((I'd like to present for your viewing pleasure, the unfinished compendium for the RP Renaiscido, the land of rebirth. There's more coming soon, which means that there'll be more updates done to the discussion page to accompany as well. Enjoy!))
Your Body and You:
-That black goo:
You might happen to be curious about black goo that covering your naked body upon your initial awakening here. The goo is what our scientists best postulate as "ectoplasm". While the substance on earth is best considered the residue of poltergeists and other still-bound, supernatural spirits, the substance here is actually theorized by our wise-guys to be the residue of earthbound impurity. In a nutshell, that was the contamination of earth leaving you!
-Your Body now:
By now you'll have noticed a feeling a weakness, while outside, oddly dressed stranger fly through the sky. Don't worry about the initial weakness as it will pass after the first couple of hours. If you observe yourself for a moment, you''l notice that you body is in better shape that it's ever been before. This is you new body.
-Some complications:
There are couple of downsides to your new body, depending on your viewpoint. Your body will never age past your mid 20's physically. The city itself has been around for about a thousand years... Give or take. Some of the residents of the city have been around since the beginning, and are still very much alive and enjoying their lives. It appears that native citizens (that includes you dear reader) are unable to die from old age. Granted that there have been a couple of our people killed by outside forces (We apparently are immortal, not invincible).
Further more, It appears that we are in fact unable to conceive life of our own here. Don't fret, for both your desires and your genitalia are still functioning. Still, don't expect kids. Seriously, there are people here that have been around (and trying) since the beginning and have had no luck.
-Weakling:
Just kidding! It appears to be that all native residents of Renaiscido happen to be blessed with a super-human amount of strength. Even the wimpiest-looking string-bean can punch a hole through a brick wall, bend a steel girder, or leap fifty feet into the air. Traveling by foot here is the most preferred means of travel (which isn't to say that there aren't more than this), and it is a genuine thrill to flying though the air, leaping from roof top to roof top. People blessed with a knack for move with the greatest of grace, agility and precision when in combat. Those who've used their knack often enough develop a natural ability to analyze an opponent's natural vulnerabilities. Keep this in mind the next time you want to give someone here on the streets a hard time!
On the subject of knacks:
-Magic (also known as "Citymancy")
What It Is:
A rare and equally amazing knack to to have. Your abilities are somewhat (albeit marginally similar) to those with the botanical knack. You have been allowed control and domain over the various elements of the city because you possess an innate spiritual connection to it. Pipes rooted deep within the ground becomes a mighty sewage-spewing steel dragon. Glass shards become daggers. Trash cans become filthy missiles. Mud, brick, and clay form a near-impenetrable wall. These are just a few examples of what can be done with this knack.
A General Disclaimer:
But there are a couple of ground rules about it though. Don't expect or think that you're the chosen one one. You're not. You're not going to be especially and innately talented when beginning your practice of this knack. Nobody is. Period. The city decided everyone's (magic) power level by making everyone's power level begin at an equal level with everyone else's.
Domain Control:
What you do with your magic is based off of what you have in mind, the city's wishes, and your domain control. The domains or elements that you'll have control over are as follows:
Clay
Brick
Wood
Glass
Metal
Cement
Plastic
Filth (includes garbage and sewage)
As you become stronger, you gain access to and ability over other domains. Though you, along with everyone else is going to be started off with clay domain control. This doesn't mean though that you can't just specialize in one or two! Also, don't expect to be able to do much with your ability at first. You'll at the most be able to mentally shape clay. It takes a lot diligence to make your powers and domain access grow.
The Spell Books:
Don't ever ask a fellow magician to see his spell book. There are several libraries (and huge one's at that) dotted throughout the city. Obtaining a spell book is a hellish quest in and of itself. The spell book is positively vital to a magic-user. It is a highly personalized book (it's appearance being reflective of your personality ), that show you have many spells you are able to cast per day (using your domain control for even a moment counts as a spell usage), shows you which domains you've access to, occasionally provides tips and ideas for spell usage when under duress, and both focuses and amplifies your powers.
