“Greetings Students,”
“Today, I continue my series of lectures on the colleges of magic. Today's college will be that of Communication and Empathy.“
“In keeping with the requests from a few advanced students that I have agreed to teach, certain spells will be discussed that pertain to grimoires that may not be available to the common student. This is not to imply that some of you are better than others for having been exposed to a broader spectrum of magics. It is merely that a few of you are more fortunate than others in either the good fortune department, or the wealth department, whereby which you are able to purchase those rare tomes of magical enlightenment.”
Sense Life
“Ahem, ah—I think it would be best to start the spell Sense Life. Yes, I believe I promised to discuss the abuses of that particular spell from the last time I spoke before you at this podium.”
“Sense Life, generally tends to be overlooked by quite a few mages, myself included, I am ashamed to admit. It wasn't until I began to research my material for use in these lectures that I began to see how this spell could be potentially devastating around places where man resides in large numbers. One of the characteristics of this spell is that it can be used to specify what species the caster is looking for. The worst possible abuse of this spell would have to be done either by use of a mage with a high powered Strength battery, or one who has access to high amounts of power by virtue of magic items or by use of ceremonial magic. Imagine an apothecary who needs a particular plant to be found in large quantities. Imagine such a plant being particularly rare, and then imagine the mage using this spell, to seek out all possible specimens of said plant within a set radius of the mage. Or better yet, imagine a mage who has to find the pelts of white furred animals because the fur is valued by civilized man. Granted, such a mage with Summon Animal would be better suited for a collection of said animals, but Sense Life is much more versatile. It can be used for seeking out plants as well. While Seek Plant is able to do a similar thing, it will only seek the nearest concentration of the plant specified, not all of them within a set radius distance. While this spell could not tell you exactly where said plants are, it could very easily tell you this area is rich in what ever it is you seek.”
Sense Foes
“Sense Foes is a nice defensive spell, but one that would only work against those who are of hostile intent. Hostility doesn't have to be active "I'm going to hurt you" kind, it can be one of "I am going to steal from you", or it can be "I hate your jokes, why don't you leave" kind as well. In fact, it could even be of the "I am angry at you, despite you are my best friend, and I want to hit you...". Of course, it could even be used to get rid of that annoying pest of a person who hangs around you, and you wish to get rid of him by making him feel unwelcome. Imagine using it on a person you wish would go away, and you are close to losing your temper. You cast this spell on him, and "presto", he now knows someone is feeling hostile towards him. If you are really lucky, there might even be more people who also wish he was gone as well.”
Sense Emotion
“I do feel some degree of pity towards those who use Sense Emotion overly much - for it has been my experience that while many people profess to wanting to know the truth behind other people's thoughts, many are not prepared for the hurt that comes of friends, lovers, and kin who grow angry, tired, or spiteful, and think poorly of one who "eavesdrops" on other people's private emotions and thoughts. I personally detest any who would invade other people's private thoughts and feelings, but then again, I am just one individual, with likes and dislikes, just as many of you out there are.”
Truthsayer
“Truthsayer is a spell that is often of great use within a city, where laws reign supreme. When this spell works, it can give a decent indication that a person is lying or telling the truth. Unfortunately, most people will tell the truth as they understand it, and cannot be caught in the telling of the falsehood. I remember once, where a mage was forced to forget who actually killed another man. I believe the spell used upon him was a permanent forget. In any case, this mage forgot that he knew who really killed another man, because he had seen an illusion disguise, and had penetrated the disguise. Because he forgot that fact, he was convinced that the defendant of a trial was truly guilty. No amount of verification via Truthsayer could bring about any other interpretation of the "facts". An innocent man was executed as a result of this….”
Compel Truth
“Compel Truth, while subject to the same limitations as Truthsayer, is much more useful in a situation where you need a constant watch over the man who is potentially going to lie to you. The best thing that can be said about this spell is that while the person who is under the influence is not able to tell a lie and talk at the same time, you don't have to rely upon the word of a mage that the person is lying, when in fact, it was the mage himself who is lying about the person lying….”
