Originium Arts

This article is about the lore information. For the damage type, see Damage/Arts.

“	A technique that can alter matter or consciousness by stimulating the energy inside Originium, harnessing it to manifest Arts.	”
	—Loading screen tip

Originium Arts or simply Arts is the umbrella term for abilities to manipulate and transform matter and energy using the power provided by Originium in the world of Arknights. It is the primary "magic system," or more appropriately "super-science system," in the setting.

The ability to use Arts seems to be natural for Terrans, and many people are at least capable of very basic forms of Arts. Those who are highly capable in Arts (e.g. to an extent that they are combat effective with Arts alone) are known as Casters (not to be confused with the Operator class of the same name). As a matter of fact, many Operators that are not strictly of the Caster class are capable of using Arts.

Overview

“	(Originium Arts) are the chaotic order concealed in an uncontrolled society, the potential of all things hidden under the boring reality, the beautiful chords that are difficult to detect in the harsh noise, and the only reality in this land full of deception.	”
	—Quote of General Waldstein, a stage character from the Leithanian stage play "Waldstein"

In a broader sense, "Originium Arts" is a term given to any supernatural phenomenon coming in various forms, including but not limited to damaging projectiles, destructive effects, manipulation of substances, wound healing and physical augmentation. But in a scientific sense, Originium Arts requires Originium as a medium to cast these abilities.

Originium Arts requires the Casters to enhance their Originium Arts Assimilation, the innate ability to enhance Arts by balancing their body adaptability with energy from Originium ranging from physiology, genetics to even races. Assimilation is a very random innate trait that cannot be altered even through acquired knowledge, and often times, it designates one race's ability to use Arts; for example, most Caprinae's Arts Assimilation is above the average of other races. Nevertheless, Training and experiences are often required not only to enhance the Caster's power, but also to improve their stability and safety.

In Originium Arts academies, the learning standard of Arts could be categorized into three levels: lower, medium, and top. Most people are in the medium level that can comprehend basic knowledge of Arts. A few of them are at the lower level where they could only enhance the simplest form of Arts or even they might never master it due to natural-born flaws. Only a handful of Casters are categorized as top level in which they have an excellent understanding of Arts. Meanwhile in Rhodes Island, they are even specifically divided into five levels to signify their operators’ combat capability: flawed, normal, standard, excellent, and outstanding.

As mentioned above, the innate trait of Arts designated by their Arts Assimilation gives rise to its uniqueness among some races. For instance, The Dracos' unique fire Arts given by their Elder traits is powered by their body cells' metabolism. Being the oldest race on Terra that has made contact with Originium, Sarkaz are naturally well attuned to Arts for generations. But not all Terran races could enhance Arts. Elves are a primary case due to their high sensitivity towards Originium, yet they possess magical power not related to it that supplements such defect. Feranmuts and Seaborn lack proficiency in Originium Arts; however, the former use Their divine, supernatural traits while the latter utilizes their unique biological capabilities to similar or even greater effects.

Since the birth of civilization, Terrans have a long history in the usage of Originium Arts. Before the academic study of Arts, ancient people had been treating them as some sort of “magics” or “alchemy,” and such history gave rise to various notable Arts users in many cultures where they are treated as magicians, i.e., the Yanese Tianshi and the Sami Snowpriests. Entering modern era, Arts are applied in a more scientific, practical aspects, allowing scientists and engineers to build Arts-powered machines, and more people could study Arts through a more systematic method.

Herkunftshorn the Witch King, who had mastered all kinds of Arts and sought to pursue their peak, is regarded as the greatest Caster the world has ever known in history. Other notable powerful Casters are mainly pure-blooded Sarkaz such as the Nachzehrer King, Duq'arael the Sanguinarch, and Logos.

Casting method

The nature of Originium Arts is the Caster's mind influencing the external subject they wish to change through Originium, the basis of Arts. However, this requires the Caster to rely on a medium that could capture the neural activities in their mind and encode it to the said mineral, called an Arts Unit. Infected individuals do not have to rely on Arts Units as their infected organs already function as one for them, and by accelerating their Cell-Originium Assimilation, they can improve their Arts Assimilation and cast certain types of Arts can only be enabled or enhanced by themselves, but doing so also significantly accelerates the progress of Oripathy. As to non-Infected individuals, they have to use an external, artificial Originium device to perform their Arts, not all of them could serve the purpose as a Unit. Nevertheless, there are scientific attempts to create a non-Infected Caster who does not need to rely on Arts Units through artificially implanted Originium into their organs while preventing its contamination; one such good example is Rosmontis.

