Of the sentient races Dwarves are the only ones that don’t have inborn abilities. Humans and Elves both have the same inborn abilities, statistics have shown an identical ability profile as well. Almost all abilities can be divided into two categories, with the exception of enchanting.

Physical Abilities

All physical abilities are graded from 1-9 on a bell curve, so the majority of all people with physical abilities have a rating of 5. The rating of 10 is for outliers that are strong enough to skew the grading curve for everyone else. There are about 1 class 10 per 15 million people with physical abilities.

Strong Arm

The strong arm ability is purely strength, the higher class they are the stronger they are. It is also associated with increases in physical durability at class 6+.

Many, many notable examples of strong arms exists due to their sports leagues.

Endurance

People with this ability can go farther for longer with less. By class 7 they only need to sleep 4-5 hours a week.

Jamie Mercer a class 10 endurance has not reportedly eaten or slept for the past 8 years.

Reflex

People with enhanced sense abilities, at the weaker classes this is purely perception speed but when it goes up this includes other senses. The higher classes are capable of seeing extreme distances and giving the chemical breakdown of their food.

The magnificent Silvirin a prominent stage magician and class 10 likes to include a bullet dodge in his acts.

Regenerator

At it’s root the ability to heal quickly, by class 7 the ability to regrow limbs if slowly.

The only known class 10 regenerator has gone to lengths to keep his identity out of the public eye. But if reports are true he is over 250 years old.

Elemental

Elemental abilities are a subset of physical abilities. Relatively speaking the amount of power to elementalists can use of the same class but different power is comparable.

Fire (Pyros)

Badly named the fire ability is actually the ability to generate and control heat, it does function even without anything to burn, but doesn’t function in a vacuum. Comes with the secondary ability of heat resistance some class 5s and all class 6+ are almost completely resistant to extreme heat. Class 10s are called dragons.

Many pyros that have heat resistance opt to light themselves on fire as opposed to bathing. It is apparently a very enjoyable experience.

Air

Air controllers do not in fact control air, they control the movement of air provided there is already movement to manipulate. It works on all airborne gasses. By class 7 air controllers no longer need to breath, but they will generally do so to create movement around them. Class 10s are called sylphs.

The Sylph twins Seth and Lance are not only famous for their good looks, but also the statistical anomaly of their powers. Since identical twins do not share powers. A statistician has been quoted saying ‘it was bound to happen eventually, but still’.

Water

All water users need a liquid source to work with. By class 7 water users are capable of drawing liquid out of the air (class 6s can do this are well in humid environments). A few class 9s have been known to be able to draw liquid from living organisms, however this is mostly the domain of the very few class 10s. Also contrary to popular belief water users do need to breath even when submerged, however most class 5s and 6+ can do so through their skin when immersed in water. Class 10s are called Sinanns.

Lady Fedelmid is known for traveling to disaster zones and purifying water sources.

Earth

Earth controllers are confusing in that they can only control dirt. They cannot control the base components of the dirt. They can also control any type of dirt, be it actually crushed rock to wood pulp. The class of an earth user can be determined by how solid the dirt they can control is. Class 5s can only really get large gravel, class 8s are looking at small boulders. Class 10s are called golems.

Class 10s have demonstrated the ability to control concrete while still in a building giving them the highest potential for wide scale damage.

Mental abilities

Mental abilities do not have a universal rating scheme but have their individual methods. Some elemental powers are difficult to describe, they will be covered in more detail in their own chapters. Empaths and Telepaths are by far the most common mental powers. Divers and Lies are usually recruited into governmental jobs immediately out of high school if not sooner. Dream walkers are known however to spend the longest amount of time in college than any other group.

Dream Walker

Dream walkers have been on record describing themselves as the gods of dreams. They have also stated that every dream walker is exactly equal in power with all the others. Speculation on the full extent of their abilities is rampant and in general the dream walkers don’t like to confirm anything. What is known is that they need a connection to use their powers on others, what constitutes a connection is very vague.

Dream walkers are believed have have very high incomes but do a lot to keep the exact numbers secret. They are not on any of the richest persons lists either but this is believed to be deliberate by many. Accusations of insider trading and corporate espionage happen every time a dream walker makes a significant amount of money on stocks or investments, these have never been proven.

Empath

Empaths can be graded in a number of ways. How precisely they can identify emotions, how large their range is, and a number of others that don’t quite make sense to anyone but other empaths. They can see/hear/feel (empaths don’t describe it well) any emotion a person is currently experiencing.

Telepath

Telepaths are generally considered better than empaths, despite their protests. They can hear/see surface thoughts, but explicitly cannot get emotions. They are graded by range/clarity, but can always hear/see the thoughts of everyone in range.

Diver

Divers are second rarest only to Dream walkers. They are capable of entering a single targets mind and reliving a memory from their perspective, in it’s entirety. Their only grading comes from how long it takes to find the memory they are looking for.

Lie

Lies are graded on a scale of 1-5. At a 1 they can tell if someone is lying. The higher their grade the more they can compel others to tell the truth. At grade 5 people are forced to tell the whole truth around them. Lies powers work purely passively and have no control.

Enchanters

Due to the odd nature of enchanters they have been given a separate category. They are also given classifications of 1-9. No enchanter has ever been given a class 10 rating, but it does still exist. The reason for the class 10 rating is the existence of holy relics that supposedly came from various gods, but could have been made by a class 10 enchanter if one ever existed.

At it’s most basic enchanters take a property of an item and make it more. So a knife would become sharper if enchanted. The higher the class of the enchanter the more ‘more’ and the more abstract they can get. A purse can be enchanted to be more of a purse and become what is commonly referred to as a pocket. Enchantments are permanent and persist after the enchanters deaths.

Full discussion of their abilities will be covered in their chapter. An interesting fact is that while enchanters have extremely high average incomes none of them are on the top richest people lists. Theories abound but the most popular one is that when you can make 1 mill a week you have plenty of time for other non-money making interests.

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