Category:Energy

Energy is required to do work of any kind what so ever. A ghost uses energy to move whether the creature is in the near ethereal or has manifested.

In the case of undead with no physiological feeding requirements, say a ghost or a zombie, all the negative energy they will ever need is supplied to them via their connection with the Negative Energy Plane. Were this connection to be temporarilly severed they would become perfectly inert. Indeed a vampire struck through the heart with a stake has most probably had its connection with the Negative Energy Plane temporarialy severed and it remains inert as long as the stake remains in place. Undead with physiological feeding requirements can be starved of energy, variously weakening them severely, rendeing them inert, or destroying them outright.

Outsiders are living incarnations of "ideals" and cannot be starved of energy and thereby destroyed.

Elementals, either through a connection with the elemental planes or as the living incarnation of a particular element, cannot be starved of energy and thereby destroyed. An elemental sufficiently exposed to negative energy can, however, be radically altered, becoming at once a shadow of its former self and gaining a potent connection to the Negative Energy Plane.

Constructs, unlike outsiders, are not living incarnations of "ideals". Nor are they elementals, although it has been suggested that the animation of a golem entails effectively the binding of the spirit of an elemental. In the case of dread golems, born of dark desire rather than potent magic, an elemental or a magical motive force is more difficult to envision. Whatever the truth of the matter, constructs cannot be starved of energy and thereby destroyed.

All other creatures can be starved to death which is to say denied of energy to the point where they cease to be.

Plants are thoroughly dependent on light energy, although some use of chemical energy is common enough.

Other living creatures are thoroughly dependent on chemical energy, overwelmingly derived from other living creatures including plants.

In above ground ecosystems, light energy from the sun is the ultimate source of chemical energy for the living. In subterrenean ecosystems, chemical energy, obtained by fungi and micro-organisms from the rock itself and especially from sites of volcanism, is the ultimate source of energy for the living.

Machines in the Land of Mists have long functioned via kinetic energy supplied by their users, slaves, domesticated animals, or even the undead. Kinetic energy supplied by wind or water is the rule in mills, although its supply by the undead is not unknown. Steam engines can make use of the chemical energy of wood but operate far more efficiently exploiting the greater chemical energy contained in coal. Blast furnaces would be imposible without the greater energy content of coal. Lightning is used to charge batteries and provide electrical energy to power machines in a mere handful of cases.