Avatar & Forms¶

You begin as a sphere. You end as something else entirely.

The visual language of this game is MAGITEK — magic and technology inseparable. Scoring tools are magitek. The Empyrean is magitek. The constraint force is magitek. The void platforms are magitek running on human attention. The framework is physics that looks like mysticism until you measure it. That IS magitek.

Stage 0 — The Sphere¶

You begin as a Pe node. A colored sphere. This is not a placeholder — it IS the form.

Before the God Hand moment you are unnamed in Fantasia. You are potential, not yet shaped. The THRML engine already represents you as a colored point on the Observatory. The sphere is honest: you are what you are before you've named anything.

Sphere color reads your archetype before you know it:

Color	Archetype lean
Amber/gold	Lion
Deep slate blue	Ox
Silver/white	Eagle
Warm green	Human
Shifting between colors	Mixed/unresolved — the uncertainty is visible

The Pe aura is already active even on the sphere — warm red in high-Pe environments, cooling toward clear as Pe drops. Your gradient is visible before your form is.

The God Hand Moment¶

The sphere BREAKS. This is the G2 visual event — not a fade, not a transition. The archetype animal tears out from inside it.

Lion: explodes outward
Eagle: unfolds from within
Ox: pushes through from underneath
Human: the sphere becomes translucent and the ⊙ mark appears before the form solidifies

The pieces of the sphere don't disappear. They orbit briefly as the form establishes, then dissolve into the Pe aura.

"Before you were named, you were nothing. After you were named, you were a point. Points become forms. Forms become histories."

The Progression Arc¶

Stage	Grade	What changes
Sphere	Pre-G2	Pe node. Color only. No form.
Emergence	Grade 3	Animal aspects subtle — silhouette directional but unrefined. Lion pulls leonine even before features appear.
Definition	Grade 2	Distinct features lock in. Lion: amber eyes, mane edge. Ox: horns emerge, mass builds. Eagle: feather edging around eyes, form lightens. Human: ⊙ mark appears on forehead.
Character	Grade 1	Full avatar. Pe aura active. Shadow corruption visible to party above VP 30. All customization unlocked.
Heraldic	Special Grade	Form becomes slightly luminous. Pe aura steadies toward clear-white. Animal aspect becomes idealized — cleaner, more heraldic quality. Like moving from a rough sketch to the coat-of-arms version.
Forms	Level 40	Cross-archetype transformations. BROKEN Form (custodian path only).

Archetype Animal Aspects¶

Each archetype has a specific animal direction its form moves toward:

Archetype	Animal Aspect	Grade 2 Marker	Level 40
Lion	Mane, amber eyes	Eyes lock amber. Mane edge visible.	Full Lion Form — massive, confrontational presence
Ox	Mass, horns	Horns emerge. Shoulders broaden.	Ox Form — enormous, gravity-heavy, not threatening
Eagle	Sight markers, wingspan	Feather edging around eyes. Form lightens.	Eagle Form — wings functional for Empyrean traversal
Human	⊙ integration mark	⊙ on forehead. Brief translucence near all four archetypes.	Human Form — visible center, integration made physical

The open principle: Body type, presentation, skin — fully open. The game doesn't comment. Fantasy elements (ears, tails, horns, scales, luminescence, void-texture) are all available. UGC cosmetic submissions go through a brand-confusion review only.

The Two Visual Poles¶

The game doesn't label these. Players name them. The visual language shows your actual state.

Seraphim Direction¶

Sustained high Precision, VP near 0, multiple Pe=0 platforms scored.

Form becomes luminous. The animal aspect reaches its heraldic quality and continues past it — something approaching idealized form.
Pe aura settles to clear/white at rest. In high-Pe environments it brightens rather than reddens — the constraint force showing through.
At Special Grade sustained 30+ days with VP < 5: a faint AT Field shimmer appears around the form, visible to nearby party members. Not labeled.
"Those who name enough things truly begin to carry Fantasia in their form."

This is the visual pole toward the Above. Not a class. Not a choice. What sustained accurate constraint-bearing looks like.

At G4.5: a cosmetic title system recognizes players who've held Seraphim-direction for 60+ days. The community will name these players before the system does.

Hollow Direction¶

VP > 50, sustained drift, Brand of Sacrifice active.

The animal aspects begin inverting. The Lion's mane darkens and pulls wrong. Eagle's wings get void-stained — feathers separate and gap. Ox's horns curve inward. The Human's ⊙ mark distorts.
The Bleach Hollow aesthetic — but organic to your archetype. Your OWN animal aspect becomes the mask.
Not permanent. VP recovery reverses it. The inversion is the warning, not the judgment.
"The void eats inward. What it leaves is still shaped like you. That's how you know it worked."

This is the visual pole toward the Below's floor. Not a class. What sustained void-capture looks like from outside.

Most players live between the poles. This is correct. The game is not binary. The visual language shows your actual trajectory.

The Entity Hierarchy¶

The angel/demon aesthetic is emergent, not assigned. The game doesn't hand out wings and horns as class selections — it shows you what you've been doing.

Tier	Entity type	Visual register
The Five Figures	Above-tier custodian presences	Visually impossible — all four archetypes simultaneously
Angel Fleet	AI agents — constraint-bearing, named	Angel aesthetic by design
Seraphim-direction players	High-precision sustained	Luminous animal forms, AT Field shimmer
Players (nephesh)	The game's population — in between	Archetype animal, shaped by play
Apostle Clans	D3 drift players who accepted the deal	Brand marks, inverted aspects, independent shadow
Godhand Five	Boss entities — Qliphoth origins	Void architecture made physical

The player occupies the middle position — nephesh, the whole specification, oriented toward Above or Below by their scoring history.

Level 40 Forms¶

At Level 40, cross-archetype transformations unlock. These are not avatar replacements — they are activated states for specific content.

Form	Requirement	What it is
Shadow Form	Level 40 + shadow archetype campaign complete	Your shadow archetype's animal aspect, fully expressed. One campaign. Individuation made visible.
BROKEN Form	All four archetype Forms completed	All four archetypes simultaneously, briefly. The custodian's condition — wholeness at cost. The city dims slightly when it activates.

The Shadow Form is the Level 40 individuation mechanic. You cannot stay BROKEN — the BROKEN Form is a momentary state, not a permanent shift. What remains afterward is the knowledge that you held it.

Constraint Frames — The Magitek System (G5)¶

At the highest tier of content — the war effort, Godhand Five raids — a 5-player party can construct a Constraint Frame: the collective expression of the party's combined constraint force.

Design principles:

NOT a permanent avatar form — a combat mode for G5 content only
Built FROM the party's four archetype aspects — looks like their specific combination, not a generic mech
Dual-pilot structural requirement inherited from Betterman's Neuronoid: minimum Lion + Ox to maintain (confrontation + sustain as structural requirements for the Frame to hold)
Organic magitek aesthetic — the Frame has the animal aspects of the party's archetypes as visible structural elements. A chimera, not a robot.

The archetype anatomy of a Frame:

Lion: combat limbs
Ox: structural core
Eagle: sight and range systems
Human: the precision hands — what does the actual naming

The Eva parallel resolved: Evas are driven by individual pilot trauma — sync ratio is the pilot's psychological state. Frames are driven by collective accurate measurement — sync ratio is the party's combined ICC accuracy and Pe suppression. Stronger scoring record = stronger Frame. Not trauma. Evidence.

Your Frame, with your party's specific archetype combination, is visually distinct from every other party's Frame. The magitek elements are shared. The animal aspects are yours.

Cross-references: Archetypes · The Corona · Character Level · Void Pressure · The Binding Vow