Sensory Illusion

This lore received a rewrite and this version is not being used on the server anymore. This page should be updated with the new lore which can be found here.

Art by: Unknown, all credits to the rightful owner Sensory Illusion

The art of altering the world doesn’t just lay in the hands of alterations. In the world of deception comes a magic that was forged around twisting the fabric of the world. The art of Sensory Illusion is a craft that allows a sly mage to mold the senses of another individual, allowing them to create astounding feats from changing the appearance of one's face to creating something that isn’t really there. As such Sensory Illusion is the arcane or voidal art of creating false vision and sensations.

History

Sensory Illusion is known as one of the few forms of magic, which, to this day, are having near to none known history to it. Most of the information on Sensory Illusion are rather new ones, being amassed over the last decades. Yet, it is also seen on cave paintings and older tomes and texts that this magic is fairly old, reaching back to the first realms that existed. Due to the missing historical information on this magic many students are trying to research it, write books about their research and are also trying to spread the magic, either to learn more about it or to become founders of new subforms of this magic.

Learning Sensory Illusion

Due to the simple fact that there aren’t many information on the magic Sensory Illusion needs to be taught by a teacher. It can’t be learnt from any books or tomes, since there aren’t enough to be able to do so. As such many students are searching for teachers on their own, since even the Mage Guild has only a few limited teachers which are able to teach this form of magic.

Abilities

Sensory Illusion mages are known to have the knowledge over three main abilities, being separated into Glamours, Figments and Phantasms. Each of those forms are known to affect the senses of a person, not their whole minds. As such it’s a common misconception to think that Sensory Illusion mages can control the whole mind of a person. As such it is impossible to them to control the body of a person or give them commands, which they would need to follow. Instead Sensory Illusion affects the senses directly, causing false senses to be transmitted.

Glamours

Masking an object can be done with more than paint. With the art of Sensory Illusion, one can mask an object to be just like something else. How it looks, feels, smells, and so forth. Masking an object is the least strenuous type of Sensory Illusion, only requiring a small portion of mana to fuel the spell. However, the changes must be realistic and experienced beforehand, such as slight alterations to the face to hide old scars or to change a human's ears to elven ears, since those can be seen nearly everywhere on people.

Figments

Figments are known as creations of Sensory Illusion which aren’t masking a simple object. The deceiver can forge figments of what really isn’t there, such as pulling a rabbit out of your wizard hat to impressing someone or even pretending they can cast a certain type of magic to trick someone. All of these are practical uses to this magic. The only issue of figments is they’re a bit harder to keep realistic, as they’re not really there. This would mean anyone could walk right through that illusionary wall a mage put up, breaking the spell by doing so.

Phantasms

An Illusionist is not only limited to fabricating the senses of the real world, one can dive deep into the subconscious world of their target as well. These are called Phantasms, which is an art of fabricating emotions, pictures, and feelings deep within the subconscious. Such could confuse some at first, as it’s not forcing the person they target to suddenly feel a way, but rather it’s giving a strong suggestion. It’s like placing the fabricated feeling into the waters of their subconscious for their conscious to fish up. As such Sensory Illusion isn’t the same as Mental Magic, which is forcing those emotions to break forth or which are causing a person to act completely different than before. Instead the spell acts like a seed, which can either grow or wither away.

Redlines of Sensory Illusion

Sensory Illusion has several redlines of what a mage can do and what a mage can’t do. As such those redlines should be followed at any time and breaking them can result in a removal of your magic permissions.

• The illusion must make sense to the subconscious, else it will shatter. For example, if someone makes an illusion of a cookie and someone goes to bite into it but it doesn’t have any taste to it, or feeling to it as they ate it, the subconscious will realize this doesn’t exist and the spell shatters.
• An illusionist will always know that their own spell is an illusion and will never be able to cast anything that tricks their own mind. For example, an illusionist would not be able to ease their own pain through illusions.
• A mage cannot cast an illusion that they have never experienced themselves.
• A mage can’t cast illusions out of their line of sight.

Redlines of Glamours

• The smaller the Glamour, the easier it is to perform and the more perfect a mage can make it appear. The larger it is, the more strain the caster will have and the more imperfections will show. Imperfections take on the appearance of distortions and flickers within the illusion. These forming will cause doubt to anyone seeing them, most likely shattering them for any illusions that are already bordering on the unrealistic.
• With that, full masking glamours (full body illusions) must always have slight imperfections, which will grow as the whatever is glamoured moves about. Erratic movements such as sword fighting or running around will cause the imperfections to be blatantly noticeable.
• Glamours only mask, meaning it has to go over an object that already exists.

Redlines of Figments

• The smaller the figment, the easier it is to perform and the more perfect it can be. The larger it is, the more strain the caster will have and the more imperfections will show.
• Figments are not real objects, meaning someone can walk through one, swing a blade through one, so forth. At first the illusion will be disrupted until the subconscious realizes it's fake and shatters that particular illusion (which usually happens after).
• A mage can use figments to project directly to an individual's senses without having to be visible. Such as projecting a voice for only them to hear, a sudden blinding light blocking their vision, or numbing their pain. However, sudden figments, such as a blinding light that comes out of nowhere, is bordering unrealistic and can cause the illusion to fade. These sorts of illusions must have some kind of basis that grounds them in reality for them to be effective on a person. Such as causing a lantern to be blindingly bright or having loud explosion noises come after someone throws a fireball.

