The Power System — The Scale of Understanding
In this world, power is not granted.
It is not inherited, prayed for, or awakened by chance.
Power is the result of understanding reality.
And the deeper the understanding,
the higher the cost.
There are no "levels" in the traditional sense.
Only layers of ignorance that are slowly, painfully stripped away.
Level 1 — Surface Understanding
The World as It Appears
"Fire burns because it is fire."
At this level, one understands effects, not causes.
What the user can do:
Use fire.
Control it in a crude, external way.
Channel it like a tool.
Limitations:
Fire remains dangerous.
The user can still be burned
.
Its nature cannot be altered.
Narrative explanation:
The character obeys the rules of the world
without understanding them.
This is not weakness.
This is how most beings live.
Level 2 — Physical Understanding
The Mechanics Behind Reality
"Fire burns because particles are violently agitated."
The user now understands why fire burns.
What the user can do:
Control fire freely and precisely.
Shape it without being harmed.
Suppress its danger through control.
Limitations:
Fire cannot be created from nothing.
Physical conditions are still required.
Cost:
Mental exhaustion.
Sensory overload.
Narrative explanation:
Fire stops being "fire."
It becomes movement, reaction, and energy exchange.
The world begins to lose its familiar shape.
Level 3 — Energetic Understanding
What Cannot Be Seen
"Fire is not an object. It is a state of energy."
The user realizes fire is merely a manifestation, not a thing.
What the user can do:
Generate fire from raw energy.
Extinguish it by severing energy transfer.
Manipulate temperature and intensity directly.
Limitations:
Severe strain on the body.
Emotional dulling begins.
Cost:
Gradual loss of humanity.
Memories lose clarity.
Narrative explanation:
At this stage, the user no longer interacts with objects.
They interact with processes.
Level 4 — Conceptual Understanding
The Idea of Fire
"Fire exists because the concept of fire exists."
This is the first true breaking point.
What the user can do:
Create or erase fire without energy.
Make fire that does not burn.
Apply "fire" to non-physical things
(words, thoughts, memories).
Limitations:
The human mind is not built for this.
The body begins to deform.
Cost:
Identity erosion.
Fragmentation of the self.
Narrative explanation:
The user no longer manipulates reality.
They manipulate what reality believes itself to be.
This is where "near-gods" are born.
Level 5 — Transconceptual Understanding
Beyond Meaning
"Concepts are decisions made by reality."
What the user can do:
Rewrite concepts themselves.
Merge incompatible ideas.
Exist partially outside reality.
Limitations:
A human life is no longer possible.
Reality actively rejects the user.
Cost:
Total loss of humanity.
Risk of becoming an Abyssal Entity.
Narrative explanation:
Concepts are revealed to be fragile agreements.
Breaking them has consequences.
Abyssal Entities — The Final Price
Not all who understand survive.
Some:
Lose their form.
Become anomalies.
Exist without identity or purpose.
They are not evil.
They are what remains when a human understands too much.
Humans, Scientists, and Gods
Humans
Understand fragments.
Borrow pieces of truth.
Pay with effort and pain.
Scientists
The true candidates for ultimate power.
They do not pray — they analyze.
Knowledge is their weapon.
Gods
Manipulate concepts.
Do not embody them.
Are bound by rules they cannot break.
The Anticonceptuality
An entity that should not exist.
No one knows it exists.
Those who perceive it are erased.
It stabilizes the narrative itself.
Paradox:
It exists only because it is unknown.
To understand it is to be removed from existence.
It once embodied two concepts:
Antinarrative
Paradox
At some point, it split.
That fracture is the reason anything still exists.
Final Line .
"In this world, power is not obtained.
It is understood.
And every understanding demands a sacrifice."
Author's note: the fire example is just that, an example; it can be used with everything else.