30. Realms

Realms of Freedom represent the social boundaries that define our actions. They are the product of Power's mechanisms, demarcating what is good, rational, legal, or possible. Acting outside one's Realm comes at a cost, either from the self or the collectives they are a part of.

The focus is to then figure out how those boundaries are drawn. "Good" or "normal" cannot be empirically measured; instead, these values are shaped by religion, philosophy, and other aspects of culture. Meanwhile, "rational" or "legal" may describe some combination of academic research, government policy, or other information that comes from our institutions. The Power Emitters reflected by Conduits serve as the baseline for each person, though their individual Realm will vary at the margins depending on personal experience and the Mythoscapes they subscribe to.

Realms are never permanently set in stone, though. Consider how the accumulation of wealth of other Capacitors can change what someone can achieve. Or, think of how Negotiators like political debate or scholarly research can change what someone perceives is possible. An individual can expand or contract their own Realm, and those effects can also come externally.

Yet we don't only exist as individuals... this process gets a little trickier when folks join up to form Collective Realms. Clubs or societies have a necessary function to set terms of possibility so there can be continuity for both the cultures and institutions that support that collective. Because the individual Realms a Collective Realm is composed of are unlikely to completely overlap, this results in particular exclusions.