The Focus
The Focus is an abstract universal phenomenon that exists as something of a "metalayer" of living, perhaps even conscious energy. Its nature has been broadly studied and speculated upon by various scholars in any number of civilizations. Normally, the effect the Focus has on the material world is so subtle as to be completely glossed over even by the most observant scientists. Indeed, all of the cosmos's civilizations could easily come into existence and then fade away again without ever knowing about the Focus's existence, if not for the advent of Focus-sensitive people. Such people can not only confirm the existence of the Focus, but can connect their minds, bodies, or souls to it, and even draw from its indescribable layer as a form of magic. With such power, they can accomplish amazing feats, prime amongst which is the ability to understand the flow of time and events in limited but highly advanced ways.
Focus Sensitives
Though an extraordinarily rare trait overall, almost every part of every galaxy in the universe has given birth to at least one Focus sensitive sentient being. In fact, most species of civilized beings have had one or more Focus sensitive members, though whether that race was aware, or whether the sensitive member was even aware of what it was sensing may not always be the case. Some races are particularly apt to Focus sensitivity, though even in these races, sensitives are a tiny fraction of the populace.
Most sensitives grow into the sensations from a young age, having a preternatural sense of what will happen in the very immediate future. While they can't necessarily describe it to another person, they can react to it. Occasionally, it is mistaken for a weak form of psionics, as sensitives can often feel the general emotional environment around them. Where a psion simply "hears" such emotions as mental noise on a background, however, Focus sensitives will "feel" the emotions that take place around them. Particularly intense emotions can even cause them to be unconsciously emulated in the sensitive -- i.e. someone feeling a particularly powerful bout of anger may make a nearby sensitive also very angry, without realizing why they are feeling that way.
Sensitives can also sense the presence of other sensitives, if they concentrate. In particular, those who have specifically trained themselves to connect with the Focus can easily pick out all manner of other sensitives, and are themselves much easier to sense in this way. People who have connected in this way often form communities to share understanding and knowledge based on their experiences and discoveries, and help other sensitives become connected. In some parts of the universe, these communities are scholarly and simply try to understand the power they have become a part of. In the galaxy that Earth resides in, however, Focus sensitivity has caused a significant philosophical dichotomy which frequently results in violent conflict between members of differing standpoints.
The Connected
Focus-sensitive people who learn how to "connect" themselves to the Focus become much more aware of what the Focus is. Even among them, the subject is sufficiently vast and elusive that no connected individual can truthfully claim to have a complete understanding of it. Communities of connected individuals tend to make the naive error of trying to classify what the Focus is, defining it in terms that make sense to them. Some believe it is the great, subtle, mutual consciousness of sentient beings, attributing things like karma to it. Others expand this further to be a superset of energy to which ki belongs, a quasi-spiritual medium that links all living things together. Another theory insists that the Focus is the unknowable but ever present hand of the puppeteer or God that gently and subtly works and molds all of creation to some unfathomable purpose. Regardless of how this mistake progresses, every theory seems to be simultaneously correct and incorrect. The word "Focus" itself is not even universal, and instead is local to the galaxy Earth inhabits.
One of the most fundamental realizations of a connected Focus sensitive is that everything is some form of energy. In addition, all forms of energy are related in some ultra-primal fashion. Through this connection, the Focus is made manifest. In connecting one's being to the Focus, they can create impressions upon it, and so affect the tangible and sensible world around them. They can create psi-like effects of moving things around with a whim of the mind. They can experience visions of the future, and glimpses of another person or thing's past. Some Focus-connected individuals experience it as a sort of extra, enhanced instinct, which they can allow to take complete control of their body, which in turn allows them to perform radical physical feats that ought not be possible. Some can relay impressions through the Focus onto the minds of others, causing ideas to be pressed into their minds as though they were their own.
One very common trait amongst the connected is an attraction to manually working with energy of some kind. In violent clashes, this leads to weapons made entirely or almost entirely out of energy, or striking others with energy-coated limbs. Peaceful pursuits often bring the disciples to places where energy is in greater abundance, whether that means greatly preferring sunbathing, or working with dangerous, high-voltage machinery, or some other form. It is highly intrinsic to most connected to want to be able control energy in a situation, the more directly the better.
Not all Focus-connected people are power wielders, but many are, particularly in Earth's galaxy. Focus attunement certainly lends itself to fighting at extremely high speeds and strengths, as there does not appear to be any upper limit of speed that the Focus cannot perform beyond, so long as the individual is capable of harnessing it sufficiently. Those who do not use the Focus to fight often seek out occupations where it can be of benefit, however, whether that be a political career or an electrical engineer or something else.
