What is chaos? Many believe that the world was born from destruction. Why? Because with death comes life. Seems like a pretty sound explanation but it has a major flaw. How can there be destruction without life? How can an inanimate object die? How can there be destruction in the first place, if there was no life? The plants wither, and the flowers fall. Eventually everything falls into the cold embrace of death. Eventually everyone, no matter how unwilling, would have to meet death. Whether you would be happy to meet the grim reaper or not, the reaper would definitely be happy to see you. Impermanence. That is what it is. The very simple fact that everything is temporary. The simple truth that nothing lasts forever. So what does destruction do? Destruction is unto life as a catalyst is unto a biological or chemical reaction. Better still, a biochemical reaction. Catalysts play a major part in life. They have several properties, the most common and important of them being their ability to increase the rate of reactions.
In any reaction- biological, chemical, or biochemical even- an energy of activation must be attained in order to see end products. Catalysts reduce the time it takes to reach the energy of activation. That's how vital they are. Destruction is the same. Yes, all life will eventually come to an end. For nothing lives forever. Even the Ascended at the peak of the cosmos still face death due to old age. The only exceptions to death are the gods. But this is where destruction is so vital. What nature cannot do on its own, destruction does. And it does it for free. The arms of the grim reaper would forever remain empty of gods if destruction doesn't lend its 'warm' helping hand. Destruction- the action of causing so much damage to life that it no longer exists. Even scarier, the damage is irreparable. Murder is destruction. And that is how the gods fall. So how does chaos fit into all this?
Simple really. For destruction to occur, for it to take root, chaos must be present. There are no wars without chaos. A man doesn't kill his brother without chaos. Chaos is the predecessor of destruction- an elder brother I dare say. Where chaos thrives, destruction thrives also. You're probably wondering, what does this have to do with the story? After all, Mane claims to use chaos. And spiritualists harness this energy as well. Looking at the chunk of information above, what does this have to do with the mystical energy that spiritualists manipulate ever so wantonly? Correction: that spiritualists 'seem' to manipulate ever so wantonly. Let me get to that.
First and foremost, as stated earlier, how can there be destruction without life? And how can there be destruction without chaos? It's simple really. Life births destruction, and destruction, life. So where does chaos fit in? Chaos is the energy that makes the two thrive. The Universe has faced destruction many times, and it has birthed life in so many different ways and forms. Chaos is the name given to formless energy that swims so freely in every corner of the cosmos- some more than others. It isn't called chaos for no reason. It is so called because just like actual chaos, it brings destruction in its wake. It is a dangerous form of energy. One that can easily take a life. One small mistake handling chaos would lead to death. This energy is untraceable by normal means. As for how it was noticed, no one knows. But after realising such an energy existed, many tried to utilise it. For they saw in it great power and the potential to rule. You would think that after finding out that waking up a dragon is a bad idea, the idiots who disturbed its slumber would pester it no more. But no. Even after finding out how destructive chaos was, even after failing several times to control it, these supposed 'geniuses' didn't give up. And their persistence was rewarded. A breakthrough. Individuals with soul based bloodlines could sense chaos. They couldn't just sense it, they were connected to it. It was almost as if chaos had chosen its own warriors. But it had a huge drawback. The more one called upon the power of chaos, the faster they aged. You see, chaos wasn't one to give anything for free. For the power it gave, the price of the user's life force was taken. Generations of spiritualists died prematurely and miserably upon overusing chaos. But life was kind. 'She' was tired of giving up her children to the grim reaper, to that which bothered to give nothing in return. 'She' gave them hope- a language. No one knew where that language appeared from. Like chaos, this language had a mysterious origin. They called it 'leash', for it trapped and captured chaos, forcing the poor ancient king to finally give from its arms for free. Although incomplete, it was sufficient since finally, chaos was controlled. Still, whenever a spiritualist overused his or her power, chaos would sneakily take that life away. A welcome change though, for a few lost lives was better than several. Hence, mother life let the actions of chaos go, making no attempts to stop it.
As for leash, it was studied by every spiritualist in the high realms. There were few spiritualists in the lower realms. Zandor was one of the lucky planets to boast of this, for even in some high realms, spiritualists didn't exist. But for the spiritualists in the lower realms, chaos had no place in their archives. And if it did, they wouldn't have the power to control it. You see leash wasn't common knowledge, but a carefully protected secret. Maybe life feared that to let this secret out was to allow chaos to find a major loophole.
Many scholars had wasted their lives trying to find out where the leash originated from. Explorers banded together, seeking what was obscure to all. Yet they all failed. No matter where they searched, they found no traces of the leash. The quest to find the missing portions of leash had died down over the past millions of years. It was as though it appeared from thin air- a miracle to all. As for leash, it had come to be called 'magic' by most, with few opting to call it by its true name.
A scholar had once theorised that the shackle known as the leash, was from the dark realm. His theory was quickly discredited, for no one had ever survived the dark realm- well almost no one. What if that scholar was right? What if her words were true? Did missing segment of the leash really reside in the dark realm? And if it actually did, who would be brave enough- no, foolish rather- to find out?