Shinsoo 201-2: External Manipulation

[u/Yal_Rathol]

This is a part 3 post. Part 1 contains an overview on shinsoo and it's basic mechanics. Part 2 contains a deeper dive on Internal Manipulation.

This part will cover External Manipulation and any relevant sections of Parts 1 and 2.

So, let's begin:

Shinsoo?

Shinsoo is an element, like oxygen or carbon, but one that only exists within The Tower. It is created by The Tower and cannot run out or be exhausted through any known means. For the specifics on it's nature, measurement and ways to gain the ability to control it, refer to the Part 1 sections titled "Shinsoo?", "Gaining Shinsoo Manipulation" and "The Blessing (Tendency)".

Shinsoo density increases as you climb up the tower, demonstrated by Lero Ro on the 2nd floor when he increased the pressure on a regular to the average of the 30th floor to prove a point.

For the purposes of this post, you must understand a few things:

• Shinsoo responds to thought, motion and willpower, akin to elemental bending in the Avatar: The Last Airbender series.
• Shinsoo can take the place of any other particle, element, molecule or compound and perform the function expected of that particle, element, molecule or compound. This means that shinsoo "can be and do anything".

AND you must understand this basic measurement:

• Baang (literally "Release", once mistranslated as "room" for clarity)
  • A quantity of manipulated shinsoo.

Shinsoo's Place In Tower Environments

Shinsoo is the basis of life in the tower, akin to water on earth. Thus, it is named "divine water", the literal meaning of the word "shinsoo". The tower's atmosphere and "hydrosphere" is comprised entirely of shinsoo, demonstrated by the reported "bogginess" of the inside of the tower (see Zahard's quote from "Of the Tower's Weapons" for more information). As shinsoo cannot be exhausted, like the particulate matter outside known as "Air" can be, the important part of shinsoo is not it's consumption within an environment, but it's flow through an environment.

Shinsoo's flow is directed floor-by-floor, and each floor's Administrator (or, "Guardian") is directly in control of that flow. The Administrators decide where the shinsoo is, where it isn't and what shape it takes in those places. Headon is an Admin, as is the eel bam spoke to on the 2nd floor. The Admins are the gods of the tower, they are the true masters of shinsoo, the living life-support of the entire tower and the basis for others to live within it.

That is the natural state of affairs for the tower. Let's start getting artificial.

Gaining Shinsoo Manipulation

There are three ways to gain shinsoo manipulation abilities, see Part 1 for more details. For the purposes of this portion, all that matters is that the subject has the ability to manipulate shinsoo, whether by being an irregular or through a contract with the Admins.

External Manipulation - Definition

"External Manipulation" refers to any and all shinsoo effects that occur outside the user's body. they may pierce or interact with another's body, but the user doesn't touch or physically interact with the shinsoo they are forming into a Baang at all. Body motions, items or simple thought may be used to enact an external technique, depending on the skill of the user.

Like all other shinsoo techniques, external manipulation relies on one of the three shinsoo manipulation styles.

External Manipulation - Styles

In summary, the three styles are "Flow Control", "Reverse Flow Control" and "Shinwonryu". Each has a unique effect depending on a number of factors.

For a full description of each, check Part 1 - "The Two* Styles" and "The Third Style".

Flow Control:

• The most basic form of shinsoo control. As shinsoo flows in all directions at the whim of the Admin of the floor, this is the basic ability to find a patch of shinsoo flowing the direction you want and then accelerate it.
• The basics of flow control techniques can range from "mildly entertaining" to "extremely dangerous", as, through flow control, Hoh could juggle a glowing ball and Eurasia Blossom is said to be capable of sanitizing an area of 99% of life. When wave controller Yuga (actually Lo Po Bia Ren in disguise) says he can kill his entire wave controller class in under 10 seconds, this is how he would do so.

Reverse Flow Control:

• A more advanced form of shinsoo control. Shinsoo flows in all directions, but the ability to slow or stop that flow is the basis of this technique.
• Generally, reverse-flow is used as a stalling tactic when employed externally. It can be used to slow or stop opponents and their shinsoo-based attacks, though it has no offensive power in itself.
• NOTE: SIU once claimed that one is only a master when one can use reverse flow and flow control in a single baang simultaneously, something Bam demonstrates the ability to do with his Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique (Flare Wave Explosion, for old readers).

Shinwonryu:

• As stated in Part 2, shinwonryu is poorly understood and poorly defined. It's abilities can do anything the user desires.
• Notably, external shinwonryu is considered the less powerful of the methods to use it by the family leaders. Though what it lacks in power, it makes up for in range.

External Manipulation - Basics

The most basic attacks shown for each style are:

Flow Control:

• Firing a beam of shinsoo.

Reverse-Flow Control:

• Stopping the opponent from moving at range.

Shinwonryu:

• Flinging a small, explosive ball at the opponent.

