Flair

Flair, otherwise known as (才能 Sainō, lit. talent) or the Flair Phenomenon, Flair Virus is a special trait that a person can have outside of their own racial features.

A flair is unique to its user, and they are categorized in 4 types. A flair lets its user have one ability, which is unique to them. It is not possible to have multiple flairs, or multiple distinct abilities, as former abilities merge together to make a new flair in heredity.

Background
The flair is confirmed to be a mutative virus, that affects the ether membrane in a living being's body, creating an appendix that stocks ether for its own use. The more advanced and integrated into a species' living system, the more potent it becomes by letting itself create bigger appendices after generations of mutations.

The origins of the virus comes from a laboratory research (Vector Labs), about 1000 to 500 years prior to the events of GALAXYFANTASY on how to give civilisations that live within the Federation's perimeter super powers, or powers that can make use of ether. It was spear-headed by unknown scientists who stole Altissian Orb technology from the Ancient civilisation on NANUETTA-HF. The capability of the orbs, which is to give a unique attribute or ability to the equipment or weaponry it is put on, was transferred to a living organism which can then give the same effects of an orb, but within a living being's body.

Once the virus created, much like a vaccine, a dead version of it was developed in order to inject it to the First Generation of what would become Flair Users, because it was observed that giving the fully potent virus to a patient result in a 90% chance of death from the virus destroying the body within. The First Generation of Flair Users would be most of the miktamkind species and civilisations living within the Milkdomeda Galaxy because of humans bearing resentment for their peers, they wanted them to be the first beta testers of the technology.

Not all civilisations have adapted to the Flair phenomenon which can create a great cultural shock when the phenomenon reaches advanced stages of evolution within a species. The Star Academy Initiative, which is a sub-section of the Shevat Protocol was put into place to help the Shevat Faction for a liberation movement against the Federation, whom are not aware of the uprising due to the fact that it was disguised as a Guild who would help citizens across the Federation.

Though after many centennials, the origins of the phenomenon is shrouded in mystery, as the introduction to it was rather secretive and lowkey, the common consensus is for a natural occurrence, while there is a niche school of thought that theorises about the conspiracy that it was indeed created by the Federation, that all the species across the galaxy getting it at the same time cannot be just a coincidence, knowing that the Flair Virus cannot be transmitted virally but only by heredity.

Currently, about 60% of the total Federation population bear the Flair within their bodies, the metric is heavily skewed against planets and civilisations that do not possess Flair Users, such as NANUETTA-HF, known to be incompatible with the virus, or the immensely populated Kapteyn-B planet where the Animalian species group are not deemed worthy to bear Flairs yet, due to their low intelligence. A standard was created by the Federation themselves, which classes Flair into different categories of expression and the method of expression, as well as having a common database for all Flair Users to register their Flair in.

Flair Information
As a Flair is part of someone's body, it is not far fetched to assume it is a physical ability foremost. Just like how someone can train and workout to become stronger, more intelligent or be proficient at their hobby, a flair can be trained and worn out. However just like exhaustion or physical damage, a flair can give drawbacks and can damage the holder if it is being overused, which can range from a migraine, nausea, light-headedness, vomiting to passing out and breaking body parts such as bones or tearing muscles apart.

Although very rare, non-humans can bear a flair, such as animals or monsters/beasts. The most widely known case of an animal receiving a flair is Akkala Serathie, a student from the Star Academy. She has become more of an anthropomorphic dog that can stand on two feet, while being the most intelligent of all students due to her flair Reason.

Flair Check-Up
A flair starts its expression at the same time as puberty in most, if not all species concerned, which revolves in the age range of 6 to 18 depending on the species. Some may express their Flair earlier than puberty or later, however it is puberty that biologically triggers the Flair's expression and lets the user be able to express it. In most cases, either the child learns from the parents how the expression works and can be triggered, or the child may have to learn and figure out by themselves.

As a common medical practise within civilisations that have the Flair Phenomenon well integrated in society, a Flair Check-Up is practised once the child start expressing the Flair for the first time. 9 times out of 10, it is triggered by accident, or during one. Upon the Check-Up, the child will try to express the Flair in front of a Flair Specialist, who will create a report to be sent at the Federation Flair Database. Several things are decided in this visit: the Flair Type, which is the easiest to identify, then its subtype which may require an additional visit to make a final decision on, and finally the Expression Ranking, which should be pretty clear from the beginning with or without any training.

