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Ars Arcanum, Mitik (Fan-made Shardworld with duplication magic)


Cocoa

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Mitik is an inhabited Earth-like world which predates the Shattering, but has since been settled by at least one avatar of Autonomy. In place of mitochondria, living organisms native to Mitik have a unique form of specialized symbiotic microbes that inhabit their cells. These microbes are naturally invested and form the cornerstone of the planet's invested arts.

Dymation is the primary invested art accessible to the humans of Mitik. Its practitioners are able to convert a single object (or entity) into two identical objects. Upon creation, both of these objects have the same Identity as each other (as well as the pre-division original) and a strong Connection to each other, but as time passes their Identities will diverge and the Connection may weaken somewhat.

The practitioners of Dymation recognize four sets of natural laws that govern its use:

  1. The Laws of Metabolism: Dymation requires energy, which is drawn from the body of its practitioner. This process leaves the Dymator hungry, and they must replenish their energy by eating. The energy required increases with the mass of the object being duplicated. If a Dymator attempts a duplication without having enough energy in their body, then the working will fail and have no effect (though some energy will still be expended in the attempt).
  2. The Laws of Familiarity: Dymation works by 'tricking' a single existence into becoming two identical existences. As such, the practitioner's understanding of the object being duplicated is essential to the process, and an insufficient understanding means the duplication will simply not happen. The most skilled Dymators are those most capable of coming to understand the existences that surround them. Also, while Dymation does not require direct physical contact, it simplifies things quite a bit and physical distance between the practitioner and the target increases the difficulty of the duplication.
  3. The Laws of Animation: Using Dymation on a living creature always has a higher energy requirement than duplicating a non-living target of equal mass. Plants cost more to duplicate than inanimate or dead targets. Animals cost more to duplicate than plants. Humans cost more to duplicate than animals. Dymators themselves cost such a prohibitively large amount of energy to duplicate that a normal human body simply cannot meet the requirements.
  4. The Laws of Purity: Someone who has sexually reproduced cannot become a Dymator, which is generally simplified down to 'virginity is a requirement for becoming a Dymator.' Using Dymation for the first time renders the user sterile. Some cultures also believe that a person must be 'purified' through physical or emotional pain before becoming a Dymator, but this assumption is hotly contested and far from a universally accepted rule.

The Laws of Familiarity are not identical but are quite similar to the requirements of Soulcasting and Forgery, where you must understand a target before you can change it. The Laws of Animation are simply a side effect of the way investiture (in this case, Spiritwebs) resists other investiture, and a Dymator would encounter similar difficulties if they tried duplicating a metalmind or a gem with Stormlight in it. The Laws of Purity (as well as Dymators being so invested that they are difficult to duplicate) are a side-effect of the Initiation process for Dymation, which involves forming a spiritual Bond with the microbes in your cells.

Beyond Dymation, there are also several species of animals native to Mitik which use similar principles to reproduce through asexual bio-fission. Some of these animals can also revert their bodies to a less mature developmental state to escape death from old age, since both 'daughter organisms' would be the same age as the original 'parent' organism on creation.

There are almost no universal attitudes towards and surrounding Dymation. While it's rarely if ever considered a mundane trait in some places it is considered explicitly holy, while in others it is merely a blessing, while in yet other places it is considered outright blasphemous. In some places only the duplication of human beings is forbidden, while in others it's considered just fine but using Dymation to duplicate goods for sale would be seen as stooping to unbecoming lows.

One side effect of its existence, however, is that powers of two are generally counted as highly significant numbers. This is especially true for sets of four, since it's both two times two and two to the second power. A majority of religions on Mitik worship either a set of four major deities or a single major deity with four aspects. Like Scadrial, Mitik uses a base-16 number system.

In most places, the two people that result from a Dymator duplicating someone are treated by the law and society as real people with basic and fundamental rights, but the minutiae of how they're treated varies quite a bit beyond that point, especially when it comes to things like inheritance or responsibility for actions taken before the duplication. In at least one nation, certain classes of criminals can submit pleas to have their sentences reduced to the cost of four large meals. In exchange, they allow a Dymator to duplicate them, and one of the duplicates is chosen at random to be enslaved and pressed into service by the government.

Accessible aluminum is incredibly rare on Mitik, so this fact is largely unknown, but objects made of aluminum in whole or in part cannot be duplicated using Dymation.

Using hemalurgy to become a Dymator would require multiple spikes; one to steal the production of the symbiotic microbes, and one or more duralumin spikes to steal a bond with them. Someone with only a single connection spike could not use energy efficiently enough to duplicate a human.

A Dymator with the ability to use bendalloy feruchemy can use a metalmind they are touching to help fuel the duplication, letting them potentially duplicate more heavily invested targets.

People with breaths would be harder for a Dymator to duplicate, while a Drab would be easier than a normal human but harder than an animal.

Edited by Cocoa
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