Welcome to Gaia! ::

Louie smiled and blushed some more as Esqyn tended to him. He was so happy and full for the first time in a long time. He nodded standing up looking very excited. "Classes I can't wait..lead the way." he proclaimed happily.

"I'd suggest you stay here, and get some rest, to be honest." Sam told him with a sincere tone, but a hint of concern was still in his voice. "I... don't think that after the incident earlier you would be able to handle much more stress on your body with excited classmates. But, the decision is really up to you, I'll stick around either way."

He was still deeply worried for the other, seeing as how he saved Amune in such a horrible position earlier. The state he saw him in, well, scared him. It was his instinct, the one he most definitely inherited from his mother, to help those in need but have such concern and worry for that person it was just hard to stop. "If you did go though, I would help keep an eye on you."

Esqyn smiled brightly. "Sure thing!" he said, kissing the top of the boy's head and leading the way for the other three, Acelin and Kael right behind as well. They headed down a couple floors, and through a pair of huge, elaborately carved doors into a sort of small-scale auditorium, with a circular platform in the center, and seats ringing around it in consecutive ripples. The walls here were brighter, tiled with mother-of-pearl and quartz, and the chamber had particular accoustics to it which carried the voice of the center-most person easily across the entire room. Esqyn took a seat towards the front, Kael sitting next to him, and he patted the other seat next to him for Louie, smiling softly. Kael in turn motioned Acelin over to sit next to him, noticing in the meantime that Sam was absent. Not that it would be a problem, since Sam's parents were Fire Angels, and he already had quite a bit of background in the introductory stuff.

The lights coming from the ceiling dimmed, although their source wasn't apparent, and small crystal globes around the center part of the room glowed with light. Ahkra stood at the center, his strange emerald eyes, seemingly devoid of pupils, watching them. His jackal ears, perking up past the dark auburn locks of hair, were perked up attentively, and his large black feathered wings shifted faintly before he began to speak. When he did, his voice was captivating, melodic.

"For those of you who haven't met me yet," he said, "my name is Ahkra, and I run this school. I have no parents, and no true last name. My form is whatever I wish it to be, although it will always be incarnated from my soul, which is true Darkness. But, for those of you who do not know the history of us, let me explain just a bit.

"I, and all of the teachers here, are considered to be gods by most mortals. That's a bit of a misnomer. Gods, by definition are perfect, flawless beings with incomprehensible power. This being so, gods do not exist. However, there are the Incarnations, and bound to them, the Elements. Bound to them in turn are the Angels. You see, while we hold power that most cannot divine, we are neither perfect, nor flawless in any regard. And though we are immortal, we can be killed, although by means far exceeding what would be fatal to a mortal. For some of us, the conditions under which we can be destroyed are so severe that it may as well be considered impossibe.

"To some, it's a frightening concept that we are not perfect. However, I think that the alternative is far more terrifying. If the forces that swayed the worlds lacked even a spark of emotion or compassion, the result would surely be a hell of ice. We have weaknesses, fears, dreams. We each have the potential to be good, or evil, although some have tendencies. Some of us are neither, like myself, although in habit I am virtuous.

"I suppose I should back track a bit, though. In the beginning, there was the Lokoi. This was before Time began, before any world was born, or anyone. There was nothing. Neither order nor chaos, neither time nor space. No energy. There was only the Lokoi. The Lokoi was and is everything, and it is what everything is born from. It's sentient on a higher level than any of us can comprehend, and contained the raw ethers from which everything came, so pure that the ethers, that pure power, had no association whatsoever. It was neither dark nor light, neither good nor evil. It was still for a very long time, and nothing changed, but something happened to disturb it. When it was disturbed, it started to move, react - violently. Small pieces broke off, tiny fragments. In comparison, they were hundreds of times smaller, relatively, than a grain of salt would be compared to a sun. However, that size of a fragment holds power than few can even comprehend. Those fragments, like the Lokoi, were sentient, powerful. Neither good, nor evil, but something else entirely. Although it's hardly a perfect description, they are called Gray. The Children of the Lokoi. Neutral, some people call them, although they aren't quite that, either.

"From one of them came the multiverse, from which an infinite number of worlds were born. From another, came Time. One of the fragments, slightly larger than the others, broke into three, and became three siblings.

"I was one of them. The other two are my siblings, Omin, and Zylphia. On the outside, I look like just another immortal. Able to shift shape, physical in nature, flawed and emotional. But I created this body for myself. My true form is that of pure, intelligent energy. There is so much of it that I cannot, no matter how hard I try, stuff it into my body. Rather, the intelligent center is what's housed in this body. The soul which controls the rest of that energy, which is so vast that it is scattered throughout all the worlds. Darkness. I am every shadow, every darkened night, dream, and wanton thought.

"Despite being Gray, and generally doing what I please, I am virtuous, though, by choice, if not by nature. However, my twin, Omin, is the exact opposite, and delights in torture, killing, and destruction. He has killed nearly all of my children. Some of them several times. They're all around now, but most of them have had to be reborn several times.