In that report, is also filed the Flair Ancestry which traces back the origins of the Flair within the family, which usually implies that parents need to be present upon Flair Check-Ups, and provide their name and Flair which is then found in the Database, and the link is established. This is a good method to learn how certain Flairs obtained certain abilities and properties because of the heredity nature of it.

Heredity
Flairs can be inherited genetically through Mendelian inheritance. A child may have the father's flair, or the mother's flair, or a new composite of both by fusion. Sometimes, the inheritance may not be homogenous which can make it like someone may have two flairs, such as Kyuubi's Mirage, being able to both shapeshift and have mind control.

There is also the possibility that, a child may not receive any of their parent's Flairs. In that scenario, the child may get labelled as Flairless, just like the civilisations where the phenomenon has not occurred yet.

Flair Incompatibility
Some species and some individuals may not be able to receive Flairs. This may be due to either the child not receiving either Flairs of the parents', or the fact that the individual's body is actively rejecting the virus.

The notable race to be immune to the Flair Phenomenon is the Ancient civilisation, on NANUETTA-HF. After many decades of trials, the Federation was not capable of introducing the phenomenon to that civilisation, which points to their biology not accepting the virus. Their artificial lifeforms, the Realians are also known to not be able to hold a Flair, by the simple fact that they aren't working on biology but via minerology, so the Flair Virus cannot even comprehend how to invade this kind of environment.

Only a single Ancient individual was able to be compatible with the Flair Virus, who is Praxis, one of Seraphelle's Meisters, holding the Photon Flair.

Seraphelle notably is a Flairless individual. Despite seemingly having a Flair in Season 1 and two Flairs in Season 2, it is learned that Seraphelle's Jewel Core never merged with the Virus that would have made her a natural Flair Holder. Instead, the Flairs were stored temporarily in her Core until she reset herself. Afterwards, she loses both the Apocrypha and Origin Flairs she used to have.

Marriage and Eugenics
It is not uncommon, for civilisations that have gotten the phenomenon for a couple generations to consider marriage depending on the partner's Flair, so the children may have a combination of the two which can result in a much higher than normal Expression Rank. This train of thought is endorsed by the fact that the Federation has favouritism towards higher Flair Expression Ranked individuals to be enrolled for work. Working at the Federation is seen as a prestigious and wealthy title that people may want to get the benefits of, via their children.

In certain civilisations, the idea of having a designer child with the perfect Flair is pushed to the extremes, as seen with Anaelle's Thrones family, their selectively breed many generation of not only pure-bred Seraphims, but also the most expressive flairs among them. This resulted in the planned birth of Anaelle and Araelle, both having the immensely expressive flair Benevolence, while having a horrendous health situation which made the both of them extremely weak, prone to illness, and shortened lifespan because of the genetic disorder pile they have.

In another case, Leïla was specifically born and design to test a Federation made Jewel Core system, while also designing the perfect flair to get along with it, that grants immortality. It is currently the only case of a lab-made child, but the success of the operation creates the possibility of a market where people could have children with the exact features they want, as well as the exact Flair they want the child to have. The only downside of Leïla's Rewind, is that she is immortal on all aspects: her Flair has frozen her body's growth and age, and it rewinds it to a previous state of perfection whenever it is slightly, or heavily damaged. Her heart has an irregular beat, but the Flair and her pacemaker regulate it.

The idea of Flair eugenics is a highly debated topic among Flair civilisations, some embrace the idea, some resent it by banning the motive of marriage for Flair combination.

Common Flairs
With how many people have a Flair in the Federation, there is bound to be a frequency of Flairs that are common and very close in what they can do, they are called Common Flairs. These Flairs often make the majority of Flair Users, which reduces the effect of individuality within civilisations that have the phenomenon.


 * Size Change: Flairs that allow the change of somebody's size in height, weight or scale.
 * Shapeshift: Flairs that allow limited to unlimited forms of shape shifting and mimicking.
 * Manipulation: Flairs that allow the manipulation of an element or objects, such as telekinesis or elemental manipulation.
 * Regeneration: Flairs that allow healing of the body at accelerated rates.

