Cultivation Systems

Within the Azure Realm, "cultivation" is the process by which beings advance and better themselves and can take on many forms. Cultivation is broken up into Realms and Stages across three main paths. Each Realm is considered a threshold between large gaps of power and consists of several Stages one must progress through before attacking the boundary to the next Realm. Once one has mastered all the Stages of a given Realm and feels ready to progress their cultivation, a Trial must be faced and overcome. Upon completion of the Trial, the cultivator will obtain a sharp increase in power as they enter the next Realm of cultivation.

Mortals have only one path of cultivation to follow, but upon establishing a True Soul and achieving a certain level of Source Control, two new paths of cultivation open up to them. These three primary paths are the universal systems used to advance ones cultivation throughout all of the Azure Realm. They are, Source Cultivation, Body Cultivation, and Law Cultivation.

Source Cultivation
Source Cultivation(SC) is the most commonly practiced path of cultivation across all races in the universe as it is the central pillar that the other two paths of cultivation rely upon. It is impossible to progress beyond certain thresholds in Body and Law Cultivation without meeting a pre-requisite Realm of SC. However, SC is not bound by either of the two paths until its very peak. Humans are known to be especially adept at Source Cultivation as they are born being capable of absorbing source from the heaven and earth around them simply by breathing.

In order to train in SC one must improve their ability to sense, manipulate, and store Source Energy within oneself. This process fundamentally begins to alter and strengthen the cultivators soul allowing them to extend their lifespans and improve the conditions of their reincarnation after death by retaining memories or portions of their previous life's cultivation. Source Energy is used for almost everything in the Azure Realm from communication and the operation of magic treasures to the creation of food and art. In the higher realms of SC one can use source energy alone to fly, move distant objects, and even manifest physical constructs.

Body Cultivation
Body Cultivation(BC) is the specialty of Demon Beasts and becomes available to cultivators once they have formed a True Soul and gained the ability to form a Source Barrier around themselves. Using this protective layer of source energy, the cultivator exposes themselves to extreme conditions in order to temper the flesh. Over time, Source Energy is condensed and gathered within the flesh of the body itself, sometimes even carving elemental Laws into the body of the cultivator.

There are many ways to temper the body but in general the more dangerous methods yield the most effective results making this a difficult and risk filled path of cultivation. As the user's body becomes more and more resilient it becomes harder and harder to find conditions extreme enough use for training. The benefits of this path are not limited to increased durability however. BC causes ones vitality and healing capabilities to reach astounding heights. At higher realms cultivators can regenerate themselves from a single drop of blood and create fleshly clones of themselves or even imbue their bodies with elemental affinities.

Law Cultivation
Law Cultivation(LC) is the most obscure and elusive of the three cultivation paths. It is based around gaining insights into the world and the Laws that make up all the phenomenon within it. Insight into Law is not related to wisdom or intelligence despite being a type of knowledge. It is a fundamental truth of existence that is known withing the soul rather than the mind. This makes it difficult to share insights with words alone leading many cultivators to use art or complex rituals as a means of passing down their Insights into Laws. Among all the races, the Fey are most in tune with the Laws as they themselves were born from the miracle of Laws.

Laws are ranked by their closeness to the original source of creation as there are many Laws derived from higher Laws. The more derivative laws are generally easier to learn but also weaker foundations and can only be used to greater effect if the cultivator has also gained insight on all the parent Laws involved. The Laws with no parent Laws to draw from are the most potent and mastering even one can empower many other Laws that have derived from it. At higher levels of LC users can generate massive amounts of an element to wield freely, create a domain within which certain Laws innately begin to affect the world around them, and even adopt an elemental form that is almost impossible to kill that can last as long as the users Source Energy holds out.

The Mortal Realm is a special stage of cultivation which only exists in the [Present Era]. The Mortal Realm is characterized as having the lowest amount of source energy available for life to flourish. Mortals are so spiritually weak that their souls lack the ability to retain their form after physical death preventing them from entering the cycle of reincarnation whole. On death, mortals souls scatter into raw source energy to be used in the creation of entirely new mortal souls. The only way for mortals to overcome this fate is to cultivate to the peak of the Mortal Realm and establish a True Soul which is capable of surviving a reincarnation.

In order to cultivate the the Mortal Realm, one must first expand their senses to detect Source Energy and then practice their ability to gather and manipulate it. This process is used to store increasingly greater amounts of Source within themselves where it condenses to form a Soul Core. Once the formation of a Soul Core is complete, the cultivator will then naturally establish a True Soul to inhabit the Core. The cultivator then gains an Inner World and ascends from the Mortal Realm into Sainthood.

Source Connection
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