replicate, much less sustain. 

• Sin Crowns came about as a natural reaction of Indulgence’s heavy investment in Arvus. As he ruled over the planet as a whole, Sin crowns were given seats at the table and chunks of land to rule over. Indulgence didn’t give much instruction to these Sin Crowns, resulting in something more like rival warlords rather than a strict hierarchy. 

• Aluminum blocks their healing factors and if you lock them in an aluminum room, they’re unable to change any aspect of their domain. In addition, if they’re in such a room for an extended period of time, they will slowly atrophy from their Flock, and lose all the powers granted to them by their flock, and eventually die, unless they are released before that point, where they will gradually gain back the powers granted to them.

• Blood hunger starts around age 60 and is a requirement for those over age 100, otherwise, they will slowly die.

  • Sin Crowns don’t really age, but as they consume blood, their skin does grow paler and tighter around their frame. Oftentimes their nails grow harder and darker, coming to a natural point, like claws.