Modern Arts Units are the products of the industrialization of the Terran civilization since the Crystallization Age. They can vary greatly in shape, size, and particularly in function: some may serve to amplify, direct, stabilize or otherwise augment the caster's innate abilities, others allow the caster to perform only very specific type of arts (e.g. firearms). Many Arts Units can also function as conventional weapons, allowing the Casters to integrate their Arts into "regular" combat.

Schools of Arts

Classical schools

Traditionally, Leithanian scholars divide Arts into six classical schools based on observable traits:

• Beschwörung/Conjugation: Being the most ancient form of Arts and the most widely-used one, it can alter, deconstruct, and summon any kind of objects such as matter transformation (i.e., molding rocks and concrete) and creating shockwaves in thin air. It requires Originium as the source of energy and a target matter as its medium.
• Hervorrufung/Evocation: This school of Arts is the commonly known "summon type" that could evoke energy by simply manifesting energy within Originium into physical beings. These Arts include pyro (fire-summoning), electro (electricity-summoning), aero (wind-summoning), and cryo (ice-summoning), and they have been widely applied into modern devices via scientific technologies.
• Umwandlung/Transmutation: Having its origin traced back to ancient alchemy, it can literally alter a matter into another kind from the molecular level such as extracting them from their original form. Even though Transmutation Arts could not achieve many legends such as turning everything into gold or creating indestructible fortresses, it can be done on a chemical level like production of carbon matter and even plastics and tissues.
• Verbesserung/Augmentation: This kind of Arts could augment biology of a living creature ranging from physical strengthening, body growth and metabolism, to even IQ improvement. For example, Quercus' plant-summoning Arts can be categorized under this school. It requires the Casters to apprehend knowledge on biology to fully enhance it.
• Wiederherstellung/Restoration: It is often categorized as a sub-branch of the Augmentation School, and as its name suggests, it could enhance body recovery simply by accelerating its metabolism. However, it not only requires accumulated experience of a Caster, but also one needs a deep understanding of biological structures and medical science, making it the toughest Arts of all kinds; besides, current technologies could only manage to heal at a surface level like superficial wounds.
• Wahrsagung/Divination: It is the rarest kind of Arts, the least studied one, and the most mystic of them all. It allows a the Casters to enhance psychic abilities and disrupt biological processes like mind-control and summoning of wild animals. Virtuosa's ego liberation Arts and Rosmontis' telekinesis Arts can be categorized under this school.

The advantages of the classical method is obvious: it is based on natural observations throughout the centuries by scholars, and they are easier to be understood by the commonfolk while being categorized according to their traits. Nevertheless, this categorization could sometimes be problematic in labelling Arts possessing two or more intermediate traits or neither of them above. For example, even though Virtuosa's ego liberation Arts could be plainly labelled as a Divination Arts, it overlooks its inner nature as it is a combination with the Sankta's emphatic trait.

Witchcrafts

Sarkaz witchcraft (כֶּשֶׁף) or "cannibalism" is a derogatory term given by non-Teekaz Terrans to refer to all kinds of Arts practiced by the Sarkaz. Because of generations of discrimination and demonization against them, many paint their "witchcrafts" as wicked and scary and refuse to understand them. However, in a scientific sense, witchcrafts are actually rare, complex Arts that are only found among specific tribes of Sarkaz. Many of them are directly inherited through their bloodline, and they can be very personalized and randomized that they could fall out of the categories of the six classical schools. Examples of these specific, bloodline-inherited Arts are the Vampire's blood enhancement, the Banshee's oral Arts, the Confessarii's soul reincarnation, and the Cyclopes' foretelling.

Because of the Sarkaz's intertwined history with Originium since their first contact, they could both enhance the purest, most ancient form of Arts and resist Arts attack. An example of their Arts mastery is the enhancement of ancient Originium Altars that generate waves of harmful, pure Originium energy that could also strengthen their physical traits. But due to their vulnerability to Oripathy which they perceive as their racial curse, their "original sin," Sarkaz Arts originates from the mystic energy of the deceased. The Sarkaz Arts are often associated with death and wrath, such as the harnessing of vengeance using the deceased's souls through the Revenants and their collective memories.

Modernist school

The modernist school originates from Columbia proposed by various science academies seeking to apply Arts in a more industrial and practical method. Rather than dividing Arts into various schools which could get complicated and erroneous over the period of time, modernists propose to study the nature of Originium since it is the source of all Arts. Through their studies, it ushers in the era where everyone could master Arts, including those with flawed Arts Assimilation, hence decreasing the margin between Casters and non-Arts users and removing the mystic approach of Arts studies. The modernist approach is also the predecessor of Terran industrialization as machines and artificial Arts Units could produce Arts independently without reliance from the Casters.