Why Spells Are Not Restricted
SPELLS & FEATS IN NOVERA (CHIPS)
In Novera, what other worlds would call spells are known as Technique Chips.
This distinction is not cosmetic.
It is ideological, mechanical, and deliberate.
Technique Chips are unrestricted.
Ability Chips are not.
Novera does not regulate power.
It regulates permanence.
Ability Chips alter how a being exists.
They change:
Movement baselines
Physical limits
System interaction rules
Survival assumptions
Once installed, an Ability Chip becomes part of the user’s ongoing operational state.
It affects every moment, whether the user intends it or not.
Because of this, Ability Chips:
Shape infrastructure expectations
Disrupt predictive systems
Alter social and mechanical balance
They are therefore licensed, restricted, or monitored.
Technique Chips alter what happens during a deliberate action.
They:
Activate only when chosen
Consume resources
End when executed
Leave consequences, not constants
A Technique Chip does not redefine the user.
It defines a moment.
Once that moment ends, the system returns to baseline assumptions.
This is why Technique Chips are treated as assertions, not violations.
From the perspective of Novera’s surviving systems:
Anyone can act
Anyone can attempt force
Anyone can fail
Technique Chips simply encode how efficiently someone asserts intent.
They do not:
Permanently bypass safeguards
Rewrite permissions
Undermine predictive baselines long-term
Even the most extreme Technique Chip:
Happens once
Ends
Can be responded to afterward
Authority can adapt to actions.
Authority cannot tolerate constant exceptions.
Early post-Fall Steward councils attempted to regulate all advanced execution modules equally.
The result was catastrophic.
By attempting to restrict momentary force, they:
Criminalized self-defense
Encouraged black-market improvisation
Lost control of escalation entirely
Eventually, a consensus emerged:
“We cannot stop people from acting.
We can only decide which actions change the rules afterward.”
Technique Chips were reclassified as:
Unrestricted
Traceable
Consequence-bearing
Ability Chips remained controlled.
This framework has never fully collapsed since.
Citadel systems officially state:
Technique Chips are legal at all tiers
Responsibility lies with the user
Repercussions follow misuse, not possession
An Authority operative may carry devastating Technique Chips.
What they are not permitted to do is:
Permanently alter themselves without oversight
Install assumption-breaking Ability Chips without sanction
In Citadel logic:
Action is manageable.
Exception is not.
Waybreakers understand the difference instinctively.
Technique Chips are tools.
Ability Chips are statements.
Most Waybreakers will freely experiment with Techniques while being far more cautious—or intentional—about Ability Chip installation.
The truly dangerous individuals are not those with powerful Techniques.
They are those who have decided:
“I should not be bound by the same rules tomorrow.”
It is important to note:
There are no illegal Technique Chips
There are only consequences
A Technique may be horrifying, destructive, or destabilizing.
But once it ends, the system still exists.
Dark Ability Chips do not end.
That is the line Novera draws.
Technique Chips ask:
“What will you do right now?”
Ability Chips ask:
“What rules do you believe should always apply to you?”
Novera allows the first question freely.
The second is where civilizations fracture.
And that is why spells—Technique Chips—are unrestricted.