Mentalism

The Origins

The first Mentalist was a woman incapable of emotion, or at least empathy. Kyrikain gave her the magic as a way of exploring emotion through the eyes of others, largely because he was interested to see what she might do. That same woman, utterly enthralled by the art, also became the first Aberration, Y'laera the Mind Rot, after whom Mindrot Dragons were named. While she died, hunted across Atharen by mage-slayers, she left a terrible and grim mark upon the world in the Second Age, and proliferated her magic to thousands of others. Mentalism began as a loathed magic, spread mostly among people with the intention to do harm. In that way, it has not changed. Among all of the magics, Mentalism is one of the least accepted or understood, and among the most feared.

Concepts

The Neurocrux: When a Weaver is first initiated, their Mark of Control crafts an ethereal network within and around their brain, lining it with arcane patterns that are visible if ever a Weaver's brain is extracted from their corpse. These patterns glow, albeit somewhat faintly, and this glow results in a faint iridescent hue glimmering through the eyes of the mage. The point of the Neurocrux is not one that is aesthetic, however. It instead serves as the major distinction of the magic, separating a Mind Mage from any other man or mage in what they can accomplish with their brain. The Neurocrux allows the Mind Mage to do a few things: to alter the Mural of others, to invade others' brains, to process others' thoughts and emotions alongside one's own in an effective manner, and to amplify and project one's own consciousness through Obelisks. It also allows one to create 'the Weave', turning their own conscious will into physical force and reality. The Neurocrux is the base that allows the rest of the magic to function and exist, as no mage would otherwise be able to perform the arduous cognitive tasks embedded into the Rune.

The Mural: The Mural is the cognitive and psychological landscape of all mortals. It was given this name by scholars of magical theory, though it is even referred to as such by the Gods. It is called this for what it initially appears as to a Mind Mage: a complex work of art, somewhat like fragmented, stained glass shards placed upon a circular facet. The Mural, when visibly viewed, appears almost like a chaotic emblem of images immortalized in crystalline form.

The Mural first becomes visible when a Mind Mage manages to enter the brain of another through tethers. Once these tethers have reached the mind, they feed back images to the mage's Neurocrux. If willing, the mage can then close their eyes and focus on the nuances of the mental shape, which often coils, unfurls, twists or reorganizes itself based on the change in emotions demonstrated by the observed mind. Otherwise it is largely represented by colors. The Mural often appears to be shaped strongly by the individual's perceived image of their position in the world.

Vaguely, one can see shapes and concepts revolving around the person's identity; they are often the centerpiece as well, though ideological minds may view things on a more grand scale. An example of a Mural may be a beggar woman's image of herself; downtrodden, pressed against the cobbled floor with others looking down upon her. Her own shape is colored blue with sorrow, while others are gilded gold, or various shades of grey, depicting a sort of ambivalence. Perhaps if one gives generously to her, her Mural will appear differently in the immediate aftermath; suddenly the shapes of others will be kneeling to help her from the ground, offering her alms, wearing friendly faces. In many ways, the Mural offers an ever-changing simplicity to the complex thoughts of mortals. It also allows the Mind Mage a reasonable way of learning of others minds, and seeing the consequences of the changes they inflict upon them. The emotions forced or inferred by a Mind Mage can directly impact, twist and reshape the Mural of others. A gloomily colored beggar woman's blue shape may instead become red with rage, the word clouding around her as she sees nothing but her own blind fury.

Tethers: Tethers are created within the Neurocrux, the mage enriching their own ether and crafting purple lines of energy that they can then release through their body, typically their hands. These lines appear somewhat holographic, appearing as if glitched as they partly fade in and out, their shape twitching while they move. These lines are what are used to actually influence the Mural of others, entering their body often through the spinal cord or directly through the cranium into their brain. Tethers are capable of moving freely through organic mass, acting as a worm through which one can view and subvert the emotions of others through their Neurocrux.

It should be noted that Tethers always act as a connection: they come from the mage's Neurocrux and bleed out through their hands, but so long as the mage is connected to the other, the Tether will be visible. This certainly acts as a weakness for mind manipulation, as it is always obvious when a Weaver is manipulating the thoughts of another, due to the very obvious ethereal lines between them. More tethers are often necessary to subdue more willful minds, particularly of those with more experience (magical or worldly). Additionally, more tethers allow for more radical swings in emotion. Each requires ether to craft, and the more profound a change, the more ether must be channeled within the link. Interestingly, beginning at Journeyman a Mentalist learns how to make others unable to see Tethers that are currently connected to them, often making them unaware of the influence upon them.

