Hello and welcome, my friend. To the Vector Project.

I am MrMadMask, but frankly I don't think anybody cares about that. So, "What's the Vector Project?" you may be asking. So, this will be a collection of my thoughts and creations, that afer years of being only in my mind are starting to vanish, so I've decided to put them on paper. Or to better say it, put them on coding. Why the pompous title of "Project"? Because it sounded cool.

Let's start. To start things off, I'll explain how the world of Vector works. We are on planet Earth. Magic exists, and can be controlled in various ways. Humans are just humans, but in the course of history more and more of them started appearing with an innate capability of mana manipulation, restricted in a certain way or another. While in the early ages they were considered shamans, mages or witches, in the modern era they're called "Vectors", as a vector is commonly used to show the direction of a strenght.

Now that you've got a basic idea of what this world is about, I'll talk about the principal dimensions and the beings that inhabit them:

The Overworld

Here exists the Earth and the rest of the Universe. This is a so called "Open Dimension", continuosly expanding. It's not much different from the place we all know and live in, but magic sped up a little the scientific project, so if in this current year we create the technology x, in that world it would've been already created a couple years before. The following will be a list of the sentient species commonly found inhabiting Earth:

Humans: Well, you already know the basics. I mean, I think that everyone reading this is a human, right? Anyway. Maybe some of you are curious of the "various ways" to control magic mentioned earlier. Oh, right, I was forgetting the important part to control mana. Please don't lynch me yet. So, a human is composed of three parts: the body, the mind and the soul. While the first two are pretty self-explanatory, the soul might be something you're not familiar with. A person's soul is what generates mana for them to use. To live, a human uses mostly the chemical reactions of his body (and now you go study biology, because I'm not explaining that) and partly his mana. Despite saying "partly", consuming too much mana will often end up exhausting the user and preventing most of the movement. REMEMBER! Exhaustion caused from lack of mana will not cause you to fall asleep, as sleeping doesn't help regenerating your mana. Because the mana is tied to the soul, emotions can affect how much you regenerate or how much you can control it. Mental instability can conduce to quick exhaustion or loss of control on the casted magic. Yes, I'm hearing those of you saying "But when I die, does my soul go anywhere? Does it also bring the mind behind?" So, the mind coordinates your actions, so obviously a soul without a mind is in a pretty bad spot. We'll talk about that later. When a human dies, its soul and mind leave the body and end up in places I'll also talk about later. So, how do humans use magic? While I've talked about the Vectors having an innate mana manipulation ability, normal humans need a catalyst to channel their mana into spells. These catalysts can be wands, sygils, weapons imbued with mana, runes, special materials or even words. I'll talk about the last three another time. Before I forget, there's another way to use magic. The Blood Magic, forbidden for various reasons. The first of them is the fact that magic casted through blood can directly damage the opponent's soul, causing unrevertable damage to his magic and personality, but another is old superstition. Often times, Blood Magic was used by those who lost their soul, the Souless. I call them Souless, but they technically have a bit of soul left, that produces the minimum essential for a normal life, but in fact prevents them from using magic. So, the Souless need another way to use magic. Because magic flows though one's body via blood, it can be used as a catalyst already imbued with a good dose of magic. Other than the fact that using Blood Magic inevitably means that the user has to steal others' blood, it was also forbidden because the Souless are often considered wicked criminals who sold their soul to demons, while, to be honest, there are many other ways a soul can be lost. But having little to no soul means almost complete lack of emotions and empathy, so passing off for a good guy must be hard.

