Long before her name was linked to the Crystallines, the Aetheri and the manifestations of Essence that arise all over Arcanum, Celys belonged to an ancient line of scholars whose history went back to the first years after the Rupture of Reality.
While other families preserved combat techniques, arcane secrets or ancestral pacts, the women of her line kept a far rarer knowledge: the art of Essence Shaping.
Unlike conventional magic, which used Anima as fuel to change the world, Essence Shaping sought something deeper. Its practitioners believed Anima could be refined, understood and guided until it revealed its purest form, becoming what they called Essence.
It was a delicate practice.
Difficult.
And extremely rare.
From childhood, Celys showed an unusual affinity for this gift. While other apprentices took years to shape small fragments of Essence, she could do it almost by instinct. Invisible currents seemed to respond to her presence. Crystals appeared spontaneously during her exercises. At times, even her family struggled to grasp the extent of her talent.
But for Celys, that was never enough.
She wasn't content with just practicing Shaping.
She wanted to understand it.
She wanted to know where Essence came from.
Why it existed.
Why it seemed so different from every other form of magic.
Over the years, her curiosity turned into fascination.
Then into obsession.
And finally into devotion.
She spent whole days studying the invisible patterns of Anima. She forgot meals during experiments. She stayed awake through entire nights watching small fragments of Essence float before her eyes, as if gazing at the stars of a private universe.
To many, it seemed exhausting.
To Celys, it was the greatest joy there could be.
The more she learned, the more enchanted she became.
The more enchanted she became, the more she wanted to learn.
Essence itself became her constant companion, her inspiration and, for some, her true passion.
It was during this period that she began to champion a theory considered controversial in Arcus.
Celys believed women had a naturally deeper connection with Anima. Not because they were more powerful, but because they noticed patterns most scholars ignored. To her, the sensitivity needed to understand Essence demanded a different way of seeing the world.
That conviction led her to found a small school devoted entirely to the study of Essence Shaping.
Unlike the great academies of Arcus, which took in hundreds of students every year, Celys accepted only a few apprentices at a time. She chose each one personally and demanded of them not just discipline, but also curiosity, sensitivity and respect for the force they sought to understand.
Many gave up.
Some failed.
Very few stayed.
Those who made it were changed forever.
Under her guidance came scholars, shapers and researchers who would devote their lives to Essence. Some became influential figures. Others vanished on expeditions and experiments. All of them, without exception, carried part of Celys's teachings.
It was through this research that the first reliable records of the Aetheri and the Crystallines appeared, beings that seemed to live in perfect harmony with the flows of Essence. To many, they were just arcane curiosities. To Celys, they were evidence of something far greater.
She came to believe that Essence was not just a force of creation.
It was the very language in which creation had been written.
An idea so grand that it consumed decades of her life.
Even today, scholars debate whether Celys was right or whether her passion for Essence led her to see patterns where there were none.
But those who visit the halls of her old school tend to describe the same feeling.
A strange impression that everything around is connected by invisible threads.
As if reality had a hidden structure waiting to be understood.
Perhaps that is exactly what Celys spent her whole life trying to teach.
Or perhaps she is still searching for the answer.
To be continued...