This page is a work in progress. Please ignore the mess - QueenKit
A Focus is a word used to define the essence of a Potential's self and is the core of what their Practice can do. A focus has emotional context with the potential.
It's a deeply integral part of who you were before you became a Potential and will remain so indefinitely. It lets you access the limited power that sits within the imprint of your soul, insufficient currently to fill it. Think of it as a lens perhaps, or maybe a funnel. But whilst it lets you access that power, and shape the world using it, by its very nature it also limits what you can do - at least that's the theory. (1)
(2) What is a Focus?
The power which Potentials access, which allows them to shape reality, is tied to, or perhaps the, core trait of their personality, reduced to a single word for the sake of simplicity. This word, chosen by the Potential, is referred to as their Focus, and it is nothing less than the vehicle for their Practice to act upon the world. A Potential wields considerable power, but only within the area covered by their Focus, and though united work is possible with the help of certain Insight Focused, or more usually Harmonials, it is both limited and highly complex.
As people, Potentials are defined by their Focus, and the nature of that trait is amplified by the way in which their power shines through it into reality. It is not unusual for future Potentials to already exhibit very focused personalities before Awakening, but nor is such focus a requirement to becoming a Potential. The act of Awakening catalyses the Focus of a newborn Potential, yes, but the core trait must be there to begin with.
One of the best examples of this is Amanda Hawk, from before her Awakening as she attempted to recover more than just family from the pain of the Week of Sorrows, to what that recovery became in the years and decades that followed her Awakening. Amanda is a Potential of Mending, someone who wishes to heal the world, and more than the world. When acting in line with those goals, what she can do is rarely limited. This explains her ability to heal herself when the Shiplord subnet almost killed her, and though some might not know it, Purify as well.
As the update with the same name puts quite clearly, in that moment, Amanda saw the ship before her as a cancer; the cure to which as far as she knew was excision and purification of the infected area so that nothing of that twisted life could grow there again. And so she wielded power fit to match that of Sol itself in an instant of perfect intent. To be fair, though, she was also being pushed by the web into which she’d sunk in the course of the battle, and which also gave her much of the power required to do what she did.
Here, however, comes a potential (hah) problem. The Focus is more than just how a Potential works their power, it is also a core trait of who they are; the core trait. Whilst exact definitions can lead to different manifestations of the same named Focus, it remains impossible to work beyond those limits barring a few key exceptions. To use the same example, Amanda is Mending. She is the idea of restoration and healing in the face of horror, and peace in the face of discord. Purify, whilst technically within the wider generalisation of Mending, was not within Amanda’s definition, and there is a reason that she has been conflicted about the idea of using such power again. Which leads us to how she, and others, can work beyond the limits of their Focus.
References
(1)Snowfire (September 2016) "To elaborate a bit on what a Focus is" (2)Snowfire (May 2019) Informational: Known Potential Mechanics