#Kotlc abilities

[ohmygoly]

This is how I think the elven abilities would be sorted into caste systems.

Note: There are other reasons for one's caste that would include education, banishment, government, loyalty, match status, other talents, etc etc. But if we base it all solely on abilities then this is from top caste to bottom caste:

The Rulers: Telepaths. They are the most utilized and most studied ability, simply because they are useful in so many ways. The most important families (like the Vackers) and the most important positions (like Head Councillors) are telepaths. The Council claims to have put restrictions on telepathy but in truth, the only telepaths that have to abide by those laws are the ones that aren't useful to the councillors. Everybody working in the administration gets let off the hook. I mean, to probe, wash, and break elf minds you can't be arrested for your criminal activity.

Noble Abilities: These are the abilities that are rarer and more powerful, and while some of that might be because elves are so strict about who everyone's allowed to marry and procreate with, the council doesn't want these abilities able to spread to common elves. They are best when controlled. Those abilities are: Inflictors, Mesmers, Beguilers, Vociferators, Descryers, and Chargers.

Elemental Abilities: These are the equivalent of upper middle class to lower upper class. They are like the barons and earls of the nobility. They're noble, but they aren't as important. They can be placed in higher positions of power though. And they are highly regulated, especially after the pyrokinesis ban, and they're very mistrusted. Naturally, these are: Hydrokinetics, Gusters, Shades, and Flashers.

Note: Any elves or elven families equivalent to human celebrities are in this caste as well, but for different reasons. The Song family and their music, sports teams, dancers, writers/researchers, etc.

Working Class: Technically, working class or "middle class" (it's obviously different because the elven system doesn't work the same but think of it that way). I say technically because this caste has the most mobility. They have useful abilities that can be paid money for but since their identity is less dependent on their ability, they're less restricted, and they can still come from noble families or make it into noble schools, they have the ability to range from just above the elven scum to political elites. Since there's so many though, the majority of them stay in the middle range, just outside of the nobility, or even get jobs that don't apply to their abilities. These abilities are: Psionipaths, Conjurers, Frosters, Phasers, Polyglots, Empaths, Enhancers, Technopaths, and Vanishers.

Note on Technopaths: Technopathy is the most common elven ability, and is the least valued. Even among common elves it is looked down upon and unless you are remarkably above average or invent something that benefits the society/council (lightleapers, registry pendants, caches, *ability restrictors*) you are invisible. The equivalent of having a surplus of teenagers looking to sell their mediocre art and naturally making nothing off of it, and they aren't as modern as humans and find less need for a bunch of techies to run a bunch of machines.

Slaves: Gnomes are basically slaves. They aren't paid, are forced to live with and serve the elves, and do nothing else. They are technically not an ability but they are part of society and higher than the Elven Scum caste so I put them here.

Elven Scum: Pyrokinetics and Talentless. They live in crowded cities, like Mysterium, and they only work for the poor. They have no chance of joining any sort of noble school or climbing the ranks because even if they were smart enough to get in, they have no ability in the eyes of the law and that makes them useless. They have nothing and live their lives getting dirty. This is the elven world so they still get things such as fountain of youth or whatever its called and other survival needs but otherwise they can barely live in furnished homes.

[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

[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

.

[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

[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]

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.

[eternal-everblaze]

I love reading comments on kotlc ability quizzes because you'll see people be happy with what they got and then there's one that is just a :( and their result says guster

[toastisnervous]

(not including sophie only abilities and not including polyglot)

POLL 1 HERE

[loamnore]

this user recognizes the faults of keefe sencen, that he is not a perfect person nor a perfect character, and that he is nonetheless likable and not a bad guy and also, like, 15

[fangirlingovernothingg]

"Know, Mr. Dizznee: if you make any changes to the device or its effect on her your entire family will be charged with treason."

HE'S A FREAKING THIRTEEN YEAR OLD BOY

[the-way-astray]

yeah, i never liked the fact that all of sophie's friends are abnormally powerful. besides the obvious ones (the main five), we have marella, who is above average in terms of showing restraint, linh, who maintains excellent control and flooded a whole city and saved another one, tam, who can control shadowflux, which only a small handful of shades can do, and maruca, who's able to create a more powerful kind of shield within just a few months of manifesting. wylie's the only one in the group who isn't weirdly above average for his age, though this could be because he's the only actual adult in the group.

i hate the fact that all of sophie's friends are so powerful. it really sucks, because it takes away chances for the characters to rely on their wits instead of their abilities all the time. or their skills! anything but their abilities. aren't elves supposed to be smart??? how come nobody ever uses that? why do they all have to be so ridiculously powerful? it's so annoying.

why is dex so powerful anyways? He's way too powerful for a technopath who just manifested a couple years or so ago and has had such little training and practice.

Most of Sophie's friends are too powerful, tbh. Biana figures out how to vanish from gnomes. Fitz is more powerful than almost any telepath. Even the more recent additions to their group are pretty powerful.

Perhaps Keefe's presence is affecting their abilities somehow.