Wielding

Overview

Wielding is the act of producing and controlling fundamental energies to perform a variety of actions ranging from manipulating electric fields to altering the chemical composition of materials. Since time immemorial, each of the three space-faring species have had a subset of their population with the ability to wield. More recently, the creation of machines with the ability to wield opened the door to a plethora of new technologies and processes that form a cornerstone of this world.

The Seven Types of Wielding

Electromagnetic Wielding

The most well understood of the seven, electromagnetic wielding refers to the perception and manipulation of electromagnetic fields. Electromagnetic wielders are able to perceive parts of the electromagnetic spectrum besides visible light as well as generate electromagnetic fields. The cost of generating an electromagnetic field is equal to the energy of that electromagnetic field. As with all types of wielding, wielding-enabled perception requires little to no energy.

Kinetic Wielding

One of the better understood types of wielding, kinetic wielding refers to the generation of forces between objects. These forces can act on the surface of an object as chosen by the wielder or be applied to a region in continuous fashion. When applied in continuous fashion, the force is distributed throughout the region; the force a specific volume element experiences is a function of the density of that element. In theory, the region can be chosen arbitrarily, however in practice, the region is determined by the dynamo fields generated by the objects being acted upon usually constraining the force to act on the object’s center of mass. The force generated by kinetic wielding is governed by the following empirical equation:

Where Fwield is the force exerted on object 2, Ckinetic is the kinetic wielding coefficient, Win is the energy expended by the wielder, L(m1, m2) is the loss function which approaches zero when the mass of either object approaches zero, r1is the position of object 1 relative to the wielder, and r2is the position of object 2 relative to the wielder. As a rule of thumb, manipulating objects costs the wielder more energy the farther the objects are from each other and from the wielder. Kinetic wielders, both natural and artificial, are able to sense the presence of objects with mass which facilitates the accurate application of forces on objects.

Thermal Wielding

Thermal wielding refers to the generation and transfer of heat in specified locations. The most current hypothesis on wielding considers thermal wielding to be a specific form of kinetic wielding where forces are generated to affect the random motion of a continuum of particles. Thermal wielding has no effect on a vacuum, heat transfer in a vacuum is accomplished by electromagnetic wielding. While thermal wielding can reduce the temperature in a local area, it will heat up the surrounding area by an amount consistent with the laws of thermodynamics. Thermal wielders are sensitive to the temperature of objects in their vicinity which enables accurate wielding. The efficacy of thermal wielding is inversely proportional to the distance between the wielder and the targeted area.

Material Wielding

Material wielding refers to the dematerialization and rematerialisation of matter. Matter can essentially be converted energy and then converted back into matter. Material wielding can be used to change the chemical composition of objects, for example graphite can be converted into construction energy (the name of the energy associated with material wielding) then converted back into matter as diamond or even as iron. The additional cost (on top of the energy contained in a given amount of matter) associated with materialization and dematerialization is proportional to the mass being converted with 1 kg of materialized matter costing around 418 kJ (about the energy consumed in running a mile). If the molecular or atomic structure is changed between materialization and dematerialization then there is an added cost equal to the magnitude of the energy balance of the chemical reaction when making and breaking bonds or the magnitude of the differences of the nuclear binding energies when transmuting atoms. Material wielders are able to sense the material properties of objects that are close (2-3 cm) to them. Most material wielders must spend many years just understanding the material properties of the things around them at an intuitive level before they can actually perform any material wielding.

Biological Wielding

One of the less well understood types of wielding, biological wielding, also known as bio-wielding, refers to the loose control of biological processes. According to the working hypothesis, biological wielding is actually a complex amalgam of kinetic, thermal, material, and electrical wielding. Despite not being well understood, biological wielding has seen great success in a variety of applications: wound healing and energy boosting in medicine, induction of temporary paralysis and unconsciousness in peacekeeping, and the accelerated growth of crops in agriculture, to name a few. Biological wielding is only capable of causing a living thing to do something that it could otherwise do on its own while also accelerating the pace at which that is done, e.g. an animal can heal a wound on its own while biological wielding can cause the wound to heal in hours instead of days. The cost of biological wielding is equal to the cost of the biological process induced in the target.

Positive Wielding

One of the least understood types of wielding, positive wielding, also known as dark wielding, is theorized to boost and manipulate the behavior of other types of wielding. The cost of doing so would be slightly greater than the increase in energy level of the target type of wielding. In folklore, positive wielding has been attributed to altering the fabric of space, resulting in the teleportation of objects or even the creation of portals to other worlds, however, none of this has been observed in a scientific setting.

Negative Wielding

The other of the least understood types of wielding, negative wielding, also known as light wielding, theoretically should be able to suppress other types of wielding, with the cost of doing so being slightly greater than the cost of the wielding being inhibited. Accounts from the folklore of each of the three species speak of powerful wielders that were both able to suppress other wielders and control the flow of time to some degree, however such acts have yet to be documented in a scientific setting.

The Seven Respective Energies

Associated with each type of welding is a specific field. Potentials in these fields are referred to as energies. In the following list, terms in parenthesis are the colloquial names of each of the types of energy. Electromagnetic wielding is associated with electrical energy (Clear Energy), kinetic wielding is associated with dynamo energy (Green Energy), thermal wielding is associated with thermal energy (Orange Energy), material wielding is associated with construction energy (Blue Energy), biological wielding is associated with bio energy (Red Energy), positive wielding is associated with dark energy, not to be confused with the energy that causes the accelerated expanding of the universe, (Dark Energy), and negative wielding is associated with light energy (Light energy).