A Word of Warning:
You will have the ability to cast spell without the book. It will not be nearly be as powerful or focused, as it would be with your book. You must also be careful of going over your spell limit (which is small at first), as exceeding your spell amount limit will result in INSTANT DEATH!!!
-Botany (Otherwise known as "Renomancy", and "Green-Thumb")
What It Is:This is the knack most similar to the magic knack. In this case, the person gifted with the knack has the ability to control the elements of the planet, rather than of the city. Most people gifted with this knack end up in the agricultural field. Nobody can really blame them, as most with the knack seem to get a genuine sense of enjoyment out of working the planet for the benefit of all. It's not a wise idea to anger those with the green thumb. Well, unless you actually want to be on the bad side of a colossal and grotesque combination of what appears to be a stone tree Golem.
Domain Control:
The Domain controls for those blessed with the green thumb are as follows:
Soil/earth
Water
Tree/plant
Stone/Rock
The Green Thumb In action:
Just like with the magical knack, sapling green-thumbs are have access to only one domain: Plant domain. Unlike with magic (otherwise known as Citymancy), you won't suffer an instantaneous death from going over your spell limit. Granted, that you can still die from overdoing it though. Spells are fueled by your first fueled by your physical stamina, and then by your life force (which takes a significantly longer time to recover sufficiently).
The season Renomancer is a terror to behold in combat. How does one truly fight one whose power is the planet itself? Don't mistake a Renomancer for a simple farmer boy or girl, because these people can hit harder (using their abilities of course) than the mountains they wield!
Almanac:The abilities and power of a green thumb is far different from that of a Citymancer in many other ways as well. Green thumb powers, aren't dependent upon a spell book. Like the planet itself, green thumb powers aren't entirely under their control (their powers must also contend with the will of the planet for them to properly work), and can be just as wild as the silent earth upon which they tread. It would be safe to safe that Renomancers have and are in control of their powers a good 75 to 80 percent of the time.
Like Citymancers though, there is a book that they can use to aid them. This book is called the Almanac. Almanacs are fairly easy to come by, especially for Renomancers, and many would go out of their way to help a Renomancer get an Almanac. After all, they both beautify the city, and provide the most delicious produce you've ever tasted in all of your years (we're talking so damned good, that you have to hit something just to keep from going out of your mind).
The Almanac acts as a strange sort of counter-balance between the planet's power, the Renomancer's energies, and the wishes of the planet. The Almanac provides the Renomancer with greater, if but temporary control and focus of his abilities. The Almanac itself is infused with an energy of it's own, but requires the energy (any amount will do) of the Renomancer in possession to be activated. The Almanac will be bound, and usable only for the Greenthumb who activated it until, the energies of both the book (given it by the activator) and the Renomancer are fully spent and expired. At which point, the book merely disintegrates into a pile of dust to be carried away by the wind.
-Mechanical/Engineering (also known as "Mechamancy")
What it is:
You're a whirlwind of metal, glass plastic, and on occasion, crystals and other miscellaneous materials when you get inspired. This knack is semi-magic. It doesn't involve having a connection to the planet like Renomancer, or a connection to the city like a Citymancer. You have the power to give life to the lifeless. Engineering materials like steel pipes and girders float and dance before the seasoned Mechamancer in rapturous symphony before binding and bending themselves to the will to the user.
Mechamancers are the engineers and the designers behind most (if not all) of the unique-looking (to say the very least giant mechanized metal men (otherwise known as robots to some of you newcomers). They're also responsible for most of the gadgetry that both fills and flutters about the busy streets and skies. Mechamancy in action is like metal-filled alchemy.
In Action:
Mechamancers generally take days, months or even years to complete their creations, which often as a result reflect their emotions and personalities. As a result, mechanical magic generally takes significantly less energy over time (Mechamancers use their hands a lot too!), considering that all the materials required to make a machine run are rarely in one place at the same time. You can generally tell that somebody is a Mechamancer by the tool belts/packs that they carry, and their signature goggles and gadgets.