The Weave: Mentalism is a two-fold magic, in that there are two important sides to it. While the Neurocrux enables a mage to alter and view the emotions of others, it also allows them to manipulate physical reality by projecting the will of their powerful mind onto physical matter. The way this is done is by creating a 'Weave', producing a physical space through ether that can be manipulated in a variety of different ways. The Weave is manually moved by the mind of the mage, often directed by their hands. It is a space that appears much like crystalline, transparent-purple shifts in reality, dividing images between fragments and frames and contorting their shape. The Weave can be pushed, pulled, suspended, crushed or entirely edited, and the possible proportions of it and numerical structures are expanded upon as a Mind Mage presses towards mastery. While some call Weaving the manipulation of kinetic force, many others more accurately describe it as the manipulation of physical reality, though to a limited degree.

Initiation

A Journeyman Weaver must first draw the Rune onto the initiate using their ether. Immediately afterwards, the initiate is overcome with strong emotional fatigue, or as some describe, numbness. The sensation is cold and lonely. There’s no feeling, no desire, just a vast emptiness that aches to be made whole again. In this vulnerable state, the five Reveries try to tempt the initiate into indulging into each of their emotional arrays. The initiate must sample each of the five, but they must not give into the temptation of anything deeper than a surface level emotion, while resisting a great pull to the extreme.

They may sample enough of the Minstrel’s power to smile, but must not be tempted to laugh or cheer. The Provocateur may be allowed to stir a sliver of irritation in the initiate, but they must not allow the feeling to build to a blinding rage. Once the initiate has faced all five Reveries, if they’re successful, they will regain all their emotions and desires and face the world as a novice weaver.

The initiate must show emotional control and discipline to earn the Rune, it’s only by ignoring the call of a powerful and bright flare of feeling that they can make it through with their mindscapes intact.

Husks: Should the initiate fail to save against the tests, their murals will permanently shatter, and they will be left empty husks for the rest of their very short lives. The husk does not want or feel. They cannot be made to feel with tethering, either, as the mural is naught but broken glass. There’s no drive to talk, move, eat or drink. In some cases, husks simply stop breathing and quickly asphyxiate. Husks have also been known to allow others to harm and mutilate them freely without protest or complaint. There’s no response to even the most heart-breaking news, they sit in burning buildings and wait for the flames to engulf them without care.

While husks don’t actively seek out their demise, they lack the capacity to preserve their own empty lives. They feel no fear, sadness, joy, anger, nor love. Even on the verge of death, a husk will fail to act at all to save their own life, they can’t even show their gratitude toward the one who put them to death or allowed them to die.

Threshold Sickness

The drawbacks listed below do not always come in pairs, and certainly not simultaneously. Some may come and others may not.

Lesser: Nausea, fatigue, headaches, muscle spasms, dehydration

Moderate: Bleeding through the nose, eyes and ears, intense cramps, seizure-like shocks and spasms, internal bleeding, vomiting and weakness

Fracturing: A somewhat common form of threshold sickness that damages the weaver’s Neurocrux and inhibits their ability to harness their ether properly. A damaged Neurocrux can see the mage accidentally cast Overbear in place of Compel, and crush their target with Weaving. The levels of force range from diminished to excessive. This form of threshold sickness is particularly dangerous as it can invite more threshold sickness. Weavers with fractured Neurocruxes can also see a complete halt in their magic as a result of this penalty.

Fraying: The condition in which a Weaver’s Neurocrux is damaged due to abuse of tethering is no laughing matter. Though, some sufferers do find themselves locked in fits of laughter so severe that they struggle to breathe, while others are thrown into depressive episodes harsh enough to force them to take their own lives in hasty decisions. Fraying forces the weaver’s Neurocrux to bleed an obscenely harsh version of one of the five Reveries into the Weaver’s mindscape. The duration of this emotional lock can last minutes to days depending on the severity of the break in one’s Neurocrux.

