(P/N: There are plot spoilers ahead.)
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CREEDS:
As some readers far into the story might have discovered, Creeds are... odd.
Due to my own mistake, the naming of them – I'm sure – has caused some confusion. Hopefully, this gives a little more clarity.
Creeds are gem-like constructs that spawn within the soul of an Incandescent Stager (or higher) after certain conditions are met; levelling up is one of the many ways to earn a single Creed.
Creeds allow a combatant to alter reality minimally in their favour.
I found that this was going to confuse readers after using it quite a lot but... the action of altering reality through a Creed is also called... a Creed.
This is why some characters will say, "This is my Creeds, [insert reality alteration]..."
Hopefully, you can forgive that little oddity. I assumed it wouldn't be that big of a deal.
Anyway, depending on how far the alterations of reality goes, a large sum of Creeds – the gems in the soul – will be used up in exchange.
Additionally, Creeds cannot solve every problem. Most Incandescent Stagers only use them to refill their mana Cores, double their mana reserves, relocate targets, alter the shapes of natural forces, temporarily increase the effectiveness of their powers etc.
Creeds normally cannot act upon other living individuals unless said individuals are immensely weaker than the user. Even then, doing so requires a large amount of Creeds, and thus, in such cases, its better to just clobber your opponent yourself rather than wasting Creeds.
Of course, if a truly massive amount of Creeds has been gathered, some truly heinous, catastrophic things can be achieved. (IYKYK)
Creeds are a lesser form of Rules – the powers used by Deities to create the natural laws that govern a world, which is fitting when considering that the Incandescent Stage is a Stage when one truly begins towards their path to Divinity.
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MAJESTIC TERRITORIES:
Majestic Territories are miniature worlds that only the strongest of combatants can conjure, dictating their surroundings and their opponents if they manage to trap them within.
However, Territories were originally traits that only beasts which passed a certain threshold were able to create. Humans learned to use them with time and incorporated them into their own power progression system.
A genuine Territory can only be created by using Nitros. Converting Mana to Nitros is a very difficult feat, but once done, it comes with incredibly desirable benefits.
Nitros in its base form acts as a stronger version of Perfect Aura. It boosts the user's powers by over 1,000% simply by reinforcement and can thwart mana and Aura-based attacks as well as defenses.
Of course, the optimal way to use it is by condensing it into a Majestic Territory, but for humans who simply learned the method to using them through the beasts, it comes with a price.
All Incandescent Stagers (and above) need to double their mana reserves before they cast their Territories – the cost is just that massive.
In order to streamline this process before every Territory activation, the first humans to master the Majestic Territory made it so that speaking the name of the Territory becomes a Creed that automatically doubles the user's Mana reserves and converts it all into the Nitros required.
Once this is done, Nitros creates a stable blank dome that envelops the target(s). This blank dome can offer an abundant of stats to the user's individual traits like strength, skill efficiency, mana regeneration, elemental resistance and so on.
Additionally, this blank canvas restricts all the captured targets energy reserves except for Nitros. Their mana will be restrained to their core and all active skills will be deactivated.
Beginner Incandescent Stagers are usually only limited to this with their Territories, though this is just the bare minimum.
The true value of a Majestic Territory blooms when the user is able to create an Imaginary GeoScape – a personalised environment within the Territory that gives them not just added stats, but extra abilities to both defend and attack enemies in unique ways.
A fully realised Territory has three types of mechanisms/functions:
>Primary function: These are the easiest to create and active within a Territory and can either be offensive or defensive. Essentially, they are considered the default powers of a Territory and can have about as much power as the user's strongest attacks without any enhancements.
>Secondary function: These are usually considered to be the main attacks of Territories. Once a Territory has been activated, they take some time to charge, but when unleashed they are usually powerful enough to kill off opponents in one hit using traits that render common defensive tactics and durability moot.
>Tertiary function: This function is the highest form of might a Territory can achieve and is usually only open to users above the Incandescent Stage, though a scant few even among the Incandescent can achieve it.
To initiate an assault of the Tertiary calibre, a user must first and foremost be able to conjure living beings within their Imaginary GeoScape. This feat requires both skill and time, as for living creatures to naturally grow within the Territory, one has to have activated it for a very long sum of time, even if intermittently.
It is these living creatures, whatever form they take, that initiate the Tertiary assault, and depending on what type they are, they may even embody the traits of the user, have their own Stages and manifest their own Territories within the user's own.