The Mindshaper
The Mindshaper is one of the most important artifacts in this story, along with the Waymaker. The Mindshaper takes the form of a diadem made of silver, adorned with dark jewels that glow when the Mindshaper is being used.
The Mindshaper can be used to control someone else's thoughts and thus their actions. The skill of the user and the strength of their soul dictates the level of control or suggestion that can be used when trying to control another person. The Mindshaper can be used on many people at once, however, doing so usually dilutes the controlling power that the Mindshaper has. A typical member of the Zodiac could use this artifact to fully control or "puppet" one or maybe two people at most. A similarly skilled user, could however, perform a mass suggestion to people, manipulate sentiment or emotion in an entire crowd, or outright lie to a large group of people and force them to believe it without an issue. Usually, this power wanes with time after the initial suggestion has been made, so it has to be reinforced through action, or be reapplied. As such, you can't really enlist an entire army of people and force them to fight against their will, then send them off, without reapplying the power of the Mindshaper.
Cyrus, the inheritor of the Mindshaper, is on an entirely different level of power. The rest of the Zodiac knows that he is a prodigy, but they don't understand the caliber of power he can wield. Without using the Soul Conduit property, Cyrus is able to manipulate dozens of people at once, apply suggestions and emotions that linger for days, if not weeks, and he can do so effortlessly.
There are two quirks that the Mindshaper has that are unintuitive, one is known, and the other is first discovered by Cyrus.
The first quirk is that someone who wields an artifact and thus has a vessel through which they can channel their soul energy is able to resist the power of the Mindshaper. If another artifact wielder is targeted by a blast or beam from the Mindshaper, they can try to fight back. This causes the victim to burn through their supply of silver as if they were using their artifact as normal. The more powerful the victim is and the more attuned they are to their artifact, the better than can resist, causing less silver to be consumed. The wielder of the Mindshaper must wear down the victim's supply of silver in order to be able to afflict them with the Mindshaper's power. Alternatively, the victim could choose to stop resisting either because they submit, or to preserve their supply of silver, resistance is not mandatory.
The second quirk is known as Soul Conduit. This is a "forbidden" technique that Cyrus discovers early on in his attack. Typically, a person cannot wield more than one artifact at a time. Soul binding to more than a single artifact will cause the power of both to become diluted, and neither can be used to their fullest extent. It is almost always better to bind to a single artifact at full power than try to wield multiple artifacts at only a partial capacity. Soul Conduit allows for the wielder of the Mindshaper to force a person under the influence of the Mindshaper to give up their soul power and help channel the power of other artifacts being used by the wielder of the Mindshaper. The people being subjected to this deal with the attrition of using an artifact as normal, however so long as there are enough people functioning in this way, the overall strain on a single person will be limited. This technique can only be used on people that have been fully controlled and are in a "puppeted" state, otherwise, people will not be able to give up their power through mere suggestion alone, as the technique is complex and only really doable by someone who is trained in the use of artifacts.
As Cyrus gains the ability to use Soul Conduit fairly early, he is initially able to use it to fuel a runaway puppeting of people, initially spreading his influence with his hoard. While this works for a time, he experiments with using Soul Conduit to power the use of multiple artifacts at a time. As he does so, it does still dilute the power of his artifacts. The implication is that if he uses only the Mindshaper and a single other artifact he will be able to use the second artifact to a level of colossal power, or he can use multiple artifacts at once. This is not something that can be done on the fly, however, as soulbinding and unbinding to artifacts is a time-consuming process.
The Mindshaper can be used to control someone else's thoughts and thus their actions. The skill of the user and the strength of their soul dictates the level of control or suggestion that can be used when trying to control another person. The Mindshaper can be used on many people at once, however, doing so usually dilutes the controlling power that the Mindshaper has. A typical member of the Zodiac could use this artifact to fully control or "puppet" one or maybe two people at most. A similarly skilled user, could however, perform a mass suggestion to people, manipulate sentiment or emotion in an entire crowd, or outright lie to a large group of people and force them to believe it without an issue. Usually, this power wanes with time after the initial suggestion has been made, so it has to be reinforced through action, or be reapplied. As such, you can't really enlist an entire army of people and force them to fight against their will, then send them off, without reapplying the power of the Mindshaper.
Cyrus, the inheritor of the Mindshaper, is on an entirely different level of power. The rest of the Zodiac knows that he is a prodigy, but they don't understand the caliber of power he can wield. Without using the Soul Conduit property, Cyrus is able to manipulate dozens of people at once, apply suggestions and emotions that linger for days, if not weeks, and he can do so effortlessly.
There are two quirks that the Mindshaper has that are unintuitive, one is known, and the other is first discovered by Cyrus.
The first quirk is that someone who wields an artifact and thus has a vessel through which they can channel their soul energy is able to resist the power of the Mindshaper. If another artifact wielder is targeted by a blast or beam from the Mindshaper, they can try to fight back. This causes the victim to burn through their supply of silver as if they were using their artifact as normal. The more powerful the victim is and the more attuned they are to their artifact, the better than can resist, causing less silver to be consumed. The wielder of the Mindshaper must wear down the victim's supply of silver in order to be able to afflict them with the Mindshaper's power. Alternatively, the victim could choose to stop resisting either because they submit, or to preserve their supply of silver, resistance is not mandatory.
The second quirk is known as Soul Conduit. This is a "forbidden" technique that Cyrus discovers early on in his attack. Typically, a person cannot wield more than one artifact at a time. Soul binding to more than a single artifact will cause the power of both to become diluted, and neither can be used to their fullest extent. It is almost always better to bind to a single artifact at full power than try to wield multiple artifacts at only a partial capacity. Soul Conduit allows for the wielder of the Mindshaper to force a person under the influence of the Mindshaper to give up their soul power and help channel the power of other artifacts being used by the wielder of the Mindshaper. The people being subjected to this deal with the attrition of using an artifact as normal, however so long as there are enough people functioning in this way, the overall strain on a single person will be limited. This technique can only be used on people that have been fully controlled and are in a "puppeted" state, otherwise, people will not be able to give up their power through mere suggestion alone, as the technique is complex and only really doable by someone who is trained in the use of artifacts.
As Cyrus gains the ability to use Soul Conduit fairly early, he is initially able to use it to fuel a runaway puppeting of people, initially spreading his influence with his hoard. While this works for a time, he experiments with using Soul Conduit to power the use of multiple artifacts at a time. As he does so, it does still dilute the power of his artifacts. The implication is that if he uses only the Mindshaper and a single other artifact he will be able to use the second artifact to a level of colossal power, or he can use multiple artifacts at once. This is not something that can be done on the fly, however, as soulbinding and unbinding to artifacts is a time-consuming process.
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