Hours of Power: Setting Description

This setting is a world in which a certain magic system is in place that produces this specific magical effect in everyone in that world determined by the time. This setting and magic system was created in the earliest conception of the Egocentric Concentric Circles multiversal setting. I first brainstormed this setting very early before I even had any conception of Egocentrics. It was during this initial settings that I had simply created the multiversal settings and now needed individual universes to fill the EGCC. Hours of Power and many of my other brainstorms are written down as ideas that I could potentially make into a story. Thus many of these brainstorms are written down like as Hours of Power is described below. A mere magic system or setting without any actual character or plot yet produced.

I was brainstorming different ideas for magic and setting. So one idea I had was a worlds in which your magic was tied with time. To give it a most basic idea, I simply adopted the term "Hours of Power." Everyone has this magic. It is inherent in all people. Each hour has a different power. Since I was not going to make 24 different magical powers, I decided to divide 24 by 4, and make 6 different powers that each have their own 4 hours.

To give an example, I created the first and the sixth power. You are invisible in bright light. Then I created an opposite. Instead of light going through you, making you invisible, light reflects off you, making you reflective like a mirror. Then I said, "If light reflects off you, why not everything else as well?" Thus, the 6th power also makes you invulnerable. i eventually produced the four other powers as well.

So let's say you're like me, you wake up at 5:30am. You don't feel any different until you turn on the light. In the darkness, you could barely make out hands in front of you, but now you have turned on the light. You can't see yourself in the bright light, you're invisible. But eventually, it becomes 7:00am, you become more and more opaque, fading into sight even in the bright light as you begin to glow faintly. It's not very noticeable in the bright light, but you're not invisible anymore. What is noticeable, is the power pooling together in your hands. You can fire projectiles of condensed light from your hands. It is like a paintball gun, maybe even less painful than a paintball gun. It burns for a slight moment but doesn't have lasting damage.

And this happens to everyone, this magic is not exclusive to a specific group born with magic or spent years on training. Everyone has this magic. The difference between someone that has training and someone that hasn't had training is that a trained minuteman would learned how to use these magics to their advantage. Most of the time, these powers don't seem very useful for the common person.

So this setting is based around how everyone manifests the same power during each hour of the day. And how that power changes in a specific pattern every hour of the day.

The times of the hours of power.

1. Hour of Obscurement 5am-6am, 6am-7am, 5pm-6pm, 6pm-7pm: invisible when in bright light and all sounds you make besides voice are muffled
2. Hour of Projectile 7am-8am, 4pm-5pm, 7pm-8pm, 4am-5am: glow faint dim light in all directions out a radius equal to half your height. and can fire flaming projectiles from hands that provide bare glimpses of light are harmful on impact
3. Hour of Flight 8am-9am, 3pm-4pm, 8pm-9pm, 3am-4am: glow blindingly bright in all direction out to a radius equal to your height, and an additional dim light beyond to a distance equal to your height and you gain the ability to fly but slow as your walking speed
4. Hour of Projection 9am-10am, 2pm-3pm, 9pm-10pm, 2am-3am: glow dim light in all directions out to a radius equal to half your height and you can project bright or dim light in a sphere of any radius equal to or less than your height: you can project the sphere in any location you can see, and it lasts until the end of the hour unless you choose to end it early
5. Hour of Strength 10am-11am, 1pm-2pm, 10pm-11pm, 1am-2am: become super strong and create illusory duplicates of yourself; they can speak in your voice, but they are intangible. The duplicates last until the end of the hour unless you choose to end them early.
6. Hour of Invulnerability 11am-12pm, 12pm-1pm, 11pm-12am, 12am-1am: skin becomes a reflective mirror and invulnerable

The Hours of Power without times, but simply shown in the order they appear.

So how have people adapted to these hours of power? They still need to continue with their lives despite these disruptions. Well, for one, no one has an excuse to not know what hour it is. Since everyone has these powers change with the hours, everyone must know which hour it is.

Everyone brings sunglasses for the blindingly bright light. People wear sleep masks when they go to sleep for the same reason.

Political missions occur during the hour of invulnerability.

During hours of invisibility, lights are dimmed to prevent people from sneaking around invisibly.

Firing of Projectiles is prohibited during the hour of projectiles. Only those that have a license can fire projectiles. This causes an activist movement that reacts against the repression of their innate powers. Some people think they should be allowed to fire projectiles because it is inherent in their ability to do so, and the projectiles aren’t all that dangerous.

Projection of light isn’t too regulated since it doesn’t have any immediate negative effects in mind. Bright light, mind you, is not blinding. Bright light is the light outside in the daytime. At worst, you might have to squint.

Flight is also regulated to a distance. People are not allowed to fly very high because if you’re up high when the hour ends, you fall and can get hurt. And since the flight is slow, if you are up high, you might not have enough time to fly back down before the hour ends because you fly so slowly.

Any misuse of this innate power is seen the same way that any misuse of normal human ability is in real life. It is seen as hostile and terrible. People don’t get mad if you use flight to reach the roof so you can clean your gutters. But people do get mad if you use flight to climb onto the roof of buildings without permission from the owner of the building.

Flight beyond a certain distance is seen as dangerous and is probably illegal, much like we judge those who are speeding even though we ourselves also speed.