An equine's abilities are determined by their essence. A purer essence (typically vivid eye colors) often has stronger abilities. Each essence has certain abilities associated with it (see list below). Essences are determined at birth based on their bloodline. A foal may take either their sire or dam's essence, or they may become an essence that can only be bred by crossing the two parental essences. Click here for a chart of essences and information on breeding crosses.
Below are a list of abilities associated with each essence. There are also some neutral abilities (that horses of any essence can have) listed at the end. Each ability is also ranked by difficulty to master using * symbols. More asterisks = more difficult to master. THE LIST BELOW IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION - Essences and abilities are being revamped.
Crosspyro
- * Nighteye (Void): The ability to see perfectly in the dark, as if it were daylight still.
- ** Firebreathing (Fire): The ability to shoot flames out of the mouth. This can start fires or burn opponents.
- *** Shadowmancer (Void): The ability to manipulate and transform shadows. At high levels they may be able to become invisible in shadows.
- *** Phasing (Void): The ability to rearrange their atoms to move through solid objects.
- *** Detonate (Fire): The ability to detonate themselves and then reform. At high levels they may be able to detonate other objects.
- **** Pyrokinesis (Fire): The ability to create, control and manipulate fire and heat. This can be used to melt things, activate volcanoes, etc. It is most efficient when paired with Firebreathing.
- ***** Psionic Blast (Void): The ability to forge a mental connection to cause pain and suffering to another. This may result in temporary memory loss and unconsciousness. It will never leave physical damage, since the pain is only psychological.
- * Lightblade (Light): The ability to make the horn light up. While lit, it has laser-like abilities that allow it to slice through objects and inflict pain. (Yes, think Star Wars lightsabers.)
- ** Aqua Lung (Water): The ability to breathe underwater.
- *** Healing (Light): The ability to place a charm upon someone that will heal them of injury or illness.
- *** Waterdancer (Water): The ability to travel across the surface of water without falling in.
- **** Lumitre (Light): Can manipulate wavelengths of light to create a 'lightshow' or painting in the sky. At higher levels this could be used to create total darkness (absence of light).
- ***** Hydrokinesis (Water): The ability to manipulate and control liquid water and mold it into any shape or form. This could be used to create tsunamis, flooding, or shoot blasts of water at opponents.
- * Vortex Breath (Air): The ability to exhale with great force, creating gusts and winds that can be damaging.
- ** Sublimation (Air): The ability to turn into air or fog, allowing them to lurk undetected. They can float around, but will not be able to transport too far.
- *** Shield (Energy): The ability to create a sheild around themselves for protection in a fight. At higher levels, it can create a sheild of energy which can bar a a person from crossing a certain boundary. (Used on criminals.)
- *** Sandstorm (Air): The ability to create an 'storm' of sand (or other small particles) that can either act like a cloud or form straight line or funneled winds. This could simply block vision (cloud form) or inflict damage (wind/tornado form).
- **** Stormcaller (Energy): The ability to generate thunderstorms or bolts of lightning.
- ***** Electrogentic (Energy): The ability to harness energy from the environment to turn themselves into a generator of pure energy. This can be used as an electrical power supply and can also drain energy from other sources.
- * Flowerbreath (Nature): The ability to spawn flower growth by breathing onto the soil. At high levels, this MAY allow them to create flowers by breathing into air.
- ** Teleportation (Cosmos): The ability to transport from one place to another instantaneously.
- *** Animation (Nature): The ability to communicate with and, to some extent, control plants/flora.
- *** Phrenic Sight (Nature): Loosely, the ability to perceive things about a person by 'reading' them. (Does not allow them to read thoughts!) This can be used to determine if a person is strong enough to handle multiple bonds; can also detect Quentia.
- **** Gravitate (Cosmos): The ability to manipulate gravity to allow themselves or other objects to hover. At higher levels it may also be used to create a gravitational field that will pull things toward them.
- ***** Timebender (Cosmos): The ability to travel between times or slow down/speed up the passage of time. Time travel works most efficiently combined with Teleportation. Changing the passage of time will only influence their own experience, or possibly someone else they direct it at. (Not all of humanity!)
- * Icebeam (Ice): The ability to shoot beams of ice by focusing their eyes on a target. Ice appears to come out of their eyes, but does not really.
- ** Concussion Beams (Earth): The ability to send quakes of great force across land. This can knock down or move rocks or anything else that falls in the path of the beam.
- ** Jack Frost (Ice): The ability to freeze objects or cover them in frost by breathing on them. At higher levels this may work from farther distances away.
