Think of the pathways as colours.
It sounds simple, doesn't it? Almost poetic.
But in this universe, simplicity is just a mask for a complexity so deep it can swallow your soul whole.
Yes, there are, of course, primary colours: the Mind, the Soul, and the Body.
Most people look at a sunset and see beauty; a scholar of the Path looks at the spectrum and sees the fundamental architecture of Force.
The Mind and Soul may have some minor contributions toward our Spirit and Will essence concepts—the everyday fuel we use to keep our "Components" from rattling apart—but the Primaries themselves are indeed forces originally. They are the raw, unfiltered pigments of reality that existed long before we had eyes to see them.
By evolving through countless trials and errors, and through the bloody experimentation of another generation of seekers, new pathways emerged. Over time, you might think there would be countless hues. You'd imagine a universe shimmering with infinite combinations of Mind-Body or Soul-Mind-Body, creating a masterpiece of diverse powers.
But who would have thought that with power also came responsibility—and with colours came madness?
The universe isn't a canvas waiting for a painter; it's a volatile chemical reaction. When you start mixing these primary forces, you aren't just making a new "shade" of power. You are creating a new Force Plane. And every time you add a new hue to the mix, the stability of the user's consciousness is pushed to the brink.
The madness isn't a side effect; it's an ingredient.
To derive or create a new force plane is not strictly forbidden by the laws of the universe, but it is extremely dangerous—bordering on suicidal. To attempt to manifest a "hue" that hasn't been stabilized by the ancestors is to invite a conceptual rot. Imagine trying to hold a color that shouldn't exist in your mind. It bleeds. It stains your Will essence until you can no longer remember which part of you is "human" and which part is just a leaked fragment of a broken pathway.
This explains why, despite millions of years of history and the relentless ambition of billions of practitioners, there are less than a hundred main pathways that are left recorded through the trials of our ancestors.
Think about that. Four million years of "research." Countless civilizations rising and falling, all obsessed with the Path towards Completion. And yet, we have less than a hundred stable colors to show for it.
Recorded pathways are not just abstract concepts; they are forces that bleed into reality with their own signature hues.
Within the upper echelons of power, the primordial tones of Soul, Wisdom, Rule, Death, and Life dictate the fundamental laws of existence. Soul manifests as a translucent silver, while Wisdom glows with a piercing emerald light. Rule is a heavy, regal gold, contrasted by the absolute, light-consuming black of Death and the vibrant, overflowing white-green of Life.
Close to these are the elemental spectrums of Ice, Fire, Wind, Light, and Darkness. Ice carries a pale, frosted cerulean hue, while Fire roars in aggressive crimson. Wind is nearly invisible Jade, Light a blinding gold-white, and Darkness a deep, velvety purple.
The structural and volatile tones follow, encompassing Metal, Refinement, Cloud, Sound, and Lightning. Metal carries the cold grey sheen of steel, while Refinement is a glowing bronze. Cloud drifts in lavender, and Sound ripples in amber, while Lightning cracks in electric cyan.
More deceptive paths like Illusion, Poison, Emotion, and Puppet weave through the world in iridescent oils, neon greens, shifting mood-reds, and sapphire threads.
Even the foundational pillars of Space, Earth, Time, Wood, and Transformation have their place, painted in indigo, ochre, metallic chrome, forest green, and kaleidoscopic orange.
Descending further into the niches of existence, one finds the celestial and vital tints of Sun, Star, Moon, Blood, Food, and Luck. The Sun burns in white-yellow, the Moon in pale silver, and Stars in multi-colored pinpricks, while Blood is a terrifying scarlet.
Concept-driven hues like Beauty, Love, Sword, Gun, and Machine manifest in rose-glows, pulsing pinks, silver-blue edges, smoky blacks, and neon-orange copper.
Even the artistic and sensory paths—Flower, Painting, Storm, Sand, Name, Snow, Shadow, Eye, Smell, and Desire—fill the world with floral pinks, ink-blacks, charcoal greys, tan grits, gold scripts, diamond-whites, hazy blacks, crimson glows, pastel mists, and deep magentas.
These are the commonly known ones in our society. And there's one more; how did I forget about it, the most basic one: Qi. Even if one was ridiculously rejected by other planes, the plane of Qi welcomes one anytime. This explains why normal infantry was born as a fodder industry.