#pb mind

[pactbinder-if]

Professor Fausett, how would you recommend a prospecting student select their mastery?

The Professor has a lengthy response below the cut. Bear in mind that he's answering a Pactbinder he assumes is an ordinary student, with all of a mage's normal limitations - one mastery may be all they get!

And his view is much more academically focused, of course - Fausett isn't about to recommend people learn Matter to shoot fireballs at people, for example.

Dear anon,

You are wise not to take this crucial decision lightly. In my view, we are each of us shaped by the Mastery we first seek to pursue.

Even those of us blessed with the proclivity to pursue others will find their Gift's first awakening most potent, the centrepiece of their magical talents. For example, though it has been a long, long time since I first awakened, I still consider myself a practitioner of Life, first and foremost.

With all that said, my advice to you would be to attend your lessons diligently in the coming weeks and consider which classes resonate with you most strongly. The pursuit of each Mastery requires different aptitudes, after all.

Those of you drawn to understanding the composition of the world we all inhabit, mages and mundane alike, might be best suited to Mastery of Matter. True skill with the art comes from years of practise, of learning the nature of each and every element and their potential reactions. I know that you are new to our world - the best analogy might be a degree in Chemistry.

The Artists amongst you might be best suited to pursuit of Mind, if you can tolerate Professor Carcer's dubious pedagogy. I would not blame you if you could not. Much is made of Mind's power to purloin the secrets of others and assert one's will over the Ungifted, but at its core it is the ability to express your own vision of the world. To that end, those who excel in the field tend to be those who are most capable of refining that vision.

It will be of no surprise to you that study of Life has much in common with various aspects of Biology and Medicine. Knowledge of botany and anatomy is useful to those who wish to assert their authority over the living world. Believe me, you children are fortunate. In my day, they taught us how to invoke Life by striking us with rods until those of us with the knack were able to reverse the hurts inflicted upon us! Heal thyself, indeed...

Though Hightower demands excellence in any field that you choose to pursue, I understand that Spirit is considered the most difficult Mastery to study by most students in their first term; If you were drawn to mathematics or physics before you were accepted into Hightower, it might be of interest to you. At its heart, Spirit is the field of using Elsewhere's aspatial nature to disturb our altogether more consistent reality. To break these rules safely, one must understand them...

Of course, I speak whilst labouring under the assumption that you will have a choice of Mastery in the first place. These days, many discover over the course of their first term that their Gift can only be shaped for one or two of the Masteries. A few unfortunates might struggle even for that, these days...But I digress. Somehow, I feel that you will not be one of those students.

Seek ever after knowledge,

Sir John Fausett

[pactbinder-if]

Okay, I’m not sure if this would count as spoilers, but is there any actual merit to what Carcer was saying with it being a waste of time and resources to try and train people who don’t start out with a natural inclination towards Mind?

Like, to me he reads like one of those bad teachers that don’t want to bother with anyone who isn’t smart enough to basically teach themselves even without his involvement, but is it actually a diminishing returns thing? Do other universities generally follow Hightower’s approach?

It just seems like shooting yourself in the foot lmao like you ALREADY have a shortage dog what are you doinggg

Great question and observation - the PB has the option to challenge him on similar grounds IIRC.

Carcer would argue his stance is more nuanced than that; he isn't excluding students who lack aptitude for Mind Magic, he is excluding students who lack a natural instinct for defending against mind magic. He would say that this is an ethical position in that he is ensuring that any student skilled at Mind is capable of protecting the secrets they steal: otherwise getting mind-read by one Mind mage would be like getting mind-read by all of them. Bad for a place like Hightower.

Others would disagree. They'd point out innate mental defenses do correlate with a knack for Mind. That other schools are less discriminatory. They'd say that if Mind magic is so spooky and terrible, surely every student, Mind mage or not, should learn to defend against it (and many do get private lessons on this). Or it should be regulated outright.

To these people, Carcer says: lol. Lmao, even. Sucks to not be the greatest Mind Mage in England.

Who's right, though? Who knows...

[pactbinder-if]

How subtle could Mind mastery be?If Matter was our primary and Mind secondary could we be proficient enough for subtle machinations?Like in a duel could we alter our distance from an opponent by a very small margin but enough to not be noticed directly while using Matter as a cover?Or sending the feeling of burning with a fire that didn’t actually touch an opponent?

Thanks for the ask! Depends on the type of magic you're using with Mind.

The usual rule of thumb for Mind is that non-harmful Invocation spells (projecting simple thoughts, images and sensations onto others) can be subtle, whilst offensive Invocations (inflicting pain on others) and Transmutation spells (reading minds, more sophisticated mental illusions, etc) has more tells, particularly when used on somebody trained in and resistant to Mind Magic. It's also easier to cast subtly when someone's attention isn't on you.

So Mind isn't too subtle in the middle of a duel (and except for pain blasts, it's too slow to get a ton of sophisticated use out of it), but it's great for subtlety in other circumstances - sneaking around, or whilst holding a conversation if you're charismatic enough to keep it under wraps.

