#Kotlc abilities

[eternal-everblaze]

imagine if you were both a pyrokinetic and a froster, the urge to do either temperature would be fighting each other. How would you satisfy both of them?

How my intrusive thoughts be on a daily basis

[bookwyrminspiration]

i don’t know if you take them, but headcanons for mesmers in kotlc? because I feel like they’re not the most developed

I'm not very experienced with headcanons, but I can certainly try! This may just end up an assortment of details I would've included myself if it were my story. Some are already in line with canon, but not explicitly stated, so I'm saying them here

When mesmerising someone, one's mind is vulnerable and more susceptible to all other kinds of influence (beguilers, telepathic invasion, other mesmers, etc)

The more involved and intense the actions another is being mesmerized into doing, the more vulnerable the mind

(e.g., making someone slap themself once vs prolonged holding your hand in fire. also affected by number of people under control)

There is a finite amount of power one has, which can either be concentrated in one person's complex task, or spread out across multiple people as simpler tasks

This varies from person to person, and with practice you can increase your capability

There's a passive side effect to the ability that makes mesmers inherently more persuasive

This creates notable distrust in some, who constantly question their own conclusions and subtle actions in the presence of a mesmer (this is just canon but more relevant here)

More powerful mesmers can, with practice, utilize others' abilities effectively via mesmerising them

For example, mesmerizing a hydrokinetic and being able to use their hydrokinesis vicariously (this could be argued as existing in canon, but I'm making a distinction for no particular reason)

The more one practices with another's ability, the more skilled they become and the more they can use it (the benefits in one area also seep into all areas, making them more adaptable and skilled overall). This leads some to try and practice via trusted people repeatedly

However, the more time one spends mesmerizing one person, the more accustomed their mind becomes to it, and the harder it is to separate and break away

The adaptability and skill one gains in all regards of their personhood can come at the cost of the mental security of others, which can deter many from trying

I few of these are more canon than others, but I am very canon oriented so it's to be expected. I hope this is sufficient for your request, at least for now! I'm sure there's much more that could be explored or added, but these are the ideas I thought of first :)

[the-kotlcopedia]

Elven Medicine

ABILITIES IN MEDICINE

Written By: @nyxpixels

. Flashers often choose to become physicians, because of their ability to use light to identify different diseases and injuries.

. Physicians who are not flashers must use specially colored candles to achieve the same things.

. With the ability to detect whether a patient is lying, and the amount of pain a patient is in, Empaths also commonly choose to become physicians.

. Sadly, there is discrimination in medicine. With some Physicians refusing to treat those with certain backgrounds and abilities. Shades, Mesmer’s, and Pyrokinetics often are refused treatment. Talentless, disabled, multiple birthed, and bad matches also get turned away by more prejudiced practitioners.

. Hydrokinetics are more susceptible to electricity and will have further damage done to their body if electrocuted. It causes twice as much damage because the water in a hydrokinetics body is more conductible than the average elf.

. Frosters get sunburned and overheated easily, be sure to provide a froster patient with different ways to cool down when being treated.

. If pyrokinetics are not bundled up in the cold, they will contract hypothermia and possibly frostbite. Ensure all prokinetic patients are warm.

. Shades (like frosters) can get sunburns easily. They also cannot see very well in bright light. The night vision skill does seem to come more easily to them.

. Flashers often struggle to see in the dark, and often face negative effects when shadowvapor is used near them, or on them.

. Gusters need a higher intake of oxygen and are more susceptible to pneumonia.

. Technopaths get migraines from being around too much tech, and from getting too many ideas at once.

[blerpywatermelon]

"Omg if telepaths are so rare them why do we see so many telepaths in the book"

Sophie *is* a telepath. I'm sure if it was from Keefe's point of view, we'd see more Empaths, and if it was from Dex's point of view, we'd see more technopaths.

And none of the telepaths that Sophie interacts with are just random telepaths that she happens to stumble upon, either. All of the telepaths found her, not the other way around. In fact, almost all of the telepaths she knows are Vackers, or Black Swan and Neverseen members. And of course two Councillors were telepaths (Emery and Kenric), all of the Council members have rare abilities and/or can do something unique with their abilities.

There are probably at least millions of elves in the Lost Cities, right? So out of all of the telepaths Sophie's met, there are definitely more in the world, probability wise, there has to be. Even if there were 10 million elves in the Lost Cities, and 0.1% of them were telepaths, then there would have to be at least 1,000 telepaths in the world. That's a lot of telepaths!! But probability wise, it would still be considered a rare ability, and Sophie has met less than twenty of them.

[anonymous-kotlc-thoughts]

does anyone else love abilities like aaaa j need to see more of them in use like we've never seen Sophie's reaction to a phaser going through a wall I think

.

