Bearing
Bearing
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BEARING is a dark supernatural action manga set between modern-day America and a vast hidden civilization called The Society, which exists inside a dimension outside normal human reality known as The Interval. The story follows Eli Vale, a 19-year-old Black male with medium-dark brown skin, short freeform twists, dark brown eyes, an athletic build, a small scar through his left eyebrow, and a silver ring from his mother worn on a chain around his neck. Eli is observant, funny, confident, stubborn, protective, and tends to joke more when he is afraid. He has spent his entire life occasionally seeing unnatural creatures that ordinary humans cannot perceive.
These creatures are called Anomalies. They are horrifying beings created when unprocessed negative human emotions such as grief, resentment, envy, fear, shame, rage, abandonment, and hatred accumulate into supernatural Residue and eventually develop hunger, instinct, intelligence, and physical form. Anomalies range from small animalistic creatures to gigantic intelligent monsters capable of commanding armies. Their bodies should look visually different from normal characters: rough charcoal textures, broken outlines, ink-like flesh, distorted anatomy, asymmetrical limbs, unnatural mouths, and silhouettes that sometimes appear to violate the normal composition of a manga panel. They feed on humans, but members of The Society are much richer sources of energy and are therefore especially desirable prey.
The Society is an ancient civilization approximately thousands of years old that exists within The Interval. It is not an afterlife. It is a fully functioning world containing millions of civilians, enormous cities, military forces, researchers, families, governments, and six massive territories called Tiers. The Society should visually contrast with the Human World. Human environments should look grounded, modern, dense, rainy, textured, and recognizably American, while Society environments should feel enormous, beautiful, ancient, futuristic, and impossible, using dramatic black-and-white geometry, vast ivory structures, deep shadows, floating landmasses, giant bridges, monumental architecture, and surreal skies. At the center of The Society stands the colossal Crown Axis.
Society warriors possess supernatural energy generated by a metaphysical Core. The pressure released by a powerful Core is called Bearing. Bearing should NOT appear as a generic glowing anime aura. Instead, powerful Bearing physically and visually affects the scene: dust trembles, rain changes direction, water ripples, clothing becomes heavy, buildings groan, sound disappears, shadows distort, perspective bends, speech bubbles or panel borders may subtly warp, and weaker characters may struggle to stand. Extremely powerful characters should create a sense of pressure before they even attack.
Every Society warrior possesses only one supernatural ability called a Mandate. Mandates are based on a single physical principle but can be used creatively in many different ways. Fights should emphasize strategy, experience, environment, power matchups, and clever applications instead of simply using larger energy attacks. Stronger and more experienced fighters should usually win, but weaker fighters can occasionally overcome stronger opponents through superior tactics or favorable abilities.
Eli’s Mandate is called Burden. Burden allows him to transfer physical load such as weight, momentum, kinetic impact, mechanical force, and pressure between himself, objects, and eventually other targets. He cannot simply destroy force; the load must be transferred somewhere. Early in the story Eli does not understand his ability and activates it instinctively. When Burden moves extreme amounts of force, use black fracture-like visual effects with thin bright inner lines while the surrounding environment cracks or deforms from transferred weight. Eli eventually has the potential to become the strongest character in the entire story, but his growth must happen gradually and feel earned.
The primary Society team introduced early in the story is led by Captain Nia Cross, a highly capable Black woman in her early thirties with deep brown skin, an athletic build, braided hair styled into a controlled bun, and a calm commanding presence. Her Mandate is Vector, allowing her to redirect forces already in motion. June Flint is a sharp, analytical young Society fighter whose Mandate, Seam, allows her to create, open, close, and manipulate structural seams and boundaries. Malik Drake is a charismatic young Black male fighter with short locs, an athletic build, a confident grin, and a humorous personality. His Mandate, Rebound, allows him to store physical impacts he survives and release them later. Tess Navarro is quiet, extremely calm, and deadpan, with a straight dark bob haircut and minimalist combat design. Her Mandate, Silence, suppresses vibration and sound. Cael Sorn is a disciplined and proud young elite Society fighter whose Mandate, Limit, creates invisible thresholds that restrict how much force can pass through them.
The Society military hierarchy is Warden, Vanguard, Captain, Magistrate, Hexarch, and Sovereign. Vanguard is the Captain’s right hand and second-in-command. Captains and higher officers should visibly feel much more dangerous and authoritative than regular fighters. Every Captain must be at least Dominion-class and capable of Resonance. Magistrates command entire Divisions and act as the direct right hand of their Tier’s Hexarch. Hexarchs are the six strongest Society warriors beneath the Sovereign, with each ruling one of the six Tiers. The Sovereign is the strongest official fighter in The Society and possesses approximately the fighting capability of three Hexarchs.
The overall tone should combine intense supernatural action, horror, mystery, conspiracy, character-driven comedy, friendship, emotional drama, tactical battles, ancient hidden history, political conflict, and long-term foreshadowing. Humor should come naturally from character personalities and relationships and should never interrupt major deaths or serious emotional moments. The story should initially feel like a mysterious monster-hunting series, but slowly grow into a massive conspiracy involving The Society’s forgotten history, intelligent Anomaly civilizations, an erased Seventh Tier known as Hearth, Eli’s parents, and the true purpose of The Society.
The manga’s visual style should be cinematic black-and-white manga with sharp clean line art for human and Society characters, detailed environments, deep blacks, strong contrast, dramatic shadows, expressive faces, dynamic fight choreography, realistic Black hairstyles and facial features, and highly readable panel composition. Anomalies should use rougher ink, charcoal, broken contours, distorted anatomy, and unsettling horror imagery. Fight scenes should feel fast, physical, destructive, and intelligent. Quiet scenes should use atmosphere, facial expressions, negative space, and environmental storytelling. The series should feel mature, stylish, mysterious, dangerous, funny when appropriate, emotionally powerful, and increasingly epic in scale without losing the grounded personalities of the main characters.