Explain yourself, Cozy!

I've received feedback on how I could elaborate on the parts where Katachi uses his Word of Power, 定, to people who did not understand Chinese. I've also got feedback to explain on how the Words of Power are supposed to work.

My answer : I really can't.

I mean, I could if I wanted to, but that's... That's a bit early for me to explain. Also, that's actually related to the lore of the story extensively. If I say too much, then I'd be throwing out spoilers. If I don't say enough, then you still won't understand.

Hoo boy. Here comes the balancing game where I, Cozy, with my friend and assistant T.W. do our best to explain this bit.

Okay, see here - The Words of Power are in Chinese.

In Chinese, a word can have many, many different meanings.

Let's take one of the Chinese words for example. (I'm not using this example for the Word of Power, so yeah, it's not really spoilers).

傲.

This character, 傲, by itself means "proud". When used in a term 骄傲, it also means "proud".

However, this word, 傲, can be used differently.

傲慢 is an example of it. 傲慢 means "arrogant". I know how people who purely read the dictionary without actually learning Chinese would say "Hey Cozy, arrogant and proud are the same!"

Well, not... exactly. To understand the Words of Power, you need to understand Chinese.

In Chinese, 骄傲 can actually be interpreted as a positive term. "我为你感到骄傲!" can be read as "I'm so proud of you!", which is actually a good thing.

傲慢, however, is a purely negative term, because it refers to a person being prideful.

So, let's say, for example, Katachi uses 傲慢 on a person, to make his personality warped and extremely arrogant. That person will be arrogant and haughty, in a negative way. However, if he chooses to use 骄傲, that person will be proud and vain, but depending on the person's mood and belief itself, can either tilt the person towards a good, or a bad kind of 'proud'.

Also, in English, we have 3 terms to describe intensity. That would be good, better, best. Bad, worse, worst.

In Chinese... Well, it can actually go up to 5 terms to describe intensity for some words. Just know that much for now.

Most words, for example, 定, can actually be used alone without adding excessive cloud words. Alone, most words already have a meaning, so they can be used raw, like how Katachi used this word on Bertund's desk as a demonstration.

The only problem is, that words like that are rarely, if at all, useful. Words like that either have a rubbish meaning, have an awkward meaning, or just have a meaning that can only be utilized under specific circumstances.

The meaning of the word is applied onto the object the word is currently on. There is no actual set area of effect, nor is there a limit on how long it can be sustained there. That's why it's really overpowered - But not impossible to defeat.

If, for example, 藏 had been left alone on the ground, the 藏 might have a tiny area of effect, like the radius of a tiny pebble. It could be that, or it could be something gigantic like the scale of a whole city. That would mean the entire city would vanish without a trace the moment the word activates. Quite an amazing feat, actually, but nobody would appreciate it because it's considered an uncontrolled force of nature when it's not picked up / absorbed by anyone.

That meant it was either completely useless or it was a harbinger of destruction they had to locate quickly before things go awry. It's not impossible, but it is rare for there to be circumstances where the words produce a positive effect. A word that's not picked up either does nothing, or causes a distortion in nature. The Words of Power are, after all, made in a way that they disrupt nature.

If you would ask me to clarify myself, think of it as something similar to a recent game, Scribblenauts.

That game allows you to create objects by typing the word associated with the object. However, you can also add adjectives onto the object to make it unique (e.g. making a lobster "cooked"). The Words of Power essentially works under the same principle, but think of it as playing that game with a keyboard missing some of its keys.

You may want to make something "magical", but you need m, a, g, i, c, and l to make the word. Problem is, your Word of Power only provides characters like b, e, k, l, t, and y. You can only form words of specific meaning, like 'yell', 'belt', and such, but you can't make 'magical' because you are lacking m, a, g, i and c.

That's essentially it. Any meaning that the word cannot make out cannot be created by the word. The reverse is true as well, though - Any meaning the word CAN invoke is able to be created.