Keeper of the Lost Cities Thoughts

Thoughts About Abilities: Part 2

Okay, the same graph from last time.

Enhancer:

A few things about this ability: Sophie is not the only Enhancer. Mr. Forkle says, "a rare ability called an Enhancer," which implies that there are other Enhancers.

And, this is just a guess, but I suspect that normal, non-moonlark Enhancers don't have additional abilities, which is a bit of a downside. You can strengthen other people's abilities but you can't, like, summon fire or anything. If this is true, it would suggest that Enhancers are considered useful but not powerful.

Enhancers can be exploited pretty easily. Even though Sophie can control whether she enhances someone or not, the Neverseen could kidnap one of her friends and threaten to kill them unless Sophie turned on her enhancing and helped them. In other words, it was a good idea for Sophie to hide her enhancing.

Another thing: Since there are other Enhancers, the Neverseen could get someone else, with less experience fighting them, to enhance them.

Though, all these downsides aside, it does seem like a great ability. As Biana has shown, some abilities, can affect multiple people when enhanced, so an Enhancer could get up to all sorts of fun things with their friends.

Flasher:

This is the ability with the second-most known characters that have it, including some random Councilor.

 We know Elwin can use light and crazy glasses to look at people's cells, that Wylie can break force fields and throw light at people, that Orem can basically summon fireworks, that Luzia can make Flasher security fences, and that Glimmer/Rayni can zap people with quintessence (because that was almost certainly quintessence).

So, Flashers can do a lot of things. Which kind of makes sense, because Shades can do a lot of things and Flashers and Shades are opposites, implying that they are similarly powerful. Though Shades can do that shadow-whispering thing and read people's shadowvapor, both of which feel like some sort of mind trick...can Flashers do any mind tricks we don't know about?

And look at shadowflux's crazy powers. We honestly know more about what shadowflux can do than quintessence. So, what can quintessence do?

Fluctuator:

I am pretty sure this is an ability, even though it could also be a gadget. I cannot find the line in the books, but somewhere in them, Mr. Forkle says, "They must've had a Fluctuator alter the density of [whatever]." Do you say, "I have my Imparter hail you," or "I'll hail you with my Imparter."? But you do say, "I'll have a Telepath transmit to you."

So I suspect this is an ability, even though we don't actually know anyone with it. "So why is there a brown slice labelled Fluctuator on your graph, Addy?" you ask. Because we know at least one exists, or the Neverseen wouldn't have been able to fluctuate the wall.

Though all we know about Fluctuators is that they can alter the density of stuff. We don't know anything about how or when or if there are any limits. There's got to be plenty of limits, or they'd be overpowered.

Also, it feels unnervingly like Phaser. Phaser is my favorite ability, so I don't like this weird ability encroaching on its territory.

Here's how I see it. Abilities can be internally focused or externally focused, though some don't fit into either category. Internally focused abilities like Vanisher are more instinctive because it only targets yourself. They might be more limited—you can't affect other people—but they're also quicker and take less concentration. Externally focused abilities like Mesmer are less instinctive. They affect other people/things, which is a cool advantage, but also means that they tend to be harder to control, more unpredictable, and take a lot more concentration. They also have some pretty major limitations like requiring concentration, materials, time, or all of the above.

Phaser is internally focused, meaning it can only affect the Phaser (unless the Phaser's being enhanced, of course), but it's quicker. For example, if someone through a weapon at a Phaser, they could probably react quickly enough to phase through the weapon.

Fluctuators can use it on other objects, but it would probably take more time and concentration, and they might require physical contact.

Okay, that got pretty long.

Froster:

All we know about this ability is that they can control ice, which might feel like all there is to know, but I'm not so sure. Here's a list of things we don't know:

Are Frosters resistant to hot and cold temperatures like Pyrokinetics are?

Can they thaw things or only freeze them?

Can they manipulate solid ice like an elemental ability?

Do Frosters feel a pull from ice like an elemental ability?

What makes frosting different from when Hydrokinetics manipulate ice?

If I had to guess, the answer the first question would be "yes," the answer to the second question would be "yes, with practice," the answer to the third question would also be, "yes, with practice," and the answer to the fourth question would be, "not to the same degree, but yes," but these are all my own opinions.

As for the fifth question, I have no idea what the answer is.

I want to learn more about frosting. You hear that, Juline (and Lex)?

Guster:

This is the elemental ability we know the least about. (Not counting the elemental ability that controls earth, which has been mentioned zero times, but, logically, has to exist. It's not on the graph because I don't know of any, but I'll talk about it in the next section. I'll call it geokinesis.) Also, unlike Hydrokinetic and Pyrokinetic, its name doesn't end in "kinetic." Does anyone have any suggestions for what the alternate, ends-in-"kinetic" name for Guster could be?

Can Gusters control storms like Hydrokinetics? We know they can control wind. What exactly does that mean?

Like Froster, this is a vaguely defined ability that we don't know nearly enough about.

In Part 3, I'll say some random things about Geokinetic (which I believe has to exist), Hydrokinetic, Inflictor, Mesmer, and Phaser (yay).