Cognatism Addition #1 - The Disorder of Split Minds

[ski_king3 0]

 

“Laethis!” she exclaims at the sight of her former teacher. The red-haired elf begins to run towards him excitedly, yet stops abruptly, her gaze narrowing. Her thin form would begin to shake dully, and finally she would jump forward, disappearing with no trace but a cloud of bright red mist. Yet her disappearance would not last long, as a moment later she would appear just before her teacher, her leap completing in something between a hug and a tackle.

 

“Evelangéline.” the scarred elf smiles thinly, an amused expression upon his face as he matches her embrace, stumbling backwards so as not to fall over. “It has been.. quite some time.”

 

“I heard of your town and wanted to come see. Much better than Haelun’or!” Eva bobs her head in a quick nod, gaze darting around across various points of interest, frantically peering about the town.

 

He nods to the fire elf, accompanying the motion with a proud smile and quiet chuckle. “Well, the Silver State has scorned me too much f-” he stops, glancing sideways abruptly. His gaze falls upon an approaching gnome, her expression one of serious urgency, each step towards Laethis made with deliberate intent.

 

“Laefis!” she shouts while she finishes closing the distance, her stubby gnome legs taking long strides, for what she was able. “Ay have mor’ tah share ‘bout tha’ spire!” She stops before him, abruptly pointing down along the coast, in the direction of the thick forest running along it.

 

As the two begin to converse, Eva tilts her head curiously. “Spire? What’s Laethis got to do with a spire?” She laughs quietly to herself, peering directly toward Laethis. “Let’s find out.”

 

She probes reaches out with her mind, seeking out Laethis’ simply, as she’d done with dozens of others before. Immediately, however, she was confused. Rather than one simple space to slip herself into, she found indecision in her course, as if she might push one way or another and find a different mind. Yet Eva steeled her determination, pressing forward into Laethis’ mind.

 

 

Immediately, she new something was off. Though there were no mental barriers barring her entry, this was no ordinary mind. Rather than a simple image or thought, what appeared before her was a strange, wavering collage, dozens of partial images woven together incoherently. Utterly confused, Eva’s mind flashed across the patchwork of images. Yet quickly, the random jumble of incomplete thoughts began to overwhelm here. It was too much.

 

So the elf withdrew her mind from his, jolting with a start. She was not going to try that again, whatever it was.

 

---

 

 

The mind of a cognate is a rather unique thing. Torn asunder so one might make use of the Spectator Mind, a cognate’s thoughts are scattered and unclear, brought together by one’s own practiced cooperation between the two. Though a practitioner of cognatism may seem calm, collected and generally well put together, this is not an accurate depiction of what goes on within their minds, as thoughts are spread between the two minds.

 

The disorganization of their thoughts and minds inevitably has some effect on their behavior, yet the root source of this is their minds. This truly becomes a greater problem when others endeavor to view what lies within through the process of mental magic, or other means. To try and do so is to try and step through two doors at once, a process which even the most capable of mental mages would struggle with greatly. Those most capable in the art would barely be able to discern the most base of logical thought, receiving scattered flashes of images or words, if even that. Those less skilled would have a harder time, and find nothing at all.

 

-----OOC aka important stuff below-----

 

Even though the spectator mind must be actively accessed to use cognatism, the existence of the spectator mind is a passive thing. With its discovery and unlocking comes its permanent presence, forcing one’s thoughts to be diffused between the two. Thus, this ability is passive and irrelevant of tiering.

 

The most skilled of mental mages, those at “Tier 5” (I hate tiers you people kill me) would be able to begin to piece together bits of information, thus getting the smallest of comprehensible thought, though still only fragments.

 

For mental mages of “Tier 4,” they would be overwhelmed, seeing an incomprehensible patchwork that they would not be able to pick apart.

 

For lesser mental mages, they would see the same, and the experience would quickly begin to overwhelm them, and they would likely exit the mind quickly. Higher mental mages would also feel overwhelmed, and might choose to step away if they had not expected to find the mind of a cognate.

 

Red lines:

This leaves no lasting damage to mental mages. They’re just really ineffective and briefly overwhelmed.

 

You can’t learn to pick a cognate’s mind apart through practice. Some parts of any coherent thought are out of reach, making it impossible.

Cognates have no idea that this is a thing, unless they are told. It’s passive, take the pros and cons of it.

[Hydra 515]

As a cognate I must say this is a needed addition to the magic, we have been lacking utility for quite some time and with this revision there will be a resurgence of cognatism as a viable magic instead of a waste of a slot.
 

[ski_king3 0]

I also forgot, credit to Hydra for the idea/help writing, as well as 501warhead, EdgyMagey and Nalatac. Also Cheza. Yah.

[BathRugMan 564]

Makes sense, +1

[Gone 869]

I like the idea. Mental mages should already be rping the minds of their targets as varying depending on the character. Someone with a mental disorder for example can have a more complex thought process that they'll have to sort through and it's much more interesting then simply sending a pm asking for the information. Seeing as cognatism is a magic that affects the users mind (from what I'm understanding, don't shoot me if I'm wrong pls ;-; ) it should have some effect for a curious mental mage to encounter. +1

[EdgyMagey 787]

1 hour ago, Tiliena said:

I like the idea. Mental mages should already be rping the minds of their targets as varying depending on the character. Someone with a mental disorder for example can have a more complex thought process that they'll have to sort through and it's much more interesting then simply sending a pm asking for the information. Seeing as cognatism is a magic that affects the users mind (from what I'm understanding, don't shoot me if I'm wrong pls ;-; ) it should have some effect for a curious mental mage to encounter. +1

 

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Mephistophelian 977]

This is all well and good, but what happens of one of the few drawbacks of cognitism; the fact that mental mages and illusionists can create a feedback loop?

[ski_king3 0]

On 1/26/2016 at 2:05 AM, Mephistophelian said:

This is all well and good, but what happens of one of the few drawbacks of cognitism; the fact that mental mages and illusionists can create a feedback loop?

 

This was only ever a thing that illusionists could do. Mental magic wasn't accepted until after cognatism was, and it's always been the case that this should have happened, though it simply wasn't explicit. Also, it's never really been a thing that players actually do, simply because virtually none are aware that this is possible.

[Mephistophelian 977]

21 minutes ago, Maruthir said:

 

This was only ever a thing that illusionists could do. Mental magic wasn't accepted until after cognatism was, and it's always been the case that this should have happened, though it simply wasn't explicit. Also, it's never really been a thing that players actually do, simply because virtually none are aware that this is possible.

Thanks! What of the other questions I posed on the second post? Those are quite important, too.

[Tsuyose 3285]

Under the review of the LT.

 

[ski_king3 0]

Self-accepted via the bias machine. Please wait for the creation of more bias.