Mental Magic
Contents
Telepathy and Mental Magic
The mind is a curious thing. It has the ability to make or break a person. It defines a character, person, or a living thing. This type of magic allows the interaction of minds in roleplay by a magic user. Minds, typically, are a controlled chaos of various thoughts and memories swimming about in an intelligent being's consciousness. No two minds are alike, just like the people they belong to, so every mind is a variation, with some varying more than others. Some people have a "filing cabinet" of thoughts, while others have an algorithm for sorting their thoughts, and others have a chaotic barn of thoughts. Everyone's mind is different to navigate.
Learning Mental Magic
To learn Mental Magic, you must be taught by a master as shown here, or learn from the aforementioned Tree of Minds. With the Tree of Minds method, I could, for all intents and purposes, simulate this encounter, or, if time zones/other ridiculously annoying stuff intervene, I could just do a quick test to see if the Tree would teach you(if it existed as a player). Since the Tree of Minds isn't going to let just anyone in, the most common way to learn this is by being taught by a master.
Tells
Every mental magic user has a tell. This is a certain thing that changes in their appearance when they perform mental magic, E.G. Jon's tell is his pupils expanding. Typically, it isn't a glowing thing, like -Derp's hands and feet start to glow-. It's normally a more subtle change, like eyes changing color, marks appearing on skin, etc.
The "spells"
Technically, one doesn't need a spell to enter a mind, but I will refer to what a mind magic user can do when interacting between minds using this term. As per request of the Magic Team, when a Mental Magic user is restrained in any way, they cannot use any spell, no exceptions. In addition, they must take an amount of time to connect with the mind and a proportionate amount of time depending on the size of the spell being used, E.G. a larger illusion takes longer to produce. Basic Telepathy
This is the simplest spell usable. All the user must do is enter the other person's mind, and think. These thoughts will become speech in the other person's mind. It should not be very exhausting on the user, but extended conversations may lead to fatigue. As one works a muscle, one can practice to the point where they can have longer conversations of this type, and the same is true with all following spells. Telepathy can also manifest itself as a sort of "scan" for intelligent creatures. By lightly extending a mind over a wide area, one can see if any other intelligent minds are nearby. This is more difficult than basic telepathy in that it requires a larger area of effect.
Mind "Melding"
Technically, we aren't melding anyone's mind, Vulcan style, when we do this. Essentially, when you mind meld someone, you are attempting to break into the person's memories or thoughts to gain some information. The key to this is either going unnoticed, or distracting the person's conscience mind long enough to get the information you want. This is more tiring than basic telepathy, and requires much more practice to perfect and use for extended periods of time.
Barriers
On breaking into minds during Melding, the person who is attempting to defend themselves may put up a "barrier" of thoughts. This barrier is essentially one thought, or a montage of thoughts, that the person uses to make the person who is attempting the meld leave their mind. To create a barrier, the victim must separate themselves from emotion. Any emotion that would rouse them to action will disrupt their barrier and allow the attacking mage through. The harder you focus, the longer your barrier will hold. Keep in mind that the enemy mage is trying to make you feel something so that your concentration is broken. If you feel that your character's emotions would be roused by whatever the mage is showing you through illusion, you should break your barrier.
Creation of Illusions/Manipulation of Senses
This is the most difficult and most tiring form of mind magic. This allows the user to change what the person sees, hears, feels, tastes, and smells to produce an illusion of an alternate reality. The amount of fatigue this causes depends on the size of the illusion, the duration of the illusion, and the complexity of the stimuli. For example, a small room with a scented candle is a lot less tiring than an entire field full of many farm animals.
What mind magic users can't do
-We cannot make a person think something. We can only influence their thoughts, E.G. we can't make someone feel fear, we have to simulate something that causes fear.
-We can't "delete" memories or thoughts. We can access them, but not destroy them.
-We can't control anyone using this. Similar to the forcing of thoughts, we have to make our victim do what we want with an illusion, not by breaking in and taking control.
-We cannot go into memories through melding and create new memories. We can make new ones with illusions, but nothing more.
