Graescence is the essence of life. It is the lifeblood of society, the fuel for all technology, the bane of the classes, and power incarnate.

In other words, nobody actually knows what it is.

Like gravity, it is a force that exists without explanation. Sure, it's easy enough to describe what it does. Just as gravity's inexorable pull drags everything within its domain toward itself, graescence has a variety of effects easily quantified and measured.

But what it is? No one knows.

There are truths, though, based on consistent observations and rigorous science:

• Graescence only ever comes from living things. Period. Never has there been an exception.
• Graescnece can only be controlled by substances that come from living things. Most notably, the Elderin tree. Lesser known is the Aldorin mushroom found only on Ionia.
• It is not a substance; it cannot be poured into any container. But it can be contained, trapped in an endless loop until ready for use, theoretically. In practice, there is no perfect loop as most capacitors leak.
• It can only be described by wave theory, a mathematical construct based on the motion of waves (obviously).
• Wave theory is insufficient to fully describe graescence. Despite the obvious contradiction, this observation comes from the fact that while wave theory does describe the properties of graescence, it does so insufficiently. The effect graescence defies mathematics. Wave theory describes the interaction of waves, and while graescence conforms to this mathematical formula, it only does so in limited circumstances. In these cases, graescence acts as though it is an addition of simple waves, where the resonant peaks add to each other in a consistent manner. Yet in other situations, graescence appears to act as though 1 + 1 is 3,or 10, or even 100. However (and this is important) this only happens when graescence interacts with itself. Thus...
• Graescence operates far beyond three-dimensional space. The only way to accurately describe its properties is if it "pulls" energy from one (or more) dimensions. It has been consistently proven that the effect of graescence exponentially scales from the number of dimensions it interacts with (though no one knows what that means aside from the mathematical formula). While that may seem a boon, it's also much, much hard to handle graescence that interacts with so many dimensions, to the point where catastrophic explosions will occur if it's not handled with extreme precision.
• The only compendium to come close to accurately describing graescence is an ancient series of texts called "The Gravitica". These texts detail an extraordinary number of symbols, commonly called runes, which number in the tens of thousands. These runes, which are pictographic by nature, have very specific interactions with each other that mimic the mathematical relationship described by wave theory. However, unlike wave theory, these interactions occur across any number of dimensions, which are represented by numeric subscripts beneath each rune. Because of the exponential complexity of inherent in the Gravitica, scientist can spend a lifetime studying only a small subset of it.
• Genetic "Traits" born by some people are commonly recognized as individuals who interact with graescence on more than one dimension, which contrasts with the populace who interact with graescence in the "normal" way. That said, this idea has been thoroughly debunked by various studies proving that everyone interacts with graescence in several dimensions. However, the effect most people have is limited enough that standard wave theory is sufficient to describe the standard populace.
• History is littered with civilizations attempting to make "nuclear batteries" through genetic manipulation. These attempts have failed so spectacularly that is now taboo (and thoroughly illegal) to even attempt such experiments.