ARCHIVED DOCUMENT.
Got rambly and I'd rather start over than parse it for useable bits.
Ethereality and Corporeality refer to the variable nature of Integrally Magical beings or "Integrals," notably Elementals, Nymphs, Undead, the Daemon Complex, and certain Changelings. This represents something of a spectrum of traits, where on one end they tend to behave as comparatively conventional organisms with high durability to physical damage, great physical strength, organic methods of mobility, and extreme resistance to trauma, but on the other possess potent magical capabilities that can make up for a more fragile substrate to the extent that many can maintain an illusion of invulnerability.
While it's tempting to think of it as a sort of slider, it's more aptly viewed as a matrix of traits which aren't strictly associated with each other. Certain types and individuals may appear to "skip" intuitive steps on the "spectrum." It often seems somewhat selective, adding to the diverse nature of these beings.
Ethereality and Corporeality Compared
As a rule of thumb, more ethereal beings are more reliant on non-physical methods of mobility, interaction, and attack, whereas corporeal counterparts, all other things held constant, tend to more closely emulate an organism and are subject to and utilize physical principles. Demons are an apt model, varying widely (and wildly) along this spectrum, though also in many other ways.
Let's say for this example we are dealing with a flying demon bodytype. In a corporeal specimen, said demon would likely exhibit traits common to volant organisms- lighter bones, and large, powerfully muscled wings suitable for powered flight. Additional abilities would most likely present themselves through phenotypic variation, for example, physical claws, horns, and fangs for bodily weaponry, armored scalation for defense, strong and long legs for surface speed, and powerful muscles to support these as well as any artificial weaponry or armor they may utilize. Now, internally, even heavily corporeal Demons are very unlike actual organisms. They seem to have some organs, but only a handful ever seem to be functional and only one ever seems to be critical (this varying between a mock heart, brain, or stomach corresponding to personality type, as also observed in many other Integral and Undead bodyplans). But their overall functionality is very much beholden to their physical properties as would be the case in a similar organism.
Now, a more ethereal specimen. Flight could be achieved with reduced or no wings, often innately, as if simply defying gravity- this has its ups and downs, generally this mode of flight cannot achieve high straight-line speeds and altitudes but can hover long-term without strain for instance. This may lead to them actually being heavier than corporeal flyers, but also a trait of ethereality is an apparent lack of mass. Bodily weapons and armor would seem to be absent, but in the place of claws and teeth would be an increased aptitude for magic, and in place of hardened integument would be intangibility.
This intangibility is one of the most striking traits of ethereal beings, and one of the trickiest to deal with in a fight. Ethereal beings tend to exhibit fine control over this powerful defensive ability, and only need to go tangible for brief stretches of time. Quite a few seem capable of maintaining this state passively. However, even the most magically inept of forces are learning to exploit the periods of time where they are physically tangible as well as employing means of forcing them into this state and developing weapons that are capable of hitting them while still hiding in it, to say nothing of extensively proven, potent anti-magic techniques developed among their own ranks, which can be instantaneously fatal. Intangibility prevents most attacks and interactions, even limiting senses. This is where their (lack of) physiology becomes a downside. Ethereal beings in tangible phases do not manifest as analogues to organisms, but rather as a delicately interwoven immaterial lattice, and any aggressive physical interaction is likely to cause this brittle structure to undergo a catastrophic, cascading failure, essentially shattering the entity.
Yes, this means that shooting the ghost is actually highly effective, if you know when to do it.
By contrast, as mentioned previously, corporeal Integrals do not really work like organisms. They can often stand up to grievous injury relatively casually as most of their body seems to manifest as homogenous flesh. In the extreme cases of corporeal-leaning Undead, their ability to withstand trauma is, quite frankly, excessive. This, paired with the more physically mundane structural material, prevent the catastrophic chain reaction that tends to be the death of an Ethereal example. Moreover, Ethereals tend to rely on magical resources for everything, whereas corporeals will employ physical stamina and ammunition, which can situationally prove to last longer overall. Yet, in spite of this (and confessed author biases), it's hard to argue that intangibility can't be a superior form of survivability than being able to be shot a few more times than average, spells can't deal more damage than bites, and innate levitation can't be more promising than having to go about with hollow bones and ten meters of wing to hope you don't end up breaking while getting shot. And with many individuals striking a balance between these states, they can be very powerful.
Corporeality and Ethereality in Elementals
The non-anthropomorphic Elementals exhibit a somewhat unique approach to the variations of ethereality and corporeality, as they simultaneously bear components of both. Elementals exist as an ethereal core built up with matter. This core, alone, would present a maximally ethereal Elemental, known as a Wisp. However, as it accumulates matter, it tends to become increasingly corporeal.
