- Joined
- Aug 17, 2013
- Messages
- 1,211
- Reaction score
- 5,914
- Age
- 32
- Gender
- Male
- Country
-
Hi everybody!
and welcome to this thread which I hope would become a good reference about the mechanisms of nen
.The aim is to create a simplified reference explaining and summarizing everything we know about nen! I know wikia exists already, but why not make our own? simpler and better
!The true goal is to reach the topic about the six Hatsu categories, and eventually reach an agreement on how they work.I hope you'll enjoy it
Table of contents:
- Awakening to nen.
- Four (plus one) major principles of nen.
- Mechanisms of Hatsu.
- Advanced applications of the four principles.
- Aura quantification.
Chapter One: Awakening to Nen
What is Nen?
Nen is a psychic power _power of the will_ that grants its user supernatural abilities. It stems from controlling the energy called Aura.
In theory, anybody can potentially use Nen if they go through enough training and receive the right guidance. Those who do are/become distinguished individuals; often seen as geniuses, great leaders or legends. The benefits they receive from Nen are countless, the least of which are superhuman strength and resilience, youthfulness and a signature supernatural ability (Nen ability).What is Nen?
Nen is a psychic power _power of the will_ that grants its user supernatural abilities. It stems from controlling the energy called Aura.
The power of Nen is greatly influenced by the psyche of its user, resonating with their wishes, drives and tastes. The more focused and determined the user is, the stronger their Nen becomes.
Nen can be extremely dangerous (specifically in the hands of evil individuals and/or with questionable moralities), therefore information about Nen is kept away from the general public.
Learning how to use Nen is in general a tedious and lengthy process, requiring copious amounts of diligent training. However, there are a select few who unconsciously develop special Nen abilities without going through the learning process, but usually they don't get the full benefits of Nen.
What is Aura?
Aura is a (life) energy, a physical manifestation of stamina and presence. Aura is the power source of Nen. It is present within every living creature, trapped in the body. A small amount of Aura constantly leaks out through microscopic openings called aura nodes. These aura nodes are normally barely open, hence the small leakage.Outside of the body, Aura looks like glowing steam, and can only be seen by Nen users.
How to become a Nen user?
To use Nen one needs to summon forth their Aura and control it via special techniques called the four major principles. The starting point is getting access to Aura; one must open up their aura nodes and let loose aura from within their body. There are two methods to do this:- Through daily meditation, one learns how to sense their aura and open up every node at will. This is known as the natural method for awakening Nen, and takes about a year for an average person.
- Through Nen baptism, where a Nen user third party uses their own Aura to shock the aura nodes of the target and forces them open. This method is highly frowned upon as it might cause serious damage if the Baptizer is inexperienced or has ill intentions.
Simultaneously to opening the aura nodes, one needs to learn how to telekinetically keep the released aura around the body, otherwise the user will pass out from fatigue once all of their aura has left their body. This technique is known as Ten, the first of the major principles.
At this point of the learning process, one is able to see aura and its byproducts, and can also turn on and off their Nen.
The next step is learning to build up higher quantities of aura and control its flow, then use that aura to develop their own signature supernatural power, a.k.a Nen ability.
Properties of Aura
I. Emotions carrier:
Aura can reflect upon the emotional state of its user, making their current emotions perceivable by other Nen users. Depending on the nature of the thoughts/emotions and the overall strength of their owner, their aura will give off a feeling to others that varies from soothing and warm to foul and unpleasant. This is in particular true for violent thoughts and emotions (such as anger, bloodlust...), which can be overwhelming and stressful to others, to various degrees. It is possible to suppress the emotions away from aura, making it feel neutral.I. Emotions carrier:
II. Sensory:
Aura enables the user to feel everything which makes contact with it. This property is at the essence of the En technique.
Nen after death
Aura doesn't necessarily leave its user's corpse after their death. In some occasions it even gets stronger; this is known as "Nen getting stronger after death". This mostly happens when the user that died had a strong grudge or hatred towards someone. Their hatred-powered-aura will then seek the target of the grudge to curse them, which can be lethal. This kind of aura remains forever, unless exorcized. This stronger aura might also carry out specific commands its user left for it before dying.Chapter Two: Four (plus one) Major principles of Nen
The four major principals of nen, namely Ten, Ren, Zetsu and Hatsu, are the basic techniques for controlling the flow of aura and developing Nen abilities. They are crucial to the mastery of Nen. Gyô will also be added to this list despite not officially being listed as one of the major principles. This is because it is a fundamental skill in aura control, adding a new and independent effect to the four major principles.