Tangling: Complete and utter chaos befalls these mages as the damage to the Weaver’s Neurocrux takes the form of several cracks along the Runes on their brain. The mage finds themselves unable to hold onto any one emotion for longer than a minute before they’re forced to swap to one of the other Reveries, with varying intensities. Should the Weaver attempt to Tether a target, they will find their Tethers misfiring and latching onto those they didn’t aim for. Attempts to Weave are met with random and chaotic blasts of force that can break the weaver’s bones in some cases.

Severe

The Feedback Loop: A most unfortunate and tragic form of threshold sickness that the Weaver may be subject to with continued harsh abuse of their powers is the Feedback Loop. This can only really apply when the mage has achieved Journeyman proficiency in their craft and has learned how to summon and use the Obelisk, however. Gross abuse of the Weaver’s abilities can wear down the mage’s Neurocrux and leave them open to the effects of their own Obelisk. While this normally takes multiple instances of threshold sickness over the course of days or even weeks, it has been known to happen spontaneously, on rare occasions where the threshold sickness is so severe that it damages the Neurocrux in the process, but this is less common.

The Feedback Loop essentially robs the Weaver of their own will and feeds an empty nothingness into the Obelisk they have present. Simultaneously, the altered effects of their Obelisk are forced upon the Weaver and all those currently under the obelisk’s grasp. This renders the weaver unable to alter the effects of their Obelisk, and traps them in an eternal loop of emptiness. The mage is placed in a near-comatose state and is unable to defend themselves, use their magic, or even consciously register the world around them. They simply stand and stare onward for a thousand yards until the obelisk is either destroyed or the mage dies to natural or unnatural causes.

The Agitator: Debatably the absolute worst case of threshold sickness this magic has to offer, the Weaver’s physical body is immediately destroyed as their Neurocrux hardens in an encasement of crystal and destroys the entirety of their being. The Weaver’s mindscape persists within the Neurocrux, trapped within its crystalline structure as a spectator. The Neurocrux is damaged in its severance with the Mentalist, and as a result it seeks to replace the feed of ether it drank from the weaver’s soul to the latent ether surrounding it. Overloaded by the excessive ether consumed, the Neurocrux unleashes its stored power on the world around it without restraint.

The potency of the unleashed Neurocrux depends on the power of the mage but it is noted that the power of an Aberration’s severed Neurocrux can cause powerful tremors around them and can rock the foundations of mighty structures to the point of collapse.

Eventually, these severed Neurocruxes may become dormant after embedding themselves in the earth. As their crystal shape takes root and forms a sanctuary around itself, the Neurocrux begins to passively influence the minds of nearby others around it in a broad range, even influencing towns and locales long term. This effect can vary but ranges between emotional volatility to passivity and all the way to extreme mental deterioration.

Mutations

Mutations for Mentalism vary, but often involve cognitive elements, the brain or mind, emotions, dreams and mental effects. Mostly, Mentalism's mutations offer the brain a unique variety of double-edged tools, ways to perceive others and their emotions - to connect with them - but often at some sort of cost, like becoming too easily enthralled by specific emotional stimuli, or becoming predisposed to cruel acts. A common negative mutation of Mentalism is an addiction to dreaming, so much so that the Mentalist will sleep upwards of sixteen hours a day. Considering these mutations all relate to cognition, they are almost endlessly versatile. Physical mutations of Mentalism tend to be more extreme than other magics, because they tend to manifest on the face or in general, the area of the head.

Abilities

Compel: This ability is acquired at Novice. By surrounding an object or person with the Weave, the Mentalist may pull that thing toward them by pulling in the Weave itself. This usually appears as if a section of space is being interrupted by purple, crystal-like glitches in reality, as the object is compelled towards the Mentalist. At Expert, all objects within the Weave will be pulled, though they can be filtered out at-will. As is the case for many abilities within Mentalism, the limitations and restrictions can be found in the Progression Tiers (Novice-Master). Compel is often viewed as one of Mentalism's most useful abilities, as it is -- more directly -- the ability to move the Weave and the contents within it, allowing levitation and other forms of telekinesis. Actually pulling in the Weave is not required.

Impel: This ability is acquired at Novice. Impel works the same as Compel initially, but rather than simply guiding an object surrounded by the Weave, the Weave catches that object within its tangible grasp before throwing it in the desired direction. This is typically used to push objects away, but in fact, it can be used to push objects towards the mage as well.