- *** Oremonger (Earth): The ability to 'feel' (detect) seams of ores/minerals in the earth. In stronger cases it can allow them to pull them from the earth.
- *** Earthshaper (Earth): The ability to shape or manipulate rocks. This can allow them to create walls, start landslides, etc.
- **** Golem Caller (Earth/Ice): The ability to make golems out of either rock or clay. In rare cases, they may also be able to make golems out of ice. Once created, the golems are under their control. (We hope...)
- ***** Terrareign (Earth): The ability to reshape the terrains and landscapes around them. They can change the shapes of hills and valleys or even replace grass/trees with rocky or sandy terrain.
- ** Hibernate: The ability to fall asleep for extended periods of time without need for food or water. While hibernating, almost nothing can wake them up. At high levels, a horse with this could sleep for days.
All mystical abilities have rarities of occurrence, as listed in the Equines guide. Aside from the rarity of actually possessing an ability, each ability has a level to which it has been mastered. Though abilities exist from birth (and show up at a young age), the degree to which they are nurtured and used will determine how strong they are. We've divided strength of abilities into four official levels, as described below.
- Uncontrolled: The individual possesses an ability but has either not yet discovered it or not yet learned how to control it. All abilities start at this level at birth.
- Level I: The individual is capable of controlling the ability. This means they know how to turn it "on" and "off" and use it in general. The effects of it will not be very strong and accuracy may vary.
- Level II: The individual has gained more control over their ability and has learned how to use it with varying levels. The effects of it are stronger and longer-lasting, and accuracy is improving.
- Level III: The individual has an extended amount of control to choose the strength at which an ability is used and it often has a strong effect. Accuracy is typically quite good at this stage. Only the strongest levels or most unique facets of the ability are missing.
- Level IV: The individual has complete mastery of their ability and can use it from the lightest to the strongest as they choose in every facet possible. It will typically be longer-lasting and will be highly accurate. Abilities this strong can be dangerous in the wrong hands, but in other ways are far less dangerous simply because they are so controlled.
Please note! Since all abilities start as uncontrolled, you must earn levels through RP. A level will be assigned to the individual when they graduate from Yearling training. At that point, some may still be uncontrolled but most should be at level I. Rarely, talented individuals may already be at level II. Beyond that, if you wish to raise a level, you must post a thread that shows off training and using the skill in a safe, controlled environment. (Levels will very rarely increase during duels.) Once you've done that, go fill out the form in the Paperwork board and a staff member will review your post and decide if you have earned a level or not. If not, this is not based on OOC opinions, but is used for IC development. You cannot always gain a level every time you want! It takes time, and some individuals will never excel beyond a certain level. Rarer abilities are also more challenging (and less likely) to master!
The levels influence different abilities differently. If your ability is Invisibility, at level I you might randomly flicker invisible but not retain it long and not have a lot of control over how long it is used. At level III, you'd be able to choose when to be invisible and would be able to stay invisible for a longer period, moving around while you are invisible. By level IV, you'd be able to stay invisible for a much longer period and would be able to do almost anything undetected. On the other hand, if your ability is Psionic Blast, level I might mean you are able to gain control and cause a small amount of pain, but only fleetingly (and you might even miss your target). By level III you could cause much stronger pain, and likely memory loss, but would not yet be able to cause unconsciousness. By level IV, you'd be able to use the ability to it's full extent, causing excruciating pain for extended periods of time, leading to unconsciousness.
There is a rare ability that exists in some people. Many do not discover it until they become Riders, though those with stronger abilities may notice it before. This ability is called Quentia , named for a person's ability to feel and use their horse's abilities. Those with Quentia may feel a stronger connection to their horse and over time will realize they can harness the elemental essence to utilize their horse's abilities. Those who are stronger will develop more mastery of the abilities, including rarer ones, while those with only mild Quentia will may only be able to use more common abilities and only in the presence of their horse.
Quentia Omnis is an even rarer ability that has only existed among a handful of people ever. This is the ability to feel and control elemental abilities from more horses than just their own. Some can use abilities from any horses nearby, while others may only be able to use those with the same elements as their bonded. Others yet seem to fall somewhere in between, being able to harness abilities from varied equines but perhaps only those which they know well.
In either case, it's possible that horses around a person with Quentia may notice it before they do. It's rumored that foals are more likely to bond with a person who has it, for they notice the aura of it as soon as they are born, which can lead to some nasty battles when multiple foals want the same person.