No special book?:
Mechamancers don't have a special book to amplify, or focus their abilities (Actually, Mechamancer abilities are already pretty focused from the start) per se. The strength of the Mechamancer is his ability to create. Meaning that a Mechamancer is weak if both his mind and knowledge of science, engineering and physics are weak. Mechamancers gain no special power from any book, other than the opportunity to increase their knowledge of the physical world (i.e, reading a damned book). Rather through a desire to further develop the effectiveness of their abilities, or their sheer love of knowledge, Mechamancers, are most easily and readily found pouring over books in the Library or engineering sectors.
Therefore, the best advice a junior Mechamancer will receive from his senior is "Hit the books!"
-Musical (also known as "Tonomancy")
What it is:
You've got more than just a natural talent for music. You're a hair short of being a god with an instrument in your more-than-capable hands. Music, rhythm, and harmonies, the expressions of the soul come to you more naturally than breathing. At least if you're seasoned. Even newbies to the knack can almost absentmindedly strum up a wickedly infectious ditty on their chosen instrument. Not even the musicians in Ren city are pansies. A powerful Tonomancer with a horn can generate devastation tempests of wind (and on occasion, globs of saliva), or powder glass by picking a string sharp enough.
Domain control:
Domain control and use of magic is based off of instrument types. Since there's a veritable universe of content within even one musical instrument, Tonomancers of even the seasoned variety for this reason get around to and stick with two instruments at first. And now the Domains:
Voice
Wind
Stringed
Percussion
A Word of warning:
Tonomancy abilities are among the most dangerous to use. Music being as expressive and engrossing (for both the player and the listener), it takes even more energy to use the magical abilities of Tonomancy than Renomany and Citymancy combined! It's not uncommon for a passionate Tonomancer to drop dead in front of an enraptured audience in the middle of an amazing instrumental solo because of magic overuse. The average Tonomancer need not worry about never being able to play an instrument though, as one actually has to use actually magic from the knack for it to work. As one doesn't use their instrument to make magic, energy won't be used, and as a result, the danger disappears entirely.
There's no special book for Tonomancers, just trial and error.
-Combat
What it is:
When in danger, you're the red god of war howling beneath the moon. You wade through the thickest of combat with unnatural ease, dealing death to all that would dare oppose you. Killing and destruction comes naturally, and you in your heart of hearts welcome the opportunity to do battle against worthy opponents. Your power level in the midst of combat nearly doubles the strength level of a typical Ren city citizen as a newbie. Your strength and abilities triple within a century where it begins to increase at a slower pace. Even worse, every person blessed with the knack has a completely unique fighting style to increase their effectiveness. Gifted not only with unnatural (for this planet at least) strength, you possess added agility, flexibility, and equilibrium. And when your "switch" is turned on, you are a force to be reckoned with.
"Switch"?:
It's what those with the combat knack known and sometimes feared for. The "switch" is responsible for a majority of the damage to the city (usually by accident) that isn't just a result of the wars that occur over the city itself. Simply put, people with the knack for combat tend to (and have a have an infamous history of) destroy more of the city than anyone else, which can in fact include foreign invaders. The eyes turn a deep blood red, as rational and conscious thought take the back seat to primal rage.
The Manual:
The ultimate source of the fighter's power. No two manuals in the entirety of the world are alike. Each manual is custom fitted and tailored to it's one and only owner. A fighter's well-being depends on the manual, though not in the same way as an actual magic user. Each manual contains a fighting style suited purely and for the owner of the manual, which is based off of personality, size, body type, and innate specialties. There aren't really domains for the knack of the manual, though it does contain individualized techniques in the different areas of combat designed specifically for the manual's owner. In that regard, there might be mostly weapon (usually, the weapon illustrated the most in one's manual is the weapon best suited towards a fighter's body) techniques for one user, while few or none for another.
In addition to fighting techniques for a fighter, the manual also contains dietary courses personalized for one's metabolism, exercise routines, and schedules. THe manual also responsible for supplying fighters with their added base strength, along with their destructive power once their "switches" are turned on. The manual is essentially the fighter's lifeline.