[pactbinder-if]

Telepathy? Pretty please? 🥺

Mind magic gives a degree of surface-thought reading at higher tiers of proficiency, but more secretive or mentally disciplined mages (just like the Pactbinder themseoves in C3!) are resistant to it, so it isn't quite going to feel like being Sidestep, unfortunately - much more situational!

A good thing too - imagine how much harder the Pactbinder's life could get...

[pactbinder-if]

So we can influence sensory perception like sight sounds smell and even pain. Can a Mind Mage also enhance pleasure, instill fear, numb pain, and induce delirium/psychosis?

If so, what's stopping a Mind Mage from imprinting a suggestion in the mind of another? Take a person's interest and turn it into an obsession, or someone's aversion into a phobia?

Also I'm not sure if this was already asked and answered, but Dreamwalking? Is a Mind more vulnerable while asleep?

Great questions!

As always with Mind magic, the answer depends on whether we're talking about a mage with a tricky mind, a mage, or a non-Gifted person, but I'll answer as though we're talking mages, since that's most of Hightower (townies aside, but that's another story).

A Mind mage can instil fear, impart pleasure and numb pain, but can't enhance pleasure or induce delirium / psychosis. Basically, they can share / project sensations, less so transform those that the target already feels.

This is just because of the nature of the magic - you're mostly imposing sensations / thoughts / memories / etc on someone else, not rewriting them, and on some level, especially given time, the target mage's subconscious will pick up on these imparted sensations being foreign.

This is why I've said before that memory modification is one of the very hardest aspects of Mind magic - it's breaking this rule somewhat. As you might guess - the big trick Carcer pulled during the C3 class must have also been at the very cutting edge of Mind Magic, too.

This answers your follow up cleanly enough I think - imprinted suggestions and manipulating interests / aversions falls into that category of actively manipulating a mind rather than imposing something upon it, so they aren't a way to bypass what I've said before about mind controlling other mages being extremely difficult.

It's possible over a very long period of time you could basically use sensory manipulation to gaslight someone into developing an obsession, formulating a phobia, etc etc. Mage history is littered with examples of this - sometimes as part of political intrigues but more often, unfortunately, in horrible domestic situations.

It's possible to enter a sleeping target's dreams, but it's only slightly easier than a conscious target, and in many ways is more dangerous to both the mage and the dreamer.

[pactbinder-if]

Could Might and Finesse impact how one’s Mind Mastery works or its effectiveness on different targets?For example, on certain mages a brute force technique via Might would be sufficient whereas for more experienced mages a technique valuing Finesse would be more suitable?Is there any mind that’s truly impregnable?Or would it be a matter where influencing someone is dependent only upon, time, effort, and skill?

Might and Finesse don't have any impact on how Mind works from a magical perspective - each magic is relatively self-contained in that respect, and indeed largely driven by time, effort and magical skill (and special advantages like the Kingsgift, magical items or the Pact) - but they might have relevance contextually.

If you wanted to project an illusion into somebody's mind whilst they didn't know you were there, Finesse might come in handy, for example. Or maybe in a fight where you're sustaining heavy enemy fire, Might could let you tough it out and cast through the pain...

As for whether any minds are truly impregnable - that's difficult to say, but its generally believed that a strong-willed or tricksy mage is pretty much immune to the mind control and memory manipulation aspects of Mind magic, so when it comes to Mage v. Mage stuff Mind mages normally rely on illusions and other projected sensory tricks.

A strong enough Mind mage can brute force through this resistance sometimes. but that normally just gets you an unfortunate and very brain damaged victim.

[pactbinder-if]

Does Mind Mastery have a range to use? Like do you need to be within a certain range of someone to be able to affect them? Can it be used on animal?

Yes to it having a limited range - how long that range is depends on the mage's experience and ability (the Pactbinder as always has a leg up so probably has a better range than most equally inexperienced peers).

Mind magic also does work on animals, but only partially - projection works fine (i.e. you can trick an animal's senses, inflict sensations on it, etc) but it's harder to impossible to read an animal's 'mind' for example, and accessing whatever memories it might possess isn't really possible. So effectively you can act upon animals, but not much more than that.

[pactbinder-if]

Mind Mastery Agenda: PB can potentially learn to mindwipe witnesses, thus making pursuit of other masteries more valuable in the long run as they can afford to be more bold and flexible with their magic, instead of constantly holding back out of fear of revealing the Pact. A get-out-of-jail-free card, if you will.

Mind is pretty badass, yep. It's a contender for the most versatile Mastery - some mild combat relevance, stealth, social utility, other trickery...

The only thing balancing it is the fact that other Mind mages and more mentally resistant mages in general at least render it very unreliable for sophisticated stuff like memory wiping and mind control, which many experienced mages will simply be immune to; otherwise, as Professor Carcer says in C3, Mind might well rule over the other Masteries...