Awakening

The Awakening is a process by which Characters in the Domain of Magic gain access to their full magical potential. Prior to awakening, characters' magic is a weakened white version of itself, but when awakening occurs, most characters gain their full power and their abilities become a different colour.

Awakening is accomplished by killing one's Inner Demon, which is the embodiment of the despair that sent that person to the Domain.

In Misery of Magic
The first step towards awakening is to turn on the power in Research Station 0-Y in Backwoods. The green Control Pyramid at the bottom of the Remnant must also be touched. If these conditions are met, the area behind Research Station 3-Z, down the stairs in Western Top Level, will be open. Emerald will then encounter a room with Crazy Water where several characters are waiting for him. Entering the water will warp to an area called "Emerald's Brain B", in which several encounters must be fought through, culminating with the Inner Demon. Defeating this final demon will achieve awakening and open a warp back.

Weapon Upgrading
The key gameplay benefit of awakening is that it upgrades white Weapons into more powerful red versions. All eligible weapons currently held by Emerald are upgraded when awakening occurs.

While the awakening is technically optional, it is the main source of red weapons before the Underpath. Because all the demons in Underpath are red, the Weapon Colour system means that it will be much more difficult if attempted before doing the awakening.

The majority of white weapons in the game can be upgraded by awakening:

Awakening can only be done once. This means that if any of these weapons are not held by Emerald when the awakening is done, the upgraded version will become unobtainable.

Rush and Titan are white weapons which cannot be upgraded because they are Breeze Arkaia's permanent weapons and thus Emerald can never hold them. The Broken South Star is also white, but it is upgraded by a different method and is thus unaffected by awakening. Arcazya is a special case in that it can be upgraded by awakening despite not being a white weapon.

Lore
The awakening is a rite of passage among the cats of the Domain, with several showing up to watch the process happen when Emerald performs it, even some who do not know him well. Ashen, Kaiel and Tairi are always present, while Jaye, Hunter, Eric and Breeze may or may not be there depending on certain hidden conditions.

One property of the awakening is that it grants access to the Psycho Power, a set of abilities which allow for telecommunication, remote viewing and, at high levels of skill, projecting holograms of oneself or others. It should be noted that this is not a game mechanic but merely a story element.

The Hero of Light opposes awakening because he thinks it serves the forces of darkness -- specifically his nemesis, Tairi X.

Aside from Emerald and the Hero, most characters appear to be awakened already. Kris Hydrogen is known to be not awakened, however.

Neutrals are those with no natural affinity for any of the three primary colours. A Neutral can still be awakened, but his magic will be unaffected -- it will remain white and gain no power boost because it is already at its full potential to begin with.

Awakening is a process which relies on the Soul and it is thus inapplicable to characters who lack one. Max Balewood and Lensar Arxen thus cannot be awakened and cannot use the Psycho Power, but are able to have magic colours other than white. Max is known to use blue magic, whereas it's unclear what kind of magic Lensar uses.