The problem:
As appetizing as the unparalleled (relatively) strength, and power of having a knack for combat might be, the knack comes at a heavy price. The guilt of knowing that you are at times more dangerous than any outside force coupled with knowing that your most natural talent is destruction can be a bit much for more gentler souls, driving them towards isolation, apathy, and addictions. People in Ren city tend to be lightly more wary of fighters, at least in the sense that they will sometimes go out of their way insure that they in fact are not the source of rage. There's an atmosphere of nervousness around the fighters. On one hand, they out of any others are the most stalwart and fearless protectors of the city from aggressive outside forces, and yet they can barely protect the rest of the public from themselves at times.
Though not all fighters maintain the profession. The mayor is one instance of a (sort of) retired fighter, who took up unofficially running and leading the city's affairs. Having a knack doesn't doom you to your profession (though it does make you a good dancer), as their are even quite a few fighters living within the tech district who work with the mechamancers on construction.
-Healing (Also known as "bodymancy")
What is is:
Probably the most appreciated knack in all of Ren City. Bodymancers are the writers of the special books, and the healers of both sick and wounded. Bodymancers are blessed with both a superhuman amount of dexterity, and an uncanny knowledge of the human body. Bodymancers are also able to use their powers to speed up the body's own natural healing process, by expending some of their own energy. Bodymancers generally work alongside Renomancers, as a Bodymancer always has dire need of a couple spare sheets of paper.
The tome:
The healer's special handwritten tome. Like all of the other special books, it is wirtten by the bodymancer.
Life in Renaiscido:
-Your home:
Do you know that strange, but nice looking apartment that you first awoke in? That's your new home and you don't have to a single cent for it! The city (or perhaps the planet itself as some of our scholars speculate) provides you with free food (check your refrigerator at morning, noon, and night), clean water, clothing (check your wardrobe), and even protection (see below).
-Your planet:
The planet itself is a living, thinking, thing. We lucky few who have been blessed and cursed enough to live here both love, respect, and have (and will continue to) take up the burden of protecting our planet (or at least the planet in our neck of the woods. The planet loves us so much (aside from providing us with free food in our houses from out of nowhere) that those with the magic knack can speak to the planet through special personalized verses in an effort to use the city and it's elements as a weapon, tool, shield.
MORE coming soon!
Your Body and You:
-That black goo:
You might happen to be curious about black goo that covering your naked body upon your initial awakening here. The goo is what our scientists best postulate as "ectoplasm". While the substance on earth is best considered the residue of poltergeists and other still-bound, supernatural spirits, the substance here is actually theorized by our wise-guys to be the residue of earthbound impurity. In a nutshell, that was the contamination of earth leaving you!
-Your Body now:
By now you'll have noticed a feeling a weakness, while outside, oddly dressed stranger fly through the sky. Don't worry about the initial weakness as it will pass after the first couple of hours. If you observe yourself for a moment, you''l notice that you body is in better shape that it's ever been before. This is you new body.
-Some complications:
There are couple of downsides to your new body, depending on your viewpoint. Your body will never age past your mid 20's physically. The city itself has been around for about a thousand years... Give or take. Some of the residents of the city have been around since the beginning, and are still very much alive and enjoying their lives. It appears that native citizens (that includes you dear reader) are unable to die from old age. Granted that there have been a couple of our people killed by outside forces (We apparently are immortal, not invincible).
Further more, It appears that we are in fact unable to conceive life of our own here. Don't fret, for both your desires and your genitalia are still functioning. Still, don't expect kids. Seriously, there are people here that have been around (and trying) since the beginning and have had no luck.
-Weakling:
Just kidding! It appears to be that all native residents of Renaiscido happen to be blessed with a super-human amount of strength. Even the wimpiest-looking string-bean can punch a hole through a brick wall, bend a steel girder, or leap fifty feet into the air. Traveling by foot here is the most preferred means of travel (which isn't to say that there aren't more than this), and it is a genuine thrill to flying though the air, leaping from roof top to roof top. People blessed with a knack for move with the greatest of grace, agility and precision when in combat. Those who've used their knack often enough develop a natural ability to analyze an opponent's natural vulnerabilities. Keep this in mind the next time you want to give someone here on the streets a hard time!
