New Haven: Extras

What are Gifted?

Gifted are humans with some elemental based power; fire, water, stone, air, lightning, nature, and ice.

Each Gifted has a "Gift", which is a small, fractional sized bit of power, given from the Chosen (the Gods).

It is also possible for some to be Double or Triple Gifted. This means one lone person has two or three different powers, but this is extremely rare.

Due to their origin, Gifts are literally magic, with a light core that is vulnerable if exposed. They follow the most basic laws of physics, but this will not always be the case in every scenario. The base of every Gift is a tiny bit of light. It's because of this magical aspect that things like flying with water wings, teleportation, lightning being conducted through tree roots, it's all possible because the Gifted and their Gifts make it so. Gifts are also able to be used to heal their host, only when the Gift isn't being used to keep constructs built.

Gifts also have a level of sentience, however it is basically like an artificial intelligence, with their "primary programming" being to be at their host's command.

How someone naturally acquires a Gift goes as follows;

The Chosen (The Heat, The Wave, The Gust, The Rock, The Bolt, The Cold, and The Leaf) take time to sit and secrete many Gifts. Since they were chosen by Uati, the True Goddess of Time and History, to have such powerful abilities, they also have the ability to secrete incredibly small fractions of their power to share with others, hence the names "Gift" and "Gifted". The Gifts leave the Chosen's bodies and form into a small, colored orb. The Chosen can then either give the Gift a specific person to go to, or give the Gift the ability to choose someone at random.

Now a host is picked during the late development stages of their mother's pregnancy. The Gift will absorb itself into the baby (most often during the fetus stage) and by the time they are born, the energy will be coursing through them with the Gift's light core being right in the heart.

The reason Gifts are given prior to birth is because the process of absorption and even removing one's Gift are both incredibly painful in a regular sized human body. If the average human adult male absorbed a Gift, the pain receptors would be going off all at once because the Gift has so much space to fill in the body, whereas in a fetus it only has to grow out a little, and then it grows as its host grows. If an adult absorbed a Gift, there are no permanent effects, they just would be low energy/almost unconscious for a couple minutes after absorbing the Gift. The same goes for removing a Gift.

Now, the Chosen have abilities pertaining to their Gifted that have also been passed to two magic jewels they had created through Uati.

The Chosen, at the snap of their fingers, can turn any Gifted in relative close proximity to them into a mindslave. This places the Gift in control of its host's mind, and the Gift controls its host's body at the behest of whatever orders the Chosen give. The only way to undo this is if The Chosen wishes for the host to be in control again.

Also at the snap of their fingers, Chosen can turn Gifted into Rogue Gifts. A Rogue Gift is also when a Gift is given control over its host's mind and body, but this time, it has a sense of independence. As a result, the Gift will mutate its host's body into some monstrous creature and it will behave similarly to a wild animal. Rogues will listen to their Chosen, but if the Chosen "frees them", they won't listen to anyone, and become all the more dangerous. The only way to undo this is complete Gift removal.

Chosen can also take Gifts back through a zap of magical eye beams. If they zap someone with a Gift they gave them, the Gift will be removed from the host and absorbed back into the Chosen.

As for the jewels;

The Golden Jewel - a golden jewel that grants its holder the ability to turn any Gifted into a Rogue, and that Rogue follows the holder's orders until the holder frees it, again giving it complete and total independence.

The Silver Jewel - a small jewel where if one aims it at its target, and focuses solely on their target, it can remove the target's Gift. Once it does, the Gift doesn't go back to the Chosen (unless beckoned), but rather just levitates in a dormant state, leaving it for the taking. Touch it with bare skin and it will be absorbed, or it can be contained in a jar or box.

Now, when a Gifted dies, the Gift will normally leave the host's body immediately upon death. It won't form into it's regular orb form, rather it will transport itself straight back to its Chosen.

Now, Gifts can die as well, one just has to strike a Gifted in the center of the heart, where the Gift's light core is located. It will then explode, destroying that fraction of power.

I hope this clears up any confusion about Gifts. Any further questions will be answered. This information is useful to truly understand New Haven as a series in the mechanical sense.

-Dane