At an intermediate stage, the Wisp still exhibits immaterial control over its matter, and may hold it in "orbit" as a clutch of weapons, armor, and manipulators. However, larger amounts of matter arrest it more to physicality. It becomes too much to levitate, and it must turn to manipulating its matter against the substrate to move, be it through "walking" or "rolling" along a solid surface, dynamic lift and drag, or reaction forces analogous to a rocket or jet. Up to a point, this semi-wisp will still be, well, wispy, in spite of this. A core surrounded by chunks of material. However, this only remains efficient for so long.
As matter available increases, the Elemental will begin to rely increasingly on machine-like mechanism that receive power from the magical abilities of the core but are not wholly actuated by them. Floating chunks of stone are bound by actual, quasi-mechanical shafts, joints, and chains. Spells are replaced by physical weapons- from swords to ballistas- empowered and fed by magic. The most massive of Elementals are not dissimilar to large technological vehicles in terms of architecture, but you can tell they're, you know, not that, because of all the fire and stuff.
Corporeality and Ethereality in Nymphs
The more humanoid Nymphs are structurally unlike Elementals on a fundamental level- even if they tried to look like each other, it wouldn't work. Nymphs are different from their non-anthropomorphic brethren in that they lack a core. Among the more corporeal, their anatomy is often summarized as statue-like, being composed of just solid elemental matter through and through, excluding a few hollows- one of which contains the critical "organ" that they are actually built around. While a "core" in a sense, it's not exactly independent like a Wisp. The material composing their bodies acts like tissue under low pressures, but if subjected to high pressures will behave more like their element. You can hug the rock nymph and it'll feel fine, but not punch them.
Corporeals with non-human abilities, naturally, tend to have non-human anatomy, which tends to be quite animalistic, though as tends to be the case for biomimetic Elemental entities, seemingly oversimplified. For instance, a wing that seems birdlike in having a distinction between flight feathers, limb, and coverts, but not between individual feathers in a layer, or visible barbs. Likewise, claws may seem to just be pointy fingers. These turn increasingly abstract and colorful in increasingly ethereal examples, up to the point that they vanish entirely and are replaced by magic.
Ethereals seem to lack a differentiated core. They manifest with some associated material, often appearing to have a body segmented into multiple chunks of elemental matter. This has the practical upshot of protecting the lattice from some attacks when tangible, and facilitating their own. It seems to disintegrate and materialize with them, though may persist independently after a lattice collapse.
Corporeality and Ethereality in the Daemon Complex
Angels and Demons vary to great degrees on the corporeality spectrum, going fairly continuously from nigh-intangible entities to monstrous ones. If it seems like there's not much to be said here, it's only because they're sort of the model for this variability.
Highly ethereal angels and demons tend to have somewhat more of a presence in their intangible states than others, providing sensory inputs while close, giving them away. Their tangible states are noted as somewhat harder to discern than others, often making timing the crucial attacks a bit trickier.
Highly corporeal examples, by contrast, seem strikingly mundane on analysis- relatively normal tissue consistency, without apparent differences beyond the obvious occasional pointy bit and the relative lack of guts (though you gotta be a bit more dedicated to tell about the second part there).
Corporeality and Ethereality in Undead
The Undead are a bit different from other entities subject to this spectrum as they seem to present several distinct subtypes with a fairly narrow range of corporeality-ethereality variation each rather than a continuous range. This is muddied a bit further by exactly which sort you'd call the most corporeal, and a few subtype-in-subtype-in-subtype names and distinctions that we'll skip for now. However, the most ethereal are a bit obvious...
Ghosts are the most Ethereal form of undead. They possess a relatively unobservable and long-endurance form of intangibility, great for maximizing evasiveness and getting into sneaky places. Their tangible phases are noted for actually being a bit durable, using a more dynamic lattice integrating synthesized physical material called "ectoplasm" as a "substrate" of sorts. This stabilizes the lattice and allows them to take a few more hits, and can even act as a magic-sink for banishment attacks.
Liches, other than the unique circumstances of their creation, also represent a well-balanced composite of ethereality and corporeality. Like ghosts, they utilize a substrate material to stabilize their lattice, and tend to be ectoplasm-heavy, However, this is enhanced by the incorporation of several artifacts, normally including much of their corpse as well as magical devices. They operate as a finely-tuned magical machine, though one with a few crucial weakpoints. Some may even opt to have this critical component locked up in a safe place, their body traveling abroad, largely immune to damage. In the age of sword, spell, and arrow, this turned Liches into untouchable avatars with a master safely holed up in a distant, impregnable tomb. In the age of ground-penetrating satellite-guided glide bombs, this is a fucking terrible idea don't do it. Exacerbating this is that Liches, and all parts therein, give off noticeable signatures even on mundane spectra. We see you down there, bonesy.
