Essences are Quiazal Legacy's equivalent of magical souls - small crystals filled with magical energy which sit inside of individual's chests as an ethereal construct.
Mechanically, souls both provide a line of guideline for when you become a spirit, and give you a proficiency in your main magic type.
Essences have many different purposes in roleplay:
Life force
Magic
Fusion
Life Force
All characters require an essence to be alive, including spirits and the undead. So long as your character is in physical contact with their essence, either in or out of their body, they will remain alive. Should the character come out of contact with their essence, their body will become a lifeless husk until it's returned to them. Essence removal is not a permanent death as the character still has their organs keeping them alive, they just can't move or do anything.
Magic
Essences control which characters have magic and which ones don't - they store magical energy. All but one kind of essence have magical energy within them, and are named after the type of magic they hold. The only essence which doesn't hold magic is the Artificialis, or 'Artificial' essence. Characters can use any type of magic regardless of if it matches with the magic type of their essence, however their essence will only benefit the type of magic that the essence correlates with.
Fusion
Sometimes two characters may choose to fuse together using their essences to combine powers to try and gain the upper hand in a larger fight, or may be permanently fused together by an essence bind. The difference between power fusion and essence binding is that power fusion combines the powers, and physical appearance, of the two characters which fuse together, while an essence bind is most commonly used by the gods and deities as a form of soul binding, where they connect their essence to a host and transfer their power into said host. This is typically done to the highest of exalts.
Everyone's essence is unique to them, the form of which typically correlates to the kind of person they are - in a similar way someone's zodiac can tell you everything about their personality type. While their colours only depend on the type of magic it represents (unless artificialis), their shapes are completely dependant on the person they're in.
Essences, when outside of the body, are usually solid, shaped crystals which glow when removed from their person. Inside of their person, they become a part of the body and their energy completely spreads out through their blood.
A corrupted essence will keep the shape it originally had, however may become deformed and lose it's crystalline figure to be replaced with the physical construct of the corruption inside of it. The essence does not change state in or out of the body, which is problematic and the main reason why most corruptors continue to act like mindless creatures, functioning for the corruption rather than their essence.
The physical feel of an essence can often be described as being warm and smooth, unless of course the physical make up of the essence is more jagged. Touching another person's essence leads to an extremely sensitive sensation, and can often be used for more intimate purposes through rubbing essences together, or simply touching another's essence. This can be a dangerous practise however, as too much pressure on an essence can shatter it.
A shattered essence is immediate death, loss of contact with an essence is not.
Each magic type has its own corresponding essence, and a person who majors with that type of magic or is born specifically with that magic will have an extreme proficiency in it from it. Everyone will at least have the magic type which their essence represents, and then any others which work alongside it.
Below you can find details all the different types of Essences, including appearance and what magic type they represent.
More commonly referred to as the Magicless Essence, the Artificialis Essence is an essence within all characters who have no magical energy. This essence is usually a smooth crystal geode with simple grey and light blue hues, and absolutely no glow to it.
Provides no magical proficiency.
The elemental essence, found within individuals who have a proficiency in the art of elemental magic and use it as their main magic type. The colour and texture of this essence usually matches the type of element the person mainly uses, for example fire will usually be gradients of orange and gold, ice: blue and white, and nature: greens and browns.
+50% Damage dealt with Elemental magic
The essence of deception, these essences are found within characters who specialise in Deceptive magic. Usually it's a brown/green in colour and can often have psychedelic patterns dancing through it. It usually gives off a faint, green or yellow glow.
+50% Damage dealt with Deceptive magic
The light essence, possibly the softest of all of the essence geodes. This essence constantly radiates a warm yellow glow and reflects rainbows through it onto its surroundings. Usually the colour of the geode itself is stained glass in colour, coated in mosaic patterns to reflect its bright colours all around the surrounding surfaces.
+50% Damage dealt with Light magic
A most unusual essence, and the essence of all things etherealum. Similarly to Perdita, this essence doesn't maintain a physical crystal geode (however it does have the potential to be one) and instead almost entirely flows as free energy in a total representation of the magical sub-class (for example, time magic turns into flowing weaves)
+50% Damage dealt with Etherealum magic
The cosmic essence, a brightly coloured, star or ball shaped crystal geode which constantly radiates different hues of blues, reds, yellows or purples, and often represents a miniature gas giants. These can sometimes radiate both hot and cold energy.
+50% Damage dealt with Cosmic magic
The atomic essence, found within individuals who have a proficiency with Atomic magic, it usually doesn't maintain the shape of a crystal geode and is instead a crystalline atom, or some other form of atomic shape or symbol. In some cases, it's even been noted that some individuals had radioactive symbols as their Nuclei essences. These can, and often do, radiate radiation energy (Measured in Sieverts or Rads). Much like atomic glass, or Trinitite, they do not emit a glow until in the dark, in which they'll glow a soft green.
+50% Damage dealt with Atomic magic
The essence of darkness, found within individuals who have a proficiency in dark magic. These essences are, as their name should suggest, usually black and grey in colour. They emit no form of glow and instead function like a blackhole, drawing in light from its surroundings and creating the effect of twisting or darkened, warping light around its outer edges.
50% Damage dealt with Dark magic
Corrumpere essences are corrupt essences, taken over by some form of Corruption disease. These essences always appear to be malformed, and instead of being their typical crystal geode, are instead a completely pure form of the corruption which lies within the individual. These properties change depending on the corruption type, and will only appear to be some form of crystal geode should the type of corruption be ethereal.
+50% Damage dealt with Corruption magic
CURRENTLY NOT APPLICABLE ON CHARACTERS
Information about the individual looks of corrupted essences can be found on the corruption's pages.
The Arcanus essence, an unusual essence which doesn't take the form of any particular crystal geode. Instead, these essences move around freely with a lot of empty space flowing within them, and often move around in unusual patterns. The most common movement pattern found within Mysterio/Perdita essences is similar to that of Ferrofluid
+50% Damage dealt with Arcanus magic