Minstrel: This ability is acquired at Apprentice. Minstrel is the first of the 'Five Reveries', or the 'Reveries', named after the realm from which they emerge. Like with all Reveries, Minstrel requires a look into the mind of its victim: insight into their Mural. From there, the Weaver can influence the Mural with their Tethers, their Neurocrux channeling the ether from those Tethers into that specific Reverie. The longer this contact is held, the more overbearing the emotional impulse becomes. The enforcement of a Reverie is almost like that of an emotional meld, the two minds tethered with wild intensity as the Mentalist unloads the link with the desired emotion. In response, the Mural begins to shift more and more, until the victim becomes almost drunk on the singular influence of that emotion upon their mind. The Minstrel is the emotion of joy; some would say passivity. It is typically used to elate others, or to draw away their ire.

As a note on Minstrel, and all Reveries: None of the Reveries cost any ether to use. Rather, the Tethers cost ether to create, and the Mentalist may freely transition individual or multiple Tethers to different Reveries before or during any act of mental subversion, twisting the Mural to their hearts content once the Tether is lodged within its targeted brain.

Tragedian: This ability is acquired at Apprentice. The second of the Five Reveries, Tragedian is the Reverie of sadness and sorrow. Operating much like Minstrel, it is typically used to overwhelm one with sadness in order to subdue them, or make them vulnerable.

Obelisk: This ability is acquired at Journeyman. The Obelisk is a truly powerful construct, one that changes the game for a Mentalist. It allows Mentalists to influence people remotely, without the need for Tethers. While Tethers are always more powerful and can amplify the effects of the Obelisk, the Obelisk acts as an amplifier itself, radiating its stores of ether slowly and connecting those within its range with the Weaver's Neurocrux, at a surface level. The most useful application of the Obelisk is what is called 'Maintaining'; it can be used to preserve emotional states even after the Weaver and their victim are no longer connected by Tethers.

Obelisks are purple, sometimes floating, ethereal crystals that can be small (typically implanted into the body) or large, used as a pylon to transmit emotional signals from afar. The more skilled a Weaver, the larger and more powerful Obelisk they can form, allowing them to extend their range of influence further and further out, as well as to influence others with more severity without the need for Tethers. Obelisks can be destroyed. Depending on their size (as larger ones cost more ether to make), they can be easier or more difficult to destroy. Typically, mundane weaponry is not enough to damage or destroy an Obelisk unless wielded by a considerable warrior.

Nailing: This ability is acquired at Journeyman. Nailing is used to make the Weave almost concrete, preventing objects within it from being able to easily move. The more ether channeled, the more difficult any movement within the Weave becomes, to the point where the individuals within become completely stuck and unable to so much as twitch. Nailing occurs fairly gradually, allowing a chance at escape before one becomes completely immobile.

Provocateur: This ability is acquired at Expert. Provocateur is the Third Reverie of Rage. Overloading the mind with anger, Provocateur can be used to make someone aggressive, volatile or susceptible to manipulation. It is often used by Weavers to manipulate rage that already exists, bolstering it to their ends.

Overbear: This ability is acquired at Expert. Overbear is a straightforward ability; it adds an absurd amount of weight to the boundaries of the Weave, turning it into a crushing weapon. Typically it is used while the Weave is already above or surrounding a victim, almost immediately throwing them to the ground and - if pressed - completely dismantling them beneath its incredible weight, as if a boulder had suddenly dropped on them. Like Nailing, the effects of Overbear come gradually, with the weight increasing over time, though at a much quicker pace than the former ability.

Paramour: This ability is acquired at Expert. The Fourth Reverie, Paramour is an emotion of desire; it is the Reverie channeled for seduction, attraction, and in some cases even love. Paramour works much better if it is empowering a sliver of what already exists, but a strong enough Mentalist can make anyone desire them, particularly if the emotion is sustained for a longer period of time.

Scarecrow: This ability is acquired at Expert. The Fifth Reverie, and final one, Scarecrow is the Reverie of Fear. It can invoke primal terror in those afflicted by it, and works incredibly well on already feeble minds, young ones, or those unexposed to danger or fear. Scarecrow has been used to create hysteria in the past, and as fear is a powerful motivator, it can be used for near-infinite ends.