On the subject of knacks:
-Magic (also known as "Citymancy")
What It Is:
A rare and equally amazing knack to to have. Your abilities are somewhat (albeit marginally similar) to those with the botanical knack. You have been allowed control and domain over the various elements of the city because you possess an innate spiritual connection to it. Pipes rooted deep within the ground becomes a mighty sewage-spewing steel dragon. Glass shards become daggers. Trash cans become filthy missiles. Mud, brick, and clay form a near-impenetrable wall. These are just a few examples of what can be done with this knack.
A General Disclaimer:
But there are a couple of ground rules about it though. Don't expect or think that you're the chosen one one. You're not. You're not going to be especially and innately talented when beginning your practice of this knack. Nobody is. Period. The city decided everyone's (magic) power level by making everyone's power level begin at an equal level with everyone else's.
Domain Control:
What you do with your magic is based off of what you have in mind, the city's wishes, and your domain control. The domains or elements that you'll have control over are as follows:
Clay
Brick
Wood
Glass
Metal
Cement
Plastic
Filth (includes garbage and sewage)
As you become stronger, you gain access to and ability over other domains. Though you, along with everyone else is going to be started off with clay domain control. This doesn't mean though that you can't just specialize in one or two! Also, don't expect to be able to do much with your ability at first. You'll at the most be able to mentally shape clay. It takes a lot diligence to make your powers and domain access grow.
The Spell Books:
Don't ever ask a fellow magician to see his spell book. There are several libraries (and huge one's at that) dotted throughout the city. Obtaining a spell book is a hellish quest in and of itself. The spell book is positively vital to a magic-user. It is a highly personalized book (it's appearance being reflective of your personality ), that show you have many spells you are able to cast per day (using your domain control for even a moment counts as a spell usage), shows you which domains you've access to, occasionally provides tips and ideas for spell usage when under duress, and both focuses and amplifies your powers.
A Word of Warning:
You will have the ability to cast spell without the book. It will not be nearly be as powerful or focused, as it would be with your book. You must also be careful of going over your spell limit (which is small at first), as exceeding your spell amount limit will result in INSTANT DEATH!!!
-Botany (Otherwise known as "Renomancy", and "Green-Thumb")
What It Is:This is the knack most similar to the magic knack. In this case, the person gifted with the knack has the ability to control the elements of the planet, rather than of the city. Most people gifted with this knack end up in the agricultural field. Nobody can really blame them, as most with the knack seem to get a genuine sense of enjoyment out of working the planet for the benefit of all. It's not a wise idea to anger those with the green thumb. Well, unless you actually want to be on the bad side of a colossal and grotesque combination of what appears to be a stone tree Golem.
Domain Control:
The Domain controls for those blessed with the green thumb are as follows:
Soil/earth
Water
Tree/plant
Stone/Rock
The Green Thumb In action:
Just like with the magical knack, sapling green-thumbs are have access to only one domain: Plant domain. Unlike with magic (otherwise known as Citymancy), you won't suffer an instantaneous death from going over your spell limit. Granted, that you can still die from overdoing it though. Spells are fueled by your first fueled by your physical stamina, and then by your life force (which takes a significantly longer time to recover sufficiently).
The season Renomancer is a terror to behold in combat. How does one truly fight one whose power is the planet itself? Don't mistake a Renomancer for a simple farmer boy or girl, because these people can hit harder (using their abilities of course) than the mountains they wield!
Almanac:The abilities and power of a green thumb is far different from that of a Citymancer in many other ways as well. Green thumb powers, aren't dependent upon a spell book. Like the planet itself, green thumb powers aren't entirely under their control (their powers must also contend with the will of the planet for them to properly work), and can be just as wild as the silent earth upon which they tread. It would be safe to safe that Renomancers have and are in control of their powers a good 75 to 80 percent of the time.
Like Citymancers though, there is a book that they can use to aid them. This book is called the Almanac. Almanacs are fairly easy to come by, especially for Renomancers, and many would go out of their way to help a Renomancer get an Almanac. After all, they both beautify the city, and provide the most delicious produce you've ever tasted in all of your years (we're talking so damned good, that you have to hit something just to keep from going out of your mind).
