Demisphere: Poison

Demispheres are rare Aetheric Affinities that result from the presence of multiple primary affinity spheres interacting. They are, by their nature, rare - it's rare to have access to more than one affinity to begin with, and combining them is more challenging still.

Are these items poisoned? Probably!

Personality is also a factor - a person with a certain outlook might find one or another demisphere easier to conceive of than others, for example, which is one of the things that determines whether someone with both Fire and Earth affinities can produce metal, magma, glass or none of the above.

Poison, a demisphere arising from water and earth affinities, is among rarest demispheres.

There are a number of reasons for this - foremost among them is that poison is perceived to be inherently both destructive and duplicitous. For Celestials and Mortals, a fully destructive demisphere is not normally desirable, whereas for Demons a duplicitous demisphere is generally undesirable...

But there are exceptions.

And for those exceptions - those with the personality and the will to conquer the bitter sting of toxins and blights - the demisphere can be one of the most versatile, and deadliest, powers imaginable.

The most obvious and straightforward use of the Poison demisphere is the creation of traditional poisons or toxic substances which can cause death, paralysis, illness and other well-known effects. For this most basic level of poison aetherweave, the effects of the toxin must be feasible within natural biochemistry.

Generally, Demons and Celestials have rather high tolerance to natural toxins; basic Aetheric poisons are considered "natural" for resistance purposes. As such, the efficacy of low level poison aetherweave is limited against the immortal metaspecies.

At least in theory. However, the strength of the poison correlates to the power of the aetherweaver (as well as the detail in their aetheric weaving), so it is possible for a stronger user to break through their resistance to some degree.

In addition to that, a poison can become far more potent even against their extraordinary constitutions when coupled with Voidic or Odic abilities. For example, a poison amplified by Voidart and helped along by Extra-Metabolisis used to suppress detox pathways might knock many demons off their feet.

Effects

Poisons, or toxins, are generally associated with negative effects - pain, death, damage, etc. Creating these effects is the most obvious and typical use of the poison demisphere.

That said, there can be medical uses for some toxins when used in a limited/controlled manner - it's a matter of dose and intention. Thus it's absolutely possible for a poison aetherweaver to make use of their abilities in a positive/healing or at least beneficial way, provided everyone involved can control the dose and themselves.

The insert provides an accounting of basic effects that a 'natural' toxin - that is to say a toxin that does not require the addition or enhancement of magical or psionic effects - is capable of. These effects can be accessed by any poison aetherweaver, in accordance with their ability level of course.

For additional uses or specialized effects, see Advanced Uses below.

Contaminants

In addition to toxins applied or administered directly to the "victim," or subject in the case of more beneficial uses, Poison affinities can also be used to create contaminating substances. These can be used to ruin the purity of various substances, magical or non-magical. They can also be used to infuse poisons into a food supply by, for example, contaminating the soil the food is grown in, or the food that an animal consumes. The resulting produce, meat, etc., would then have health effects as determined by the kind of contaminant being used.

As one may imagine, this is a useful tool for long-term warfare, particularly in Gaean as Mortals are more reliant on standard food sources than their immortal brethren, and have low resistance to toxins.

Demons consider this kind of move rather dishonorable since it relies on trickery and sneakiness instead of direct challenges.

Forms

A basic use of poison affinity will generally produce some kind of liquid or powdered toxin that can be mixed into things, or administered through touch, etc. At basic rankings, this means that a toxin will take whatever form is natural to that toxin... in other words, creating a toxin that is generally a liquid will produce a liquid. At higher ranks it can be created in abnormal solid or liquid forms, or even secreted through the skin to create contact-toxins.

To do so requires approximately a Dumen level of ability.

When combined with other abilities, poison affinities can be used to devastating effects. Typically, this would mean either enhancing the basic poison with some kind of magical or Odic effect to create a substance capable of creating bizarre and unnatural outcomes, producing difficult nonstandard forms (such as a gaseous substance that replicates the effects of a heavy-metal toxin), or using the ability to enhance objects.

