Life on Telemera functions, on a broad level, quite similarly to life on Earth. The body is comprised of organized cells that grow, adapt, respond to stimuli, reproduce, metabolize, and so on. A constant influx of energy into the system (light from the sun) allowed life to evolve into more and more complex forms over time, ultimately giving rise to creatures complex enough to understand the very concepts we’re discussing now.
The primary difference in the world of Telemera compared to ours is a form of energy that, in our reality, simply doesn’t exist: arcane energy, more colloquially referred to as “magic.” As one would expect, magic is so incredibly malleable it can be used to create almost any effect you can imagine, although the exact method of how to accomplish it may be a mystery. Unless you happen to be lucky enough to be born with an inherent ability to cast particular spells or possess particular magical effects, vast study is necessary to learn how to cast spells manually. This “practiced magic” that forms the foundation of wizardry is used by taking magical power from the caster’s body and shaping it in a specific way. Arcane “shapes” can be thought of as a mix between a chemical structure and a programming code, a vast and nearly infinite possibility space with esoteric but consistent rules. Most sapient beings shape arcane energy by using sound, vocalizing certain patterns that cause the arcane energy to resonate in certain patterns. This “language” is equally focused on pitch as it is phonemes, and usually sounds like someone singing to an ugly or random tune. It’s also possible to physically shape the arcane energy of one’s body with gestures and movements, although this method requires more precision and is usually more difficult to perform.
Magic plays a fundamental role in all life on Telemera, in the formation of the aura. All life has a magical aura; in fact, the presence of a complex, self-sustaining magical aura is what Telemeran scientists use to define life. A person’s aura is responsible for many important aspects of an organism’s functionality, as it works in tandem with the brain to store memories, make judgements, and process thoughts. In this way, the aura can be considered similar in concept to a soul, as it is an intangible form that exists within the body, contains an individual’s personality, and departs their physical form on death. This analogy falls short in most other areas, however: a person’s aura does not live beyond their death or go to an afterlife, instead dissipating into basic, unformed arcane energy when they expire. The aura’s presence and role in the body is what allows Adgito or any other shapeshifter to still think when he or she changes the structure of or completely removes their physical brain.
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The brain itself is still responsible for all the essential autonomic tasks of maintaining a person’s body, and functions as a sort of parallel processor for the aura in terms of conscious thought. It’s also the most heavily-protected organ in terms of a person’s barrier.
The barrier is the physical manifestation of aura. It is an invisible force that hovers a millimeter or thinner around a person’s skin, as well as around important areas inside a person’s body. The primary function of the barrier is protection against direct magical attack, and due to the prevalence of dangerous natural magic it has evolved to be very effective at it. To save energy, the barrier puts proportionally more effort into defending more important parts of a person’s body, capping its maximum effectiveness at protecting a person’s brain and their aura itself. Attempting to use magic to in any way affect an individual’s mind while they are still alive is not possible, as the aura is “willing” to spend 100% of its energy in defense of that area. Should a spell that causes a mind-controlling or brain-affecting result be powerful enough to overcome a target’s magic resistance, that spell would simply kill the target as the aura completely exhausts itself defending. If your goal was to simply kill the target in the first place, there are far, far more efficient methods than simply brute forcing your way through the barrier.
Because the barrier is a natural part of biology, it was subject to natural evolution. It is for this reason that less obviously vital areas of a body are not as well-protected, as they had less evolutionary need to risk aura exhaustion. As a result, spells that target key areas like the heart or lungs, or spells that target evolutionarily-important areas like the reproductive system, are less likely to overcome the barrier than spells which target less important systems.
As mentioned in the main story, a barrier is indeed a physical manifestation of a person’s aura, and powerful barriers can function as a kind of armor that absorbs incoming damage. The party was having trouble piercing the vrochthízo lord’s hide because her body was both naturally hard and her barrier was incredibly powerful, although obviously the barrier alone wasn’t enough to protect her against Adgito and Shara. It helped, though, I promise.