Mana

What is Mana?
Within the Emdes Universe, mana is the direct result and, in a way, an extension of the fundamental force of Creation. The universe itself has been woven from it by God and the daughters. And even still, unshaped, unattuned mana flows freely through it, culminating around sources of soul-bearing life, as if it seeks to return to the Souls it came from after The Shattering.

In its most basic form mana is a massless, immeassurably tiny, elementary particle of which an extremely high number is required to have a macroscopic effect on the world. Unless a soul shapes it in some way, mana has absolutely no effect on its environment. Due to souls being very deeply linked with mana, however, a being with a soul is able to sense mana within its souls range of influence, even should the mana be completely unshaped. Of course, how fine this sense is varies greatly among different souls. An artificial creature without a soul, like a Sentinel for example, would never be able to sense mana on its own, unless magic were to be used to give it specified sensors.

Influencing the World with Mana
Mana can directly alter the world around it, and, if commanded by souls of sufficient strength, the ways it can alter the world are virtually limitless. The only thing outside of its power being true destruction, which is reserved to uncreation. Other than that, mana can be used to create any type of matter or energy, or to manipulate that which already exists. With enough mana and a strong enough will, one can even reshape the laws of the universe, even if only for a moment and in a limited area.

Caution should be taken though as, especially in the last case, or when using mana to alter or "destroy" something that already exists, Nox will be expelled as a compensation of sorts. The amount of Nox varies greatly when changing the fundamentals of the universe, however, if one were to use mana to reduce the energy of an object, the amount of Nox would be suiting for the amount of mana required to return that energy. Nox, generally speaking, is inert, although still, beings with souls instinctively avoid it and many magicks even go so far as to create miniscule portals to other planes to dispose of the Nox.

Limitations and Clarifications
Something that might cause confusion is that, while the universe has been created from mana, it is not made of mana particles, or at least not in any form that can still be used for magic. A particle that was originally mana can no longer be used like mana, as a photon can not be converted into a neutrino merely by the will of a soul, unless extra mana were to be used. Additionally, mana spent to create particles or influence the laws of the universe can not be reconverted into its original state.

However, the most important limitations to consider are that any desired effect requires a mixture of willpower, skill (as well as to some degree natural disposition, although that can be overcome), and, most importantly, raw mana to be realised. Should that not be present, it is not possible to achieve the effect. Additionally, not all souls are able to manipulate mana. More on that can be read about on the articles on souls as well as magic.

Forms of Mana
(Note: This might be moved to / further elaborated on the magic article)

Due to a single mana particle being almost utterly insignificant in both size and power, other magical energies have arisen, created with mana as their base. These energies are generally kept rather simple, for example, some mages might chose to simply condense their mana into larger units, which, while not as precise, have more macroscopic effects. Others might create an alternate magical energy that is excellent for fire magic, but not very good at anything else.

These energies are, technically, less efficient than simply using raw mana (as some of the mana is lost in creating these energies), however, in praxis, they prove advantagous for many. This is for the simple reason that almost no soul is perfectly efficient at using mana, and having a source of magic that already offers a helping hand of sorts makes the process easier on them and might actually be less costly. Of course, not all "artificial" mana substitutes sit well with every soul, so the experience varies from person to person.