Trollskap

Definition:

The idea of Trollskap is centered around the idea that everyone has access to power. How much power? A lot—god-like power that could completely shape the fate of the world. However, nearly everyone is unable to access it; this god-like power is completely inaccessible to us and, as long as it’s inaccessible, may as well not exist. Trollskaps are not themselves superpowers. Rather, they are the “Key” needed to unlock this vast expanse of power within an individual. The Trollskap “Key” not only allows you to gain superpowers, but also defines what kind of powers you are going to get and how they work; It essentially does this by taking your latent power and turning it into a manifest-able form. Since Trollskap works this way rather than outright giving you superpowers, having a gazillion Trollskaps can’t really make you more powerful—it’s like having many different Keys isn’t really helpful when they all just unlock the same door. Having a different “Key” from another does, however, mean that the nature of how your powers work will be considerably different from the other.

Although Timelord.odt is in itself a single Universe, for all realistic purposes Trollskaps should each be considered different systems of magic—the rules of one Trollskap are freely capable of breaking the laws set by another.

Rules:

You can only have one Trollskap and there are no take-backsies once you have one.

We talk as though Trollskaps are exchangeable objects. They’re not. Although they’re like keys in terms of function, Trollskaps are mostly intangible outside of the effects they cause (I say Trollskaps are irreversibly grafted to a person’s soul.) You can’t just trade-in parts of your DNA for another, because once the zygote forms the DNA inside it becomes a defining part of who you are. Trollskaps are essentially impossible to trade or exchange in any way for basically the same reason.

There are five terms associated with Trollskap:

A 1st generation Trollskap is the first “Key” of its strain; it is the “original Key” that may or may not be used to create widespread amounts of “Keys.” Instead of getting a Trollskap from somewhere, a 1st generation Trollskap is an original one you get from yourself.

A Cultural Trollskap is a Trollskap that is a copy of a 1st generation Trollskap; it is a “Key” that someone has that’s a “copy” of an original. It therefore refers to any Trollskap that is both unoriginal and not the first of its kind.

An Achtell is someone (or potentially anything) that has a 1st generation Trollskap.

A Primatell is someone (or potentially anything) that has a Cultural Trollskap.

An Orsetell is someone (or potentially anything) that has no Trollskap at all.

You need a Trollskap to access your latent powers; this is a given. However, for any given individual, some Trollskaps are a “better fit” than others. Virtually, there is no preexisting Trollskap that can fully unleash all your latent powers. Some Trollskaps will end up making you stronger than others though, because one Trollskap can sometimes bring out more of your latent power than another.

Because of this rule, Cultural Trollskaps spread across a wide population will have varying degrees of success, even if each person individually has equal potential in battle, in terms of latent power/potential.

When the question arises which Trollskap is the one that will make you the most powerful—or in other words which Trollskap has the best capacity of bringing out your latent power, the answer is always the Trollskap you create yourself—a 1st generation Trollskap.

1st generation Trollskaps are Trollskaps that were built around an individual—they were built around making the Achtell holding it as powerful as they could possibly be.

As an additional note, Trollskaps created this way are created subconsciously, perhaps not even involving the brain at all, instead created automatically by the body-soul like how our hearts beat without our brains controlling them. Regardless, the creation of a Trollskap isn’t something the person actively designs or make choices on. It’s created as an imprint of the person of sorts, an imprint that doesn’t listen to what you might want and takes into consideration both your strong points and weak points.

If we wanted everyone to be as strong as they could possibly be, then everyone would be an Achtell—everyone would have a unique Trollskap that fully brings out the potential of everyone. Unfortunately, the chances of you getting the chance to develop your own Trollskap are unbelievably low. Throughout the course of history, billions upon trillions of lives have come and gone. But the amount of people lucky enough to be able to get their own Trollskap is a number small enough to fill a room. The chances are incredibly close to zero.

The ideas on exactly how a Trollskap begins to form are vague and I honestly think it should be kept that way. But if I had to, I would say Trollskaps form as a type of mutation—a type of “mutation” that occurs at some point while inside your “place in the universe”, and not because of an actual mutation within the genes. The mutation is something that occurs at some point in your life similarly to how people randomly get cancer. It is possible that the creation of an Achtell and his/her 1st gen Trollskap is one of many possible outcomes that come from this type of mutation, except that all the other possibilities are much more along the lines of horrific and eldritch. People may by all means think that people become Achtell because God(s) chose them.

Fortunately for all the billions of people destined not to have 1st generation Trollskaps, people can have Cultural Trollskaps. Achtell can share their “Keys” with other people so that they can have “Keys” of their own, which are copes of the Achtell’s “Key.” Even if the Trollskap might not be ideal for the given individual, some form of superpower is still better than no superpower. Having widespread superpowers is effectively useful for a nation if they want to be strong against invaders. Other times superpowers can still overall improve one’s quality of life. There’s plenty of reasons why one would want to gain a Cultural Trollskap and become a Primatell.

There is a very important drawback to Cultural Trollskap and it’s not just that the powers gained from them are weaker; Achtell have influence on how the Cultural Trollskap develops. Achtell are able, for example, to only give you parts of a “Key” if they choose to, which can greatly weaken the powers you get from them. Achtell can therefore control how powerful you can get—your potential—when they give you your Trollskap “Key.” On top of this, once you have become a Primatell, the possibility of you becoming an Achtell instantly goes to zero—that very small chance you had of naturally gaining your own Trollskap becomes forfeited. Some Achtell willingly give populations only parts of “Keys,” knowing that doing so will prevent the rise of another Achtell. The population, being still relatively weak since it only has a small part of a “Key”, can then be ruled with an iron fist. No one is strong enough to contest the power of the Achtell, and without the possibility of another Achtell arising, there most likely never will.

Purpose:

The entire idea and purpose of Trollskap is to allow for multiple systems of magic to coexist within one universe. It was also conceived to make it impossible for Ace, Duke, or Kris to become more powerful once they leave Ameniah.

This is not an important reason why Trollskap exists, but it’s an appreciated bonus: Trollskap fixes a fundamental issue with Fantasy Worlds: If a character in as fantasy world undergoes and new, super-powerful form, why exactly does he have clothes? I mean, when did he decide to dress himself if this is the first time he’s taking on that form? Surely, NATURE ITSELF did not decide to go and say “Here, have some clothes.” You can argue that this idea can presented to a lot of things, not just clothes. For example, it seems incredibly easy to gain superpowers that are fundamentally useful, like heat vision or flamethrower breath. Being born with different genes is like RNG; you can’t serious expect everything you get to be practical like that, and at some point you’d expect superpowers that could easily cause you to kill yourself. If you have a Transformation, why do none of the Transformations cause you to turn into a monster without lungs or a functional heart and die on the spot? So why does everything in a fantasy setting work so smoothly? Glitter and Fairy dust. Trollskap is said to not only allow you to gain superpowers, but it also exists to control what powers you get and how they work. In itself, Trollskap is said to have the ability to take a raw, unknowable mass of power and carefully manifest it into a form that makes sense— “makes sense” in the sense that it ensures what it gives you “works.” Trollskap existing as a natural failsafe to protect individuals from becoming horrible mutants from the powers it gives them is essentially part of its job.

I am also freely capable of saying that anyone whose latent, god-like power manifests into a form that doesn’t make sense is turned into a monster—A.K.A, when the Trollskap fails to work properly. They turn into a type of Astatos.