Vectors: As I already stated, Vectors are humans born with a better mana manipulation capacity. Their defining traits are faster learning, better memory, enchanced physical and visual capacities, better mana generation, awareness of mana presence (a sort of 6th sense that lets them "feel" when mana is near) and a way to channel magic without a catalyst. As stated before, this channeling is "restricted". Usually Vectors channel a defined element, or at least their magic tends to follow a "theme". For example: a Vector can have abilities connected to fire, like fire breathing and immunity to high temperatures, while being incapable of channeling his mana into water. Also, each Vector has a unique "mana track": each time magic is used, part of the mana channeled remains in the air, while most of it is absorbed by other living beings or elements. Through a Vector's 6th sense, it can be used to understand what type of power was used, and if the user was a Vector, can also lead to his identity and position. Obviously, a mana track will disappear after a while. Its duration is based on the strenght of the magic channeled. Then, Vectorial abilities are genetical. With this I mean that if a Vector generates a kid with a normal human, there's a 50% chance that the kid will als have the same Vectorial ability; if 2 Vectors have a child, there's a 85% chance that the kid will have one of the Vectors from the parents, a 7% chance that the Vectorial abilities will merge and generate a new one and a 3% chance that he will not show any sign of superhuman power. Then, there's the not-too-rare possibility that a Vectorial ability mutates. It's not rare that the children of a Vector will share a similar power with him, but with some differences. An example: a Vector has the ability to copy other Vectors' abilities by touching them, then he marries and has two kids. One can completely steal another Vector's ability by touching them for 10 seconds straight, while the other can slowly copy others' abilities by simply staying near them. As you can read, they share the same concept, but different times and ways. If people like this stuff, I might bring some examples from actual characters in another story, but for now this is it. Most of Vectors live a normal life with a normal job, but many work with the police to ensure that other Vectors cannot use their power to harm. Also, if a Vector loses its soul, he will directly die, as the sudden disappearance of the superior streams of mana will leave their body unprepared to adapt and react.

Phantoms: These are the remnants of a human soul, what happens when a human's will keeps him from leaving Earth after death. These creatures keep the aspect of their human body, often fading or showing the wounds that put an end to their life. With a constant look of agony, they haunt the place of their death until their wish is fullfilled. Most of the times it's just the burial of their corpse, but it can range from the loss of something precious to the revenge against the one who killed them. If a Phantom lingers too much on the Overworld, it will be either forcefully removed by a Reaper (which I'll talk about later) or will turn into a Shadow (still, later). Only rarely they're able to speak, as what is seen is only the soul with a weak bond to the mind, and normal humans can barely feel their presence, while Vectors can meet one everyday. Yay.

Gods: Saying that "Gods inhabit the Overworld" would be a generalisation, it's true that most of them have resolved to live there. The Gods are supernatural beings that appeared after the human civilisation started to develop the first forms of religion. They can have various forms, but often they show themselves as humans or the depiction given to them by their tradition. All Gods have two things in common: their power is affected by the people's creed, so the more follow their religion, the more powerful they get, while having no believers would result in their disappearance (normal popularity can still keep them alive); they reincarnate: if a God dies, after a short period of time, based on how much believers they have, they will be reborn. When they do, usually their human age varies from 5 to 50 years old. Despite aging like normal humans, each God has an age cap, still based on the tradition (example: while Zeus might age until he looks 70 years old, Ares might age until he looks 40). Many Gods, after losing most of their believers, had to start living like normal humans, getting a job and often living as a familiy with the other Gods of their religion.

The Paradise

This is the seconds major dimension in the Vector world. Here lives the One, the Only, the most known God. I mean, this time not generalised God, this time I mean God himself. I already talked about Gods, so I'll just summarise what he stands out for. He's the most powerful God, so much to have a whole dimension for his cult, and he's not very keen on showing himself to others. It's unknown if he has reincarnated, and he's one of the few Gods to have human souls allowed in his dimension and to have helpers that are not divinities. Before talking about them, I'll talk about the souls that end up here. When a human dies, if his soul is judged pure, it'll be sent to Paradise, where it will develop a new body and fully reattach with the mind. Then he will live happily there. From what I know. I've never been to Paradise, the access is pretty strict. No intruders allowed. Well then, let's talk about:

Angels: They're the only other beings that live in Paradise other than the human souls and God. And maybe Jesus. As I said, never been there before. Anyway, the Angels have a pretty unique way of power distribution: an Angel's power is based on God's thrust in them, so an unworthy Angel will result weaker. To ensure that all Angels keep the right attitude, there are always 7 of them chosen for being the best ones, and form the Council of the Archangels. They can be identified by the fact that they have 6 wings instead of 2. Wait, I forgot to tell you how the angels look. Oopsie. So, Angels usually wear a long tunic, always white (accompanied by blessed armor if their role is to fight) and a hood, provided with a special incantation to hide the bearer's face. In fact, Angels are not allowed to show their face to humans, for some reason. Those mysterious guys. Anyway, Angels also have a pair of wings, that can be "retracted" when not used and a halo. Angels are the only beings able to use "pure" magic, a special type of magic that can manipulate the soul. Apparently, an Angel's soul preduces a special type of mana, that can be used to "bless" objects (kinda like mana imbuation, but stronger) and that demons don't like very much. Angels are born with the ability to understand any language. Despite not knowing too much about them, some say that they reproduce like humans. Valkyries: They're the lower grades of the Angelic Army. They're often recruited between humans, that go through a process of "elevation" and usually just grow a pair of wings. Some of them gain the ability to manipulate the "pure" mana. They're usually seen wearing full metal armor and a white cloak, but they're allowed to show their faces.