Fashion: This ability is acquired at Master. It is the ability to warp, twist and bend within a space, that of the Weave. What is interesting about Fashion is that its effects are not permanent; once the Weave is dispelled, anything that changed within it will shift back to its original state, unless damaged by an external source. What Fashion does is allow a Mentalist to totally distort something within the Weave, to their benefit. For example, if an enemy is within the effects of Fashion and they dodge a lunge of a Weaver's blade, the Weaver may twist and warp the reality within that space to draw their shoulder to where their blade is to land, or to make what would have been a cut through the side a fatal stab through the heart.

Conversely, they can warp their own space to dodge a strike that would have otherwise struck them. They can also use this to generally disrupt enemies and their ability to fight effectively, manipulating proportions or mangling the placement of limbs, even expanding or decreasing the size of a person or object. Fashion requires the expenditure of a significant amount of ether for each 'edit', meaning all of them should count. Even if someone's head is pulled into their stomach or their body is crunched together, it does not appear to actually inflict lethal or significant damage itself, only discomfort. It is a strange, almost illusory form of manipulating reality, though it provides a Mentalist a great number of ways to change situations to their favor.

Apprehend: This ability is acquired at Master. Apprehend is performed by linking the mind of the target with the Weaver's Neurocrux, typically done by placing a hand on their forehead. Generally, the target must be subdued, and few Mentalists would utilize Apprehend unless they feel they are in a safe location. Apprehend is intense: it allows the Mentalist to deep dive into the unfathomable depths of a mind, not only reading present thoughts but past ones, memories, traumas, fears, dreams. With dedication, Apprehend can be used to obtain troves of knowledge, and most of its ethereal cost comes in the initial linking, meaning a mage can linger for hours without greatly increasing their strain. While Apprehend is active, the person it is being used on - as well as the caster - enter a complete trance with one another, removing their ability to be cognizant of the outside world.

Unravel: This ability is acquired at Master. Unravel can be used on a target subdued by Apprehend. Unravel can be used to do a number of things; create false memories, edit them, or even suppress them... it can also be used to diminish one's sense of identity, inflict them with symptoms similar to those suffered by the mentally ill, or it can even be used to condition and brainwash others. A truly powerful ability, Unravel is also very costly, doubling the expenditure of Apprehend to the point where it may threaten the mage with overstepping.

Invite: This ability is acquired at Master. This ability can be used to link another mind to one's Neurocrux, for a variety of different ends. It allows the linked parties to communicate with one another remotely, to a distance of up to a mile. It also allows them to see through one another's eyes, to exchange or share emotions with one another, and -- most impactfully -- to enter one another's mindscapes. Invite is sometimes said to allow viewership of an alternate reality, a sort of living dream. It can be used to forge mutual, false experiences, or to undergo adventures that never truly occurred. While one is being Invited, both the Weaver and their peer are capable of influencing one another's Murals with intensity: drawing on their adrenaline, stimulating them, producing feelings of joy, or any number of other things, as far as the range of the mind may go.

Aberration Abilities

True Subversion: True Subversion is the most powerful direct ability of the Weaver. It allows them to fully control the mind of the target, enthralling them completely to the point of being able to finely direct each and every action. As Aberrations have highly advanced Neurocruxes, they may manipulate their Thralls like members of their hive, the control perfect and absolute. True Subversion must always first be established on someone already being fiercely manipulated by the Aberration, someone whose Mural is already being considerably influenced by them. The amount of ether expended to perform it varies; it can cost small to moderate amounts to inflict, or much more on a target with stronger will or who is under less significant influence. Some targets can push an Aberration to overstepping in order to fully control their minds, though even great mages are vulnerable to this ability. For this reason, Aberrations are wildly feared, especially by those in power. True Subversion can be permanent, though pain and duress act to fade its effect until it is withered and gone.

Tower: A Tower is a greater Obelisk, a truly massive ethereal structure. It can take on many forms; a crystal, a floating bead, a well of liquid ether. It is always monumental and resembles an artifact, and only one can be actively instituted by a Weaver at any given time. Towers expand their reach of control a mile out, and strongly influence those within them as if they have fallen prey to at least one Tether. Given this, it is not unreasonable for an Aberration to gain control of entire towns, and with minds weakened by a Tower, True Subversion becomes all more feasible to perform en-masse. Towers, like other Obelisks, can be destroyed. In the few cases an Aberration has been successfully hunted, destroying their Tower typically the first objective in doing so. Creating a Tower consumes a monumental amount of ether, enough to bring even an Aberration to moderate Overstepping.

