Vaelith (VAY-lith)
Hark the bells that tell us of another who gave up on the world. Hear of the poor chap who turned in his papers, who decided a few dollars weren't worth the effort. Turn to the old cop who'd had enough of being underappreciated, and close his fingers around some crisp green strips of paper.
Let's zoom out for a moment. Every element, every law, every single form of energy, is harnessed by the Vaelith. The Vaelith is the reason there are different colours of light, the reason sound can be amplified. It is the invisible sea that everything drowns in. Light would exist without the Vaelith, yes. But it's ripples in the Vaelith, or the strength of its waves, that allow for that light to change, whether colour, intensity, or direction.
The Vaelith itself has its own layers, overlapping but individual, each of them the same and yet unique. The layers, the Affinities, are each different parts of the Vaelith, each harnessing a different force or energy. The Affinities are layers in the sea of the Vaelith, but these layers all lay on the same dimension. Mingling, together, all gently flowing through the same invisible reality — but never pushing. It is a dance of graceful ribbons — elegantly forming a picture, but each working on their own.
And yet, the Vaelith is not almighty. It is not invisible to all. Most importantly, the Vaelith is not untouchable. It can be manipulated — whether for good or for evil. We call such beings Vaeneths — those with wills so pure that they can touch the Vaelith, manipulate it, and by extension, manipulate aspects of the world around them too.
Conjuring (or not)
Nothing bends to the uncertain, and nothing rises from nothing.
The Vaelith draws upon willpower to harness what already is. In line with the most fundamental metaphysical laws, it cannot conjure something from nothing.
The Vaelith harnesses that which is already there — if it finds nothing to hold on to, it is powerless.
Manifestation
I reach for it, and it answers, though it never speaks. Sometimes I wonder if it waits for me, or if I only imagine it so.
The Vaelith is an endless sea, always in motion, always changing. Every act of will sends waves through it — ripples that travel far beyond their origin, sometimes faint, sometimes vast enough to be felt across continents of thought.
Vaeneths don’t see the Vaelith as a thing in the world. It doesn’t glow, doesn’t hum, doesn’t twist the air. It simply is — an invisible layer that sits atop reality, separate, yes, but there all the same. When they reach into it, they aren’t touching fire or air or light. They’re touching what makes those things possible.
Each Affinity perceives the Vaelith differently, though never in colours or sounds. It’s more like a signature, a sense beyond language — something instantly familiar, impossible to mistake and impossible to describe. A Vaeneth’s awareness only stretches to the part of the Vaelith that answers them: the rest might as well not exist. Even when other currents cross their own, they pass unnoticed, like stars in bright daylight.
The Vaelith doesn’t change the world when it moves — it harnesses it. It moves through it, beneath it, like a ripple through water that doesn't stop the path of a floating leaf, only alters it. Every will, every manipulation, sends its own pulse — its own ripple — through that sea. And through those pulses, the Vaelith answers — not with words, but with motion, with growth, with change.
The manifestation of this power, then, is not just the result of will — it’s the language between the Vaeneth and the ocean itself. The echo and the act, indistinguishable, the same shade of the shifting waters.
Localisation
People say the Vaelith is a sea, but they're wrong. It's an active volcano — it spares nothing, no one. Ever.
The Vaelith is the ocean that washes over everything — it's waves harness every energy and force that this world boasts, and it is by virtue of the Vaelith that they don't remain stagnant. A battery is the Vaelith making sure electricity 'flows'. A megaphone is the Vaelith harnessing sound so it spreads out and travels to every listening ear — and through the bored ones.
The Vaelith is not localised. It has no set boundary. It is omnipresent, ripples forming and waves breaking, every second of every day. The only thing 'localised' is a Vaeneth's ability to manipulate the Vaelith — which depends solely on the Purity of their will.
Let's now take the view that the Vaelith exists in places where forces and energies exist. On the surface, this could hold weight — if the Vaelith harnesses them, it has no reason for existence in areas where they are not present. And yet, the assumption holds a crucial oversight. The sea of the Vaelith harnesses these elements, of course. Where the elements are absent, this sea is not dry. It is calm, undisturbed.
Cultural Reception
It was not fear of a power they could not wield.
It was fear of a world that no longer needed them to.
The Vaelith may be ever-present and affect everything, but people fear that which they cannot control. When the existence of the Vaelith was first discovered, it was not kept secret. The world was introduced to something which could alter everything they'd known for years — and told that only a select few could hold this power.
They learnt that energy was not conserved. That you didn't need power plants. That levers and screws and pulleys and all the technological advances that had been mankind's boon for centuries were dispensable.
The Vaelith was independent of this unrest, of course — it had existed for centuries, and would for millennia... whether it was wanted or not. And yet, its discovery shone a spotlight on perhaps the most fatal flaw of all humankind. When faced with a solution that would eliminate hundreds, nay, thousands, of hurdles — and after realising it was not in their control — they rejected it.
Not out of apprehension. Not even out of ego. Out of the pure need to retain control. The Vaelith lit up the part of man that no one admits they have — the desperation to pull the strings on the world around them.
Stories arose, as stories do, and the Vaelith became the devil's trident. People tried never to be certain of anything, always keeping their opinions and intents divided lest they accidentally manipulated the Vaelith. It was a condemned power, a condemned addition to the world they thought they'd known. And perhaps, they thought, living normally would mean a normal life.
Cultural Myths
The humans of Thalra often believed the Vaelith to be a force of energy ready to be harnessed — over the years, even this figment of truth faded away, and contorted into stories only the most naive of people could ever truly trust. And yet, they all do.
The Vaelith, now, is a force of evil. It is a power that comes from hell and is ready to be taken hold of any second, to grasp and wield to one's heart's desire. For evil purposes, of course.
Humans do not seem to have realised that the Vaelith has layers — they believe that this weapon of wrongdoing is capable of manipulating anything and everything, of 'editing' natural laws to defy years of findings and go against the 'good' side.
Affinities are unheard of, the Vaelith being all-powerful. Of course, this is yet another example of the psychology of mankind — anything they condemn must be more powerful than them, lest their egos be hurt by fearing something they could supress — for then the question arises, why don't they? Fear? Unthinkable.
✧ In Theory? ✧
*lewH- bind: Proto-Indo-European (PIE
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