Flair Awakening
Flair Awakening is a term that refers to a Flair's sudden evolution within the same holder of the Flair. This often results in the doubling in Flair Expression and having new aspects of the ability that was not known to be possible.

The first case of Flair Awakening happens to Crimson's Conduction. Her usual Flair Expression is restricted to her own body temperature, however after undergoing Awakening, she can be seen expressing her flair throughout other bodies such as objects, people and even air. This pushed her Flair Expression Ranking from C to A, as she still need to initiate the expression within her body, would she not need to start from hers, but any body around her would put the expression at a solid S rank.

Flair Singularity
Species that have been harbouring Flairs for many generations, are seen to have naturally more and more expressive Flairs. There is a common running theory about "Singularity".

The Singularity refers to a point where the Flair is so expressive that their users may not be able to control them anymore, or be destroyed by the Flair. Because there is a clear biological limit as to how expressive a Flair can be, the theory is well supported by a good amount of the scientific community.

Two cases of the Singularity have happened so far:


 * A holder of a naturally S-ranked Flair has reached the fabled Z-rank, previously thought impossible. This resulted in the holder's body bursting, as the Flair destroyed the individual within due to excess ether.
 * Another holder, this time of a X-ranked Flair has managed to reach the Z-rank as well, however after the first instance before, the holder went into heavy medical detention that starves the Flair Appendix in order to not make the user's body burst, but at the same time, suppresses the Flair.

The second holder is undergoing massive studies of Z-rank and Singularity research. Early conclusions confirm the theory of Flairs becoming uncontrollable at a certain point, however the two instances of it happening were not naturally of these ranks.

Another school of thought rejects that theory: The biological body where the flair inhabit should naturally adapt to the Flair's increasing expressiveness, which has been proven when Flair holders have undergone training. The body adapts slowly to the Flair, but a sudden increase in expression does not let the body adapt, which created the two situations above. They emit the theory that around the Generational Stage 6, children will have natural Z-ranked flairs, and their bodies right from birth will be able to adapt until it can be expressed. These children however are expected to have very short lifespans, the worse scenario would be 10 years after the start of the Flair's first expression.

Along with that theory is that at this point, the Flair Phenomenon will stall out; it will no longer get more expressive. This theory is supported by the conspiracy that the Flair Virus was created in a laboratory. The full potency of the Flair Virus was probably of a Z-rank expressiveness, which explains why the death rate is so high: the body does not adapt to the virus as it is simply too expressive, which is why the Federation would start injecting it to populations with a dead form of it, around the D-rank level of expression.

Generational Effect on Flairs
As mentioned earlier, each generation that pass down their Flair get to pass a naturally stronger Flair than they were born with, which creates a generational divide. The dangerous side effect of generational improvement may be cultural, or about the Singularity above.

Some civilisations already developed methods of suppressing a Flair may they become too expressive generations after, in forms of pills, injections or surgery. The current limit for them is the X Expressive Rank, at this point holders that have a Flair this potent and expressive may go under Flair Suppression Therapy.

A current timeline of events and stages before getting into the Singularity was put into place, for people and civilisations to get a good idea of how close the danger can be, and take the appropriate measures:


 *  Generation Stage 1:  All flairs are first generation and are introduced to a species. This means all flairs are naturally D-rank . The Flair holders will also naturally try to control and train them.
 *  Generation Stage 2:  Second generation of flairs, that are following the first generation, see themselves stockpiled multiple flairs at the same time if a child receives both parents’ flairs, and the training of expression is also passed down. In this generation, Flairs are naturally C-rank .
 *  Generation Stage 3 (current in GALAXYFANTASY):  Third generation of Flairs, the effects seen on the second generation are amplified and flairs are starting to become very flexible and cover a lot of functions. These Flairs are naturally born B-rank, this is also the point where techniques, skills and expressions are seriously passed down from parent to children. Current day is in this late stage, with a close to start on stage 4 in the oncoming decades.
 *  Generation Stage 4 (10 years after GALAXYFANTASY) : Fourth generation of Flairs, where Flairs are starting to have a tangible effect on biology and how the bodies accept them. With all the previous Flairs stockpiled, it creates a new form of flairs, being “homogenous” where the differences between the older Flairs are blending in, creating one powerful Flair. These are naturally born A-rank, and we are starting to see it happening, as late stage 3 is closing the gap.
 *  Generation Stage 5:  Fifth and most dangerous generation of flairs, where not only the Flairs have grown to be immensely more expressive over the generations, these Flairs are giving tangible disturbances to space and time. Anyone that trains them is dangerously close to the Singularity, as their flair are born S-rank or X-rank . Despite currently being in late stage 3, those born with those are either coming from a family that selectively and intensely trained and bred flairs, they’re also ones that are known to have struck the jackpot on the biological flair lottery currently.
 * Generation Stage 6 (Singularity): The sixth, and probably last generation of flairs, where they are close or naturally born Z-rank, which means nobody can actually control them, as they may disturb the fabric of existence itself. These flairs take over the body of their host, which ends up in uncontrollable triggers, or complete self-destruction of the body. Nobody has been naturally born with a Z-rank yet, and these children are expected to barely live with them.

