Mare

A mare is a supernatural ability possessed by certain humans. They are unique powers manifested from the user's dreams or nightmares.

Overview

A mare is a manifestation of the user's dreams or nightmares in the form of a unique power. Sometimes this connection is obvious and straightforward (e.g. recurring dreams about flying granting the ability of flight), while others are more metaphorical (e.g. telekinesis manifesting from a wish for more order and control in one's life).

Since they're born from their own souls, mares are intuitively familiar to their users. Once a mare is awakened, the user gains an intuitive understanding of their new ability, including its name as well as the basics of how it functions. As such, even mares with complex rules and activation requirements can be used immediately. However, this does not confer mastery. Users still need to practice in order to familiarize themselves with its use, and can find novel ways to use it that weren't present in this initial understanding. There are also some exceptions, mostly with natural mares, where the user receives only part of this intuitive knowledge or even none at all.

Each mare is unique to its user. However, since different people can have similar dreams, many mares have similar effects. Some are common while others are rare and prized. These effects have been sorted into five broad unique power types.

Awakening & Categories

Humans can naturally hold a small amount of mist in their soul. This capacity increases from overexposure to oneirosea, e.g. being possessed or having recurring vivid dreams. When a human's mist capacity grows large enough, the mist stored in their soul mutates it and awakens a mare.

Each user can only have one mare, and it can no longer change or be erased once awakened, even if the user improves their mist capacity further afterwards. Upon awakening, the user gains the ability to use the basic powers as well. However, some compatible humans with higher mist capacities can use them even without going through the awakening process.

The category of a mare depends on how it was awakened:

Artificial Mares

Most mares are artificial, meaning they awaken after a compatible human ingests a demon cell - a pill designed by Alcyon Corporation for this specific purpose. As such, the vast majority of mare-users are current or former employees of Alcyon Corporation.

Natural Mares

Natural mares are mares that were awakened without the use of a demon cell. They are very rare, though the condition's existence is well known as it is often discussed in the media. There is some evidence that they are becoming more common, due to the increasing power of oneirosea in modern day.

Without the demon cell to impose an upper limit, natural mares usually manifest from larger amounts of mist than normal ones. This makes them more powerful than artificial mares, but also more difficult to use and control. Most have detrimental effects on their users - for example, hurting them mentally or physically when activated, or endangering people around them by activating at random. As such, they are often considered chronic health conditions, and one of the duties of Alcyon Corporation's medical division is to create personalized treatment plans for them.

Most research on mares is done on artificial ones, so natural ones are somewhat poorly understood. Therefore, natural mares sometimes display properties that break the "rules" of mares or even unique powers as a whole. For example, several known natural mares permanently changed their users' appearance upon awakening, without the need for a time limit or shift-type mantle.

Mantle

A mantle is a more powerful, "evolved" form of a mare. It can be considered a perfect fusion of the user and their power. Many years of harsh training is required to unlock it, but a deep understanding and acceptance of the dreams that manifested the mare can reduce the training requirement significantly.

Once achieved, mantles can be activated or deactivated at any time. Mantles are many times stronger than their basic forms, and sometimes give access to additional or more potent variants of existing abilities. However, this power can be overwhelming; inexperienced users may find it difficult to control, or use it overzealously and burn through their entire mist supply before a battle ends. Even after a mantle is achieved, new users must undergo more training before they can use it completely and effectively.

There are two types of mantles:

Shift-Type

Shift-type mantles merge the user with their power, changing their physical appearance as a result. In some cases this is as simple as a special outfit or change in hair color, but mantles that grow additional limbs or completely change the shape of the user have also been recorded. In addition to an increase in power, shift-type mantles often remove some of the mare's restrictions while active, allowing users to attack more quickly and aggressively.

Domain-Type

Domain-type mantles (sometimes simply called domains) externalize the user's power, and project it into the world in the form of a zone of space. Anything within a domain must obey its "rules" as if they are immutable laws of physics. In addition to an increase in power, the user gains a home field advantage against opponents they pull into their domain, who are forced to engage on the user's terms.

Domains are rarely seen. Mantles are already difficult to achieve, and over 90% of known mantles are shift-type. While not necessarily more powerful than shift-types, their rarity has made domains somewhat more prized - especially for the Defense Division, since they can be used to trap changelings and prevent collateral damage. Many divers who achieve domain-type mantles are shuffled into the defense division soon after.

Trivia

• "Mare" is a shortened form of "nightmare". It also means sea in multiple languages, in keeping with the oceanic theme of the series.