"Time is also akin to me, in that she takes a physical form, but is much more than that. Her name is Lea. Despite being Children of the Lokoi, though, we are also what we call Incarnations. We are a force in nature, partially coalesced into a physical form. There are others, though, for the multiverse, which was also a fragment, continued to break down into smaller fragments. Some of the people born into the worlds were a fragment unto themselves, and of the same nature as us, if not quite as powerful. There are many incarnations. Time, Darkness, Corruption, Light, Fire, Water, Spirit, Air, Luck, etc. They are exactly the force in nature that their name implies. It's not that they are gods that control it, they actually are that power, in its entirety.

"Apart from the Incarnations, though, there are also the Elements. The Elements assist Incarnations. They protect them, guide them, stay by their side. An Element is bound, by soul, to an Incarnation. An Element is the person, out of all the multiverse, who is most compatible with the power which is the Incarnation. For instance, my Element is Arc, the most Dark-compatible person in existence, if you will, the most powerful Dark mage. More than that, because of an Element's compatibility, he or she can actually house his respective Incarnation if they shift to energy form. Kael was actually born with Elan inside of him, all along channeling Elan's power as if it were his own, their souls bound together. It can be that way for any of us. There is more than that, too. There are those that help Elements, as well, and are also granted immortality. They're called Angels, commonly. As many types as there are Incarnations and Elements. Grim Angels, which are mine, Fire Angels, Water Angels, Spirit Angels, and on and on.

"I, and any of the Incarnations, can take any form. Literally. I could be a chair if I wanted to, although I don't see why I would. Elan prefers the form of a ferret, Luce a cat, and I... prefer the form of an incubus. However, we are not limited to those forms in any way. If you incinerated me, pulled every single atom apart in my body, degraded the very essence and components that build his body into nothing, I would not die. This body is a shell to me. One which I cares for quite a bit, but which if needed, can be replaced. If you destroyed this body, it is relatively easy for me to almost instantaneously rebuild a new one for myself.

"Now then, just as there are the Elements, my brother, Omin, has formed a mirror group, named the Lamente, who are nearly as powerful, if not as powerful, as the Virtuous Elements gathered here. They are a force to be feared, although also, in my opinion, a force to be pitied. For no matter how obediently they serve him, he tortures them in ways I dare not fathom or recall, daily, in order to 'ensure their loyalty'. Far from it, if they ever get the chance, most flee from him. There are three ex-members of that group residing in this keep now, even. Chloe, Ephaelia, and Erebos, each of them Gray. They are generally good people, however as with any Gray person, you still have to be careful." He winked at that comment, seemingly including himself. The warning seemed to be more pertaining to wanton perils, rather than real danger.

"Are there any questions, so far?"

((Perryunicornboy, this may sound eerily familiar. smile Sorry for the repetition, but I thought that it'd be good to actually post it in the class stuff for everyone else and stuff.))

As the small group walked in, Acelin felt another surge of nostalgia wash through him. As he sat down next Kael he saw Akra standing there, which also didn't take long for his head to hurt. The dream also seemed to loose some of it 'fog' as he could start to see shapes and people even though they were silloueted. As Akrea continued his speech, he payed attention, although he didn't know fully what the man on the platform was saying, but he knew that it was the truth. His body seemed to know it was the truth even even if his mind didn't. Through the speech, he tried to unjumbled his mind but as he did so everything became more jumbled. He stopped once he felt the signs of a headache comming along as sat there and just listened.

A small, pink nose nudged the door to the infirmary open just enough for a small, white-furred body to slip through. Elan, in the form of a white ferret, glanced up cutely at Amune and Sam with a friendly chirp, tail waving happily. He pounced over to the bed, jumping up, happy to meet someone new. He purred loudly, which was distinctly un-ferretlike but quite common for him, and snuggled close to the both of them with what seemed like a happy smile.

Just to clarify, here's a summary of the properties of each of the elemental alignments.

Light - If you wield light magic, you will be naturally proficient at healing and restoring lost energy. Your power has a radiant nature, and you will gain the manipulation and conjuring of light in its entirety. If you use it for combat, when your majic hits a target to be destroyed, it will be like a small sun igniting inside of them, and they will be disintegrated in the resulting rays.

Darkness - If you wield dark magic, you will be able to master control over shadows, including having them step out and become solid to aid you in a fight, or alter your surroundings. You will also have power over sleep and dreams, being able to enter other's dreams and usually control them, as well as control whether they sleep or not. This is a pretty handy trick - if you're fighting an enemy, you can just put them to sleep. You will also be able to charm people, and attract them to you.

Fire - This one is pretty self-explanitory. You will be able to summon and manipulate fire in all of its forms. Normal fire, heatless fire, and dark (lightless) fire. You can warm up a person or your surroundings, purge objects and people with heatless fire (to rid them of poisons, etc), or do it to yourself.