[ohmygoly]

Okay I have this whole philosophy thing on the elements. You have the six, which are Water, Earth, Air, Fire, Light, and Shadow. These get split into two categories I call Celestial and Terrestial. Fire, Light, and Shadow are Celestial Elements. Fire belongs to the sun, Shadow to the moon, and Light to the stars. Terrestial elements belong to specific domains. Water belongs to the Sea, Earth belongs to the land, and Air belongs to the sky. I haven't thought about what the opposing forces must be in this system yet, if there are any. Light and Shadow seem intuitive but then the star and the moon would be opposites. Or, as I have also seen light and dark as the two sides of the moon, two sides of the same coin, thats what light and shadow could be in this framework.

It's actually kinda hard to say any triangle has an opposite, so what would their Terrestial opposites be instead? I consider that Shadow is the opposite of Water considering the push and pull of the moon and sea. That's pretty easy. I'm starting to think the sun should be Light (so that the daylight and the Earth can come together and symbolize land growth) and that the stars should be Fire (to symbolize the need for flame in dark, cold nights as well as to contrast the plasmic flame with lightning, or sky). This bothers me though because sun is so clearly fire to me and the rainbow-esque nature of light lends itself well to the broad range of stars. Anyways, this had something to do with KotLC, naturally.

I will say this again WHY ISN'T THERE AN EARTH ELEMENTAL ABILITY? I have been thinking up an OC that could potentially have more gnomish blood (still an elf) with some sort of Earthsong ability, like the tunneling thing a lot of the other species do or plant polyglot, or some sort of crystalline ability. The problem is, its incorporated into so many of the other species' abilities (gnomes sing to plants, dwarves mine crystals and stones, ogres are experts in biochemistry) that I'm sure its just repetitive and boring to have an elf ability as such but the asymmetry lowkey annoys me. And something interesting could be the case like literally growing things, or something with metal, or transmitting through crystals whether it be communication or travel or harnessing power.

I have considered gnomes are more closely related to elves than other species because of this earth thing. They are basically humanoid plants. Dwarves could be the second runner up of this. This could work if we follow evolutionary theory (which is already wack in this universe) but ALSO the source theory that says that all of their abilities are sourced from the light of the sun, moon, and stars. Maybe gnomes are the balance to elves, maybe the interconnectedness of their peoples as of right now is also symbolic of their biological closeness. Idk, I just want an earth element recognized. Why would elves even think of earth as an element if it's not even recognized? Remember the Greek Gods split the underworld, sky, and sea but kept the land everyone's domain, so this Earth could be less given to the elves as everybody wields this power. Idek.

Technopathy was something I potentially considered because technological inventions of the elves, especially in these primitive yet weirdly sci fi inventions, are closely tied to earthen materials like stone, wood, and metal (a little chinese element action ig lol). Linh reads the water and discovers it in the air. Marella reads the flame. Its heat, its color, its wildness. A technopath reads the materials of the world around them and creates something out of them. Earth is the element that best symbolizes growth, life, and creation in such an obvious way. What better ability to symbolize Earth than one that reads the earth and creates something out of its parts?

What even is this void thing? Before Sophie's teleportation there were conjurers, which have a connection to the void and the strings that connect the universe. I have put them in my own little category named "subelemental" alongside frosters, phasers (matter), vanishers (light-ish), psionipaths (plasma/light?), and chargers, but I think they could be important to Elysian. This whole void thing essentially lays this weird greater connection between everything that Elysian also kinda hints at being. Goodness, Elysian is so vague. They need to stop making seventh elements in fantasy. It's too much. Alas, there is and we must figure out what it is. I think it is closely related to whatever the heck is going on with conjurers and Sophie's teleportation but I'm also kinda making this up.

Each element kind of has an extreme. Flashers have the ability to control quintessence, which is light in its purest form, right? Shades can control shadowflux, a physical shadow that destroys. Pyrokinetics have everblaze, the purest embodiment of the wild and living flame. I figured "Bottles of Youth" are an example of the purest, most life-giving water but that it is simply more commonly used because its beneficial rather than destructive (like the Celestial elements are). So in that vain, what would be the beneficial, purest forms of Air, that Gusters could control, and Earth, which gnomes, dwarves, or technopaths could control, depending on which theory we're running with here? Is there no tainted form of Elysian or is the Elysian that Sophie meets the purest form? Is this "void" tainted or pure? Maybe Elysian is the general, tainted element and Void is the pure form of it.

No one is going to read this, I almost guarantee it, but idk maybe I'll update this myself with my own ideas or something. Figured I'd post it anyways and see what happens.

