The Sense of Something Missing

Sense of Something Missing:

Unlike humans on our earth, here they have a Sense of Something Missing. This is the key difference, which impacts almost all other aspects of life.

The sense of absence or that something is missing is originally developed to enable organisms to seek out new terrains to live in and plants, animals to eat. It also enables them to sense that something in their environment is amiss, that something around them is wrong and out of place—as a way of averting oncoming/approaching danger. The continual use of this sense develops into an increase in intelligence and increase in complexity of brain structures.

With the advent of sentience and self-awareness (which comes about with the increase in brain size), the sense of absence or something missing branches out into more uses.

These uses, when restricted to the real world only, are divided into the following categories:
 * Social roles: increased self-awareness enables them to be aware of just what roles are missing, and need to be filled within a group, and by whom, and gives them a sense of what their own place within the group is—and whether or not their “correct” role is missing.


 * As a result:


 * Tells channelers: their role as channelers; people who seek to escape reality as people-becoming-fictional and as particular fictional archetypes; existing fictional characters as particular archetypes; patterns in fiction (similar to finding “missing” or “needed” archetypes)
 * Drives people to develop their “natural” skill set, or the role they are most suited for/do best at
 * Personal or community gain, to offset a loss, absence, or need for something (often a good or trait)--that is to identify an individual or group void and fill it


 * As a result:


 * Little to no over or underpopulation, because sense of something missing “tells” them of overcrowding, scarcity of resources (which would be exacerbated by reproducing), surplus or abundant resources, etc.
 * No malnutrition, because sense of something missing tells the body what it needs or lacks in terms of nutrients
 * more balance in general, more egalitarian, because a large part of the sense of absence for community gain is to offset a loss/need—so there are no huge gaps between haves and have-nots, because the sense of something missing takes care to fill that void for the have-nots. If someone has more stuff, it's because they want more things (a void for more things is being filled), versus someone who doesn't desire or want as much. There isn't really a concept of greed—at least not as something negative—but more of a concept of wanting more things versus wanting less/not caring as much.
 * personal preferences and dislikes, to provide variety and balance (because if there's only good things, life would be boring—both the good and the bad are needed to just to keep it interesting)

Channelers also use this sense of what is missing in order to see where there are roles missing in the fictional world, and find those who desire to escape because they find something missing in their life, have a void in their life they need filled with escape from reality. The sense of something missing can't be used to place them in a social role that is missing and needs to be filled, because society does not want them or at the very least value their social input for that to ever be an option; the need never arises, because they are not wanted in the real world.

Also, it is very important to take into account that people can and do use their sense of something missing for all sorts of purposes. What some feel is missing and essential in their lives may seem comparably horrible and monstrous to others.

And although you'd think that the sense of something missing (which, yes, is similar to magic) would make life great—even ideal—but...

Those born without the sense and those whose sensory organs become severely damaged are left to die and become eaten (by predators or cannibalistically, by their own species?), due to their uselessness in society (otherwise, they'd have to do everything the “hard way” (i.e. the muggle way) which would take so long and be so inefficient that it would render every task in their lives pointless).