The Almanac acts as a strange sort of counter-balance between the planet's power, the Renomancer's energies, and the wishes of the planet. The Almanac provides the Renomancer with greater, if but temporary control and focus of his abilities. The Almanac itself is infused with an energy of it's own, but requires the energy (any amount will do) of the Renomancer in possession to be activated. The Almanac will be bound, and usable only for the Greenthumb who activated it until, the energies of both the book (given it by the activator) and the Renomancer are fully spent and expired. At which point, the book merely disintegrates into a pile of dust to be carried away by the wind.
-Mechanical/Engineering (also known as "Mechamancy")
What it is:
You're a whirlwind of metal, glass plastic, and on occasion, crystals and other miscellaneous materials when you get inspired. This knack is semi-magic. It doesn't involve having a connection to the planet like Renomancer, or a connection to the city like a Citymancer. You have the power to give life to the lifeless. Engineering materials like steel pipes and girders float and dance before the seasoned Mechamancer in rapturous symphony before binding and bending themselves to the will to the user.
Mechamancers are the engineers and the designers behind most (if not all) of the unique-looking (to say the very least giant mechanized metal men (otherwise known as robots to some of you newcomers). They're also responsible for most of the gadgetry that both fills and flutters about the busy streets and skies. Mechamancy in action is like metal-filled alchemy.
In Action:
Mechamancers generally take days, months or even years to complete their creations, which often as a result reflect their emotions and personalities. As a result, mechanical magic generally takes significantly less energy over time (Mechamancers use their hands a lot too!), considering that all the materials required to make a machine run are rarely in one place at the same time. You can generally tell that somebody is a Mechamancer by the tool belts/packs that they carry, and their signature goggles and gadgets.
No special book?:
Mechamancers don't have a special book to amplify, or focus their abilities (Actually, Mechamancer abilities are already pretty focused from the start) per se. The strength of the Mechamancer is his ability to create. Meaning that a Mechamancer is weak if both his mind and knowledge of science, engineering and physics are weak. Mechamancers gain no special power from any book, other than the opportunity to increase their knowledge of the physical world (i.e, reading a damned book). Rather through a desire to further develop the effectiveness of their abilities, or their sheer love of knowledge, Mechamancers, are most easily and readily found pouring over books in the Library or engineering sectors.
Therefore, the best advice a junior Mechamancer will receive from his senior is "Hit the books!"
-Musical (also known as "Tonomancy")
What it is:
You've got more than just a natural talent for music. You're a hair short of being a god with an instrument in your more-than-capable hands. Music, rhythm, and harmonies, the expressions of the soul come to you more naturally than breathing. At least if you're seasoned. Even newbies to the knack can almost absentmindedly strum up a wickedly infectious ditty on their chosen instrument. Not even the musicians in Ren city are pansies. A powerful Tonomancer with a horn can generate devastation tempests of wind (and on occasion, globs of saliva), or powder glass by picking a string sharp enough.
Domain control:
Domain control and use of magic is based off of instrument types. Since there's a veritable universe of content within even one musical instrument, Tonomancers of even the seasoned variety for this reason get around to and stick with two instruments at first. And now the Domains:
Voice
Wind
Stringed
Percussion
A Word of warning:
Tonomancy abilities are among the most dangerous to use. Music being as expressive and engrossing (for both the player and the listener), it takes even more energy to use the magical abilities of Tonomancy than Renomany and Citymancy combined! It's not uncommon for a passionate Tonomancer to drop dead in front of an enraptured audience in the middle of an amazing instrumental solo because of magic overuse. The average Tonomancer need not worry about never being able to play an instrument though, as one actually has to use actually magic from the knack for it to work. As one doesn't use their instrument to make magic, energy won't be used, and as a result, the danger disappears entirely.
There's no special book for Tonomancers, just trial and error.
