| Originally Posted by Selene Starblade five years ago Section One: What is this stuff, anyways?
Very often, in an anime or other martial-arts related fiction, one martial artist or another will perform an act that is quite simply outside of the realm of normal physical possibility. This ranges from jumping more than five feet off of the ground to throwing balls of raw energy to moving faster than sound unaided. These are all expressions of a personal power generated by each and every person, called ‘chi’ or ‘ki’.
It is generally accepted that one has to be very much attuned to oneself in the physical or psychic sense to express this ability in any noticeable fashion. Please note that by ‘psychic’, I mean to indicate related to the mind, not to psionic powers.
Anyways, only the most trained of martial artists, the most skilled and/or powerful, are able to perform superhuman feats using their chi or ki on a conscious basis. Anyone can use their chi or ki unconsciously, however, it will generally be unfocused and relatively ineffective. Furthermore, without training in chi or ki use, the body will not generate significant amounts of the energy on its own. There are, of course, exceptions. In the “Dragon Ball” universes, for instance, the race known as the Saiyajin have the innate ability to not only generate, but effectively use, large amounts of chi. They also turn into generally uncontrollable giant monkeys at the sight of the moon, though, so this is, perhaps, excusable.
Regardless, the best way to explain chi and ki is as the physical or semi-physical manifestation of a person’s willpower. The stronger the will of an individual, the more energy is generated. Furthermore, as demonstrated by the Mouko Takabisha and Shishi Houkoudan, chi can be affected to an incredible level by emotion. Rather like diluting wine with water, emotion can be expended along with the chi, allowing the chi user to effectively use more chi. However, like diluting wine with water, the energy becomes less rich, less stable, as it were, and its overall effectiveness is cut to a certain degree.
Thence comes the distinction between ki and chi. It is generally accepted that, while chi is always ‘flavored’ by emotion, ki is pure willpower, undiluted. Thus, a certain amount of ki is roughly ten times as effective in performing a given task as the same amount of chi. At first, this seems to make no sense, as chi’s dilution can vary, depending on how strongly the chi user is feeling the emotion. However, there is a certain ‘saturation limit’ beyond which the power of chi does not decrease with the continuing influx of emotion. Fortunately for chi users, this limit is practically the only power at which chi functions. Furthermore, while expending chi can be very tiring, expending one’s ki can be very dangerous.
When using ‘emotion-powered’ chi, once the user has spent the emotion, burned it all out, they cannot draw on more chi without switching which emotion they are focusing on. Thus, while someone using all of their chi becomes temporarily emotionless and unable to use chi-based effects, they are still alive, and are not the least bit physically tired from the chi itself. They will have lost much of their will to do things, but that is all.
Ki, on the other hand, is considerably more dangerous to use extensively. First off, as a purer form of energy, it is harder to control. As one handling nitroglycerin has to be more careful than one handling a bag of gunpowder, so is it with ki and chi. Second off, while chi can be absorbed, due to its emotional nature, ki is considerably more difficult to absorb. This means that, while someone on their guard can keep from being damaged by their own chi attacks, someone using ki needs to be very careful not to hurt themselves. Finally, ki, being the wielder’s actual willpower, is extremely mentally draining. If someone were to use up their entire store of ki, they would have no will to live, and their body would immediately cease functioning properly. This, most likely, would result in death. |