_"Amadea. Look at me. I know it sounded desperate. I know it felt like genuine fear and desire. I too feel pity for them, but we do not share their burden.
Understanding is not consent to be consumed, they are only the shadow of a person who decided to stay broken. They are not the victim and that's their trap. It is the crystallized refusal to heal, given claws.
Whatever it whispered to you... that was born from honest intent. It truly believed it needed you, and that you were the only thing wounded enough to resonate. But it only cares that you bleed for them. And you have bled enough. Remember?" —Cordelia, the Mythical Virtuoso of Strand
A type of fragmented Consciousness introduced in the Fifth Cycle, classified by beings that can't be attuned, it is Consciousness without Coherence that never resolves, as it is devoid of a Soul-Key, yet it possesses a Fundamental Frequency.
The Atonalis represent the singular origin of all predatory Corruption in Arcanoria, usually followed by anomalous properties, exhibiting aggression, specific behavioral triggers, and hybrid feeding patterns on Consciousness, combining both emotional consumption and flesh predation depending on its classification in the Eight-Born Paths. Its nature is anomalous due to its Coherence following chaotic patterns that are all equally valid and all equally unstable, a state similar to that of Superposed Resonance yet without Consonance.
Atonalis can be born either from lingering Consciousness from collective suffering or specific events, or as the result of the total Corruption of a Spellweaver's Soul Leitmotif, usually as the byproduct of surrendering to their Motif Awakening wound when faced with an irreconcilable truth. Either type behaves similarly and exhibits anomalous properties. Yet, the distinction lies in the fact that one is born from Formless Masses as remnants of the lingering collective Consciousness without ever having possessed a Soul-Key. The other is born from the fracture of a corrupted Spellweaver's Soul Leitmotif, inverted upon itself. In either case, they embody fully the crystallized despair from their wound.
All Atonalis can grow in power of both its anomalous properties and the potency of their Spellweaving. However, an Atonalis can't undergo any additional Motif Awakening as it is devoid of a Soul-Key — or in the case of corrupted Spellweavers, permanently locked within a fractured one at the limits they achieved during their life. Regardless, depending on their development strength and assimilated Consciousness, they can replicate "pseudo" Spellweaving and Ornaments by drawing from the elemental bindings of the Auric Heptacode as pure, raw magic.
In corrupted Spellweavers, this pseudo-Spellweaving inherits the elemental signature of their original Soul Leitmotif — if they were only a Strand user, they draw only from Echoing Bonds; however if bound to Luminance and Void, they channel both Sufficient Precision and Essence Sacrifice as their Spellweaver form did, yet in discordant union. This inherited magic is less focused and more potent in collateral damage than ordinary Spellweaving because it is filled with Discordant Interference, serving as an echo of what should have been their masterwork.
Anomalous Properties
The anomalous properties
- Parasitic Resonance: Rather than feeding entirely on flesh or pure on Consciousness, Atonalis feed on the echoing Resonance of their own wound manifesting in others. Their presence amplifies pain that mirrors their own, drawing sustenance from the suffering they perpetually have. This parasitic Resonance is what makes them predatory. In their hunger for resolution, they target wounds that match their classification within the Eight-Born Paths.
- Individual Quirks: Each Atonalis develops unique predatory behaviors and manifestations rooted in its classification within the Eight-Born Paths. These quirks define how the entity hunts, feeds, and expresses its particular wound.
- Dissonance Core: You kill this, you kill them. It is the source of static of their Fundamental Frequency that keeps them from dissolving into Primal White Noise. If they run out of Resonance or if the Dissonance Core is destroyed, they degrade into nothingness as they don't have the Soul-Key Coherence to make them survive against the encroaching Primal White Noise. The Dissonance Core is an inverted Soul Leitmotif that was consumed by surrender.
- Atonalis are able to feed on both physical matter and in emotion due to the acoustic foundation of reality. As matter is just crystallized vibration, this means that flesh, fluids, emotions, trauma, and pain are all just different frequencies of Resonance, and that's the primary feeding mechanism of an Atonalis to sustain its Dissonance Core. What type of frequency they target depends entirely on what of the Eight-Born Paths they are and the specific type of Consciousness fractured they consumed to become an Atonalis. The most direct predators are almost always found in Carnalix which target the body and predate as regular animals by eating bodies. On the opposite spectrum, Signath relies entirely on vertigo and uncertainty without a single taste of anything physical. These are the two are logical extremes, one physical and one metaphysical.
- Despite having different feeding patterns on parasitic Resonance, hybridization allows for highly specific frequency targets. For example, an Erosyx or Discant and Carnalix Atonalis will feed on highly targeted physical matter such as fluids like tears combined with the emotion of despair itself. This "dark cocktail" of tears and the emotion imbued in them is their precise target, even within the Carnalix path, some target specific parts such as an Atonalis born of anorexia or body dysmorphia toward twisted obesity will target only fat, leaving the carcass devoid of it while ignoring the flesh itself. Erosyx Atonalis are prone to eating sweat and similar bodily fluids while not harming the skin because they prey only for the intimate connection they have been denied.
- Emergence from Dissonance Cocoon: All Atonalis, whether born from Formless Masses or corrupted Spellweavers, must complete their transformation through a Dissonance cocoon—a floating chrysalis orb that represents the threshold between incomplete Consciousness and predatory being. The cocoon forms when either Formless Masses have fed sufficiently on Consciousness or when a Spellweaver's Soul Leitmotif shatters and envelops them upon surrender. When the cocoon hatches, the Atonalis erupts into existence with a violent burst of waves of Discordant Interference.
- Some Atonalis are able to leave magical or emotionally charged byproducts, highly Dissonance Enclaves use these commodities as Dark Commodities, such as Velvet Nectar which are famously created by the Velvet Cage as emotional residue from horrific acts that crystalized memories of captive sentient life. On advanced technology, this feature combined with the anomalous properties are a core principle of building a Hypermage. Institute
Birth from Formless Masses and Lingering Consciousness
— This article is abridged. The full record runs longer in the archive.