The Hell

So, if you end up here, you either f***ed up in life and ended up here dead, or you're just on a dimensional tour to see the lava fountains. Anyway, Hell presents itself as a bunch of bunches of red rock surfaces, held by red rock pillars, erected on the backdrop of the immense sea of lava that covers anything else. If you look up in the sky, there's not much to see, as you'll just meet a rocky ceiling. It's impossible to find something under the constant streams of lava, and the ceiling is apparently indestructible. The only way to acces Hell, is trough a portal or, well, dying guilty. If you're asking why I have not done a description of the Paradise, it's because those jerks won't let me in, while Hell is pretty much free access. When a human soul ends up in Hell, it stays there working for the Demons for a couple hundred years, then it gets consumed and is reborn as a Demon, without any memory of his previous life. Also, saying "Demons" is a generalisation, as they're officially (more or less) classified in 3 categories, plus some other beings that hinabit this hot place.

Humanoid Demons: They're the most common ones. They look like normal humans, but with some bat-like wings, sometimes even little horns and a tail. The wings can be retracted like the Angels'. They usually have blood-red hairs and eyes, but for the rest they work just like humans. Their soul produces a mana very similar to the humans', but with a twist: they can severely enlarge their power through the use of contracts. A contract is, well, a contract, generated by a Demon's mana. It's created with all the informations on the agreement already written, and as soon as the other being signs it, both him and the Demon are bound to do what it had written on it. If a Demon succesfully completes a contract, his power will increase based on what the contract had written on. Harder contracts, more power. Also, if a Demon is bound to do an action beyond his power by the contract, his power will exponentially grow until the action is completed. Their power cap is still determined by the Demon's base power. Usually, to sign a pact, humans also sell their soul to the Demon. Demons, in fact, have the unique ability to absorb souls when they're not bound to a mind, adding to theirs the power of the human who sold it to them.

Masked Demons: These peculiar figures received their name because of their tendency to wear a large smiling mask to cover their face. To be honest, more than a species, they're a sect. Most of them probably were not even demons at the start, but they all use demonic mana and are able to create contracts, so they're classified as that. After the last conflict between Demons, their leader rose and took the power in his hands, becoming the new ruler of Hell. His true name is unknown, but his way of acting anticipates new wars for the Demons.

Ancient Demons: Despite the name, not every Ancient Demon is ancient. Their name is due to the lack of them in the recent years. In fact, they're the reincarnations of the damned human souls. Their appearance varies very much, but usually they abound of teeths, claws and horns. Not everyone of them posseses wings. Lately, they seem to have vanished. Nobody has seen one for quite a while, and when a human soul is consumed no new demons appear. This is happening since the Masked Demons rose to power.

Fallen Angels: When an Angel commits a crime that cannot be forgiven, he's bound to fall. And usually he falls to Hell. The only living one remaining decided to stay in Hell, so I guess I'll take him as an example. Fallen Angels keep their tunic and wings, but from white they go to a shade of grey, dark as their sins. Their soul doesn't lose the capacity to generate pure mana, but the distance from God greatly reduces their power. Despite living in hell, the last Fallen does not interfere with the Demons' fights for power, but just sits as a spectator. Some say that they've seen a mysterious man in grey tunic, just for an istant, somewhere in the trees, in the Overworld. Watching. Holding the strings of Fate, waiting to do the right move.

The Limbo

Oh oh oh, here comes the fun part. I admit this is probably my favourite dimension. So, the Limbo appears as a grey land, covered sometimes by mountains, sometimes by forests of dead trees, sometimes just a crude landscape of nothing. The only thing that never changes, other than the perpetually grey and cloudy sky, is the river. Despite looking like it goes to one direction, it brings everywhere. It appears and disappears in less than an instant, constantly changing its course to bring the lost souls to the Purgatory, the only lively place of the Limbo. And it's a bar. Yeah. In this bar pass the time most of the beings without a home or a dimension where to stay, other than the natural inhabitants of the Limbo.

