Benedict Jacka

Kinetic Barrier

Type:  Triggered
Appearance: Gold, faceted square
Rank: C to B+

Creates a field in front of the sigl that converts the kinetic energy of momentum into free essentia, slowing or stopping any object that enters.  Typically used as a shield;  projectiles fired towards the wielder slow to a stop and drop to the ground.

The speed at which a kinetic barrier can drain kinetic energy is dependent on the sigl’s power – a C-rank version might completely stop a subsonic round, slow down (but not stop) a supersonic round, and do almost nothing to a rifle shot.

Different models project the field in different ways.  Some are designed to create a vertical shield, others create a curved partial sphere, and some create a full sphere that encloses the wielder completely.  As you would expect, the greater the coverage, the more power the sigl draws and the higher a rank it needs to be.

Balancing a kinetic barrier’s drain speed, coverage, and cost is a trade-off.  Typically you can get at most two out of three.

Since the effect is triggered, it’s useless against an attack that the wielder doesn’t know is coming.  As such, many consider this sigl suitable only for drucrafters who expect to know in advance when they’re getting into a fight (most likely because they’re going to be the one starting it).

Kinetic Shield

Type:  Continuous
Appearance: Gold, faceted sphere
Rank: C+ to A

A more advanced version of the kinetic barrier designed to operate automatically.  Projects a field around the user that slows down anything entering that field moving above a certain speed.  These sigls generally (but not always) are designed on the assumption that they’re meant to be defending against bullets – as such, they’re optimised for slowing down small things moving at a high speed, and don’t do much against bigger things, such as cars, falling objects, or people.

Has the big advantage that it works automatically, so it’ll still protect you if you get shot in the back.  The price you pay for this is a small constant essentia drain (or a large one if you’re under active attack), but most drucrafters consider this a worthwhile trade-off.

Always made as a sphere – in theory could be made with any kind of coverage, but in practice if you’re going to spend the resources to make this powerful and expensive a sigl, it makes no sense not to have it also provide all-around protection.

Versions of this sigl tend to be split into continuous and hybrid models.  Continuous models are designed to operate constantly with no input from the wielder (usually because it’s assumed that the wielder can’t channel or is bad at it).  Hybrid models can be triggered manually, allowing the wielder to control the amount of essentia flowing through the shield and reinforce it against specific attacks.

Probably the single most popular defensive Motion sigl.  Guns are by far the most common lethal weapon in the modern age, and anything that can defend against them is highly prized.   

Missile

Type:  Triggered
Appearance: Yellow, faceted
Rank: D+ to B+

A more powerful version of the Slam sigl which charges an item with kinetic energy.  Like the Slam sigl, this works by compressing air, but with the aim of imparting the kinetic energy to a projectile.  The air behind the projectile is heavily compressed, then released;  kinetic energy shapes a ‘barrel’ of force that means that the expanding air and projectile can only travel in one direction.  If the Slam sigl is the equivalent of an unloaded air gun, this is the equivalent of a loaded one.

Due to how a missile sigl works, it’s necessarily single-shot, with reload speed being dependent on how quickly the wielder can feed ammunition into their hand.  On the positive side, it’s also quiet, concealable, and accurate;  the mundane weapon whose performance it most closely matches is probably a crossbow.  At rank C and above, it’s potentially lethal to a human target.

Due to how subtle a missile sigl is, it’s quite hard to threaten someone with it – you can’t point it at someone to scare them the way you can a gun, meaning there’s little reason to carry this sigl unless you’re planning to actually use it against a target.  It’s less of a weapon for police or security, and more of a weapon for soldiers or assassins.  Unsurprisingly, this gives it a fairly bad reputation, and in most countries higher-power versions are sold only under licence.

Missile sigls are usually designed to work with a specific projectile type, such as a sphere, pellet, or flechette, though there are higher-end generalist models designed to be able to accept any kind of ammunition.

Hurl

Type:  Triggered
Appearance: Yellow, variable shape
Rank: D+ to B+

A very simple and straightforward sigl that projects a surge of kinetic energy into whatever the wielder touches, hurling them away from the wielder (hence the name).

Similar conceptually to the missile sigl, but designed to throw larger objects at lower velocities.  Unlike the missile sigl it doesn’t charge up a pocket of compressed air or use kinetic energy to form a barrel;  this makes the sigl relatively inaccurate, but it also makes it much simpler to shape and much easier and faster to use.

