So You Want To Be An Auric?
Contents
So! You want to be an Auric.
Hello people! If you're reading this, you want to be a Classical (re: Fighting-type) Auric, Psychic or Obscuric of either the Dark or Ghost varieties in the wonderful and weird world of WAAPT. The Auric Spectrum is one of those little toppings on the vanilla fundae that makes WAAPT as unique as it is and allows for some fun and creative situations and battles. HOWEVER, just because it’s a fun new shiny thing doesn’t mean you can just have it willy-nilly. Similar to bananas, Aura in WAAPT has a bunch of rules and regulations. Unlike bananas, it’s about how the powers are handled and used rather than about restricting unwanted pests and diseases.
But magical mystery lady! What ARE these rules and regulations?
Keep your pants on, I’m getting to that. The rules for how to handle any power on the Auric spectrum are as follows. Presented in a neat, listed format:
1) You do not need Auric powers to fit in with the RP. Canonically, the powers on the Auric spectrum are quite rare with Psychic being the most common followed by Aura, Ghost Obscura, and Dark Obscura. It makes sense that not everyone will be Aura capable. You don’t need big fancy powers to fit in, as this is a Pokemon RP! Rule 2 of Every's Essay which you should’ve read before coming to this one (and if you haven’t read her essay, go back and do that. Right freaking now.) 'states that this is primarily a Pokémon RP. If your character’s response to danger is not to send out their Pokémon but leap into the fray, then you should reconsider your character and how they respond to danger. Pokémon should always be the primary form of defense, with Aura powers as back-up.
1A) This does not mean battles between two Aurics, Auric and muggle, two muggles, a Pokémon and an Auric, or even a muggle and a Pokémon can never happen ever. It is perfectly okay to have your PCs duke it out with others, it just shouldn’t be the go-to form of combat (and in the case of A v P or M v P, the Pokemon almost always has the advantage, the latter case even more so). That’s what your Pokemon are for.
2) If you’re still hellbent on becoming a Psychic/Auric/Obscuric/Pretty Pretty Princess, then you’re gonna have to participate in the RP for at least one arc (Or about three months if the arc takes longer than that.) before you are given the a-OK on the possibilities of making your character an Auric. This may seem unfair to you newbies, but this is because the Auric powers have a whole bunch of subtle bells and whistles that you need to grasp before making your character have auric abilities as well as to give you thinking time to make an Auric rather than “lol awesomeness.” Also, having more than one type of Aura power is even rarer and will probably not be allowed except with VERY thorough discussion.
3) If your character has recently discovered that they have Aura, they should not progress on the same level or faster than those who have been training for months and years. You don’t need to achieve parity with other auric users immediately, if at all. (Weak, But [Un]Skilled is a thing yo’)
4) No Psychic/Auric/Obscuric should be able to master everything available in their particular field much like how no martial arts master can become a master in every subform of their art. Limit your starting choices to maybe two or three (four at most) different powers of your particular subset of aura and put your own unique twist on them, with more coming later if possible. Limitations allows for more creative situations with how the auric in question uses their abilities, which makes the story more delicious. Note that most canon Psychics and classical Aurics (Obscurics are pure WAAPT) are either not capable of too much (eg. most in-game Psychics and Aurics as well as those in Pokémon Special) or are highly specialized (eg. Anime!Riley) (the only exception being Anime!Sabrina, and given what she's like she is not someone to model your player character after.)
5) Similarly, there are varying degrees of Auric capabilities. Some people may be born with vast auric potential or are incredibly weak. That does not mean that someone who has greater raw power will always defeat the one with weaker raw power, if the weaker has more skill and/or control over their own powers, on top of the general unpredictability of a fight. Be mindful that you don’t need to be an ubermensch master to have Aura.
6) Keep in mind that auric powers can come with as many drawbacks as they do advantages. A telepathic capable Auric or Psychic may get bombarded with everyone’s feelings and/or thoughts - good and bad - not just the target's, or could be sensitive to high pitched noises. A Dark Obscuric, on the other hand could faint after creating one perfect illusion due to the amount of energy consumed.
7) As mentioned in rule 6; a majority of auric powers - especially the more powerful ones - can have drawbacks. This means that an Auric fighter isn’t automatically better than a muggle fighter in any given situation, drawbacks can be taken advantage of quite easily by a skilled fighter whether they are Auric or not.
8) If you still want to be an Auric, ask in chat or in the Discussion thread about it first. Talk about what powers you’ve picked and how you plan to use them in RP. We’ll give advice and pointers towards your ideas as well as help filter out the more questionable abilities.
9) If you think that a potential new ability or combo you thought up might be a bit OP, always discuss it first. (In general, you should ALWAYS discuss new ideas, abilities and combos in Discussion where there is an easily accessible record available). This is also to prevent any game-breaky or questionable stuff from slipping through the tracks.
10) There are a few Auric abilities that are character specific:
- Life creating can only be done by Solana (one of the most powerful Obscurics IRP). As she has both the raw power of both Obscuric types to create life in general and also has a permit from Xerneas to allow for it.
- Twilight can only be done by Annoski, as he was likely the most powerful human Dark Obscuric ever. A similar feat would require hundreds if not thousands of other Obscurics.
- Similarly, The Ghost Lord, likely the most powerful human Ghost Obscuric ever, had greatly enhanced versions of the "standard" Ghost!Obscura powers as well as aberrant ones like shadow teleportation and life drain. All these powers were greatly reduced or even eliminated after his defeat. Most of his techniques would be highly difficult or even impossible for a normal Obscuric to pull off.
- The technique Alphonse used to bind Annoski to the Keystone, which destroyed his physical body and bound his soul, is not to be used by anyone else.
- Vierr and Kan'al'colel are the only characters with both Auric and Obscuric ability; mastery of all four types was supposedly a myth invented by the Ghost Lord, and even the former isn't remotely a master, merely an exception to the rule, while the latter is the creator of the Auric Artifacts.
- True necromancy has only occurred in myth, and although said myth may have truth behind it, no modern-day character should be able to replicate it.
Auric Powers
Known/Displayed Universal Powers
- Increased sensitivity to supernatural phenomena
- Power increase in the presence of Aura Nexuses
- Auric Constructs
- Auric Charge
- Aura Infuse
- Barriers (Like Reflect/Light Screen/Protect)
- The Gates
Known/Displayed Psychic Powers
- Telepathy
- Telekinesis
- Clairvoyance
- Teleportation
- Mind/Body Manipulation (such as the ability to induce headaches and whatnot)
- Attacks like Psyshock, Psycho Cut and Psychic (And the occasional lightning bolt)
- Mindscape travel
- SEP Field
Known/Displayed Classical Auric Powers
- Telepathy
- Aura Sense
- Connection Knowledge and Manipulation
- Empathic Sense
- Attacks such as Aura Sphere, Force Palm, Foresight, and Detect
- Mindscape travel
- SEP Field
- Voice Magnification and the Auric Scream
- Aura Transfer (can be fatal to the user due to Aura Depletion)
- As an inverse, there is also Aura Drain.
- Psychometry.
Known/Displayed Ghost!Obscuric Powers
- Illusions
- Astral Projection
- Attacks such as Shadow Ball, Shadow Claw, and Shadow Punch
- Manipulation of shadows
- Necromancy (according to mythology)
Known/Displayed Dark!Obscuric Powers
- Twilight
- Illusions
- Attacks such as Night Slash and Dark Pulse
- Obscuric "ice" and "fire".
- Enhanced night vision.