Notable Examples within the Star Academy Students
Autumn, Frost, Coralie, Charlotte and Arden are well born within the Late Generation Stage 3, which consists of the current majority of young teens, with natural B-ranked Flairs in terms of expressiveness.

Leïla, Albanam, Lilith, Dorothea and Bellion are the first occurrences of Generation Stage 4, with a naturally born A-rank flair. The Federation expects young teens of the next decade to be the majority like them.

Dessert, Akkala, Erza, Éclair, Kyuubi and Anaelle are the ones that won the flair lottery, by being Generation Stage 5 while the current stage is 3. They come from heavily bred and selected powerful flairs, mostly royal families, nobility and warriors. They’re also the first generation of Elites naturally born S-rank. The Shevat Faction expects all Elites to be naturally born X-rank in at least 30 years.

Seraphelle is technically speaking a Generation Stage 6 according to her body ether information. However the Federation denies it and puts hers in Stage 5 along with the others, lying about her flair truly being Z-rank that she can control and merely downplays as a strong X-rank flair. Her flair is that expressive because it is the direct powers of the almighty Goddess Lady Melia, bestowed to her temporarily.

Flair Expression
A Flair's Expression, refers to the traits, physical, mental and genetical that composes a Flair. It represents its amount of power and how it is triggered biologically.

Flairs naturally get more expressive as they are passed down in heredity, which can create various cultural effects such as eugenics (trying to conceive a child with a perfect flair combination), a surge in criminal activity and with it a surge of benevolent rescue. This phenomenon is known as Generations and it is easy by looking at somebody's base Flair Expression Rank to guess their civilisation's current Generation and how much it was passed down.

Flair Ranking
In the Flair Standard, the expressiveness of a flair is ranked from D (least expressive) to X (extremely expressive), also known as Flair Expression Ranking. It is not directly correlated to the amount of firepower one flair has, but rather  how extensive can the flair be in a scenario , which explains how Akkala's Reason is ranked S, while Coralie's Weathering is only at rank B. Akkala's Flair is much more expressive than Coralie's, which gives her a greater extent of use of her flair with intelligence, even if Coralie's flair has more power output by controlling the surrounding weather and be very destructive.

It is possible through training to make a Flair more expressive, which in terms get it a rank higher or two at maximum, but the reverse is also true; a Flair may get less expressive due to injuries or damaging the Flair beyond recovery, which can result in its permanent suppression. The higher the rank is, the harder it is to generally improve a Flair's expressiveness. The Ranking Table is known to be logarithmic, which means that each rank is tenfold from each other. By example, a A-Ranked Flair is 10 times more expressive than a B-Ranked one, while being 100 times more expressive than a C-Ranked one, and 10 times less expressive than S-Ranked Flair.

Flair Categories and Subcategories
The Flair Standard includes the Expression Rank, but also the known types of Flairs by their method expressions, as well as how potent their expressiveness within their type is.

For that Standard, the Ranking have known letter labels, but the Categories have each their own badge which makes Flair easily identifiable along with their name of what they consist. The badges are standard and even are used by the Star Academy as uniform badges.

There are 4 known categories of Flairs by method of expression; Emissive, Transformative, Permutative and Accumulative. The subcategories are Basic, Intermediate and Advanced depending on how expressive the method is.

