Energy Casting: Gravity

Time for the next installment of my short series on casting types in the world of Gatekeepers. Today, we will be talking about gravity casting.

“How are you able to fly? You certainly don’t look… lighter than air.”
-Steve Lyon commenting on a gravity caster's ability to fly

Gravity casting can be used to manipulate gravitational forces in a variety of ways. The most common use is flight, and while all casting types can be used in one way or another to allow flight, gravity casting is the most efficient by far. Even the weakest of gravity casters can usually negate their own weight to make themselves lighter than air, and the most powerful can move enormous objects through the air at will over extremely large distances. As a general rule, gravity casters have a higher endurance, but a lower intensity in usage, serving as a kind of practical inversion of abilities when compared to kinetic casters.

When it comes to combat, gravity casting is considered to be a bit of an oddity. Most gravity casters are more utilitarian, but they can also be very dangerous when need be. By orbiting small objects around themselves at high speeds, gravity casters can release them as speeding projectiles with deadly accuracy. More skilled gravity casters can even bend the path of a projectile after firing by using extra gravity wells at a distance, meaning the projectiles can hone in on moving targets.

Copper ran at him, but Spoon pulled her back with a gravity field before she got too close. “Don’t be stupid! That thing will cleave you in two!”

Projectiles and the gravity casters themselves aren't the only things they can manipulate, of course. A common tactic is to simply increase the gravity of their opponent, causing them to collapse under their own weight. Other techniques include altering an opponent's direction of gravity, sending them falling horizontal or even straight up until they fall out of range. This can be disturbingly effective at killing casters who don't yet know how to cushion a lethal fall, and can at least prove highly troublesome for casters who are not practiced at moving around in mid air. For these reasons, gravity casters will frequently force opponents to face them in the air where they are at a strong advantage, especially if they are otherwise fighting a superior opponent.

The negative for gravity casters is their weak defense. Gravity energy shielding is known for being easy to punch through, making many combat oriented gravity casters a glass cannon. They work best when paired with at least one other type to run interference and cover these weaknesses.

At higher levels of gravity casting, the caster can fly faster, farther, and move more weight. It is worth noting that weightlessness is for the most part not on ongoing cost for a gravity caster; once they manage to lift something, it takes a comparably small amount of energy to keep it afloat, in a way conserving a "gravitational momentum". Moving an object in any direction also requires extra energy, but once it is moving the same principle of momentum applies. This cost does increase for large objects, though, due to air resistance actively working against them as well as more mass meaning a larger investment of energy initially.

Beyond the rather self explanatory anti gravity carts or weight reduction parcels, the most well known gravity fabrication is the gravity skiff, though technically only some parts of one actually qualify as energy fabrications. It allows more consistent travel for both gravity casters and any passengers, while providing a mobile shelter and cargo space. Specifics vary by model, but usual amenities include localized gravity to keep everyone anchored to the deck, equalized gravity controls to allow more precise controls for the pilot, and various weather and map apparatuses for long distance navigation. Though not the most common occupation for gravity casters due to it's difficulty, piloting skiffs is certainly one of the most useful and highest paying.

Fusion for gravity casters increases power and decreases the effects of wind resistance. Rather than being able to pass through walls, anything too close to a fused gravity caster will tear apart to the point where the gravity caster can effectively tunnel through anything that isn't properly reinforced against the effect. Time slows slightly as well in the immediate area around them, but these effects are so minor that their existence is more a scientific observation rather than something that can be actively used.

I think that covers the basics of gravity casting. Next, I will be talking about kinetic casting.

(Excerpts taken from one of my currently published novels)