According to what scant records we can access pre-Collapse, the Bound were not a phenomenon of the past. Whatever occurred to create the Collapse appears to have broken whatever tenuous grasp humanity had on the world.

Humans, when born, appear to have a set amount of time on the world before their bodies begin to whither to nothing. While I doubt it is related to the phenomenon of aspects, as they appear to have existed in a different form prior to the Collapse known as “magic,” it could be helpful to draw a parallel.

An aspect consumes energy in order to make effects in the world. If someone attempting to use their aspect cannot access enough energy, their aspect is reduced in some form and, in extreme instances, the aspect cannot be used at all. In even more extreme instances, depending on the aspect, the person attempting to use it can consume themselves.

It is possible a similar “base energy” is accessible to humans when they are born, and they have only so much time to find a replenishable source of energy before they fade to nothing. This time is different for different individuals, and there does not appear to be an explanation.

Experiment: Is the starting time based primarily on genetics? Is it hereditable?

Experiment: Is the starting time based primarily on how active an individual is in childhood? Can this energy be “used up?”

Experiment: Is the starting time based in some way on the aspect? Is the energy consumed by an aspect and the energy accessible to an Unbound human coming from the same pool? Follow-up: If there is a correlation, does the specific type of aspect affect this in some way?

The time generally available is somewhere between the second and third decade before the withering becomes apparent. There have been anecdotal instances of individuals reaching their twentieth year, but this is incredibly rare and they are in massive deterioration by then.

Humans generally bind to one of the Titans that circle the world. There are fifteen in all with their own orbits. There are several superstitions about why an Unbound binds to a specific Titan, but binding as a process is outside of conscious control and can be somewhat random.

It is my goal to determine how binding occurs, and why individuals bind to specific Titans.

Observation: Most Unbound bind to Titans that have orbits near them. If, for example, someone were to grow up underneath the Gold Titan, they would more likely become a Gold-Bound.

Observation: Most Unbound bind to Titans that family members have bound to. If an entire family has bound to the Red Titan, a child will be more likely to bind to the Red Titan as well.

Observation: The earlier an Unbound binds to their Titan, the more stereotypical bound traits the child will develop, and the more prominent these traits will be. For example, Red-Bound have a resistance to hotter temperatures. The earlier a child binds, the higher this resistance appears to be.

Observation: An Unbound can only bind to one entity, and there have been no known instances of this binding being broken. If a child has bound to one Titan, they are likely to be bound to that Titan forever. Should a child bind to something other than a Titan, they cannot bind to a Titan at some later point in time.

Hypothesis: While not included in any of the superstitious I’ve seen, there have been incredibly rare accounts of an extreme event associated with the Titan’s purview being related to the Unbound’s binding. For example, the White Titan is associated with cold and ice and an Unbound nearly freezing to death may become a White-Bound. Bound typically have adaptations related to surviving, or thriving in, their Bound’s element and this may be a survival technique. It is easiest to experience in the South, as the five southern Titans have purviews that are relatively material in nature (e.g. cold, heat, lightning).

I shall need to create controls in order for any experiments to be more than another anecdotal report. I shall need funding in order to support myself while conducting these experiments, as few seem to care what they bind to as long as they bind to one of the Titans.

I have heard tell of a kingdom to the south where the results of this study will be incredibly valuable.