Essence of theNegative

The fluid in this Essence looks almost like mercury or some kind of mirror-liquid, but your reflection in the liquid doesn’t quite seem to match up to the real you. Drinking it causes a dreadful cold to ensnare your entire body for a moment.

• You gain a one-time resculpt of your body within human limits. This can affect age, gender, appearance, physical statistics, and remove any physical or mental maladies that you wish gone.

• Upon consumption of the essence, the embodiment of some negative aspect of your being manifests within the world you are in. You may decide what negative aspect this being represents, whether it be doubt, fear, anger or even just all of your negative feelings, or let it be chosen at random. Even if you are a negatively-aligned being, traits that you would consider bad or ‘negative’ are the ones that can manifest. Notably, if you select the random option there is a high chance that the emotion selected will be a main inhibiting factor in many of your goals as well as your happiness, whether directly or not.

• This negative being will always look like a version of you that has been twisted somehow, whether it be a simple color-change, or a demonic version, or some other change.

• This being will try and remove the problems that cause the majority of it’s associated negativity, even if it means standing in the way of your goals, though it can eventually be convinced to stand aside with a sufficient show of logic and/or willpower. If you accept the aspect they represent and impress your will to continue on regardless, you might even convince them to join you. Still, with most major issues there will be multiple confrontations between you before either of these can happen, and with the latter there will definitely be some kind of climactic standoff.

• The negative being will have an inverted version of whatever powers and abilities you have, in addition to powers related to whatever negative aspect you have chosen. They will also gain matching powers as you get them, meaning that they will always be naturally stronger than you (but not unbeatably so) thanks to having access to their aspect as well. It will also manage to follow you wherever you go if you try and leave it behind.

• It can also become selectively intangible and imperceptible to everyone but you, so long as you aren't actively fighting it.

• This negative being is a part of you, and while it can have different opinions or perspectives on things, it will always remain aligned with you in some way. It might try and stop you from going on a quest because it thinks you aren’t strong enough, for example. This also means that it cannot die as long as you still have the capacity for whatever negativity it represents; it’ll just come right back as though it was just put to sleep instead.

• If you manage to get the negative being on your side, you’ll not only be able to act and use your powers in perfect collaboration with each other, but if your desires align well enough you’ll be able to temporarily fuse together into a singular being with a power far greater than the sum of its parts. While this is happening, you will become two beings in one mind, able to communicate with a thought and feel what the other does seamlessly. The time you can spend like this is limited by how in-sync you are with your negative self, but there is no cooldown or tiredness associated with it. Repeatedly fusing is something you could easily do no matter how synced you are.

• If you become so synced that you are able to stay fused for a full day, you will be able to stay fused with your negative self perpetually. This will be heralded by a change in appearance of your fused self and another boost in combined power, to the point where your former fused self wouldn’t stand a chance against you in this state. This form is your ‘true self’ and is considered as such by anything that identifies or uses the concept. You and your negative self will become one and the same, merging thought and consciousness and becoming whole in earnest whilst fused.

• Once you have returned to your True Self, you can split into two beings again at any time you want, as well as just split mentally like before you achieved your true self, and you can maintain either of these states for as long as you want.

• Optionally, you may have a negative self split off from you every time you have significant issues caused by your negative emotions.