Most commonly used as a self-defence weapon to push opponents away.  Typically this is intended to be used defensively against attackers who’ve closed the distance to the wielder, but there’s nothing actually stopping a drucrafter from using it aggressively by closing the distance themselves.  Lower-level models will typically give a target no more than a few bruises, but higher-level ones can easily break bones.

Can be used in conjunction with Matter sigls to throw large objects;  this tactic is generally considered rather ineffective in practical terms, but is sometimes employed for intimidation purposes.

Slam

Type:  Triggered
Appearance: Pale yellow, faceted
Rank: D to D+

A basic self-defence sigl that compresses air into a cylinder before releasing it outwards in a concussive blast.  The effect is rather like firing an unloaded air gun, but much stronger.  Since the air immediately begins to disperse once no longer directed by the sigl’s essentia, the range is very short – a few feet at most.  Still, within that range, it’s effective enough at what it does, hitting with the force of a moderately strong punch.

Given its low rank and power, this is a surprisingly difficult sigl to make;  it requires far more finesse than most D-rank sigls and is correspondingly more expensive to buy.  However, despite this, it’s reasonably popular as an entry-level self defence sigl due to how safe it is for the wielder to use.  Motion sigls like knife and mighty blow can be just as dangerous to the wielder as their intended target, but with a slam sigl, it’s almost impossible to hurt yourself with it, making it a good choice for someone who you don’t really trust to carry around a lethal weapon.

Mighty Blow

Type:  Triggered
Appearance: Pale yellow, teardrop shape
Rank: D to C

Probably the easiest and most straightforward Motion sigl out there, this is widely believed to be the first Motion sigl ever created.  It boosts the kinetic energy in a strike, making it swing faster and hit harder.

This sigl is most effective when used on tools such as a hammer or axe, or on weapons such as a sword or club.  It can also be used to enhance a punch or a kick, but this is dangerous – the extra momentum means that the wielder’s hand or foot will strike with immense force and is quite likely to be injured in the process.  Even at D-rank this is likely to lead to broken bones unless the wielder is careful.

Can theoretically be made at any power, but in practice almost never made above C-rank due to the risk of self-damage to the wielder.

Jump

Type:  Triggered
Appearance: Pale yellow, teardrop shape
Rank: D to D+

Produces a surge of kinetic energy, allowing a wielder to throw themselves through the air.  The early models of jump sigl were designed as a pure telekinetic effect, but this tended to work rather badly, and modern designs are instead designed so as to enhance a high jump or long jump (hence the name), which drucrafters have found tends to lead to far fewer injuries.  It turns out that having someone jump and then boosting it (so that they fly 2x or 4x as far as their own muscles could take them) works much better than just telekinetically hurling them through the air.  Note however:  while this sigl lets you jump safely, it gives you no corresponding ability to land safely.  Injuries from use of this sigl are common.

Can be made at virtually any rank, but once you go above a rank of D+, the UK (as well as most other European countries) no longer permits you to call it a Jump sigl.  This is because at C-rank and up, this sigl lets a wielder jump so high and so far that they need a Featherfall sigl (or equivalent) to land without broken bones.  Any jumping sigl of rank C and above is legally required to be sold under a different name and with extensive safety warnings.

Featherfall

Type:  Triggered/Continuous
Appearance: Pale yellow, ovate
Rank: D+ to C

Slows down the wielder’s movement by transforming the kinetic energy of their momentum into free essentia.  The main use of this is to prevent damage from falls by reducing the wielder’s terminal velocity – a fall of five feet and a fall of five hundred feet both result in the same impact.

Comes in triggered and continuous models.  Triggered models are much more flexible, allowing the wielder to slow themselves to exactly the speed they want to, when they want to.  The problem is that this requires the wielder to realise that they’re in danger, stay calm enough to channel into the sigl, then maintain concentration and continue to channel into the sigl until they touch the ground – not necessarily an easy thing to do while in free-fall.  Many drucrafters have died due to not activating their featherfall sigls in time.

As such, continuous featherfall sigls are more popular.  Continuous featherfall works by ‘capping’ the wielder’s top speed, activating automatically if the wielder is moving sufficiently fast relative to their surroundings.  The exact size of the cap is chosen at time of creation, and there’s a long-running debate among Motion shapers as to the best figure to choose;  the higher the number, the less likely the sigl will activate when you don’t want it to, but the more a fall is going to hurt.

Continuous featherfall sigls have drawbacks.  First, they can’t tell the difference between moving fast by accident, and moving fast because you want to – as such, they have a habit of activating at the wrong time.  Second, they require a constant flow of essentia.  So long as the sigl is not actively working to slow the user, this flow is small, but even so, most wielders of featherfall sigls elect to take them off much of the time to avoid annoyances.

