Tharizdun, the Somnovem, and Psionics
tl;dr I think Lucien (and to a lesser extent Obann) wield abilities from a new school of magic based on Psionics and derived from Tharizdun
Mechanically Lucien’s abilities have been a puzzler. Matt may have simply selected a batch of powers without fitting them into any larger structure, but that’s not his style. I’ve seen the theory that they’re based on a Beholder’s suite of eye-rays, but he hasn’t used a single ray-attack yet and I feel like he would have busted out at least one against Gelidon. Plus Lucien’s not the only one. How did Obann control Yasha for so long, and in a way that robbed her of autonomy? Standard control spells in D&D like Dominate Monster work by charming the target, inclining it to follow your commands, rather than letting you puppeteer them directly. How can Lucien take over his teammates at will? Why didn’t his anti-magic cone disrupt his own abilities like it did those of his teammates? I think it’s because there’s another school of magic in the mix, and I think it comes from Tharizdun.
Consider the origins of arcana. The main schools of magic spring from the gifts/teachings of the Prime Deities in the early times of creation, and the Luxon gifted/taught dunamancy. So why shouldn’t Tharizdun, the Luxon’s dark mirror, have a school of magic too? Tharizdun’s been humming along in the background of Campaign 2 literally since day one, a rising tide that drives creatures to devour. I believe he’s ultimately behind the Somnovem as well, corrupting the city as it wandered the Astral Sea where his influence is strongest and now reaching back through them to the Prime Material plane. Now that we’re coming up against Tharizdun’s avatar (or avatar’s avatar, if it’s reaching through the Somnovem) it makes sense to run into this new school of magic the same way we encountered dunamancy when venturing into Xhorhas.
If Tharizdun does have a school of magic, what would it be like? I think it’s based on psionics. Psionics in D&D mechanics are a class of arcane-ish abilities that draw power solely from the user’s mind and include classic psychic powers like telekinesis, telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. While some monsters and NPC races in vanilla 5e have psionic powers (mindflayers, the gith), playable psionic classes are only in Unearthed Arcana (UA), D&D’s testing server. UA material is frequently revised, experimental material D&D’s designers want feedback on; the Artificer class, for instance, was published as UA a few years before being finalized in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. My guess is Matt used the Unearthed Arcana Mystic class published in early 2017 (later deprecated) to build his own school of psi-magic that we’ll discover over the course of the campaign.
Tharizdun itself is a creeping, seeping insanity that likes to find a crack in someone and worm its way in, so it makes sense that magic from Tharizdun would focus on the mind, madness, and control. It’s fixated on eyes, a classic theme in psionic abilities. Tharizdun’s influence is strongest in the Astral Sea - in base 5e lore it’s even the creator of the astral dreadnaughts - i.e. within a literal ocean of dreaming psychic energy governed by thought and will that’s home to the main psionic races, the githyanki/githzerai. The Somnovem, who were obsessed with both the Astral Sea and cultivating the unknown powers of the mortal mind, likely stumbled into the beginnings of psionics, and now they’re a hideous maddening entity of pure hunger rampaging around covering people in eyes. Oh, and don’t forget that the Somnovem opening a back-channel to Tharizdun would be an excellent reason for the Prime Deities to smite Aeor clean out of the sky before the Chained Oblivion got through. It’s Tharizdun all the way down, my dudes. And Tharizdun’s got the brain powers.
In Lucien’s case, his killer psychic touch attack being psionic would explain how he could use it when inside his own antimagic cone (beholders have their spellcasting eyes on tentacles outside of said cone). A few of the Mystic class’ disciplines also line up well with his demonstrated abilities: Telepathic Control has options that resemble both what he uses to take over the Tomb Takers and what Obann used on Yasha; Mantle of Awe grants abilities related to charm, persuasion, and drawing attention; Third Eye would give him truesight plus fun tricks like tremorsense and see through walls; and Nomadic Mind both gives him Find Creature and would let him create a movable magic sensor similar to a scry-eye that he could use when near the M9 to watch them indefinitely.
WHICH LEADS US TO ONE EXTREMELY IMPORTANT QUESTION: now that Caleb and Beauregard have eyes, can they learn psionic abilities too?? Int and Wisdom are the two psionic caster stats used by the githyanki and the githzerai respectively, and those are Caleb and Beau’s high stats. WILL BEAU LEARN TO PUNCH PEOPLE WITH HER BRAIN. I NEED TO KNOW.