Redlines of Phantasms

• Phantasms spells cannot do what Mental Magic can. It's a suggestion of feelings/Ideas, which is directly planted into the subconscious. It isn’t forcing the person to anything and the person could simply ignore them.
• Furthermore, if they don’t make sense or start to feel foreign, they might realize someone's messing with their head.
• Phantasms cannot suggest anything against the will of the user thus mages can’t entirely force someone to fall in love with them.

Trivia

• Many Sensory Illusion mages are known to use their magic for performances on the streets, being able to create fantastic shows with minimal effort.
• There has been a legend about an artifact, which is able to hide a whole city behind a giant glamour, however, no clear clue were found if such an artifact could even exist somewhere.

Rewrite

Summary

The art of altering the world doesn’t just lay in the hands of alterations. In the world of deception comes a magic that was forged around twisting the fabric of the world. The art of Sensory Illusion is a craft that allows a sly mage to mold the senses of another individual, allowing them to create astounding feats from changing the appearance of one's face to creating something that isn’t really there. Or is it? Uses of this magic can vary with a simple change of something that already exists, to fabricating something that doesn’t exist, and to dive deep within the subconscious of one's senses and fabricating phantasms. All of these follow basic rules that allow us to paint such stories to the senses of the victim; these stories must have been experienced by the caster and they must be realistic to the subconscious senses. If the first rule is not met the caster cannot paint this illusion, and if the second rule is not met the illusion will shatter as soon as the subconscious is aware of its presence.

Generalized Redlines (Applies to All Spells of Sensory Illusion):

1) You cannot cast an illusion that you have never experienced, and only the parts you HAVE experienced.(Seen, Felt, Smelled, Etc) Aka: No purple 2foot T-rexes

2) Your illusion must make sense to the SUBCONSCIOUS or it WILL shatter. For example, if I make an illusion of a cookie and someone goes to bite into it but it doesn’t have any taste to it, or feeling to it as they ate it, the subconscious will realize this doesn’t exist and the spell shatters. (THIS DOES NOT MEAN IF YOU ARE TOLD SOMETHING IS AN ILLUSION OR YOU KNOW THEY ARE AN ILLUSIONIST YOU CAN SHATTER SPELLS: If it’s realistic your subconscious will always NEVER be sure. This is to prevent powergaming against Sensory Illusion!). An unrealistic illusion, such as creating a green alien and having that march around, is not going to compute with someone’s subconscious and will cause the illusion to shatter.

3) An illusionist will always know that their own spell is an illusion and will never be able to cast anything that tricks their own mind. For example, an illusionist would not be able to ease their own pain through illusions.

4) Line-of-sight is required.

Glamours

Masking an object can be done with more than paint. With the art of sensory illusion, one can mask an object to be just like something else. How it looks, feels, smells, and so forth. Masking an object is the least strenuous type of sensory illusion, only requiring a small portion of mana to fuel the spell. Glamours follow the same rules of sensory illusion. The changes must be realistic and experienced beforehand. (Been seen, felt, etc…)Some practical uses with glamours have always been changing the appearance of one's looks, such as slight alterations to the face to hide old scars or to change a human's ears to elven ears. Perhaps you wish to make your wood sword look a bit more fearsome? Don’t worry! With a touch of illusion, one can make it look just as steel. with glamours, other feats have been known to be possible, such as entirely shrouding the look of an individual. Say a male dark elf is glamoured to look like a female high elf These feats, however, have always been known to be prone to flaws at times But with mastery of the magic, one can create a near perfect masking with minor imperfections of someone they wish to impersonate.

Glamour Redlines:

1) The smaller the Glamour, the easier it is to perform and the more perfect you can make it. The larger it is, the more strain the caster will have and the more imperfections will show. Always RP this, or it is powergaming. Imperfections take on the appearance of distortions and flickers within the illusion. These forming will cause doubt to anyone seeing them, most likely shattering them for any illusions that are already bordering on the unrealistic. Imperfections will take place across the entirety of the illusion for brief moments of time, the caster can not control when/where the imperfections occur. An example of the flicker: https://thumbs.gfycat.com/RapidFlashyKitten-max-1mb.gif

2) With that, full masking glamours (full body illusions) must ALWAYS have slight imperfections, which will grow as the whatever is glamoured moves about. Erratic movements such as swordfighting or running around will cause the imperfections to be blatantly noticeable. This extends to enchantments as well. Enchantments have a harder time with this as any touching of the sensory illusioned area will cause it to distort.

3) Glamours only mask, meaning it has to go over an object that already exists, or else you’re creating a Figment.