Emissive Flairs
Flairs that give the ability to generate, or control a concept, its basis or its fundamentals. This allows for a variety of properties and abilities. They require a conscious effort to be activated, sometimes it can also ask a certain amount of concentration or state of mind.Most of the Emissive type of Flairs have a clear limit on how they can emit their Flair, whether it's by physical contact or not, and when overusing it creates serious drawbacks, which can be harmful towards the holder. It also makes use of the stored Ether within the body or the Flair Appendix to convert it into the Flair's expression. As an example, Lymée's Lightening requires her to focus on how to materialise Light Matter and how to make use of it, meanwhile biologically the Flair will convert the stored Ether within Lymée's body into Light Matter which she can then express. Overusing her Flair will result in light-headedness and passing out due to Ether drainage. As for Bellion, whom Flair is essentially the same with Dark Matter (Darkening), his body cannot sustain heavy exposure to the element, which in terms harms his body after overuse.

Emissive Flairs due to their nature are the most common type of Flairs.

 Notable Emissive Flairs: "You can alternatively, see the list of all Emissive Flairs below."


 * Fonderie Friandise, from Dessert de la Pâtisserie ;
 * Awakening, from Frost Lupo ;
 * Lightening, from Lymée Heart ;
 * Darkening, from Bellion ;
 * Hell Prominence, from Erza Solaris ;
 * Purgatory Crash, from Éclair Solaris.

Transformative Flairs
Flairs that give the ability to temporarily change the holder's physical or mental properties, or those around the holder. Similar to Emissive Flairs, they require a conscious effort to be activated, sometimes it can also ask a certain amount of concentration or state of mind, it creates physical strain to use this type of Flair, which ultimately ends in the deactivation of such after overuse, reverting the changes made by the Flair back to its original state.

Most of the Transformative type of Flairs have a clear limit on how they can transform themselves and those around them, whether it's by physical contact or not, and when overusing it creates serious drawbacks, which can be harmful towards the holder. It also makes use of the stored Ether within the body or the Flair Appendix to convert it into the Flair's expression. As an example, Autumn can turn herself invisible and intangible for a certain amount of time thanks to Boo!, she can also turn people or objects she comes in contact with the same, but it takes more Ether to use the Flair, which makes her more vulnerable and get fatigued easier. If she overuses her Flair, her ghost membrane will start to have a burning and paralysing feeling to it, due to the Flair trying to apply the transformation with a lack of Ether to sustain it.

Transformative Flairs are the second most common type of Flairs.

 Notable Transformative Flairs: "You can alternatively, see the list of all Transformative Flairs below."


 * Rewind, from Leïla Bethalzar de Timpanii ;


 * Alchemy, from Hal-P9 9000S ;
 * Nanoshrooms, from Arden Boleti ;
 * Boo!, from Autumn von Booh ;

Permutative Flairs
Flairs that have permanently mutated the holder's body, and allow them to change it even more, whether it's permanent or temporary. Unlike Emissive Flairs, it does not require conscious effort to activate it, as the Flairs act more passively since they already affected the body permanently. As for the further changes, only the initial change and the reverting processes require a conscious activation, but it does not demand for constant concentration in the changed state, unlike Transformative Flairs.

They're sometimes also referred as mutative flairs, as they greatly change the holder's appearance in a permanent manner since either birth, or puberty during the Flair's first expression.This type of flair is known to be the least dangerous to the holder as it makes one with the body, permanently changing it, and the further changes made are well within what the physical body is capable of doing. In case of overuse, it would be that the changes are happening too much too often which causes body fatigue or vomiting. As an example, Crimson, with her Conduction flair can change her body temperature to extreme heat or extreme cold, but her Flair made her scales and her inner body at high temperature already, which is hot enough to vaporise water on skin contact. She can fine tune her temperature with her Flair, and it only takes her effort to change it, not to sustain it, which means if she wants to be at absolute zero temperature, she will have to make a considerable effort to get to that temperature, then she can stay at it forever if she wants to. She gets tired and passes out if she changes her temperature too suddenly too much, as her body cannot adapt fast enough.

Permutative Flairs are quite common, but not as much as Emissive nor Transformative Flairs.

 Notable Permutative Flairs: "You can alternatively, see the list of all Permutative Flairs below."