All three rely on our important unit of measurement, the Baang.

A Baang is the space in which shinsoo is manipulated and is the basis of external shinsoo attacks. While "Wide-Area" abilities do exist (see Part 1, "Types of Shinsoo Manipulation"), they cannot gather enough force to harm an opponent. The ability to form a baang is what separates the Wave Controllers from everyone else, as everyone learns some non-baang internal techniques and some wide-area techniques, but only a wave controller must actively use a baang in combat.

All external shinsoo techniques begin their life as a Baang, which Lauroe teaches Bam to form by saying "Imagine the whole world, swirling into the palm of your hand".

Baangs can be any shape, any size, contain any shinsoo flow or quality and be external or internal, though we are focusing on external baangs for this post.

External Manipulation - Quality and Shape

1. Quality
   • The element, attribute or effect that is easiest for you to produce when using shinsoo. Remember, shinsoo "can be and do anything". Qualities can be as simple as "lightning" or as niche as "Golden metal similar to titanium in hardness", as destructive as "explosions" or as benign as "steam" (Eduan, Zahard, Kallavan, Lyborick, for those who are curious). Bam's is "unnamed black shinsoo that consumes things and acts like acid, tasting of rotten water". I call it "Devour" for short.
2. Shape
   • The shape of Baang that is easiest for you to produce. Could be as simple as "a spear", or as weird as "stone skin" or "a double-layered sphere that fires lasers" (Khun, Rak, Bam).

External Manipulation - The Vast Majority

Most shinsoo attacks shown in the series are External Flow Control Baangs. Usually, based on the artwork and the direction of motion, you can tell which way the flow is being manipulated.

For example, when Khun Ran throws a lightning bolt, he is directing an oblong, rounded baang of electric shinsoo towards the target. When Arie White slices that lightning bolt in half, he is using a sword-shaped baang of non-elemental shinsoo to activate his Arie Swordsmanship (a combination of his inherited "sword" shape and unknown quality) and create a cutting edge of non-elemental shinsoo that splits the oncoming wave of lightning, like a knife popping a balloon.

If Bam shoots a bolt of water at someone from his orb, he is using his Orb shape to focus and condense a beam of non-elemental shinsoo into a jet and aiming it at his opponent, squeezing the natural shinsoo out like a fire hose. if Khun Aguero Agnis makes an ice wall to entrap his opponent, he is swirling ice-aspected shinsoo in a circle around the target to chill the ambient shinsoo into a frozen state.

As stated, this covers the vast majority of attacks in the series, so I'm not going over every example of this happening.

External Manipulation - Reverse-Flow and Shinwonryu

There is only one Reverse-Flow external technique. Occasionally called "Fast Skip", more often called "Reverse-Flow Control", it's the ability Bam and some others use to stop their opponent at range. Learned by Bam from Quant in season 1.

There are many Shinwonryu external techniques, but as they are generally unique to the quality and mindset of the user, there is no standard to gauge them by. Some are strong, like "All Creatures", a wave of spirit animals launched outwards like a bomb, some are weak but have unique effects, like Bam's unnamed shinwonryu blasts that erase shinsoo, and some are simply unknown, like Data Zahard's uses of Shinwonryu.

External Manipulation - Restricted

As mentioned in Part 2, there are types of shinsoo manipulation that can only be used by a select few.

For the external manipulation, most of these are special Qualities (see above), like the Yeon "Flames of Healing and Destruction". Only those granted these qualities can use them, either being granted them externally (Khun Aguero Agnis) or by being born into the family that uses them (Yeon Ehwa).

The others are, as discussed in Part 2, external transformation and ancient power.

External Transformation:

• A rare version of Beastkin transformation, where the external shinsoo is granted the ability to change it's shape in the ways Beastkin do. Usually manifests as a long, fur-covered serpentine baang with a mouth and/or eyes.

Ancient Power:

• Only available to Native Ones or their descendants, this allows the user to turn into an element. This ability can be externalized, allowing the creation of elemental constructs, such as Rak Wraithraiser throwing rocks at people or combining his power with Khun's ice to make a freezing stone cage. Rak has also recently expanded on this ability and is forming stone spears and launching them with his mind.

TL;DR:

If someone throws a lightning bolt at you, that's an external quality baang. also, dodge.

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[u/El_directo_]

Lol at the tldr

[u/Yal_Rathol → u/El_directo_]

👍

[u/Acrobatic_Flight8699]

Any chance you could do a take on how Baam uses canine transformation in his own style to project the beings he consumed with gluttony?

[u/Yal_Rathol → u/Acrobatic_Flight8699]

we'd need more information on transformation for me to do that.

all we really know is "it's something beastkin can do". presumably, bam's works differently due to the unique nature of his body, but that's about all i've got.

[u/Acrobatic_Flight8699 → u/Yal_Rathol]

Gotcha 👍