From Convergence

Patternbearers

• Strength level: 1-100
• Skill level: 1-100

Available Elements:

• Air
• Earth
• Fire
• Water
• Life (rare)
• Death (not available for roleplay due to destructive nature of the pattern)

How to recognise a Patternbearer:

By their elemental features: Ka’tara: Little flecks of colour on the brow. These flecks can have an almost natural colour (like freckles), but they’ve also been known to be purple or magenta. They’re usually coloured after the element of the pattern bearer, meaning that water bearers often have blue ka’tara and earth bearers brown or green. This isn’t always the case though.

Hair: Patternbearers have an oddly coloured lock of hair, not always matching with the ka’tara. Again, this lock often takes the colour of the element the pattern bearer uses, though there are exceptions on that rule as well.

Foci: Pattern bearers can touch their patterns through their focal point. This is often something the pattern bearer owns, something with a great personal value. For Neria it was the wooden statue she carved while she and Marcus fled from their pursuers.

How do you know you’re a Patternbearer:

The awakening of the pattern within a pattern bearer usually happens during puberty. A child can be as ordinary as they come, but that doesn’t mean that he or she is not a pattern bearer. One of the first signs is a lack of lustre in the child. They’ll be absentminded, often finding themselves staring off into the distance, dreaming of their element. Then their ka’tara will begin to show, and a lock of their hair will start to change colour.

Some Awakenings take weeks, but most Awakenings take course over a handful of days. The Patternbearer to be will feel drawn to his or her element, seeking it out as often as they can. Then, during the final stages of their awakening they will use their pattern in an uncontrolled manner. The key to surviving an Awakening is to push your element outside of yourself, otherwise your Element might very well consume you. Of course it's also dangerous to push outwards: A Fire Bearer may accidentally set fire to things, and a Water Bearer may cause a well to overflow (or drown the Patternbearer in question, if s/he is in a confined space).

This is a dangerous moment in the awakening.

If the Patternbearer goes through this without guidance, the chances of survival are very small. The Life Bearers will be most prone to survival as their Element is usually focused outwards, and it usually doesn't have desctructive outcomes if it is indeed pushed out of the body/system. Keeping Life inside of you will make you overdose on Life itself, though - it will heighten your state of being to the point where you're tripping heavily and will either cause insanity or your heart giving out in the end. Not recommendable.

On the Elements:

Every Pattern bearer has two elements inside them, but they can use only one of their elements. The main elements are as mentioned above: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Life and Death. The secondary element determines what talents the pattern bearer has. For example: An Air bearer with an Earth element may be capable of portalling, because this pattern bearer has a keen sense of where he is.

What you can do with each Element:

Fire: manipulation & creation of fire, heat, lava/magma. They like warm places and sunlight. Accessing element goes better when the sun is shining, because the element is 'closer'. Sienna had sunstones in daggers, that she used to access her element. To access/use her element, she would call upon fire and channel it through her body, out of her daggers. After a long duel, she would usually have burn marks in her hands where her sunstones had been. In duels, they are known to be passionate fighters, exploding with energy and indulging, but burning out fairly quickly. A fire bearer with an air element would be adept at the use of lightning.

Earth: manipulate nature and wildlife, and natural elements such as wood and iron. Also a solid instinct on herbs and their uses. Earth gives strength, power. Earth Bearers are strong but slow, and they manipulate/create iron, minerals, earth. They can create earthquakes if they're strong enough. In duels Earth bearers are usually slow, but very strong. You can compare them to a landslide. It won’t start fast, but it will pick up speed as it goes and it’s strength is undeniable.

Water: manipulation of water, ice, gulf streams. I always imagined that a strong Water Bearer with a Focal Point like the Weapon would be strong enough to manipulate the tides of the world. Together with Lightning element, the Water is the quickest. Drawing upon water during a duel makes you faster... you just have to drink liters of water afterwards. They love to be around water, on ships, swimming. Unsurprisingly, most Patternbearers from Hedmark are waterbearers. This is said to be because it’s a fishing and sea-trading nation.

Air: manipulation of air, wind, weather. Some are also capable of portalling to other locations. They use runes to work with currents and locations. It is said that they're also more able to find other Patternbearers like themselves; using their runes they can locate them.

Life: Life bearers are not as rare now as they were before the tipping of the balance. They draw upon the life force of things and being around them and channel it into a wounded person. The wounded person will then have the energy needed to heal himself. The body will always heal itself, it just often lacks the time to do so. Life bearers give the body the time and strength it needs to do what it always wanted to do in the first place.

Death: thankfully very rare. They pop up only once every couple of generations (50-100 years) and usually don't live very long, since it's a dangerous element to Bear. They are extremely dangerous to themselves and others, also in their Awakening. If they don't push it outside and focus it on something small, something harmless, their death turns inside and kills them... if they're lucky. Sometimes, when they keep it inside, it creates a disease... an infective one. This happened to Daelin's son.

"This boy’s awakening went unguided. He turned his magic inwards instead of pushing it outwards through a channel. His magic was wild and very, very strong, so he ended up infecting himself with pure Death. And while he was rotting away, he infected all of his family members and neighbors. It is said that he went insane during the process.”

If the Patternbearer would be able to control their element, there would be some interesting uses for it though - it can also be used very precisely to for instance kill certain cells and thus cure cancer (!!), or sever flesh and thusly be used for amputation. Deathbearers usually know very well how bodies work, just like Lifebearers. Trouble is, they can't wreak anything but havoc really and in the end, usually their own element kills them.