Ten
Allows the user to surround objects with Aura. In particular, it is used to maintain aura around the body and to prevent it from escaping. An object/body shroud by aura has its resilience enhanced, and its youth preserved. Being shroud by aura feels like being inside lukewarm water or wearing light invisible clothes.Ren
The skill to burst out aura through the Aura nodes, resulting in the release of a greater amount of aura than normal. Diligent daily practice of Ren increases the aura output and shortens the necessary time to build it up.
Zetsu
Hatsu
Lets the user create supernatural effects (Nen abilities) that fall into six categories: Enhancement, Transmutation, Emission, Conjuration, Manipulation and Specialization. Examples of such Hatsu abilities: Ultra-powerful punches that leave craters, doppelgangers, turning aura into electricity, teleportation, etc... Some of these powers are simple and straightforward, while others are tied by complex rules or strict restrictions.
Activating Hatsu consumes aura, and requires the user to deploy sufficiently large amounts of it, usually through Ren.
Gyô
Consists on focusing aura on a local part of the body, resulting in a relatively higher amount of aura on that part. A particular use of Gyô is concentrating aura on the eyes to see through invisible aura.
Chapter Three: Mechanisms of Hatsu
I. Hatsu and Nen abilities:
Hatsu is the technique that uses aura to perform Nen abilities, i.e. supernatural effects that fall into six categories. For example reinforcing the resilience of objects or materializing entities with special powers. Some of these abilities are simple enough that most Nen users can acquire through hard word.
Nen abilities are a Nen user's trump card in confrontations. Their mastery requires a great deal of brain power and memory (think of it as the equivalent of learning a very specialized and complex topic or skill in real life), which is why nen users usually opt for one ability. Nen abilities are in fact immensly influenced by their user's personal dispositions, preferences and talents. In fact, the more compatible an ability is with one's preferrences (and Hatsu category, see below), the better and powerful it gets.
Q: Can I create the same ability as somebody else ?
A: It's possible, but it is not guaranteed you'll get the same effectiveness, simply because of the difference in personal dispositions and compatibilities.
Q: Can I create several nen abilities?
A: Yes and no. This is due to the limited human memory. Mastering and remembering a nen ability takes "space" in the human memory. Basically, complex abilities take up more "space", and abilities which are incompatible with one's preferences and talents are even more demanding on memory. This is why compatible abilities are highly recommended. If one runs out of memory "space", then he'll start forgetting other concepts.
During the creation of a Nen ability, the user gets to predefine its rules and restrictions. Due to the profoundness of Nen, the user themselves might not fully grasp its mechanisms and functionalities (especially for complex abilities from the Conjuration or Specialization categories, see below), thus would resort to experimentation to study it. Nen abilities may also manifest uncouncsiously outside of their user's knowledge, usually in response to some of their strong wishes. One can also modify and tweak his nen ability later on.
II. Hatsu categories:
Hatsu is split into six distinct categories:
Enhancement, Transmutation, Conjuration, Manipulation, Emission, Specialization, which fit in the following compatibility diagram:
Every individual is born with an innate affinity with one of the Hatsu categories. Such a category will be called the "personal/own category" (also, if for example Enhancement is A's personal category, then A will be called an Enhancer).
It is determined by using "water divination". A nen user is most confortable and compatible with skills from his own category, followed by categories neighboring his own, whereas he has the least compatibility with categories further from his own. For instance for an Enhancer, he's compatible the most with Enhancement, Transmutation and Emission, while for a Manipulator; he's more compatible with Emission and Conjuration.
The Specialization category is an exception, in the sense that one needs to be born a specilist in order to learn Specialization skills. in general, non specialists have zero compatibility with this exceptional category; However, Manipulators and Conjurers have a slight chance to turn into Specialists.
III. Learning and using Nen abilities:
One starts with the simplest and easiest abilities, then make their way up the complexity ladder by increasing their mastery level of each category (think of a category's mastery level as experience and proficiency in handling the mechanisms of said category).
Each nen skill demands the nen user to be at certain mastery level (of a category) in order to learn it. The more advanced the skill is, the higher level it requires. The mastery level, for each category, increases when the user goes through appropriate series of training and masters affordable nen skills.
For example within the Emission category, skills such as detaching aura from the body and projecting it are quite basic and will be learned first, while transporting space is quite a complex skill and would require the user to be at a higher mastery level in order to acquire it.
Nen users can learn all nen skills falling into their own category, and with relative ease. They can also learn skills from other Hatsu categories than their own (with the exception of specialization skills), however there are certain limitations involved. These limitations affect:
- The learning difficulty,
- the mastery level, and thus the amount of acquirable skills,
- and the level of effectiveness and potency of an acquired skill.