The Poison Queen

Isis Asther is, unbeknownst to most of the court that she calls home, one of the world's foremost practitioners of Poison aetherweave. With a Vaham rank in this vanishingly rare demisphere, as well as her Vaham level talent for Empower/Enchant magic, she is nearly unparalleled in the creation of both bespoke toxins (both enhanced and otherwise) and magical items.

Here she is pictured in her default Aetheric aura. Some of her special creations are outlined in her personal entry.

Vahesar-Kumizo

One of Isis's inventions, Vahesar-Kumizo (Toxic Needles) are needles formed of solidified poisons. They are held together through enchantment, and dissolve when specific circumstances woven into their creation are met.

Typically this means when they're dropped into a drink or food, but they can also be designed to dissolve on contact with a target or specific items (clothing, etc).

Bespoke Toxins

An advanced poison aetherweaver is not limited to recreating or replicating the effects of natural toxins; rather, they can invent their own poisons with various mixes of effects. These bespoke substances can draw from the features of various normal toxins, allowing for a more flexible body of options. This does not, however, imply enhanced or magical effects - a bespoke poison is created through mix-and-matching effects that already exist in natural toxins.

Enhanced Poisons

For very unusual effects, one looks to enhanced poisons. These are poisons "boosted" by or altered with enchantment magics; their effects can be very bizarre! They may also be highly specialized versions of normal effects.

For example, a magic-enhanced poison that typically causes hallucinations may be specialized to create a very specific type of hallucination - a specialized normal effect. Other possibilities include things like causing a body to be unable to ingest and process specific foods or classes of foods, or euphoria triggered when combined with certain circumstances - e.g. a person becomes lethargic by day and euphoric by night.

An abnormal/bizarre effect may be wholly divorced from the spectrum of normal effects - rather than being an unnatural alteration of a natural effect, the effects themselves are unnatural. A quintessential example would be the effect of Isis Asther's Kor Pirokji ("His Tonic"), which is an ingestible that crystallizes the tissues from the inside of a person out, leaving behind a corpse that is also essentially a petrified statue.

Non-Standard Toxic Gas

Gases are perhaps the most difficult type of toxin to produce for bespoke or enhanced toxins, or when used as an abnormal form. For example, it's quite difficult to create a gas version of an arsenic - you could argue that it's impossible and "gaseous versions" are effect replications rather than a literal creation of arsenic in a gaseous form, but this may be a distinction without a difference.

Depending on the aetherweaver's rank, they may be able to control even the spread of the gas, creating what amounts to tendrils of weaponized gas that responds to the weaver's will rather than spreading automatically.

Items with a Poisonous Touch

The final advanced use is, of course, poisonous objects. As has been detailed in Ability Spheres, it is impossible to create a permanent object empowerment without magic to solidify the enhancement... however any object can be temporarily endowed with effects such as poisons as long as the weaver can keep the effect active.

On a basic level this means one can, for example, render the edge of a blade toxic, causing additional damage when striking an enemy. However, this can also mean placing touch-toxins on, for example, paperwork, clothing or the outside of cups.

The use of poison aetherweave can have visual effects associated with it depending on what, specifically, is being done... and in some cases on the will of the user. By default it will often involve a dull glow of the user's hand as well as any item or material being worked on, if there is one.

Very skilled practitioners may also be skilled in hiding the effects, however. In addition, the strength of the effect is largely dependent on the amount of energy put forth in comparison to how much is available.

For example, if a Vaham practitioner created a basic, low-level toxin, that may not have any visual effect at all as the power used is minimal in comparison to the power the person could be using. By contrast, if the practitioner were Modu rank, they would (by default) be far less discreet.

How strong a visual effect is desirable is definitely circumstantial - an attempt to intimidate (or impress upon others how strong they are) may warrant a greater visual display, for example... although ironically, a powerful practitioner actually has less of an obvious visual output by default -- unless they deliberately over-show to intimidate others.

In any event, learning to better control and manipulate toxins may also involve learning how to control the visual signature of one's work.