Emswortian Phrenasters

One of the most dangerous forces in the Emswort army in the first few centuries of Magic were there Phrenasters. This was a military group that rarely left Fullent.
They didn't rain fireballs down on their enemies or cause the ground to open up and swallow them whole. The Phrenasters, from halfway across the continent, were able to mess with their enemies minds.
Through a combination of magic that allowed them to know what was going on on the battlefield and magic that allowed adding or changing the thoughts of people, they were capable of making battles turn at the right times, enemies to panic and flee when they were winning, and for opponents to switch sides.

Group Size

There were never more than four Phrenasters at any time, with just one or two being the most common number that were in the king's army.

Difficulties

Obviously, were this foolproof and easy, Emswort would have been unbeatable. The king would need hire nobody other than the Phrenasters, and allow the enemy to fight themselves.
However, things weren't so easy.

Ability Rarity

While the aptitude for either of these abilities in themselves wasn't too uncommon, the combination of aptitudes both for seeing from a distance and affecting people's minds was rare. It had to be discovered at an early age and encouraged throughout their schooling to get a magician to do simple Phrenaster magic.

Trust

Even for the minority of people who had the aptitude to become Phrenasters, even fewer of them would be capable of earning sufficient trust of the royalty to be allowed to learn these skills. 90% of candidates were washed out of the program in their early years, showing either too much distrust of authority, or showing too little intelligence to be able to make difficult choices.

Belief

Through most of this early time, the only advesary Emswort had was Berkham. However, with their acceptance of scientific principles and grounding of knowledge of natural laws, Berkhamites naturally believed that their minds were difficult to be controlled.
Mind control worked more easily on people of the other nations, whom had been bred to believe that anything was possible. They didn't trust anything they saw, knowing it could change at a moment's notice. But for the Berkhamites, they believed in their own minds, making it more difficult for others to change them.

Disbandment

While the Phrenasters worked well in some amount of policing domestically, their failure in the Emswort/Berkham War eventually led to their disbandment. The kings of Emswort had hoped for an unbeatable force, and were willing to pay whatever price they needed to to get that.
When the force was shown to not be as unbeatable as they had hoped, the price tag began to look too high. The group stayed as part of the Emswort domestic policing force for a couple centuries after science was again accepted and re-introduced, but in the end, the decreasing results and increasing costs led the king of Emswort at the time to reallocate funds elsewhere.

History

Historical loyalties

The Phrenasters answered directly to the king of Emswort

Type

Magic

Founding

350

Dissolution

705

Overall training Level

Professional

Assumed Veterancy

Veteran

Used by

• Nation of Emswort