Let's explain each point with an explicit example. Let's take a generic Conjurer then (everything applies the same to any other category):
1/ A conjurer would find Conjuration skills the easiest to learn, followed by transmutation skills. Enhancement and Manipulation skills would be slightly difficult to learn, and he'll struggle to acquire Emission skills.
2/ A Conjurer can pretty much learn all Conjuration nen skills (just by maximizing his conjuration mastery level). However, the amount of skills he can acquire from other categories is limited by his conjuration mastery level:
Suppose our Conjurer is at a certain mastery level in his own category, say Level X. Then his mastery level overall would look like this:
This implies that the more mastery one achieves in his own category, the more he can learn from other categories (but never reaching completion!). For instance even if our conjurer manages to maximize his conjuration level (implying that he could acquire all the skills from his category), then his Enhancement level would stop at a lower point allowing him to learn only a bit more than half of all Enhancement skills, and not the most complex!
(The rates in the diagram are always 100% for the personal category, 80% for adjacent categories, then 60%, and finally 40% for the category in the opposite edge. For non, specialists the rate is always 0%).
3/ The rate of potency and effectiveness of acquired skills (i.e. how powerful they are), in a Conjurer's case (let's call him Kurapika), is as such:
(N. P. E.=Normal Potency and Effectiveness, which is the potency achieved when the skill's category matches one's personal category)
Remember that our conjurer (Kurapika) at level 10 conjuration mastery implies that his Emission mastery should only be at 40% of level 10, which is level 4 in this case. That's why an Emitter with only a level 4 mastery was needed in order to compare their skills.
Let's take 6 nen users, one from each category: An Enhancer, a Transmuter, a Conjurer, an Emitter, a Manipulator and a Specialist. Suppose all of them have the same aura prowess, and that they have mastered the following nen skills:
- Reinforcement of the toughness of the body (Enhancement).
- Shooting aura from the index finger, just like a bullet (Emission).
- Shrouding an object with aura and moving it around telekinethically (Manipulation).
- Shaping aura into something like a sword (Transmutation).
- Materializing on a surface a picture of a tiger (Conjuration).
- Their enhanced toughness will be tested by shooting each one of them in the abdomen with the same 9mm gun. Here is how they take it:
- The enhancer, in a Ten state, gets only lightly scratched by the gunshot and the bullet bounces off his skin.
- The transmuter and emitter, in a Ten state, get a small wound from the gunshot, but the bullet still bounces off.
- The conjurer and manipulator, in a Ten state, get a moderate wound and the bullet shallowly pierces their flesh.
- The specialist, in a Ten state, gets significantly wounded by the bullet.
- We shall then test their emission strength, by having them shoot their nen bullet through a very thick wall of cement. We then measure the depth of the hole the shot had made:
- The emitter's shot made a 150cm long hole through the wall.
- The enhancer and manipulator's shot made a 120cm long hole.
- The transmuter and specialist's shot left a 90cm long hole.
- The conjurer's shot left just a 60cm long hole.
- For the manipulation test, we give them a rope, and we ask them to hold one of its ends and make complicated knots telekinetically:
- The manipulator's control over the rope was so precise that he could eventually make any kind of knot.
- The specialist and emitter's control was less precise, as they struggled a lot to make the most complicated knots.
- The enhancer and conjurer couldn't make the most complicated knots, but made it through the rest.
- The transmuter could only make simple knots with his sloppy control.
- This time we ask the nen users to cut through a pile of 7 bricks of steel with their transmuted aura sword:
- The transmuter's sword was so sharp it cut through 6 out of 7 bricks.
- The enhancer and the conjurer cut through 4 bricks and almost made it through the fifth.
- The specialist and emitter cut 3 bricks, and left a cutting mark on the fouth.
- The manipulator could only cut through two of the bricks, and left a shallow cutting mark on the third.
- Now we judge their conjuration skill effectiveness by the sharpness of the details of the picture they materialized:
- The conjurer's picture of the tiger was so clear and sharp you would think it was the mirror reflection of an actual tiger.
- The transmuter and specialist's pic was still of good quality.
- The manipulator and enhancer's picture had some blurry details.
- The emitter's picture was clearly of lower quality.
- Their enhanced toughness will be tested by shooting each one of them in the abdomen with the same 9mm gun. Here is how they take it:
- The further the category is from your own, the more you'll struggle to learn its skills.
- You can never acquire all the skills from categories other than your own.
- If a skill falls under a different category than your own, then you can never* use it to its full potential.
*: So far in the hxh-verse, only one nen user is known to bypass limitation (3), because of a special disposition of his bloodline.
During the process of making nen abilities, nen users can define one or several rules (acting as a limitation and restriction) for their nen abilities, on which they pledge to follow. The stricter the rule/limitation, the powerful the ability becomes. Basically it's "High risks for greater power".