Skeletons are somewhat hard to place. It takes a little bit of explaining that they're even really distinct from zombies, let alone more ethereal. This being said, any zombie that's been through a bit of de-meating can tell you they still need muscles to stand and move, and most need eyes to see. Skeletons are actuated by ethereal forces. They're more magically adept, though also magically and physically vulnerable, than their fleshy counterparts. They're also known to be surprisingly nimble, particularly at self-assembly, and a bit less, uh, you know, um... hungry.
Speaking of hungry, Vampires place as generally corporeal with some ethereal abilities- vanishing in smoke, walking up walls, etc. Many fly with wings, which may be magically-augmented, but levitation is rare. Their anatomy is fascinatingly modified with a lot of little variations. They're very powerful, but suffer a few very ethereal-style vulnerabilities- many of these are quicker at taking them out than hits to their heart, which, turns out, doesn't have to be with a stake. Though those actually work particularly well, if enchanted.
Ghouls are highly corporeal, with only a few ethereal tricks up their sleeve. In exchange, they are shockingly, well, almost alive. They seem to operate on an ethereally-moderated pseudo-homeostasis and are much more actively motile than zombies, to the extent of essentially being mesotherms under periods of high exertion. However, unlike living things, they can dynamically reroute metabolic pathways to adapt to damage, and subsequently heal at an alarming passive rate- rivalling what vampires need to drink a person to achieve. This while having modified anatomies to facilitate great speed, damage resistance, and strength, with pointy bits to boot. The catch is that they still operate on some level as a system of codependent guts and organs, and are still a bit vulnerable to powerful banishments and anti-magic.
Zombies are fairly corporeal but with enough clearly anomalous properties and vulnerabilities that they're not the most corporeal. They seem to have enough of an ethereal side to essentially bypass any need for conventional homeostasis, but otherwise have a nice meaty body. Tend to follow the brain/heart/stomach rule with whatever you need to shoot to down them, though unlike Nymphs and Demons/Angels, everything you cut off is still operating until you take care of that. Some are a little more ethereal, some are a bit more corporeal- some can just stick missing parts back on like magnets or have what can broadly be described as ethereal prosthetics, others are especially resistant to banishments but need to stitch up every little scratch they get because they're not getting any help from the quasi-ethereal action figure anatomy.
Flesh Golems are the most corporeal undead, with an anatomy that is more magically jumpstarted than magically animated. They are essentially immune to banishments. Their anatomy is highly variable, and typically implements numerous redundancies, making up for the fact that they tend to need some guts to stay working. They tend to greatly outdo others in physical strength and durability, with more thorough implementation of modified traits than even relatively modified zombies can easily achieve.
Ethereal Changelings
Among the normally quite meaty Changelings, a few that lean more ethereal exist. Favoring the school that places intelligence and perception as the foremost traits of life, they've learned to master these things and currently reside in your fucking walls.
It's sort of strange because the two other kinds of Changelings are entirely corporeal- moreso than anything else listed here, they're just organisms. But here, we have ones that act on this spectrum. Some remain corporeal, but others dabble increasingly in ethereality. Mind-invaders that can weaponize perception, those that have the traits of ethereality on top of it can find a pretty good synergy to operate with, if they can give up the plan B of just jumping you and stabbing repeatedly they like to keep as security.
The scary thing here is that they're a different form of ethereality. They're not as effected by standard banishments as they should be, only impeded, not harmed. Countermeasures for them exist, and work, but seem to operate differently from the way other anti-ethereal techniques do. Anti-magic often works in an inside-out way, eroding the magical structure of the target. But here, it works outside-in, using magic around them to scald and gradually, gradually, destroy a core entity that is just... other. And we presume that that other exists within an architecture of magic, but sometimes it just doesn't work. We're frankly not sure if they're the same kind of magic as everything else, and this goes for a lot of World. They genuinely might be doing their own thing over there. Nonetheless, highly ethereal Evercall-affiliated Changelings... and whatever those things are... Seem to work like we'd expect ethereals to, being a relatively fragile but selectively tangible lattice-entity brimming with extra magical capacity.
And you know how we said banishment takes a while? Yeah, um, time is of the essence when they literally hurt to look at, so maybe get creative.
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