Cultivator

Canon
Cultivators in this setting refine their personal energy production, using various techniques and materials to become more powerful in the process. Imposition of artificial laws of reality to create, change, control, detect, destroy, etc. various things is quite common. As most of it was developed by 'human-scale first' existences, local cultivation techniques trace back to the Societally Relevant Backstory Period.

Cultivation progress is divided into several stages, with smaller power-gaps than normal xianxia. A one stage power gap can be beaten by a synergetic RPG party, a stagejumping technique in the right statistics, or possibly even favorable situation on top of favorable matchup such as an elemental weakness to the enemy in a place of stiflingly-onesided power support: someone a stage weaker can deal significant damage but will need either many hits or overly strong ones to win a fight. A two stage power gap can be beaten by a literal army (especially one using spell formation arrays and defenses against area-of-effect attack): scratch damage and a lot of force to continuously apply it. A three stage power gap is in the realm of WMDs and specific weaknesses of the build (e.g. literally nuking an unaware core formation cultivator). A four stage gap is generally not bridgeable for various reasons, such as categorical defenses and being able to intercept most blasts.

Those who have just started using a cultivation methodology are considered in Qi Condensation. The Qi Condensation stage is often spent developing necessary supporting techniques and secondary powers to use their cultivation method's specific special abilities. Techniques to improve their overall capability (especially personal energy production, chiefly lifeforce-types, jing, qi, shen, etc.) are developed in the process, and may be the primary method if issues are simply energy cost to perform. Qi condensation cultivators are usually only moderately superhuman, comparable to bodybuilders, action movie characters, and mildly-supernatural martial artists (e.g. having some special attack powers or utility effects). Effects of this self-fortification include dramatic lifespan extension, with some practitioners able to live a few hundred years without external medical assistance. Once they have developed the right mix of supporting techniques to really bring forth their style's special ability (often taking only a few years of full-time education and training), they experience some form of breakthrough into Foundation Establishment.

Foundation Establishment cultivators are slightly more dramatically superhuman, in the realm of 'street tier' or 'building buster' superheroes while having the abilities of decent mages in certain systems. During this stage, cultivators develop their style's signature ability and may branch out into some other utility effects. The goal is to build a physical and/or spiritual foundation for more advanced abilities, greatly increasing their physical parameters. Once the foundation is sufficiently stable to begin constructing a dramatically more powerful self, the breakthrough into Core Formation becomes available. Many foundation establishment cultivators can live several centuries to a few thousand years unaided, with aging-related decline generally a sign of the last few and not having medical abilities to deal with it. Biological immortality rare but possible with certain methods (e.g. vampirism, lichdom, producing life-extending drugs requiring magical manufacturing). Some well-established styles can handle this in only a few years, while particularly poor or struggling regions may take centuries.

Core Formation cultivators are reshapers of landscapes and performers of implausible mythic feats. During this stage, most styles center on acquiring more power (usually supportive techniques) based on improving a 'core' of some sort that anchors their primary physical body (or creating several redundant ones and synchronizing them for styles that relate to multi-bodying). Becoming biologically immortal is somewhat more common here, especially without needing undeath or external drugs (though said drugs start being easier to produce for internal stabilizing in some styles), and even the non-medically-inclined can live for several thousand years. Techniques that are powerful enough to blow away or reconstruct land features are very common. The right kinds of complex structural effects may span settlements to affect whole regions, while others may forge wildly complicated technology and new magics. In most established regions, Core Formation is considered 'a relatively experienced position' or a 'topical expert'. Breakthrough to Nascent Soul usually comes as some form of 'mastery' or through synchronizing several protective techniques to stabilize themselves.

Nascent Soul cultivators are settlement-busting regional powers, quite often with a defense against being killed. They may have some guts status way to reconstruct themselves from being physically destroyed. Others have protection that is stagejumping levels of stronger than most attacks such that fairly standard superhumans are unable to inflict any serious damage and debuffing effects may be shaken off trivially. Those that are still mortal last several thousand years without care. Many explore other fields in search of ways to become biologically immortal fairly quickly such as restructuring their body entirely (e.g. saving it for their breakthrough if they're going to remodel within lifespan anyway). Nascent souls start being relatively rare even in many modern cultivation-heavy societies: someone who reaches that far is an expert in something cultivation-related, a more general genius, or simply has had access to a truly monstrous amount of beneficial resources and training time.

Breakthrough past the Nascent Soul stage often varies wildly. Those who make it that far have developed substantial personal techniques over the years. The wide variety of 'advanced souls' tends to be on the scope of individually redesigning continents in personal time and so-on. The next 'nation soul' stage can be accurately described as regular-planetary in scope (xianxia-style excessive surface area worlds exist but are not overwhelmingly common). The next stage of 'world system' is often of deific nature, upscaling further, etc. What small fraction remains mortal can live for excessively many years but complete immortality sets in at some stage for those who do not transcend in other ways. Benchmarks of power do vary much more greatly than the previous summaries. Styles which focus on large-scale destructive martial power above all else may become planetary destroyers by advanced soul using the right techniques, for example. Those with utility-first concerns may be able to build world-spanning systems to do pretty much anything in a reasonable span of time, with further breakthroughs simply improving speed, miscellaneous abilities, and energy generation rate in order to do so faster with different law preferences or such.

Cultivators of higher stages are disruptively mighty. A sufficiently utility-oriented core formation cultivator could pass for 'Da Vinci omnipotent' in that they could do pretty much anything if left uncontested to spawn in resources and prepare. They have a realistic shot at completing the Five Rings Void Seven isekairos. Practically speaking one could use a compatible cultivation method and start from the very beginning of qi condensation to try and get there, though it would be a longshot and nonviable in combat time. True plausibility starts in middling Foundation Establishment with advance prep time. There are many Nascent Souls who would need to broaden their horizons to stand a chance at composing an appropriate Grand Legend. Most cultivators 6th stage or higher could probably pass for what many settings consider heavenly world-creating gods. The 9th stage of anything with substantial utility abilities is usually overpowering enough they leave the game scope of Lexicon the Godmodder to hang out in another world-cluster, or at least transition to a support viewpoint like witches.