Cultivation

Cultivation is the practice of harnessing Athem, a fundamental force or energy, for technological or physiological enhancement. Practitioners develop the ability to utilize Athem by gathering its source and integrating it into their Inner Core, gradually increasing their power, resilience, and mastery over both body and mind. Through careful training and refinement, cultivation allows individuals to unlock abilities that surpass normal human limits, forming the foundation for advanced techniques, tools, and enhancements within the system.

Physiological Cultivation Ranks

1. Scholar – Normal human, basic understanding of Athem.
2. Cultivator – Can view and shape the inner core.
3. Cultivation Master – Can use Athem from the inner core to boost abilities. Able to learn Core Perception.
4. Soldier – Can manifest thoughts in the physical world (e.g. create fireballs, lightning, telekinesis, etc.).
5. Elite Soldier – Can sway environmental Athem (e.g. create storms, stop time, fly, summon beasts).
6. Prime Soldier – Can create Rifts (uncontrolled passages in space/time capable of immortality as a ghost in a vessel or via rebirth.
7. Worldbreaker – Can open controlled Spheres to enter specific places in space; world wanderer.
8. Cosmocrat – Can create and alter worlds and the rules within them; capable of bodyless Immortality.
9. Master of the Universe – Can utilize and change entire universes; undestroyable body.
10. God – Omnipotent being.

Technological Cultivation Ranks

1. Initiate – Normal human; basic understanding of Athem and technological devices.
2. Adept – Can integrate Athem into small devices; capable of basic operational enhancements.
3. Specialist – Devices enhance human abilities; early autonomous or synergistic systems.
4. Artificer – Constructs multifunctional Athem-infused devices; capable of affecting the local environment.
5. Master Engineer – Manipulates environmental Athem through machines; can control weather and command devices with sheer will.
6. Technomancer – Capable of opening Rifts (Spheres) via technology; can manipulate large-scale Athem and sustain vessel-based immortality as a cyborg or android.
7. Worldbreaker (Tech) – Machines can open controlled Spheres/portals; exerts influence at a planetary scale.
8. Worldforger – Uses devices to create and reshape worlds; can rewrite local physical laws; capable of bodyless operation.
9. Master of the Pattern – Machines can restructure entire universes; the entity maintains a permanent, indestructible technological form.
10. Tech-Demigod – Operates with universe-level omnipotence; can create and destroy at will.
11. Deus Ex – Possesses multiversal-scale omnipotence; machines become indistinguishable from natural law.