Figments

Perhaps a glamour won't cut it, you need something created now without masking a simple object. This is where the art of crafting figments come in line. The deceiver can forge figments of what really isn’t there. Figments have almost an endless amount of uses, from pulling a rabbit out of your wizard hat to impressing your favorite elfess you’ve been hitting on all night, or even pretending you can cast a certain type of magic to trick someone into thinking you’re some all powerful mage. All of these are practical uses to this magic. The only issue of figments is they’re a bit harder to keep realistic, as they’re not really there. This would mean anyone could walk right through that illusionary wall you put up. With this(there have been experiments before) one can stab another with a dagger that isn’t really there if they’ve been stabbed himself, it's just best to be sure they paint every little detail of this.

Figment Redlines:

1) The smaller the figment, the easier it is to perform and the more perfect it can be. The larger it is, the more strain the caster will have and the more imperfections will show. Always RP this, or it is Powergaming. Imperfections take on the appearance of distortions and flickers within the illusion. These forming will cause doubt to anyone seeing them, most likely shattering them for any illusions that are already bordering on the unrealistic. Imperfections will take place across the entirety of the illusion for brief moments of time, the caster can not control when/where the imperfections occur. An example of the flicker: https://thumbs.gfycat.com/RapidFlashyKitten-max-1mb.gif

2) Figments are not there, meaning someone can walk through one, swing a blade through one, so forth. At first the illusion will be disrupted until the subconscious realizes it's fake and shatters that particular illusion (which usually happens after).

3) You can use figments to project directly to an individual's senses without having to be visible. Such as projecting your voice for only them to hear, a sudden blinding light blocking their vision, or numbing their pain. However, sudden figments, such as a blinding light that comes out of nowhere, is bordering unrealistic and can cause the illusion to fade. These sorts of illusions must have some kind of basis that grounds them in reality for them to be effective on a person. Such as causing a lantern to be blindingly bright or having loud explosion noises come after someone throws a fireball.

Phantasms

An illusionist is not only limited to fabricating the senses of the real world, one can dive deep into the subconscious world of their target as well. These are called Phantasms, which is an art of fabricating emotions, pictures, and feelings deep within the subconscious. Planting a seed, if you would. Such could confuse some at first, as it’s not forcing the person they target to suddenly feel a way, but rather it’s giving a strong suggestion. It’s like placing the fabricated feeling into the waters of their subconscious for their conscious to fish up. Then what’s the difference from sensory illusions brother, mental magic? Well, mental magic is delving deep into the memories and mind of their target. Sensory illusion can only place ideas for the subconscious to possibly grab onto, A great feat that can easily be misused in the wrong hands, who says it's wrong if they never find out?

Red lines of Phantasms:

1) Cannot do what mental magic can. Thus not seeing emotions or memories, no memory wipes, etc... It's a ONE WAY road for SUGGESTING feelings/Ideas into the subconscious

2) Again, these are only SUGGESTIONS. Meaning the person can reject them. Furthermore, if they don’t make sense or start to feel foreign, they might realize someone's messing with their head. (Suddenly being suggested to feel happy whilst extremely angry, etc...)

3) Follows server rules. Cannot suggest anything against the will of the user thus you can’t entirely force someone to fall in love with you or want to suddenly bed you, etc...

Development

T1: The Illusionist starts to study the concept of an illusion, they seek out to study small things and recreate them All of these will be flawed at first as they slowly start to work on how to paint the picture they wish to show. They may start doing things such as burning themselves, getting a better feel for heat, pain, and so forth to turn around and try to recreate them. Cannot do phantasm yet, glamours are flawed and figments are hard to cast/usually flawed.

T2: Finally, with a task comes accomplishment. Studying different objects and attempting to paint them has given them a better skill in casting figments and glamours. It starts to get much easier to paint on better details and create decent illusions. They may also start to delve into the concept of phantasm, though trying to cast them will usually fail to work. Glamours and figments start becoming easier to cast, and they can do bigger ones as well.

T3: Becoming adept in the art of Illusion is quite the feat indeed. Now they have started to truly understand the art of painting glamours, fabricating figments, and have now begun to understand how to properly instill suggestions through phantasm. Casting glamours have become extremely easy with decent details, figments are starting to become less strained with better details, and phantasms are improving, they might even be able to suggest something

T4: It’s been many years studying the art, you’ve been in and out many different situations with illusion by now and are well trained in the art. Glamours are no sweat for someone this trained, being able to cast great detail in such. Figments have become extremely familiar, molding the world around them is quite the skill now as they can put an extreme amount of detail into their illusions and phantasms have started becoming much easier to fabricate, suggestions starting to become more influencing and easier for the target to grasp.

T5: A master Illusionist, capable of deceiving almost anyone. You have now reached your cap in the abilitys of this magic and become as well versed as you could through many years of practice. Your glamours are extremely detailed and are extremely easy to cast, one could even mask themselves if they wished. Figments have become no sweat, able to create the littlest details in their creations, and phantasms are at their best, allowing the illusionist to suggest great detailed emotions or feelings into the subconscious.

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