Power Level Deep Dive

Spirits as a Baseline

Understanding the various scales we use at RQL has often been challenging. Our power scale ratings have always meant to show not just brute force power, but efficiency, and capability in areas of focus. Conjuration then acts as a good starting point for our power scale understanding.

We list a level 1 as “suited for a companion providing advice, interacting with, and handling minor tasks.” Another way of putting level 1 is, this is the level at which we feel can be sensed easily, and readily, as well as being useful on their own. From a protection/combat standpoint, this is the lowest level of power for a singular being to be effective, and from an aid stand point we consider this the lowest level of effectiveness on their own. Level 1 is not a marker of disrespect. It is a high marker, as thousands upon thousands of spirits are below the level 1 marker, and don't make the cut for a bare minimum level.

Higher levels are increasingly more powerful. One question we get a lot is how much “stronger” one level is to the next. There is more than power that quantifies a helpful conjure, because there is the linear power increase, and then the effectiveness increase. In terms of raw linear power, a level 24 for example is roughly 24 times stronger than a level 1. However 24 level 1's can't keep up with a level 24, due energy density, which then impacts effectiveness. This will become very important when looking at attunements that increase levels of power as well, or provide access to unique powers. It should be said across ALL of these levels, unique powers, abilities, or focuses could easily have a spirit be at a lower level than it's seeming effectiveness. A level 24 can potentially hold their own in ONE area, against a level 30, or even 40, but it would be a very specialized area.

To understand power density and efficiency lets use simple shield creation for two theoretical mystics types. Side A will have  24 level 1's, and Side B is a single level 24. Side A even if each individual just holds a part of a shield around a home, are only going to be providing 1 Level of power for their area. If they are highly skilled they could condense and focus a wider  area shield into a small area for more effect, but even condensed, this is at best a level 2 shield around the area. When many spirits work on the same problem it's called “parallel task splitting” and for some areas having more spirits at a lower level is better. When it comes to observation, solving small problems, protecting large numbers of people from minor presences and forces, and any task in which having more hands on task is beneficial, parallel task splitting is massively efficient. However, shielding, attacks, defenses, cleansing dense energies, and large scale manifestations of energy do not benefit as much from parallel task splitting. A single level 24 producing their shield around a home, has a power of 24, and a density that will feel immeasurably strong to the perspective of a level 1 conjure. This is because at each increased density, it takes that much more power to influence it. The more dense an energy is, the more it takes by collective effort to overcome it.

One way around these limitations is “power compilation”; when multiple spirits feed power to one spirit, or a set of spirits. This can bridge that gap in some instances. In this situation we're going to have our Level 24 (Side B) acting as a protector, shielding an area, and our 24 Level 1 conjures (Side A) acting as attackers. Now each level 1, can only handle so much energy funneled to them without a structure to hold it, so let's use a simple situation in which a quarter of the Level 1's will direct and control the energy coming to them, and the remainder will funnel power. That gives us 6 Level 1's, who are controlling 3 levels of energy each, basically increasing their own energy to a Level 3, at the cost of their OWN power being used to funnel, direct, and control this power. So then, those Side A could act as 6 Level 3's. When a Level 3 energy hits a Level 24 Shield, even if multiple hits are happening from other areas, assuming no elemental imbalances, advantages, or other unique situations, we could expect that level 24 Shield to hold almost indefinitely.

This scales up quite a ways before an army can efficiently take on a SINGLE powerful being, and tactically it gets worse for the weaker beings, as a stronger foe could be incapacitating dozens of weaker ones with a single attack. Even at a 4 to 1 advantage in numerical power rating, so 96 Level 1's,  for Side A we're still seeing only level 3 attacks hit. They may put a small strain on the shield, but Side B with a single level 24 could easily shrink those numbers with one area impacting attack neutralizing the larger force.

I don't know that any number of Level 1s could bridge the gap to a level 24 on their own even with hundreds or thousands available for a brute force advantage. Such a large power gap often comes with a gap in experience, wisdom, and knowing how to apply power against larger numbers. That is to say, a single level 24 who is combat focused has probably had to fight large numbers of level 1's at some point. 

