Dev first learned of cultivation at fourteen. Of course, he had heard of it before then, everyone had played cultivator games as a kid, and it was an important part of history, but teaching children specific details was generally frowned upon. But in eighth grade, it was an available lecture series to begin learning cultivation, though it was only for the first stage. It was a five-session morning class, meeting once per week. Dev, of course, signed up immediately.
The first day of class was more of an explanation on what the class would not be doing than anything. They would not be cultivating. They would not be learning how to cultivate. They would not be learning anything beyond the first tier. It quickly became clear why this was an elective.
Things became interesting starting on the second day.
“We’ll start with the history of our planet,” Ms Tanner said. She pulled up a slide that showed an image of Solumbra, surrounded by an incredible 103 moons, dancing around it in a chaotic, impossible-to-track whirl.
“Our planet is rather unique amongst planets. First, we were only integrated into the federation in the last five hundred years,” she said, before switching slides to a map, which showed them somewhere close to the ‘center’ of the federation.
“This may seem odd, considering our physical proximity to the center of empirical territory in one of the first universes claimed. Does anyone know why that is?”
Several of his classmates raised their hands, and the teacher pointed at one.
“The spiritual geography, miss?” the girl answered.
“What about it?”
The girl shrunk slightly in her seat before responding, “I don’t know, I just heard my dad talking about how it was all messed up, making travel super difficult.”
Ms Tanner pulled up a new slide, with a simple-looking graphic on it.
“This graphic shows the nature of essence and the heavens and the earth. You will notice that It is divided into multiple sections. This—” she pointed to the left side, “—represents physical reality. And this—” she pointed to the right, “—represents spiritual reality, where the heavenly and earthly truths are found.”
“The nature of energy is dictated by the ephemeral attunement, the earthly attunement, and the heavenly attunement.
“The ephemeral attunement is what most people speak of when they name an attunement. It changes easily and often, becoming fire in the presence of flames, shadow in dark places, and stone within barren earth. It is also what people speak of when they talk of their affinities.
“The earthly attunement is far more rigid. It dictates the underlying nature of energy, and is attuned to the Eclipse aspect across our entire planet, making us a rarity in our uniformity. It is also what dictates the nature of an individual’s cultivation.
“The heavenly attunement is the least malleable and least spoken of. It is near immutable, attuned to pure law, balance, and order across most of the discovered planets and universes. Our planet is one of perhaps two dozen where that is not true. Our heavens have a partial attunement to the Eclipse aspect.”
Dev forgot what he was thinking about this class being boring. They were just attending class in public school, and she was spilling the secrets of the universe to them.
“You may have noticed that in this image that the Heavens and the Earth do not touch. This is true in spiritual reality as well. There is a gap between them. There are many theories as to why, the most popular being that the ephemeral once occupied that gap, before cultivation. The fact is, it's there, and if one knows what they're doing, it can be used to travel, including between universes.”
One of the boys raised his hand, speaking on being indicated to do so, “Miss Tanner, how does that stop us from traveling through portals?”
“Ah, yes,” she replied. “Well, regardless of theories, it is known that the gap gets smaller the closer the concepts in the heavens and the earth match each other. Ours are closer than usual, and as such, portals don't work. Neither does the internet for that matter.”
“But we have the internet!” one of the girls called out, “Don’t we?”
“Yes. In some, limited fashion we have an internet. But it isn’t truly connected to the imperial internet, which uses the space between the heavens and the earth to facilitate instantaneous communications across galaxies.”
The class from there was derailed talking about the nature of the internet, students asking more and more elaborate questions about the imperial internet, slowly overwhelming Ms Tanner, who was clearly not prepared for the intense interest the students displayed. This continued until she was able to use the end of class as an excuse to get rid of them for the day.
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On the third day, everyone was ready and in their seats before the bell rang, a rarity in any school.
“Today, class, we are going to learn about the initial stage of cultivation.”
She pulled up a slide that looked like a person filled with glowing lines.
“If you will remember, last week I spoke of the spiritual layer of reality, and I briefly mentioned that it affects the nature of your cultivation. This is one of the great complications of cultivation and why it took so long to reach this point in our history. Every cultivation technique needs to be unique, made to suit the spiritual bodies of a person based on the earthly dao they developed in.”
“These are the meridians of a man who grew up predominately in an area affected by a Crystal earthly attunement. You’ll notice that they have hard, crystalline patterns to them. But you’ll also notice a few places with gentle, arcing flames.” She zoomed in on his shoulders and back, showing the flowing lines hidden in between. “These were required because he regularly visited his grandmother as a child, and she lived in an area with a Fire earthly attunement.”
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“This is one area in which the people of our planet got lucky.” She switched back to the same image she had used the previous day of the planet. “Our planet has a universal eclipse attunement, which means that the base method is the exact same for each of you, when it comes time for you to cultivate.”
“Of course, you’ll still need to make adjustments based on your ephemeral affinities and body shape, but those are much easier than the earthly adjustments.”
Dev raised his hand, speaking when she called on him, “Does the heavenly attunement not have an effect on cultivation?”
“No. Well not at your level,” she replied.
“So it does at higher levels?” a girl across the classroom interjected.
“Miss Veronica, this is still a classroom, and I will not have you interrupting me. But yes,” she said, pacing, “You are affected by the heavens above just as you are by the earth below. But that is a much later and slower process, something that most of you will never see the effects of.”