-Combat
What it is:
When in danger, you're the red god of war howling beneath the moon. You wade through the thickest of combat with unnatural ease, dealing death to all that would dare oppose you. Killing and destruction comes naturally, and you in your heart of hearts welcome the opportunity to do battle against worthy opponents. Your power level in the midst of combat nearly doubles the strength level of a typical Ren city citizen as a newbie. Your strength and abilities triple within a century where it begins to increase at a slower pace. Even worse, every person blessed with the knack has a completely unique fighting style to increase their effectiveness. Gifted not only with unnatural (for this planet at least) strength, you possess added agility, flexibility, and equilibrium. And when your "switch" is turned on, you are a force to be reckoned with.
"Switch"?:
It's what those with the combat knack known and sometimes feared for. The "switch" is responsible for a majority of the damage to the city (usually by accident) that isn't just a result of the wars that occur over the city itself. Simply put, people with the knack for combat tend to (and have a have an infamous history of) destroy more of the city than anyone else, which can in fact include foreign invaders. The eyes turn a deep blood red, as rational and conscious thought take the back seat to primal rage.
The Manual:
The ultimate source of the fighter's power. No two manuals in the entirety of the world are alike. Each manual is custom fitted and tailored to it's one and only owner. A fighter's well-being depends on the manual, though not in the same way as an actual magic user. Each manual contains a fighting style suited purely and for the owner of the manual, which is based off of personality, size, body type, and innate specialties. There aren't really domains for the knack of the manual, though it does contain individualized techniques in the different areas of combat designed specifically for the manual's owner. In that regard, there might be mostly weapon (usually, the weapon illustrated the most in one's manual is the weapon best suited towards a fighter's body) techniques for one user, while few or none for another.
In addition to fighting techniques for a fighter, the manual also contains dietary courses personalized for one's metabolism, exercise routines, and schedules. THe manual also responsible for supplying fighters with their added base strength, along with their destructive power once their "switches" are turned on. The manual is essentially the fighter's lifeline.
The problem:
As appetizing as the unparalleled (relatively) strength, and power of having a knack for combat might be, the knack comes at a heavy price. The guilt of knowing that you are at times more dangerous than any outside force coupled with knowing that your most natural talent is destruction can be a bit much for more gentler souls, driving them towards isolation, apathy, and addictions. People in Ren city tend to be lightly more wary of fighters, at least in the sense that they will sometimes go out of their way insure that they in fact are not the source of rage. There's an atmosphere of nervousness around the fighters. On one hand, they out of any others are the most stalwart and fearless protectors of the city from aggressive outside forces, and yet they can barely protect the rest of the public from themselves at times.
Though not all fighters maintain the profession. The mayor is one instance of a (sort of) retired fighter, who took up unofficially running and leading the city's affairs. Having a knack doesn't doom you to your profession (though it does make you a good dancer), as their are even quite a few fighters living within the tech district who work with the mechamancers on construction.
-Healing (Also known as "bodymancy")
What is is:
Probably the most appreciated knack in all of Ren City. Bodymancers are the writers of the special books, and the healers of both sick and wounded. Bodymancers are blessed with both a superhuman amount of dexterity, and an uncanny knowledge of the human body. Bodymancers are also able to use their powers to speed up the body's own natural healing process, by expending some of their own energy. Bodymancers generally work alongside Renomancers, as a Bodymancer always has dire need of a couple spare sheets of paper.
The tome:
The healer's special handwritten tome. Like all of the other special books, it is wirtten by the bodymancer.
Life in Renaiscido:
-Your home:
Do you know that strange, but nice looking apartment that you first awoke in? That's your new home and you don't have to a single cent for it! The city (or perhaps the planet itself as some of our scholars speculate) provides you with free food (check your refrigerator at morning, noon, and night), clean water, clothing (check your wardrobe), and even protection (see below).
-Your planet:
The planet itself is a living, thinking, thing. We lucky few who have been blessed and cursed enough to live here both love, respect, and have (and will continue to) take up the burden of protecting our planet (or at least the planet in our neck of the woods. The planet loves us so much (aside from providing us with free food in our houses from out of nowhere) that those with the magic knack can speak to the planet through special personalized verses in an effort to use the city and it's elements as a weapon, tool, shield.
MORE coming soon!
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