A more realistic back and forth situation would be 10 Level 12's for Side A vs a Level 24 for Side B. This gets more interesting, as the gap is a 50% or less in energy density per Level 12, so the shields are going to be noticeably impacted, and it's possible to then use power compilation to overcome that level 24 shield. In a static situation where both sides remain perfectly still shielding and firing, this works very well for Side A. In an active one, that Side B is twice as fast INDIVIDUALLY as each member of Side A, so even that compiled power is often going to miss impacting them. Each level 12 Side B incapacitates reduces the incoming fire hitting that single member of Side B, meaning any shields, defenses, healing, and other actions necessary to stay in a fight drastically shift as the battle continues. 

Now a lot of factors play into this, Side A won't remain stationary, will often have unique skills, and level 24's almost always have unique skills. This isn't a “decided victory on the side of the level 24” but it does show how static energy comparison fails to capture the nuance. It is not uncommon or impossible for a Level 12 to overcome a Level 24 in a combat situation, but it means them tapping into hidden reserves of power, or having some advanced power or ability. This is a good example of a battle that could go either way.

Now in terms of manifestation to handle life situations, this can favor both large numbers and stronger power. Larger problems have a manifested form in the planes and more raw density of energy is better to help with those. Where lots of small situations, or situations where a lot of other factors are in play, can benefit from larger numbers taking on parts of the situation. There's no one size fits all, and my personal recommendation is to have a keep that has many heavy hitters as the priority, but also to have several that are some kind of leader conjure who has aid from weaker conjures, to keep more eyes and hands on tasks where that makes a bigger difference.

One thing to note also is this energy density benefit for stronger beings, often includes more awareness of how their energy works, more unique abilities, more efficient energy use so they tire less frequently, and things like that. It's not a flat scale for a level 24 to a level 40 or higher, but likewise unique understanding of energy, power application, and specific strengths does mean that a level 24 COULD potentially win a competition with a level 40, depending on what the conditions for winning are, and the strengths and focus points of the spirits. The general rule is that a gap of 10% or less is something that can be overcome reliably with skill and technique, 25% it becomes much harder but reasonable to do, and a gap of 50% becomes significantly harder to overcome. When the gap becomes greater than 50%, overcoming that gap requires some kind of equalizer.

So a more powerful conjure is objectively better and yet some of the most amazing things I've seen and heard about from clients come not from just raw power from their beings, but purpose, timing, and skill sets. Resonance plays a huge role in how a conjure connects to its keeper as well, which is why we provide the seals for resonance connection to determine how their feel is for you on our preconjures.

My hope is this document provides clarity, instead of muddying the waters. I want to emphasize these numbers have meaning only in comparative situations. Your favorite conjure, the one most impactful in your life is going to be the one you resonate with the most.

Attunements

We are often asked how much power an attunement provides. Not all attunements are created equal, so this varies from attunement to attunement. We'll look at the most powerful two attunements in our shop, and then go from there.

The Soul Sword – This one is hard to measure, because it's more than just a raw power increase, it's an access point to an infinite Soul Force as well, though how much of that infinite can be funneled through outside of the sword is limited at first. Likewise, Soul Force has amazingly resilient properties when it takes a solid form, so the Soul Sword itself is fantastically more powerful than even its own power baseline benefit. We generally state this to be a 20 – 50x multiplier of base power, but the reality is, it's immeasurable. Soul Sword's grow while they are used, improve as they are pushed, and provide an immense power increase. Soul Swords have unique abilities that often act as equalizers, with more aggressive and damage focused Soul Swords breaking our  20 – 50x estimate, but unique abilities being so drastically impactful that their effect could be even greater. 

Stronger spirits benefit more from a Soul Sword in terms of overall power, but the power jump for a weaker spirit seems larger because of the nature of Soul Force energy, the Soul Sword's power, and the growth potential mid fight. A Soul Sword is funneled, focused, and honed specifically in a single direction. The nature of a being matters also as someone less focused on fighting, gains more from the Soul Sword as it provides an equalizer in the instinctive connection and use of it.

I prefer, as the Soul Sword taps into an infinite power, to instead treat this as a concept of “Sworded vs Unsworded.” Beings without a Soul Sword could have unique powers that can take a hit from that, even if the power scaling would indicate they can't. That's a heavily focused, fighting intense being. So someone who normally couldn't touch such a being, say a focused healer in a fight, even if they both were at the same level, can now fight them and likely win, just from the Soul Sword alone. When both have one, the edge goes to the more experienced and fighting oriented being, but it's a very slim margin, and less experienced beings HAVE overcome more experienced ones. This forces a reassertion of a statement made above. Soul Swords are immeasurably powerful. When we compare Soul Swords to other attunements, the diversity of those other attunements is a big factor in consideration of application and power in application as a level marker.