Water - Again, pretty self-explanitory. Water wielders tend to be naturally proficient at healing as well, if not quite to the degree of light mages. You will be able to summon and manipulate water. You can also manipulate water in the air, to a degree, giving you some control over summoning and controlling mist and fog as well. You will be especially good at healing people of impurities and poisons when healing.

Earth - Someone who wields Earth has the ability to manipulate both the ground (stone or dirt) and plants. You can make plants grow in whatever fashion you please wherever you wish, even if you're on the fifteenth floor, you could make an adult cedar tree grow out of midair, latched onto the tower (although I'm not sure that would be a good idea. :p ). This is particularly handy because you can instantaneously grow herbs for healing, antidotes, and poisoning. Usually if you want to be an Earth mage, you're going to want to specialize in herbal medicine. You can also control vines for combat, though (or slippery moss, etc). Also, you have the ability to manipulate the ground itself, it's shape especially. If you're fighting on the ground, your opponent has a very steep disadvantage, since you can reshape the landscape on a whim to squewer them if you want. You can also bring up ores and gemstones from deep in the Earth.

Air/Weather - This one is pretty straight-forward. You are able to manipulate mist, fog, clouds, wind, precipitation (rain, hail, sleet, etc), lightning, dust devils, and potentially up to monsoons, tornados, and hurricanes. However, if you summon up a tornado, please keep in mind the consequences (it will destroy everything in the immediate vicinity except for you).

Luck - If you are naturally inclined towards luck magic, you are able to control the possibilities surrounding you. If someone throws a spear at you and has pretty good aim, they might have an 85% chance of hitting you. But because of your nature, if you notice (or if you've been trained as a Luck mage and don't notice), that chance will probably reduce to something like 0.05%. More of, you can control extreme coincidences. Such as, the chance that the same spear will ricoche off of the metal wall design and hit the attacker would normally be extremely slim (lets say 0.01%), now due to your influence, the chances of it hitting them has now changed to 95%. This is a pretty versatile, if somewhat abstract, form of magic.

Chaos - Chaos magic is quite similar to luck magic, and actually luck magic is a sub-alignment to chaos. If you are a chaos mage, you have almost complete control (if you want it) over coincidences and rare occurances. Something unexpected. You probably have a wild and unpredictable, energetic personality. You can point to a chair and have it crumple, the poor person sitting on it tumbling in confusion to their butt. You can summon randomly, and whatever you randomly summon will "happen" to help you quite a bit, but in a very unpredictable way. You might summon an elephant, and it squashes your opponent.

Spirit - In wielding spirit magic, you can manipulate people's souls (usually to heal someone whose soul has been degraded or fractured by a curse or something else) or regenerate a portion of someone's soul. Also, it involves the manipulation of half-dimensions, which are not considered to be real space-time, but sort of an inbetween. If you can manipulate those, you can create and control small pseudoworlds, without their own life, although these usually have a short(ish) lifespan, since half-dimensions are a bit unstable and tend to disintegrate on their own. This application can be used for illusions which are real enough to injure or shield someone, or to be able to reach through or walk through solid objects and control your own corporeality, and chose what you wish to touch. If someone had been shot, you could reach through their body without them feeling a thing or being hurt by it, grab the bullet, and pull it out. It's sort of like a ghost state.

Rune - Runic magic would probably be a secondary one, rather than a primary one, and is magic defined by Lokoi runes, whose meaning is vast and constantly changing. This doesn't mean that you have to write anything down to cast it (although it does strengthen it quite a bit), but your power itself, if seen, will have wisp-like runes floating in it. It's an older, more neutral and versatile magic. That means that, where it doesn't have very specific properties in and of itself, it can take the form of another type of energy (fire, water, etc)).

Space/Time - In this, if you become proficient, you can manipulate space and time itself. You can manipulate and conjure wormholes (portals between worlds), slow, speed-up, or stop time for a short while, and separate planes. This is a bit difficult to explain, but if someone has ended up with an energy parasite inside of them, say a black winged serpent, and you're having difficulty getting it out (they tend to latch onto the heart as an anchor), you can separate the planes they are in. Which is to say, you can dictate that the victim is in one dimension, and the serpent is in another, and then they are separated.

Hope that helps!

Amune smiled widely at Sam,
"I would really like it if you stayed, thank you!"

He was slightly alarmed when the ferret, Elan, jumped onto the bed but when Sam explained he was smiling again. He giggled,
"...heh....hi...."
Uncertain if he was allowed, he timidly reached over, stroking the creatures head and down his back, "N-Nice to meet you~"

Acelin was slightly surprised, only shown in his eyes, that Akra had heard him. Acelin was slightly afraid, but of course also kept it hidden a talent he learned over the years he lived with his 'family. At the question he swallowed finding his voice. He wasn't sure if his meddling back home counted. "Depends." he said keeping his voice soft.