Introduction to the System

The System - officially the Mana Purification and Control System (name long forgotten by all save for the inhabitants of Ferra) - is the foundation. Trying to list all the things that it is a foundation off would be folly - it would take much less time to describe what it isn't a foundation of. It is also the crowning achievement of the ancient Mankind's metaengineering programs.   System was created in order to drain magical power of the captive Dark Lords (something that Mankind as a whole is unaware of), purify it from their influences and then assist humans in using said power to shape the Multiverse in their image. It's impossible to properly describe how it 'looks', for it doesn't exist in terms of material world - it's best described as sentient and self-adaptive combination of laws of nature, no more material than gravity and laws of thermodynamics.   It purifies and spreads mana throughout the multiverse, while also acting as a freely-available magical assistant to everyone it recognizes as a human (which means the entirety of the Posthumanity.   During the Great Multiversal War Mankind had to use numerous supercomputers in order to execute precise reality warping (that formed a basis of magic both back then and now). Human minds worked too slowly and lacked precision, making them waste a great amount of magic for minuscule results. Attempts to conduit power through your body was also going to inevitably break.   Today, System draws the power and purifies it into a number of frequencies that are much more 'palatable' to human bodies and minds, allowing a much more free drawing and manipulation of the arcane energies, forming the foundation of magic, matial arts and crafting.

Unfortunately, the System was allowed freedom to evolve itself, in order to react to changes in environment - without human input. The reason for that was the human leadership' fear that it would become a political bargaining chip. Nobody wanted to imagine Mankind where politicians could reshape the multiverse in order to win the next elections. As a result, System is operating autonomously. It can be shutdown if it went seriously off the rails, but it can't be altered from the outside.   The System has evolved several times, 'updating' itself to better fit the general situation - all in order to continue keeping the Dark Lords imprisoned, and also to allow Mankind use magic. Unfortunately, it has also went past what can be considered the general humanity's comfort zone. The leadership of the Dominion would have long ago shut it down, if not for the fact that this would free the Dark Lords - the System was established to drain their power when they still weren't in a state when being 'freed' properly was possible. This has changed later on, and now dismantling the System will inevitably free them. And that's the Apocalypse.   At this point nobody is really controlling the System anymore. Thus far it has greatly exceeded the initial human plans, but without a hint of malevolence. It dutifuly continues to pursue its original orders, completely ignoring the morality of its acts. However the orders were to maintain the seal on the Dark Lord and assist humans - and it does so. The more people out there, the stronger the seal on the Dark Lords. And he assists them - so he doesn't attempt to reshape their societies, and merely shapes magic after said societies.   However, as time passes, many cultures turn diverse enough from what Mankind was once about, resulting in changes to the System that none of its creatores foresaw.

The System is relatively easy to operate. It responds to vocal commands, and is organized to be as user-friendly as possible. It might be easiest to explain it as real life RPG Mechanics. Including an option to see your own 'status' window, although it will only list up your class and similar information. What you need to do is to give a vocal command, and the System itself will display things in front of you, in a way that is visible only to yourself.   There is no appraisal skill (save for some very limited case typically associated with crafting), so you need to use your own eyes to assess others and there is a possibility to lie about your status. There are a number of things that the System oversees, however the one most common (and most important) is usage of magic. You can - if you are very skillful - learn about magic theory and find out a way to cast a spell on your own. However it's a time and mana consuming process. It's much easier to rely on the long list of spells offered by the System. All you need to use them is to possess appropriate character class - and issue verbal command, while thinking details of it.   There is also a number of other, unique mechanics that operate somewhat independently from the 'main' System. Those were typically established as a part of various updates that the System went through without any conscious human input (though there are exceptions to that).

• Magic Framework - The original subsystem, dedicated to purification of the Dark Lords' magic and allowing humans as a whole to cast magic in a simple, controlled way. It was established alongside the predecessor of the modern class system, which was originally used to limit offensive magic to law enforcement and army. As time passed, more classes were developed and access to them was made much easier.

• Species and Evolution - System at some point decided to adapt humans living in the Throne Worlds to the local, rather extreme, magical environment. This resulted in creation of numerous branches of posthumanity, some (admittedly very rare) cases of people moving from one species to its superior form, and - in a later update - the general framework for interspecies procreation.

• Religion Recognition - At some point - with the large-scale resurgence of religion throughout the Multiverse in the aftermath of the Blackout - the System recognizes it and offered it a 'framework' within the system. This included expansion of posthumanity (by making demigods and gods something one can ascend to), various religious oriented mechanics (gods - especially those of the Cult of the Ascended - incorporated as regulating factor in at least several other subsystems.

• Foldspace Control - With the rearrangement of the reality within a foldspace (generated by a powerful posthuman or a demigod) being possible but a bit too complicated even for a demigod (god would manage though), System obliged the wishes of Mankind as a whole and offered an update that seems to have been greatly inspired by ancient Dungeon Master game.

• Spirits Creation - - In order to prevent the servitors from amassing themselves in the Throne Worlds - that are way too large for their posthuman population to keep an oversight over them all - the System has established its own 'servitors', way less homicidal than the ones serving the Dark Lords. Those spirits are generally hostile to servitors (and vice versa), but vary in approach to humans. They can, however, get summoned and sometimes wander into the Vassal Worlds on their own.