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The fourth week was both more and less interesting,
When the students walked in, it was to the sight of a large chair-like contraption positioned in the center of the classroom.
Most made their way to their seats, while a couple tried to get a closer look at the device, before being snapped at by the teacher.
After the bell rang, Ms Tanner stood up.
“Class. As you have no doubt already seen, there is a large device in the center of the room,” on saying so, she moved towards it, “This is an affinity tester. It's not the most elaborate test, and will only find your greatest affinity out of a few dozen of the most common. Who wants to go first?”
Several of his classmates raised their hands, but Dev hesitated. He had a feeling this was going to hurt. Ms. Tanner looked around and picked someone at random, “Mr. Montgomery. Come forward.”
The boy in the seat next to him, Greg, stepped forward hesitantly, clearly having second thoughts.
“Come, now,” the teacher said impatiently, “Don’t be shy.”
The boy moved forward, arriving at the machine.
“Now, sit down in the seat and place your hands on these orbs,” she said, showing what she was speaking of.
“I’m going to have to strap your hands in,” she said, “Is that okay?”
He nodded.
“Don’t worry,” she said gently, as she buckled leather belts over his arms, “The chair has high-end healing enchantments, and the chances of you needing them are slim. The buckles are more of a precaution to make sure that you remain touching both orbs for the entire 5-minute cycle.”
“So it won’t hurt?” Greg asked, seeming relieved.
“The worst anyone has reported are pins and needles.”
Greg looked like he wasn’t sure if he should be happy about that or not.
Ms Tanner stepped back. “Are you ready? This is your last chance to back out.”
“Yes,” Greg squeaked out.
Ms Tanner flipped the switch, and immediately nothing happened. Then the machine began humming, and after a moment Greg relaxed.
“Woah, it really does feel like pins and needles. But also gentle.”
Everyone observed as he sat through the five minutes before the machine beeped and the humming stopped.
Ms. Tanner read from a small text display on the side of the screen, before announcing to the class, “Mr. Montgomery here has an affinity for lightning! Let's give him a round of applause for being willing to step up!”
Greg got out of the chair after the buckles automatically came undone, and Ms Tanner began speaking, “And that’s how it’s done. Who wants to go next?”
Promptly, the entire room raised their hands. She ended up handing out numbers. Dev was number seven.
He waited impatiently as one student after another was tested, getting up when it came to his turn.
He sat in the chair, and even helped strap himself in.
The machine whirred up, it was much louder from the inside. He jolted slightly when he felt the sting of pins and needles flowing up his arms and though his chest. The sensation kept changing in intensity, one second high, the next low. There was even a moment when the sensation stopped altogether, worrying him that something was broken. Another minute, and the machine signaled it was done with a ding.
“It looks like you have an affinity for Anima,” Ms. Tanner said. “A bit rarer than most, but nothing impossible.”
The class continued without upset. There was nothing truly exotic. The most interesting result was when one of his classmates had an affinity for storms. In the meantime, he looked up what Anima actually consisted of, discovering that it was basically all things souls.
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The fifth and final week was the most highly anticipated, as it went into actual cultivation.
“Good morning, class!” Ms. Tanner was strangely energetic today. “Today, we’ll be going into the Eclipse meridian formation patterns. As a reminder, we will not be learning how to build your meridians today. We will only be looking at the structure that they will one day take.”
She pulled up a slide of meridians superimposed on a man in two shades of blue.
“So. The meridians are one of the most important parts of foundational cultivation. They are required to absorb energy sufficiently for the next two stages. This,” she said, gesturing towards the slide, “Is the Lunar Eclipse pattern, adapted for a water cultivator. The Lunar Eclipse pattern is used by single-element cultivators and consists of the free element and the element as touched by the self
“If we zoom in,” she said, doing so, “We can see that the two colors continue each other. Where one ends, the other begins. Cultivators using this method enjoy a greater connection to their elements than most, at the cost of increased vulnerability. A master at manipulating their element could manipulate their very sense of self.
“However,” she exclaimed, perhaps realizing how somber she had gotten, “It would not only require an incredible amount of power to accomplish such a thing, but is also avoidable as part of the method. You see, just how an eclipse can shadow the moon, eclipses end, and the moon shines bright. Protecting one’s self is only a matter of willing your cultivation to rotate so it’s no longer in your shadow.”
Dev was deeply engaged, and vaguely hoped that he wouldn’t have to use a method that made him vulnerable like that. Wait, If I’m an Anima cultivator, wouldn’t that mean that those capable of manipulating me through this would already be able to try and control me? It wasn’t precisely a comforting thought, but at least he would likely be less vulnerable than most.
“Next, we have the Solar Eclipse pattern.” She pulled up a meridian map that looked like a solar eclipse shaped like meridians. “As you can see, the Solar Eclipse pattern is meant for two-element cultivators. Again, one eclipses the other, but this time you see what’s blocking it out. This technique and its possibilities are part of why the Empire has invested so much in the ascension of our world.
“You see, this technique allows for you to draw one or both energies as if you had a dedicated technique for them. This depicts a hypothetical light and darkness cultivator, who could gather full benefits from cultivating light essence, dark essence, or a mix. The only known downside is that changing what they accept takes time, a time where they are as vulnerable as a countered single element cultivator, even as they cultivate two elements.”
She continued, going on about several other techniques, meant to mimic bilunar eclipses, lunar lunar eclipses, and even bisolar eclipses, but Dev was long distracted, thinking about what technique he would use when given the opportunity.