Cognatism

Cognatism is the practice of utilizing the Spectator Mind to cast illusions on oneself for uses of personal utility. Also known as Cognitism.

Becoming a Cognat

In order for one to learn the art of Cognatism, they must first become a Cognat. This means that through some means, one learns to split their mind in two, allowing them to establish the Spectator Mind. This split has been known by some to occur through bizarre and freak accidents, though over time practitioners have found ways to replicate the process intentionally. The establishment of the Spectator Mind will often initially cause the Cognat to behave somewhat incoherently, their thoughts jumbled and disjointed between the split in their thoughts. However, as time passes, the Cognat will grow more used to this diffusion in thoughts, learning to think and behave normally despite their Spectator Mind. At this point, one will be able to reliably utilize Cognatism to their own benefit.

The Uses of Cognatism

The Basics

One learning Cognatism must learn the basics of connecting to the void the same way all users of arcane magic must. Once the user is knowledgeable in connecting to the void, and used to the split within their minds, it's time to learn the actual practice of Cognatism. For this, the Cognat must learn to cast illusions in the same way that sensory illusionists do. However, rather than casting them on others, one must learn to do so with one mind onto the other, thus explaining the need for this split in minds. This is the basic function of Congatism.

Applied Uses

Once one has learnt the basic functionality of Cognatism, they will be able to begin growing versed in its applied uses. Though the magic is often favored by engineers and others who can use it for measurement and sizing, or the creation of applied three-dimensional models, it holds a wide variety of uses. Any typical use of sensory illusion can be applied to the Cognat, though the uses are typically quite different due to the nature of what makes this magic useful.

Below is a list of exemplary uses of Cognatism:

• Creating helpful visual aids seen to the eyes, such as a ruler that can be used to measure an object.
• Composing a full and complete three-dimensional model of an object within the mind's eye.
• Creating illusions around an object which lists the various properties and data that the Cognat has available to him pertaining to the object.
• Maintaining "notes" on individuals or objects which can be brought forth to assist with one's memory.
• The creation of scents, sounds, feelings or any other sensory experience. Though largely used for intellectuals purposes, this servers as "self-illusion."
• Using the mind's eye to visualize mathematical operations and hence complete them much faster than someone working with pen and paper.
• Directly converting short-term memories into long-term ones, and enhancing the capacity of both.

Revelations

Highly advanced and practiced Cognats are capable of experiencing Revelations. These Revelations are achieved by entering a state of hyper-thought, caused by drawing the Cognats two minds closer together. This causes the acceleration of one's thoughts, followed by an immediate separation that causes both minds to perform a series of logical considerations. This can have three results. The Cognat might achieve nothing but a chaotic pattern of meaningless thought, resulting in the Spectator Mind being disabled in order to stop this endless stream of thought. Alternatively, the Cognat can create an error, causing the two minds to "touch" and subsequently frying their brain through the perception feedback loop they've created. Yet on rare occasions, the Cognat will be successful and have a Revelation.

A Revelation can be any sort of realization: realizing that the Cognat can save money by buying food in a different city; an imaginative solution to an engineering problem; or something even as great as delving into the patterns of the world to predict when and where some catastrophe will happen. ((Revelations must be pre-approved by LT members, and should they be in the same category as the last an Administrator must approve it, and possibly the Event Team if it pertains to one of their events. The last possibility is included so that a Cognat can have the potential to be used as a plot device in an event, either predicting when some dire disaster will occur or finding a solution to some currently occurring cataclysm.))

Cognatism and Mental Magic

To be brief, Cognatism and Mental Magic don't mix. By splitting one's mind, a Cognat spreads their thoughts among two entities instead of one. This causes the Cognat to have a natural resistance to mental magic. Even the most experienced of mental mages would find naught but the most disjointed and incoherent of images or thoughts, gleaning virtually no meaningful information. Similarly, a Cognat cannot practice mental magic, as focusing their split minds in the manner required to perform mental magic is not possible.

Problems and Red Lines

Should the Cognat see something very disturbing, frightening or confusing, the Spectator Mind will be temporarily disabled, depending on the skill of the Cognat and the intensity of the disturbing stimuli. A state of silence and free-flowing of thought must be made through meditation before the Cognat can re-initialize it. In addition, the Spectator Mind can be dissipated by a learned Illusionist, or worse even tampered with by Master Illusionists to create a perception feedback loop and effectively killing the Cognat.

Cognatism cannot be used to aid someone in combat. An attempt to do so would result in the user being very ineffective in their combative efforts.