I have a fantasy world where the lord of the Underworld has granted some of the elite special powers. And I'm stuck as to what powers this should be. I was hoping some of you could give me some ideas, inspiration maybe? Essentially, my lord of the Underworld has the power to manipulate physical things. He can, for example, give you a second mouth by manipulating your flesh. He granted my main villain a self-healing immortal body. But he cannot create anything new, just manipulating existing things and change them. I need special powers that are a lower tier to the self-healing immortal body that my villain has, but that is nonetheless valuable. These powers should all relate to manipulating the physical realm. There're 3 groups of elite. So far, this is what I have for the first two groups: 1. The minor teachers of my world gets the power to transform non-living things into something else, as long as the material is related. So for example they might change ordinary rock into marble, or cotton into silk, something like that. (they cannot make food as that relates to living material) 2. The priests of my world gets the power to heal flesh wounds and ease pain, causing the people to believe a priest's blessings have the power to heal or ensure safe childbirth etc. They cannot cure diseases and cannot heal life-threatening injuries. Their influence is mostly on muscles and tissues, and little on organs. So those two are sorted. Here's where I'm stuck - the third type of power. I have a High Priest who rules the country. He should have something that's greater than the priests and less than what my villain has, but that is nonetheless restricted to the physical. He cannot give life. I'm not sure what sort of power he could have when restricted to the idea of manipulating with the physical world.
Perhaps your head priest could have the ability to mend all flesh, or the ability to manipulate it telepathically. Some what reminiscent of "Blood Bending" from Avatar the Last Airbender, but able to do so with all living tissues. Could have some cool or gruesome scenes with that ability.
Just a small side note, organs are tissues too. As for the power, I always liked seeing things, like past, present and future, maybe in a mirror or some other device, ability to zoom in on people, see what they are doing, or seeing, stuff like that. And ability to command their thoughts and actions, sort of like posession.
If you want to keep all the powers physical, and not enter the realm of the psychic/spiritual, the how about making your third group the elite military, and all their powers affect their own bodies: fighters who can boost their strength, speed and endurance, spies who can enhance their own senses, or even alter their appearance.
Ooh thank you guys, you've all given me such good ideas! I particularly liked [MENTION=38020]ManOrAstroMan[/MENTION] the elite military idea, and also [MENTION=35110]jazzabel[/MENTION] with the ability to spy on people - I do in fact have a mirror portal in existence in my book, so it could work. The spying idea would make my High Priest feel a little like god, which fits well with my story. The elite military would fit well too since there's a war going on and I've really been struggling with how mankind was ever meant to fight a bunch of demons... I might take them both The ideas of destroying flesh also sounds fun, but I'm not sure I want my people to fear my High Priest. I'd rather it was something more constructive. Thanks again guys!
Hi, What about the power to transform people, say turn a man into a woman or a short man into a giant. Cheers, Greg.
Thomas Kitchen: LOL Burlbird: Thanks for pointing that out. You're totally right. Hmmm, maybe I can break the rule by saying they can manipulate any non-sentient things? Psychochick: Thanks for your idea! Cog: All I have for you is... BLEH! (imagine a very petulant child sticking her entire tongue out at you. Incidentally, that would be an awesome power indeed )
