Essence of theMystic Shroud

By drinking this sweet-tasting Essence from a heart-shaped bottle, you have developed a magical ability known as 'The Shroud'.

• 'The Shroud' is a magical symbiote of sorts that is bound to you and you alone. It's initial state is a sort of unattributed mana that you can manipulate in various ways. The easiest is by simply manifesting it physically as tendrils. This also grants you a minor talent in 'magic' in general, as well as allows you to quickly learn the basics of any 'generic' magical (or 'I Can't Believe It's Not Magic') style you encounter, or at least mimic the effects of these systems using the magical energy provided to you by the Shroud. You can also use the Shrouds energy to empower yourself directly and physically, by reinforcing your body using the Shroud itself, granting you a strength and durability beyond peak human. Initially though, the boost to strength would be akin to Captain America, and the durability boost would render your outfits akin to bulletproof material even when made of something fine like silk. The durability boost would naturally increase assuming you absorbed more powerful outfits from better materials. - i.e. something like 'Chakra' from Naruto or even 'Bending' from Avatar or 'Biotics' from Mass Effect would count as 'generic' as many can use them, but something like 'The Sharingan' from Naruto wouldn't.

• Physically, having the Shroud will immediately alter your body to the way you wished it could be, up to and including changing your gender. You will still be within 'human' bounds, but will be brought to the peak of your potential, as if you had eaten and exercised int he perfect and ideal way straight from birth.

• Mentally, you are made immune to all forms of mental and emotional effects that would seek to alter you, on a conceptual level.

• Furthermore, the addition of the Shroud to your metaphysical makeup has divorced you from fate and destiny, leaving you outside the bounds of things such as destiny manipulation, fate manipulation, precognition, and so on. By taking the Shroud within yourself, you are bound to yourself and you alone.

• You can instinctually mentally move and manipulate your shroud like you can your arms, or any other limb you've had your entire life. You might need to practice to get the finest things down, but overall their usage is intuitive and feels entirely natural to you.

• While initially you are limited to the Shroud being physical, as time goes on, and you grow stronger and more experienced, you will eventually be able to develop it into liquid, or eventually even gaseous states. This is easier for some elements than others.

• The Shroud will initially absorb whatever outfit you first wore, and will recreate it out of magical energy. You can 'add' additional mundane outfits to it's 'wardrobe' by 'feeding' them to the Shroud. Additionally, Shroud-manifested outfits will all work perfectly, regardless of aesthetic or 'impracticality', you can maneuver or outright fight or flee just fine in heels or a ballgown as the Shroud will compensate perfectly for any issues they might have caused.

• While the Shroud can initially only absorb 'mundane' outfits, it would be more accurate to say it can only adsorb mundane outfits instantly. By putting on a 'supernatural', 'magical', or 'high tech' outfit, you can slowly suffuse it with your Shroud over time, to eventually absorb it into the Shroud. Doing so will allow you to apply it's effects and benefits to similar outfits held in the Shroud, or with enough experience have your shroud appear as one outfit while giving you the benefits of, say, absorbed power armor. The amount of time it takes to absorb something will depend on how powerful you are in comparison to the outfit. For example, if you are a completely mundane, normal human (apart from the Shroud, obviously), then it would take a great deal of time to absorb a set of power armor you managed to get your hands on. Whereas if you were a Captain America-styled Supersoldier, the time would be far faster. You can increase the rate at which you absorb exotic equipment by meditating and focusing purely on absorbing it, but it will still take a while if you're trying to absorb something substantially beyond you that would greatly increase your Shroud's power. Effectively, the stronger your Shroud gets, the faster it can absorb stronger equipment.

• Given enough practice, you can apply things like enchantments (assuming you have absorbed an enchanted outfit), to any outfit you wear. Initially you will only be able to use a single effect per piece of equipment at a time (such as swapping a 'boots' enchantment to other sets of boots), but with practice you will be able to stack enchantments (like applying the enchantments from 3 different sets of boots to the same pair of boots).

• While the absorption is focused on outfits, you can, in fact, absorb weapons as long as you can hold/use them. It takes longer than if you were absorbing an outfit, but you can. Weapons that have 'ammo' (such as bows or guns), or are 'disposable' (such as throwing knives or kunai) can have the ammo or projectiles manifested from magical energy, which would dissipate after use.

• The Shroud also grants you a small 'storage space' that you can access by reaching into any pocket, or just into your clothes. This space starts moderately small, limited to about 1 cubic meter of space, but will grow in strength as you train your physical and magical strength.