The third of the branches, Motion essentia grants control over kinetic energy.

Capabilities

Motion drucraft allows its wielder to convert essentia into kinetic energy, and back again.  To a tyro, this seems to happen out of nowhere;  only a drucrafter can sense that the energy is being converted, rather than being created or destroyed.

Motion drucraft can be conducted on a macro-scale or on a micro-scale.  Macro-scale Motion drucraft focuses on moving or stopping larger objects (‘larger’ in this sense meaning anything that can be seen by the human eye), while micro-scale Motion drucraft instead works to speed up or slow down the rate of motion of microscopic particles within an area, causing a change in temperature.  Although both come down to altering kinetic energy, they behave rather differently in practice.  Macro-scale Motion drucraft is sometimes referred to as telekinesis or attraction/repulsion, while the micro-scale equivalent has been called pyromancy/pyrokinesis or cryomancy/cryokinesis.

The kinetic energy created by a Motion sigl can be channelled outward into an object, or inwards into the wielder’s body.  The latter is far more hazardous, and as such inward-directed Motion sigls are less popular.

Since absolutely every kind of human activity involves some kind of movement, Motion essentia is commonly considered the most broadly useful of all the branches.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The main advantage of Motion essentia is, as mentioned, how omnipresent it is.  There aren’t many activities that don’t involve moving around, so Motion specialists rarely have difficulty finding applications for their branch.  It’s obviously highly applicable to travel, and is generally considered the most directly useful branch for combat – human beings have been using kinetic energy as a weapon since before recorded history, or for that matter the invention of language.  The amount of energy that can be produced with Motion sigls is fairly large compared to the other branches, allowing even relatively weak Motion sigls to be effective in a fight.

The main drawback to Motion drucraft is its range.  Just as with all other branches, Motion effects are produced at the sigl itself.  This isn’t so much of a problem with Light effects (since the radiation, once created, can be beamed straight outwards) and it’s generally not a huge drawback for Matter ones either (since if you’re crafting or repairing something you’re probably holding it in your hands anyway).  However, if you’re dumping large amounts of kinetic energy into a target, there are some obvious drawbacks to holding the object in question.  Motion shapers have learnt to work around this to some degree by creating sigls that project their effects over an area, but since the sigl’s essentia has to spread to cover the area in question, such a field always has a sharply limited range.

Motion drucraft has one other drawback;  it’s not the best at being subtle.  While micro-scale Motion drucraft can be done fairly invisibly, larger-scale applications tend to be crude and highly obvious.  As such, Motion drucraft tends to be viewed as something of a blunt instrument.

Associations

Motion essentia is associated with travel, invention, action, agency, and change.  Its associated celestial body is Mercury.

Distribution

The USA is the strongest country for Motion essentia by quite a ways:  they have the strongest individual Motion Wells and produce the most Motion sigls by volume.  Russia comes in second, closely followed by South Korea.  Singapore, Mongolia, Brazil, and the UK all have good Motion resources as well.

A brief overview of Matter sigls affecting the properties of transparency and hardness.

Transparency

Type:  Triggered/Continuous
Direction:  Conducted
Appearance:  Pale to very pale pink, transparent.
Rank:  B to A

Alters the transparency of the wearer, causing light to pass through him.  In the hierarchy of invisibility sigls, this is generally considered the ‘middle’ option:  better than diffraction, worse than active camouflage.  It produces less visual distortion than a diffraction sigl, but shares the same problem as gloom and diffraction sigls in that it blinds the wielder as well;  as such, transparency sigls are typically designed to exclude either infrared or ultraviolet light, with the aim of being paired with a vision sigl or other equipment allowing the wielder to see in that frequency.

Generally considered one of the hardest Matter sigls to shape due to how exacting the tolerances are.  If the sigl is not shaped correctly, it will make the wielder’s image misty or hazy instead of invisible.  The sigl also causes refraction, which can be a tell-tale to watchers – in theory a perfectly shaped transparency sigl could prevent this by making the refractive index exactly 1, but in practice most shapers find achieving this too difficult to be worth it.  The refraction is much more noticeable when the wielder is moving.

Like most Matter sigls, this produces a conducted effect rather than a field, spreading through the wielder and any clothes and equipment he’s wearing.  As such, there is no invisibility ‘bubble’ which can be expanded or contracted, which is both a negative and a positive – it means the sigl is unable to hide people or things that are nearby, but also prevents the sigl from accidentally affecting a chunk of whatever the wielder happens to be standing on.