Reapers: These entities' role is to retrieve the human souls, judge them and then send them either to Paradise or Hell. If the soul cannot be judged on place, it will be brought to the Limbo to decide a sentence with the Keepers, that are coming just after this. The Reapers are usually generated like Phantoms: when a human dies, if his hatred is strong enough, his soul will return as a Reaper, with a totally diverse appearance and usually a new power, or a variation of the one he had when alive. But being hateful is not enough, as he needs to be impartial and very, VERY good at killing. Often times the Reapers also have to exterminate imperfect beings, like bodies possessed by Phantoms or Zombies (aka a body with a soul, but no mind) or are engaged to kill by the Gods. They are invisible to normal humans, as they have the ability to transform into pure mana and flow unnoticed in the air, but a Vector's eye is able to catch them, and they cannot interact with the human world in that form. They are seemingly immortal, but if damaged too much they need time to recover and some of them, tired of being alive, disappeared forever from existance.

Keepers: Extremely mysterious beings, it's suspected that their role is to guard the Limbo. Nobody has ever seen one being created or born, and the two that are currently know only remember of popping into existance with the instinct to protect that place. They existed for thousands of years, but the oldest being of the Limbo after them can only testimony from the age of the Roman Empire. Because they're only two, there are not a lot of examples to make, but from the known details their body shows no recognisable human feature, so they used bones to have somewhat of a form. One wears a robe to cover the black, shapeless mass that is his body, and a deer skull to "Look somewhat humanoid", as he said. The other wears a classy frac, but with much elongated arms and legs (about 2m), and as head he uses a human skull, completed by a slightly taller top hat. Further information may be provided in future, more complete articles on the two.

Ashes: Created through Incomplete Resurrection, the Ashes exist to serve the Reapers. Despite having their own will, after they are resurrected they swear loyalty to the Reaper that revived them, binding themselves to him. While they are chose similarly to the Reapers, they are much weaker, cannot use the spiritual form and are not able to use any kind of magic. Their aspect is usually the same as they died, but with every part of it looks like dust and ashes, and their face is not recognisable.

Wraiths: Pale skin, white hair, piercing yellow eyes are what define a Wraith. These beings are the result of a type of Complete Resurrection, used to reattach the sould to the mind and body, at cost of some of its humanity. Other than the deformed look, Wraiths also have a minor empathy, and tend to show less emotions. They show excpetional strenght and their magic capabilities are defined by the one who resurrected them. The only being currently known to be able to use this type of resurrection is one of the Keepers.

The Shadow Realm

So, we got to the last dimension. The most dreaded. Here lie the Shadows, souls incapable of abandoning their old life or forgetting revenge, that ended up losing themselves and falling to a realm of darkness and hopelesness. Not that it matters that much, as you will see.

Shades: As already said, these beings originate from the Phantoms that linger too much on Earth. When they transform, they lose every bind with their mind, and end up wandering aimlessly in the realm, without any will whatsoever. Despite this, they are attracted by the Vectors, as their Shadows contain a much stronger will and power. Their aspect is always the same, a black figure with purple eyes, lost in the contemplation of an unknown objective.

Losts: There are two ways of generating a Lost: either a Shade consumes a Vector, or a Vector with Shadow abilities lets them take over (Shadow abilities are pretty unique, as they consume little mana but require great concentration to prevent your magic from taking over). In both cases, a Lost emerges, which is more or less an upgraded Shade. Differently from Shades, the Losts have their own will, and can wear a wide arrangement of clothes, that always end up looking deep violet. They often maintain the power of the Vector after the transformation, sometimes with slight variations. I have a great example for a Lost, but in this document I'm not going to give any name. Most probably I'll write a whole file on him, though.

Nightmares: If I recall correctly, this is the last being I can talk about. These creatures stay in the realm during the day, but as soon as the night falls upon the Overworld, they go out to strike fear in the hearts of the humans to gain energy. It's proven that the Nightmares themselves don't gain power in the process, but that instead it's theoretically directed towards a mysterious being defined as "The Nighmare Prime", whose existance is not yet certain. As far as aspect goes, they look like black floating spirits, with a teethed gin on their face and white eyes filled with concentric circles that go on until they reach the pupil, and move around it. Oh yeah, forgot to mention. Despite having no will, the Shades seemed to have elected a "Shadow King" and started following his orders. Billions of Shadows walked on the Overworld, ready to take over. The War lasted for many years.

So, this is almost all. Almost? Yes, not everything. I could not list some beings because them I would've had to talk about some events happened during the history, and I'm here just to give you a general idea of what I'm talking about. Here an there are some bits of informations about what happened, but I'll talk about the complete story in a more precise document.