• Parts of the Shroud that are cut off from you will dissipate into nothingness, regardless of anyone's attempts to prevent such. The only time it doesn't is when you actively make the attempt to 'solidify' it into something separate from you. Creating a solid piece of the Shroud separate from you will slightly weaken the overall Shroud, so initially you can only create a small amount of material, but as you grow, you will be able to create larger amounts. Once powerful enough, you could create many different permanent pieces without affecting your Shroud at all, unless they're truly massive in scale.

• Solid potions of your Shroud can carry elemental effects (And don't necessarily need to be 'solid'), such as 'solidifying' Fire from a 'Fire' Shroud to create a fire that doesn't go out.

• Additionally, the Shroud, while initially starting 'unattributed', will eventually develop towards an 'Element' of your choice. This element can be anything, even odd or esoteric ones, but all elements will have the same capability for endless growth. Furthermore, the more esoteric or, 'conceptual bullshit', an element is, the slower it will grow. Something like 'Fire', for example, for start off quite potent and grow quickly, whereas something like 'Surprise' would start fairly weak and grow slowly. No matter what, you will hold a flat immunity to the downsides or unwanted effects of your chosen element, and will also have the ability to 'drain' examples of your element that you encounter to feed and strengthen you and your Shroud. Basically, the more you try to game the system or the more 'overpowered' you would consider an element to be, the slower it will be to grow and develop. So if you choose something like 'Spacetime', then your abilities will be potent, but be weaker initially and grow far slower than someone that just chose 'Water'. All elements can develop more esoteric uses. Abilities and powers linked to your element will be far easier and more intuitive for you to learn, and beings in line with your element will look more favorably on you.

• However, the strongest and most useful ability the Shroud grants you, is the ability to create and bind others to 'Subordinate Shrouds', granting them 'their own' which is bound to yours, binding them to your will on a subconscious level. In order to bind someone, you must either defeat them and have them at your mercy, or convince them not to resist the binding process. Binding takes a moment, and some effort, so it is possible to resist, but if someone is in your clutches and helpless to escape, then you can simply try as many times as you want until it works.

• By binding someone, they are added to a sort of network centered around your own Shroud. They will feel slightly compelled, in a way they won't notice unless you point it out, to follow your commands or just act in accordance with your desires. Things like developing a subconscious preference for dressing in a way that you prefer, or styling their hair in a way you find appealing.

• Binding someone to you will also physically 'airbrush' them a bit. Not enough to make them inhuman, but enough to fix any physical ailments such as injuries or malnourishment, as well as bring them to the peak of their physical potential, the way they would have been had they been raised completely perfectly and eaten all the perfect foods and exercised perfectly. Their aesthetics and features will also very slightly shift towards being more appealing to your tastes. Not enough to warp them in a massively noticeable way, but enough that they will be slightly more attractive to you.

• Mentally, those you bind to you will always slowly develop romantic intentions towards you, and be instilled with a deep sense of loyalty towards you. They will be rendered immune to mental effects from anyone outside the network of bound individuals, but be far more susceptible to mental effects that originate from you.

• The first time you grant someone a Shroud, it will take their current outfit and absorb it, but it will also create a 'default outfit' that is based on and styled around something that best expresses themselves. - i.e. If you were to bind, say 'Supergirl' from DC, her 'Default Shroud' would end up being one of her Uniforms (whichever one you personally liked the best), or if you were to bind Sakura from Naruto, she would have an outfit based on whichever of her canon outfits you liked the best.

• Additionally, anyone you grant a Shroud to will also develop an Element that suits them. Something like a Kryptonian would be likely to develop the 'Solar' Shroud (Light/Heat/Sun), whereas someone like a Firebender would likely develop the 'Flaming' Shroud (Fire).

• With focus, you can draw on the elements of those you have bound, and develop and add them to your own, coloring your own element with their own. For example, if your element is 'Shadow' and you have a bound person with 'Fire', you could develop ways of using a sort of shadowy flame or have your shadows take on more fiery properties as you please.

• When it comes to bound individuals, you can communicate with them mentally. You can either do this directly via a form of telepathy limited to your network of bound individuals, or as a sort of 'mental chat group' akin to discord, where you can sort communications and set permissions along the network at-will.

• While all individuals are granted their own 'storage space' that starts at the size yours initially was, you can also access their storage yourself or move items around. Additionally, there is a 'shared storage space', a sort of 'guild bank' that you can access and manipulate, as well as give permission to bound individuals to access as well. Each person, including yourself, can only retrieve items from their own storage space, but you can move them between spaces at-will as the only administrator within the network, as well as giving permissions to access the shared space.

• When it comes to permissions across the network of the bound, for things such as communication and storage, you can also set certain people as having permissions as well, allowing you to create a sort of pyramid scheme or other hierarchy across your bound.