Using this method the power of abilities will skyrocket, but it is quite the unstable power since breaking the imposed rules can result into losing one's nen.
There are two distinct types of rules one can set:
- Rules defining the conditions of activation of the Nen ability. Basically they need to be fulfilled in order for the ability to start working.
- Rules affecting the way of use and/or the effects of the ability.
Chapter Four: Advanced applications of the four principles
The advanced/higher applications of the four major principles are techniques performed by extending and/or combining the effects of Ten, Ren, Zetsu, Gyô and Hatsu. Similar to the four major principles, these are techniques for manipulating the flow of aura.
In
An advanced application of Zetsu, and consists on making aura (and its byproducts) invisible to nen users. Using Gyô (on the eyes) breaks through In. 
Hisoka was hiding his aura thread with In. Gon had to use Gyô to finally see it
I think the definition of In being a higher application of Zetsu is very misleading and confusing. In is used to hide actual deployed aura, however Zetsu completely stops the aura from coming out of the body, hence their base concepts are clearly different and contradictory. The two techniques only agree in the fact that they hide something (In hides deployed aura, Zetsu hides presence).
En
Shuu
Kô
Consists on combining simultaneously Ten, Ren, Zetsu, Hatsu and Gyô. This results in the accumulation of the user's deployed aura around a local part of their body, immensely enhancing the strength and toughness of that part. However, it devoids the rest of the body of any aura leaving it completely defenseless.
The process of the technique is as follow:Consists on combining simultaneously Ten, Ren, Zetsu, Hatsu and Gyô. This results in the accumulation of the user's deployed aura around a local part of their body, immensely enhancing the strength and toughness of that part. However, it devoids the rest of the body of any aura leaving it completely defenseless.
Note that this example showcases an incomplete Kô as it doesn't include Ren in the mix.
Ken
Ryu
Advanced application of Ken and Gyô, where the latter is used to locally regulate the aura quantity during Ken. It is mainly used during fights to deal damage and/or defend.
Chapter Five: Aura quantification
Experienced Nen fighters can accurately determine their opponent's strength. Some veterans take this one step further and figure out their opponent's amount of aura. This is concretized by an aura measurement system, where the quantity corresponding to 1 unit of aura is as shown below:
MOP
Represents the aura capacity of a nen-user's body, i.e. the volume of the fuel tank. MOP differs from individual to other, and can be increased through training.POP
Represents how much aura is at the disposition of the user, i.e. the volume of available fuel in the tank at a given time. In particular, POP=MOP when the user's aura reserves are full. Aura is depleted when used while doing extensively tiring activities such as fighting and/or performing advanced aura control techniques (Gyô, Ken, Ryû, etc...). Hatsu abilities in general consume aura the most. Aura is replenished while resting, and Zetsu makes the recovery faster.AOP
Represents the amount of aura that can be released using Ren, i.e. the extraction capacity of the pump. This can be increased through training Ren. The higher the AOP is, the more aura surrounds the body at a given time, making it stronger. For example, a user with 1000 AOP will outmatch a user with 200 AOP if they clash.Let's use Gon. During a certain period of the story, we know that he had 21500 MOP, 1800 AOP and his Jajanken (hatsu technique) used up 2000 Aura unit (A). While fighting, he burned 10A/s. Now let's make a scenario of our own:
Time for some maths
!
Time for some maths
!- At the start of the fight, Gon has POP=MOP=21500A.
- Gon immediately uses Ken. So he has 1800A arround his body, and POP=MOP=21500A.
- Now one minute has transpired since the beginning. This means that he burned 10x60=600A. So currently he has 20900 POP.
- During the next 40 seconds, he used his "Jajanken" Hatsu technique twice. So 4000A was consumed by the Hatsu, and 10x40=400A was drained by the battle strain. Hence at this moment POP=16500A.
- For the next 20 seconds, Gon was standing completely still. So he used up 1x20=20A, hence his POP drops down to 16480A.
Had enough yet ? Don't overheat on me...
- In the next 830 seconds (13minutes and 50seconds), Gon uses four Jajankens, and the enemy is finally defeated. That's 8300+8000=16300A consumed. Right now Gon's POP is a measly 180A. One can see that he is barely standing, sweats heavily and the aura surrounding him is almost non-existant.
- If the battle had continued, then Gon would've fainted after 18-180 seconds! (depending on whether he was moving or being still).
- Now that the battle is over, Gon has relaxed his senses, so the aura is no longer being drained. After a good night of sleep, he should be back to speed with most of his aura replenished!
(Btw, if you like I can reference the chapters I used for information. I didn't use any source other than the manga).[/SPOILER]
Last edited:
...gotta fix that soon