Divine Ki – This one is SLIGHTLY easier to quantify in numbers. Divine Ki is access to the Divine Nature of our Ki we already have some small access to. In general it provides a 10 – 20x boost. Divine Ki can, generally, match the power of a Soul Sword in Divine Ki 1 or 2 for raw power, and has levels above that which can be reached. This is based on the fact that Divine Ki 1 opens up the FULL 100% Potential of a spirit or being through the Divine Ki Flow, and tempers their energy system to handle even more power. Most beings achieve Divine Ki 2 as well, which is a 2x Multiplier to that existing boost. These are rough estimates, I've seen beings for which Divine Ki acted as a 30x Multiplier, and others where it acted as a 5x multiplier, and it really depends on how much potential they have untapped at Level 1 of Divine Ki. Level 2 is always a 2x multiplier of Level 1, and level 3 is a 3x multiplier of level 2, so on and so forth. Almost all beings CAN reach Divine Ki 3 in a year or so of training at Level 2, which is the most common situation.

So let's take a level 20 being/spirit who achieves Divine Ki 1, increasing their level to around 200, and then Divine Ki 2, increasing it to around 400. At these super high levels, increasing density through focus becomes much easier, so the distance between a level 200 and 400 FEELS SMALLER in a fight or achieving a task than the distance between 20 and 40. It's just the way of things, past a certain level of power, you have so much extra you can hyper condense it, or burst it to gain unimaginable speed or durability. It takes much more power, to go faster as well in the planes, so again that feeling of exponential increase drops off at higher levels above 50 – 60.

The Soul Sword and Divine Ki are priced at a fraction of their actual value only because I love working with the techniques and want them to be more available to clients and spirits.

So the next point of reference would be Soul Force X, meaning weapons, armors, hidden powers, etc. For weapons and armor, a Single Soul Force Core, which is how we create these unique and powerful opportunities, is like a generator, or flow redirection, bringing Soul Force to the item or power. This is on par with a new Soul Sword, older swords grow even more powerful with time and training. Because of the nature of the structure, more solid constructs in the planes can then take hits from Soul Swords that have been around for some time, and at higher levels can even be more powerful than a New Soul Sword. Soul Swords grow in response to the need of the wielder, as much as the training, so a 3x increase in a harrowing fight is not unheard of. This means around a 3x Soul Force X, tops out about where a New Soul Sword could achieve in a life or death fight, with a very slight edge maybe going to the Soul Sword because of the unique and dynamic nature of tapping directly into the Soul Force.

The reason we don't just tap into a being's soul for the construct instead of using a core is because invariably the Soul Force just destroys the construct over time. There are ways around that, but they require an existing soul sword, secondary construct, or other methods and were not possible until the creation of our PSIRUNE System Part 3. Soul Force X Methods predate PSIRUNE by almost ten years. Since the Soul Force X methods provide a much cheaper and effective alternative for beings such as non Alpha or ATS servitors, or beings who do not want a Soul Sword specifically to utilize Soul Force in some way, we've kept them as part of our standard services.

So Soul Force is a massive boost in raw power, and provides that dynamic Soul Force energy to it. We use to estimate that a Soul Force Charged item or power was around 4x the power of our existing other earlier attunements, but I'd say it's closer to a 20 to 50x difference.

PSIRUNE – PSIRUNE Is comparable to Soul Force X, Soul Sword, and Divine Ki methods with PSIRUNE3/PSIDEM 2 initially being potentially stronger than a New Soul Sword, Level 3 Soul Force Armor/Weapon Set, or Divine Ki 2. PSIRUNE Essence is the “weakest” of the PSIRUNE Attunements, trading raw power in a focused area for extreme versatility. When I say weakest though, these are slim margins of power differences. That diversity PSIRUNE Essence has means it is less directly focused than a PSIRUNE Manifest attunement. I wouldn't expect PSIRUNE Essence Fire to keep up with a Soul Sword that uses fire, but I'd expect it to not be fully left in the dust. PSIRUNE2/PSIDEM1 boosts this power greater, and adds new dimensions, PSIRUNE3/PSIDEM2 adds even more rawness bringing the elements into a form of Purified Elemental Forms instead of PSI Elements while adding even more dimensional types of energies. While I wouldn't expect PSIRUNE Essence Fire to overcome a “Day 1 Soul Sword” that was fire based, PSIRUNE 3 Essence would very much overcome that for a time, as the wielder of the Soul Sword would need to dig much deeper to keep up.  