Novice

At this level, the Weaver begins with Compel and Impel, and may expand their Weave up to five feet in width and height. Any usage of Mentalism is fairly draining at this point, and the Novice typically progresses by practicing the various applications of Compel and Impel, as well as learning of the four basic Concepts of the magic, and putting them into practice.

Apprentice

Apprentice focuses very heavily on the manipulation of emotions, and it is in this stage where the first two Reveries are learned: Minstrel and Tragedian. By connecting to others with Tethers, including animals, one may learn and master each of these Reveries. They find that Reveries are almost like overlays for Tethers, switches to focus the emotional load towards a specific direction. It is generally difficult for an Apprentice to mix and match their Tethers, so they typically focus on one emotion at a time. The width and height of their Weave expands to up to ten feet.

Journeyman

Journeyman is a huge point in the progression of a Weaver, perhaps the most significant in terms of mechanical growth. They learn three new abilities, Obelisk, Nailing and Provocateur, and with Obelisk serving as one of the most fundamental abilities of the magic. The Journeyman is capable of creating an Obelisk with up to a hundred feet of influence. Additionally, their Tethers can become concealed to the naked eye, though with sensory magic able to detect the influence and lines extending from the Neurocrux. Journeyman Mentalists can also split their Weave into multiple different fractions that they can remotely manipulate, tending to move them by dispersing and reforming them at the desired location. The width and height of the Weave expands to up to twenty feet. Also, Journeyman Weavers can attach a different Reverie to each of their Tethers, allowing them to manipulate multiple emotions in the same person, or multiple different people with different emotions.

Expert

With Expert comes three new abilities: Overbear, Paramour and Scarecrow, allowing the Journeyman control of all five Reveries and a very effective method of weaponizing the weave. The raw ability to assert emotions over a target is empowered for the Mentalist, who can now inflict others with truly blind rage, insatiable lust, or deeply traumatic levels of fear. The size of the Weave increases to up to thirty five feet in height and width, and with the Mentalist's ability to fragment it and form it into multiple different locations, they can cause considerable harm with their kinetic power.

Master

The Master of Mentalism gains access to four abilities: Fashion, Apprehend, Unravel and Invite. While Fashion serves as the pinnacle of the Weave, allowing for a mockery of reality warping, the final three abilities serve to allow a Mentalist to truly dominate the mind of another. The Master Mentalist can make the common man his plaything, and distort and warp reality to make themselves incredibly difficult to kill or harm. The Weave can reach up to fifty feet in height and width, and can be moved and twisted incredibly easily by the Mentalist's near-perfectly developed Neurocrux.

Ascension: The Aberration

The Aberration is not too strange a thing, at least when it comes to appearance. They gain a crown of sorts: three black, arched pylons on each side of their head, sticking out from their skulls. These act as, in a way, antennae for expanding and amplifying their Neurocrux's range and ability to touch the world. Their eyes become pure purple and glowing, simmering with a constant flux of ether. A trail of ethereal, tether-like energy follows them as they move, and at times the world around them appears to glitch like with the Weave.

The Aberration is one of the only creatures, perhaps only second to Kyrikain, better at manipulating the mind than a Mindrot Dragon. They are able to completely enthrall others to their will, reeling them in with an intense flux of thoughts and desires, playing on every possible seam they can grasp to subvert and control them. They are a living Obelisk, and do not need to create a single Tether to almost completely control the minds of others, even capable of enslaving the most fearsome of mages and warriors with True Subversion.

The abilities of Mentalism become natural for the Aberration, almost like extensions of their biology. While they still cost ether, they can garner greater effects for less expenditure, allowing them to assert their influence over more and more people. The compulsions of an Aberration can become so severe, partially due to their natural ease at manipulating others, that they are almost impossible to resist in this way.

Eventually, a creature that has been enthralled long enough by an Aberration can be turned into a horrific, eldritch beast. This occurs after at least a period of days, though the transition can be slow if this ability is inflicted upon larger populations. While each beast tends to be far from incredible, the Aberration - who wields a truly God-like ability to process information and wield their hive - can control them with perfect clarity.