 * Conduction, from Crimson Cherith ;
 * Xenlon, from Albanam Styrmling ;
 * Mirage, from Kyuubi Cometae ;
 * Stretch, from Albion Brassica.

Accumulative Flairs
Accumulative flairs are quite recent in the history of the Flair Phenomenon. It seems to be tied to high expressiveness, as no accumulative Flair below Rank A has ever been found, which means it's quite exclusive to the new Generation of Flair Holders and the future ones. It is not known if this type of Flair will be common in the future, because of it's extreme scarcity. It accumulates a concept or something within the holder's body without an active effort, holds, releases or converts it into something else to be expressed. Only the Expression is where conscious effort is needed.

A lot of people mistake it with Emissive Flairs due to being quite new without having much knowledge on it, but it acts differently from Emissive Flairs because the Flair not only stockpile Ether for its expression, but the concepts it can absorb and accumulate, to either release it as such, or as a converted expression. It means that while by example Erza can generate fire out of nowhere, Seraphelle can only generate fire if she accumulated Erza's fire or her Flair. As an example, Anaelle's Benevolence Flair, she can accumulate Flairs around her, without her knowledge, she does ultimately know what she has stored once she wants to use her Flair, and if she wants to store a specific Flair of a specific amount, she will need an active effort to do so. She can release the accumulated Flair as is, as if she has the Flair of somebody else, transfer it to someone, or convert it into Ether energy that then can be released or transferred. The act of using the accumulated contents of the Flair is what also requires conscious effort and activation of the Flair. The major drawback of this type of Flair is that the holder's body is not adequate to use certain accumulated contents. Anaelle does not use Crimson's Conduction because her body is not adapted for it, and would result in an internal burn or freeze of her organs. Seraphelle on the other hand, goes through pain and strenuous efforts to channel her wielders' Flairs within her and to release them, which results in immediate physical harm such as burnt skin, wounds and such.

Accumulative Flairs are exceedingly rare, less than 100 out of trillions of Flair Users have a registered Accumulative Flair.

 Notable Transformative Flairs: "You can alternatively, see the list of all Emissive Flairs below."


 * Apocrypha, from Seraphelle Clochette ;
 * Benevolence, from Anaelle ;
 * Reason, from Akkala Serathie ;
 * Origin, from Seraphelle Clochette in Season 2.

Flair Badge and Naming
As part of the Flair Standard, individuals get to name and select a colour for their Flair Badge, while keeping in mind that the badge they're given is probably definitive because a Flair does not change its method of expression. However, the name and colour of the Flair Badge, can be changed at any moment and at any time by the individuals. All of them are stored within the Flair Database the Federation is hosting for Flair Civilisations.

The current trend for colour choice is either the colour that the Flair expresses, part of a body colour such as hair, skin or Ether or just somebody's favourite colour. The most prominent out of all of them is how the Flair expresses because it's easy for people to make a mental image with the corresponding name.

In GALAXYFANTASY
The Star Academy, and sub-sequentially the Shevat Protocol, require its students and civilians to wear a physical 3D-print of their Flair Badge, in order to recognise them, as they deem the Flair more important than a name. This way, a quest can be hastily attributed to someone with the corresponding Flair Type. For civilisations that are under the Shevat Protocol, they all put the Flair Badge and name on their ID cards.

Example of a Flair Badge: REWIND
Leïla's flair first started to express at age 9, as she started her puberty. Upon her Flair Check-Up she noticed that her body froze her biological state and restored immediately after she got a wound. She realised that she was also able to alter slightly her genes, and the Flair expresses itself with green Ether energy.

Thus, Leïla named her Flair Rewind, with a green badge, depicting the Flair's expression colour. Upon entering the Star Academy, Leïla gave her ID, along with it her Flair Data. This allowed to create about 10 badges representative of Leïla's Flair that she must wear all the time as a Star Academy Student. The Flair Badge is bioluminescent, and emits the same light as the one Leïla chose 10 years prior for her Flair.

List of Flairs
This section, provides a complete listing of all Flairs that can be found in the world of KOSMOS and GALAXYFANTASY. As more characters are created and designed, they may get their own Flair as well, which will be added here."The pictures have a link to the proper pages for the Flairs and their Holders. They will be automatically updated as new pages go online. You can click on them to access the pages if they exist."