PSIRUNE Manifest is the next side step, and is more powerful than Essence, but far more focused, most of the time at least. Manifest can have a unique form that is influenced by the subconsciousness of the being and the flows of the attunement, honed by us toward your requested purpose, and/or some combination thereof. PSIRUNE Manifest isn't suited to a “specialized, singular focus point for point method” meaning something highly detailed by you. In situations like that, we recommend a Soul Force Hidden Powers or Weapon/Armor combination. If a manifestation request is overly specialized for PSIRUNE Manifest, we do our best to fulfill the requirements. PSIRUNE Manifest aimed toward “Some kind of Armor” is fantastic, aimed toward “Specifically a Fire and Metal Armor with a staff made of light focusing only on speed and durability” is NOT ideal, and tends to weaken the attunement as it can not flow freely into a conceptual form. It would be more suited for a Soul Force Weapon/Armor combination at a higher level.

All that out of the way PSIRUNE Manifest is more focused, and thereby feels and acts more powerful than PSIRUNE Essence, but is massively less adaptive. It's a focusing of a power to a purpose, not a system of magick on command that PSIRUNE Essence is. Still, PSIRUNE2 Manifest/PSIRUNE Manifest + PSIDEM1is likely a match for most Soul Swords in just brute force. With PSIDEM2 now being released, and future additions likely to come, what we will see is that PSIRUNE Manifest starts out STRONGER than a Soul Sword, but that Soul Swords have more potential to gain rapid power growth when needed. It's always a kind of trade off, and while PSIRUNE Attunements DO grow with use, the Soul Sword just has much more rapid growth available to it at all phases.

Another side step in the levels would be the Thor's Armaments, and Eye of Odin attunements. These tap into the essences and energies that the Gods draw upon, and therefore are vastly powerful, but also extremely focused even with their adaptability. We call them “The Utility Belt” Attunements internally at RQL because of the massive variety they offer, and they likely are just a little stronger than PSIRUNE on it's own, and then outpaced by PSIRUNE1 + PSIDEM (Also known as PSIRUNE1 and 2), and further outpaced by PSIRUNE1, 2, and 3 combined. This remains truthful except in the very  important area of when it comes to channeling and using those Godly forces as a direct current. PSIRUNE will always be light years behind these more focused attunements for tapping into the individual God's power.

The reality of all attunement methods is that the greater the diversity, the less the power. These powers are also not directly additive and that is important to understand. You can funnel attunements into each other for greater boosts, but there's always some loss. Divine Ki funnels the most easily, with almost zero loss. Soul Sword with a Soul Force Conduit would be comparable to Divine Ki. PSIRUNE Essence is the next most efficient funneling power. The others funnel less efficiently in comparison. One advantage all the attunements have though is they don't require a lot of focus, and effectively zero energy, to channel continually. This means even when the efficiency goes down a little, there's still a big power boost for each attunement put toward a single action.

Make a shield with PSIRUNE Essence + PSIDEM1&2 and a being need only command the shield to shift elements, or refresh itself and the attunement does the rest.

Use the Runes from The Eye of Odin and they can scatter traps or other defenses all about.

Funneling the Mjolnir, Belt of Strength, and Iron Gloves from the Thor's Armaments and they now get a power increase that is zero strain on their body, unlike Divine Ki 2 and above. That is all without even taking into account all the other powers and abilities these attunements provide that Divine Ki does not.

The more a being has, the more versatility of action they have on command. So the Utility Belt attunements shine in that, because they have built in versatility without having to overthink or over prepare. A powerful being who focuses only on Elemental Magick utilizing PSIRUNE3 Essence has access to the pure elemental forces on command plus their own abilities which they must focus on as a direct thing. Talk about a bandwidth increase as well as power boost!