[telugu-girl-13]

'nother question: what abilities do you feel are pointless? my main two are descryer (potential is endless, you literally cannot see if its 'good' or 'bad') and beguiler (this one just confuses me, they have limits??)

[toastisnervous]

I can only have 12 options 😔 so I’m gonna make another pill and if you vote there just click the last option

POLL 2 HERE

[winwin17]

What if Jensi manifests as a Beguiler and his moment of climactic glory is beguiling all the villains to their own deaths?

[todayisclaudyyy]

WDYM FROSTER IS NOT AN ELEMENTAL ABILITY ??!?

MY WHOLE LIFE IS A LIE

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO MAKE JULINE DIZZNEE ANGST NOW

hope the 7th element is ice/snow-

[unch4rtedwxters]

hey ny! if you could have a kotlc ability, what would you choose?

hey nova!

uhhhhhhhhh i can't choose between telepath and technopath.

they're both so cool and i'd love to have either one

[eternal-everblaze]

a silly ability kotlc quiz I made is now a year old and I wanted to celebrate yippee

anyways I want to see what you guys would get so you should totally tell me!!! I got inflictor btw although idk if it counts if it's my own quiz

quiz

[bookwyrminspiration]

i've always found it really strange how there's no designated earth ability in keeper, especially considering how in a lot of the books elves put this significance on balance (like, not loosing control of your ability but not being afraid of it, the world three-light-sources thing, the council not only being one person who makes all the decisions but a team of people that can find...balance...whose job it is to maintain the peace (or, again, balance) of the lost cities & the world) so it's strange there hasn't been a final piece to the "water, fire, wind" (+ ice) trio you can find in abilities. id say its totally fine, but its weird considering it would be the final piece to get like. balance between the elements and all of that? not sure if im making sense here.

yes, exactly!! same, nonsie!!

this was actually one of the reasons I thought geokinesis would be a reasonable ability for her to manifest if she ever manifested another (if you haven’t seen that post, click here)

So far all of the abilities have seemed to serve a purpose, like they exist to further the story if that makes sense. She manifested inflicting to escape her kidnapping and to create drama with Bronte (oversimplification but I think you get the point). She became a teleporter to escape the Neverseen and it made transport to certain places more convenient to write. she’s a polyglot because it makes writing scenes in other locations with different languages easier, etc. it’s like they were added to solve problems in the story instead of Sophie figuring out how to use her abilities to solve problems. There’s a clear distinction in my head but I don’t know if I’m explaining it properly. (Both are fine ways to write, I just happen to prefer stories where the characters think creatively instead of manifesting some innate ability that gets them out of it.

So realistically I could see her manifesting an earth related ability or meeting someone with one to “restore balance” or something. especially since all four elements seem so integral so the world building of so many fantasy worlds, as Shannon has included three of the four so far. If Sophie wasn’t already a teleporter I might be more inclined to believe she’d manifest a type of geokinesis and be the only elf with that ability, therefore restoring balance and setting the world right and all that. But since she already has a very rare ability (inflicting) and a never before seen ability (teleporting), I don’t think it would feel as meaningful. And I don’t know how many more people Shannon can add to the main group before it just gets annoying. (We’re around ten-twelve right now, depending on if you include Stina and Jensi)

Of course there doesn’t need to be an earth related ability, it just sticks out in a world like this because it feels like it should be there.

[you-have-been-frizzled]

juline reminds me so much of pepa madrigal with her powers & the need of bury her emotions because of them-

where do you think i got the idea for Juline being so heavily emotionally connected to her ability from?

after i watched Encanto i was like “oooooh hehehe i can make Juline like Pepa” it also is canon as seen in Linh’s short story and Tam making the shadows larger when he’s mad so it’s fun to play around with

i also just thought it was neat, Mirabel and Bruno are my favorites though, i just liked Pepa’s gift

to me some elementals are more emotionally connected than others, having lower limits to how much they can hold in and how strong their emotions play into their control of their ability

[ohmygoly]

It is curious that for every other element there is an ability for it...water, fire, air, light, and shadows. But, there is no apparent elvin ability for Earth. I wonder why that is. Could technopathy be considered the ability to read and control physical matter, or Earth? Maybe it'd be better written that elves don't even view Earth as an element, it is just not something they believe culturally. Maybe they should believe Earth is the only true element because they don't have the ability to create it. Maybe they recognize that it is an element that was given to the gnomes by the sun, moon, and stars in the form of plants as the elves already have an immense amount of power. OR, what if the elves and gnomes are more closely related species than anyone originally thought?

[toastisnervous]

(not including sophie only abilities and not including polyglot)

POLL 1 HERE