Quintessence

Overview

Quintessence is one of the The Five Essences, the name given to the essence that makes up the soul of a living thing. When referring to Quintessence in a sentient being, it is often called spritual Quintessence or is capitilized to distinguish it from quintessence contiained in plants and other non-sentient creatures. Spritual quintessence serves as the wellspring for spellcasting, capable of being manipulated to cast spells or even siphoned off to enhance magical effects. Given its prevalence, this allows anyone, given time and training, to gain the ability to cast spells. Spells are the formalization of quintessence manipulation. They comprise most of what is considered "magic" and has so for ages even if the mechanics were unknown to the ancient spellcaster.
Though understanding of magic and arcane practices has a long history, only recently has study begun into the intricacies of the energy involved. Those who study quintessence and its uses are called quintessentialists. They delve into the intricate balance between it and the other essences, its theory and application, and its potential within all living beings.

Properties

Spirtual quintessence acts as a magical immune system without any input from its owner. It resists changes to itself from external sources and protects one's other essences. Isolated quintessence, extracted or released from a living thing, tends to scatter and dissapate having little to no effect on the physical world. However, exposure to a significant amount of isolated quintessence can overwhlem one's spirtual quintessence and lead to chaotic and sometimes disasterous results.

Spellcasting

In the current age, quintessentialists have discovered many things about the essence's spirtual form. For one, when consumed by a spellcaster to create a magical effect, a discrete quantizable amount must be expended. Using less will cause excess quintessence to burst around the caster causing harm to themeslves and others. This has led to more rigorous laws and regulations around spell creation so that every spell utilizes all its energy in a controlled manner. The colloquial terminology for these qunatized levels is "spell slots" though the academic term for them is quintics since that describes the growth associated with a jump in level. A spellcaster has to train to properly partition thier spiritual Quintessence into each of these quantized amounts, a task that is more diffcult the more numerous and large each partition is. A notable exception, sorcerers, are those born with a special ability to convert easily between these levels with far more ease.
While casting of spells does "consume" spirtual quintessence, a person casting lower levelled spells will notice a negligible reduction that will be replensished within a single rest. Casting spells at a higher level however, does dip into one's spirtual reserves and lowers their quintessence.

Spirtuality

Being the very makeup of a person's soul, quintessence is also treated with a certian aura of mysticism and sanctity around Halor. Many religions have doctines around the importance of quintessence and magic in a person's spirtual life. It is incorporated as a motif of many worship services and the topic of religious texts and hyms. Some religions treat Quintessence in all forms as something to be treated with the highest repect and consider it to be sacred. On the other hand, followers of Alu see quintessence as a opportunity to mold and create, a malleable material to mimic the gods.
Death on Halor and its relation to Quintessence also shapes how the people view it. There is a general consensus that without any Quintessence, a person simply ceases to be. Otherwise, death is viewed as a gateway into the next existence, the location of which is determined by a member of the Divine Quinternion who judges the person's soul. The specifics of that interaction and transition are the instigators of many religions and wars between them.

Industry

Due to its prevalence in the people and places of Halor, quintessence has spurred the creation of many industries. Raw quintessence especially has created many professions dedicated to the harvesting, storing, and distribution of the mystical essence. The most common way for quintessence to be utilized, and the reason it is so valuable, is for the amplification and powering of spells. Quintessence can provide the energy for spells to persist as long as a supply is present. This has been used in society to create many new technologies such as the Glowgems, Swiftways, and Whisperstones.
Those who practice the creation of goods utilizing quintessence are called quinticals. One of the key resources to make quintessence portable and safe to contain is a material called ayriglass which is often created by specialized glassblower's called lumaryimist. In order to create the reinforced glass lumaryimist's rely on raw shipments of ayrium which is mined by several companies out in the rimward archipelgoes. Quintessence, despite being plentiful, is the most difficult item in this indutrsy to acquire. While paltry amounts can be harvested from some regional forests, the concentrated and lucrative form to find quinessence in is inside of zellium. Since zellium is often found near the hubward equatorial regions, the dangerous treck to and from to get quintessence has created an entire collection of linked professions from harvesting to shipping to refinement to distribution.

Manifestation

Similar to a gas, Quintessence conforms to the confines of the container it occupies, adapting to the space available. However, its manifestation in the physical realm is only a "shadow" of its actual amount in other dimensions. Quintessence is invisible but is easily noticiable by the light which bends around it.

Localization

Quintessence can be found in any biological life though it is found in much higher amounts in sentient beings. In this form, it is often contained within that living thing. However, there are some locations on Halor where Quintessence is known to "leak" from plants into the world though this phenomenon is not well understood.