Seethrough

Type:  Triggered
Direction:  Conducted
Appearance:  Pale to very pale pink, transparent
Rank:  C to C+

A weaker version of the Transparency sigl designed to work on small to medium objects at touch range.  As the name suggests, it’s intended to let a bearer look through solid objects, allowing him to see what’s on the other side of a wall or door, find out the contents of a locked container, study the internal components of a machine, etc.

Can be tricky to use since it doesn’t necessarily affect the exact parts of an object that you want it to.  For example, you might try to see through the casing of a machine to figure out which part of it is broken, only to discover that the sigl has made the broken part transparent too.  Figuring out how to reliably make this sigl affect ONLY the parts you want it to takes quite a bit of practice.

Commonly used by surveyors to study the interiors of buildings, by archaeologists to examine potential dig sites, and by technicians to diagnose mechanical problems without having to open up the machine in question.  Also used by various shady characters in order to find out what’s on the inside of locked rooms or safes, and as such is one of those sigls where possessing one without a good excuse may attract a certain amount of suspicion.  Finally, this sigl is popular among medical drucrafters due to how useful it is in diagnosis, though doctors that make a habit of doing this usually try to be sneaky about it – patients have been known to react very badly to seeing their own skin apparently disappear.

Iron Fist

Type:  Triggered
Direction:  Conducted
Appearance:  Opaque, dark red
Rank:  D to D+

Temporarily increases the hardness of a specific body part.  As the name suggests, this is typically the hand, but you do get versions designed to affect the foot, forearm, elbow, or knee.  This allows the wielder to hit a target far harder and more safely than they’d be able to do unaided, functioning as a sort of combination boxing glove and knuckleduster.

Bodies are not designed to be hard and rigid, and hardening any significant fraction of a body causes problems with blood flow.  To mitigate this, these sigls are typically designed to only affect a thin layer of skin and flesh on the outside of the body, creating a ‘shell’ of hard material around the vulnerable softer parts.  This doesn’t fully protect against impacts – the shock can still be transmitted to the bones and joints – but it’s a lot better than nothing.

Extended use of this sigl is not advised.  Even when specifically designed to affect as thin a layer as possible, the sigl causes blood to back up in the capillaries, eventually causing serious problems.  The warning sign of this is a tingling sensation, turning into a stinging one – unfortunately, since the sigl also numbs sensation, this warning sign is not always noticed.  As such, drucrafters are strongly advised not to use this sigl for more than a minute or so at a time, with an equal amount of time between uses to allow the affected body part to recover fully.

Can absolutely not be made continuous.  On the very rare occasions that continuous versions of this sigl have been tried, they’ve led to aneurisms and potentially lethal hematomas.

Sculpt

Type:  Triggered
Direction:  Conducted
Appearance:  Dark brown, opaque with faint bands/streaks
Rank:  C to A

Temporarily reduces the hardness of a small volume of matter.  The change is gradual, rather than sudden;  the more time spent channelling into the matter in question, the further its hardness can be reduced, up to a certain limit dependant on the sigl’s power.  When the sigl is deactivated, the change reverses itself over a similar length of time.

As the name suggests, the sigl is very popular among artists and artisans, allowing them to work with hard materials with a minimum of equipment – you can create pottery without a kiln, smithed metal without a forge, etc.  Note however that the sigl doesn’t duplicate the other effects of firing/forging, and quite a lot of artists/artisans view this sigl as something of an ‘easy mode’ that’s inferior to making something the normal way.

While the name suggests artwork, the sigl is used widely in other contexts.  It’s an effective (if clumsy) way to force open locks or sealed containers, and is very handy for making repairs – both quick rough fixes done in the field, and slower and more careful jobs done in a garage or workshop.  Factories who can afford it will often employ a Matter drucrafter whose job is to respond quickly when something goes wrong;  one skilled craftsman with a Sculpt sigl can usually fix a problem far quicker than any number of normal repairman.  In general, any job that requires breaking, bending, or reshaping things is much easier with this sigl around.

Like all tools, if misused, this sigl will cause more problems than it solves.  It’s important to note that while this sigl affects an object’s hardness, it does not affect plasticity/elasticity.  Most substances used in construction, such as rocks and metals, have high hardness (making them resistant to deformation) but low elasticity (meaning that if deformed, they don’t spring back to their original shape).  As such, it’s very easy for a user of this sigl to break things and then realise that they don’t have a good way to fix them.