The act of wielding is the creation and control of a field which then acts on the environment. Conversion between the different types of energies is possible with different levels of efficiency. Since electrical and bio energy are the most common source energies, the costs associated with converting from those energies are listed below. Low efficiency conversions generate waste heat.

Table of some conversion efficiencies expressed as energy out / energy in

Converted: | Source: Bio energy | Source: electrical energy |

-----------------------------|---------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------|-------

Electrical | 54% | N/A |

Dynamo | 90% | 96% |

Thermal | 64% | 59% |

Material | 70% | 95% |

Bio | N/A | 43% |

Dark | 79% (theorized) | 54% (theorized) |

Light | 33% (theorized | 89% (theorized) |

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The discovery and characterization of these fields, as well as the invention of sensors capable of detecting each type of field, are responsible for propelling the study of wielding to its present day form.

More on Fields

Wielding is accomplished through the manipulation of the fields of the energies associated with them. Unlike non-wielding fields such as those associated with the four fundamental forces, these fields can take on arbitrary shapes given enough power to the wielder. Action from wielding can only happen within these fields. For each energy, multiple types of wielding can be accomplished, thermal wielding can both create heat and move it around. Selecting between the different types of wielding is accomplished by changing the frequency with which the field is energized. The type of wielding that will happen within a field is determined by the dominant frequency of energization. If there is no dominant frequency, the field does not perform any type of wielding. All living things are surrounded by an inactive bio-energy field. The discovery of this mechanism by which an energy field performs wielding led to the development of wielding nullification techniques. While there are various different approaches to wielding nullification, they all share the same principle of creating an energy field with constant power spectral density, aka white noise. This significantly raises the amount of energy a wielder needs to supply to perform any wielding action within this field. The military and law enforcement, for example, uses very powerful noisy field generators to protect important locations from attack by wielders.

Wielding in Nature

All living things generate a bio energy field. Each species generates a unique type of field. With modern day signal processing, it is even possible to tell apart different individuals. Living things wield by converting a part of their bio energy into another type of energy. At the moment of conversion, the bio field and the field associated with the desired type of wielding are deeply intertwined, during this time, the wielder can manipulate the intertwined part of their bio field to achieve the desired wielding action. What a wielder can achieve is greatly limited by the energy at their disposal. Intense physical training is required to fully utilize one’s abilities along with consistent wielding practice. If wielding is not practiced consistently, a person is likely to forget how to wield or will at least become less skilled at it. Wielding consumes a lot of energy relative to other activities, so wielders tend to have high metabolisms and high core temperatures. Longitudinal studies of career wielders suggest that excessive wielding might shorten one’s lifespan through increased caloric consumption. Highly developed forms of wielding have only been observed in the three space faring species, however simpler forms of wielding has been observed in animals. The common characteristic of these animals is a highly developed central nervous system. In all living things, wielding aptitude seems to be somewhat hereditary, however the exact mechanism by which it is passed down is still an active area of study. Thunderstorms have occasionally been observed to perform wielding, often kinetic, haphazardly and at destructive scales. More diverse forms of wielding occur during auroras including thermal, kinetic, and material wielding in what are known as aurora storms. The prized space crystals, with their unique patterns, fall from the sky during aurora storms, themselves the result of low altitude material wielding.

Wielding in Machines

The first machines capable of wielding were made by each of the space faring species independently relatively early in their developments as civilizations, predating space travel. Through collaborative research, wielding machines have improved considerably since then. However they still use the same principle. The wielding machine takes electricity as input and runs it through a set of orthogonal coils. A piece of metal called the converter is then moved into each coil to create a field of the desired type of energy that will have the desired type of welding effect. The wielding effect is controlled by changing the current through each coil as well as by adjusting the position of each metal converter cylinder inside of each coil. Wielding machines vary wildly in price, from small $120 open source desktop wielding machines for levitating paper clips to $10 million car sized ascension projectors aboard space liners.

Wielding in the Modern World

Given the potential for harming others as well as the fact that it is near impossible to tell a wielder apart from a non-wielder, wielding is subject to intense regulation and oversight. The Wielding Oversight Bureau of the Intersyst Health and Biology Department is tasked with making sure that wielders stay on the straight and narrow. Public opinion of wielders is currently mildly fearful, depending on region, however several activist movements are slowly shifting these attitudes by personizing wielders and correcting public misinformation regarding wielders. Nonetheless, all citizens at birth are subject to a scan to assess their wielding ability. If any aptitude is detected, they become a registered wielder and are entered into the Wielding Oversight Bureau database. Their fingerprints are taken, their bio energy profile is recorded, and a chip is implanted into their shoulder that tracks their wielding activity. Every 10 years, their wielding aptitude is reassessed, if a person has lost the ability to wield (through lack of practice or naturally), their watchlist profile is deleted and the chip removed.

Nearly all wielders go to wielding school, a tradition started by the Youmen. At wielding school, people practice their skills and are taught the wielder’s dogma: to not use wielding for selfish purposes, to harm others, or act self-important because of their abilities, which is achieved through cautionary tales, recitation of values, and meditation.

It is very difficult to master one type of wielding. Despite this, there exist career wielders that are proficient in several types of wielding. A multitude of so called wielding families exist which consistently produce adept wielders. Careers for particularly adept wielders include being athletes in special sports leagues for wielders, serving in the counter-wielding division of the police force, registered healers in hospitals (although this occupation is being rapidly replaced by machines), and serving as battle wielders for the military. Professional wielders are often equipped with an energy replenisher to allow them to practice welding in excess of their personal energy reserves. Battle wielders are unique in that their energy replenishers operate at a much higher power output allowing them to perform wielding in excess of what any living thing could do which has proved frighteningly successful in the battlefield.