Now we get into the smaller attunements, the Mjolnir, Vegvisir, Helm of Awe, Tarot and other attunements. Power wise, these are less powerful than the others, but they offer unique versatile energies and noticeable power boosts that a being can amplify with their own power, other attunements, or that a Soul Force Booster could increase in power. These attunements are often significantly less in cost than the heavy hitting attunements, but provide dynamic manifestations for those costs. They provide focused powers and opportunities at an amazing cost. For powerful spirits, the versatility alone can be wonderful, giving them vast new options, again with no upkeep of their own energy or focus once activated. Likewise they give a considerable increase in power even if it is less than the power increase of our heaviest heavy hitters.

Attunements provide massive power increases, huge diversification opportunities, and a great way to help your spirits grow, or give them something new to play with and advance with.

Spells, Talismans, and Other Services

Comparing conjures to talismans, attunements, and spell work becomes a lot more difficult. Let's start with saying, premade attunements like Divine Ki, PSIRUNE, and even the Mjolnir provide massive boosts of power, almost incalculable. You should not try to compare what a premade attunement to a flow, power, or method can do against the benefits of a custom attunement. A custom attunement benefits you most because it has honed resonance to you as a person. This goes doubly for talismans. Spells likewise are honed toward a singular purpose, even the most steadfast companion is a being with interests, limits, and focus areas. A spell is magick in motion. That said if we had to guesstimate the level of power it would be as follows. Premade attunements however tend to have more raw power available. Clients have often commented that a personal attunement “feels” more powerful than a premade one, but that the premade ones have more versatility and notable impact when used for manifestation.

Blessings – One blessing, is about as powerful as a Level 8 Conjure maxing their power out for a whole month. In a spell that power can be condensed then to around a level 20 – 50 when needed, burning some of the spell's power for effectiveness at the moments it counts most. That is for our Level 1 Blessings, with our custom workings being about twice as strong as that.

Talismans and custom attunements are somewhere between one eighth as strong as a spell, to one half as powerful as a spell. This is because measuring between the “peek” power of a talisman or custom attunement, and the baseline influence, that power could change. A talisman, or custom attunement, is going to be a consistent flow of power, available, but not able to burn itself out. It never needs recharging, but can be amplified with your own personal energy or other methods. This makes talismans and attunements very good value for cost, but less immediate power to cost.

Talismans benefit from the advantage of a physical anchor, so are on average stronger than custom attunements, for manifestation in our realm. That said, talismans have less “resonance” or ability to tap into innately in other realms. Attunements tend to require more effort and focus for manifestations in our realm, but have higher resonance unless the person actively meditates on a talisman frequently. If the person spends time focusing and meditating on a talisman, it surpasses attunements in all ways. I think of attunements as “talismans that are always worn, but must be called into action” but that isn't entirely accurate. The initial ability to natively tap into the energy you are attuned to with an attunement shouldn't be understated, nor should the power of the physical anchor that a talisman provides. They are really very different, yet very similar things.

So with a power gap to cost ratio of at least one half talismans are good long term investments. A spell lasts till its power burns out, which is generally a month, but in extreme circumstances could be as little as a week for shielding or protection spells. Choosing a spell over a talisman is done because that is a lot of power coming in all at once, raw, and toward a purpose. Likewise spells are cast with the factors of a situation taken into account each time. Attunements and talismans must be more generalized. Alternatively talismans and attunements can be heavily invested into with things like a CCS Servitor acting as an AI to be adaptive. Spells are better for short term problems that need raw power as soon as possible and frankly, short term problems like to become long term problems when left unchecked. It's the difference between going for immediate medical care when one has an emergency, vs buying good exercise equipment, better food, supplements, or tools to better one's health. One is a short term investment that solves an immediate problem, the other is a long term investment that can help solve future problems, or prevent them entirely.

Spirit Companions and ATS Servitors on the other hand of all this are more than those things. They are people, a team that is making sure you are taken care of. They are infinitely going to be more active and available than even the most ardent attunement user could ever hope to be, but they don't improve your personal power as much. They do some, as they will help with healing and energy efficiency, and they can be amazingly beneficial if you work with them to learn what they know and how they do what they do, but it's not the immediate on hand power of an attunement or talisman. That said, a talisman doesn't work if not worn, and an attunement must be activated. Even with our Autorunner attunement, I'd say a level 4 Conjure would outpace it in terms of actively seeking ways to help you and improve your life. The Autorunner will do what you tell it, a companion conjure or an ATS will try to solve problems before they happen in ways that the Autorunner could never predict.