Mind-Reading
“Mind-Reading is a spell that I find distasteful, but as a spell designed to gather information, it is often quite useful. Unless the mage who is using it, bungles the spell badly, or has to use loud incantations and fancy gestures, it is often a discrete spell. By discrete, I mean that it doesn't let the victim of your spell know that he is being invaded. The biggest problem with this spell is that it doesn't allow the caster to delve deeply into his thoughts and being, for it only scratches the surface of the being's thoughts. It allows one to "shield" his thoughts (assuming that he is aware of the "tap" into his thoughts) and hold things back that he wants to. Although the spell description doesn't really allow for it, it should actually be quite effective in discovering whatever it is a person being interrogated wants to know. Quite often, the victim of an interrogation will think about that which he won't tell the interrogator, but not be aware that as long as he is thinking about it, he might as well tell the interrogator….”
Hide Thoughts
“Hide Thoughts is for the mage who intends to be as careful as is humanly possible. The spell is designed to keep anyone who would invade his privacy out of his head. In my opinion, the problem with this spell is that it has limited uses. It overspecializes such that it's only real use is to counter a mind-reader. Were it to have been my thesis spell, I would have developed it to allow the caster to also create "false" thoughts to further confuse the issue, if possible. As I will constantly drill into your heads, the guiding philosophy in magic use is the ability to make a limited spell selection do as much as is possible.”
Soul Rider
“Soul Rider is a spell that I like the description of. It has applications aside from that of spying. It can be used as a form of recreation. When used by mages who are also doctors, it can be used to precisely describe the "pain" that a patient is suffering from. In addition, it can be used by those who are sybaritic in nature who wonder it would be be like to occupy the body of a member of the opposite gender. Since there are tender ears here who might get the wrong ideas about male-female relations, it can offer a whole new world of experience! The biggest problem with this spell is the inability to maintain it for very long, as it has a a high energy cost to cast, as well as to maintain. It is rare that a mage will concentrate his studies enough to get this spell up to a high enough skill level that he no longer needs to worry about maintaining the spell.”
Mind Search
“Mind Search, along with any of the possession spells, is one of the most reprehensible spells known to the mage's profession. To steal into a person's memories without any kind of permission is of an order of sliminess that I cannot contemplate without both anger and queasiness. By this means, a mage can rule effectively through fear and blackmail. If there is a shameful secret in a man's past, there can be no guarding it from a determined mage who intends to delve for the memory….”
Mind Sending
“Mind Sending as a spell is a good one to learn. While it can only be used for communication purposes, it's potential around local yokels cannot be understated. To impress a man who is about to kill you, nothing beats this spell so much as to hear in your head “Thou wouldest kill this man, and I shalt curse you and yours unto eternity. Walk up to this man and beg his mercy, lest I should have reason to smite thee where thou stands. Henceforth, thou shalt sacrifice a pan of milk set outside thy door at night to appease my servants who watcheth you". Of course, there are those who fail to fall for that kind of chicanery, but if it's worth doing once….”
Telepathy
“Like any other secure communications ability, Telepathy is useful to facilitate communications. The high cost of not only casting this spell, but also in maintaining it, make it one of those spells I avoid. It is perhaps sad that the really useful spells within the college require so many spells that I would not take, as prerequisites.”
Persuasion
“The student who created this spell for his thesis ought to be crucified! I would also favor making the instructor who permitted this spell to be disseminated as it was, to be forced into casting the Soul Rider spell and be forced to maintain it until the student died from the crucifixion. There is no excuse for this spell to be poorly researched. I speak of course, of the spell Persuasion.
“No where does it state that the person who is victimized by this spell can tell if they are aware they were Persuaded. The value of this spell depends, in part, on whether the victim knows after the spell wears off, that he was targeted, or if it doesn't leave any traces of its existence. After testing it out for myself (by agreeing to be persuaded), I discovered that I could not tell that I was being more agreeable than is my wont. I did not feel it remarkable that I was bilked out of my money by a merchant who wanted to sell to me a staff of pointing for 2,000 sestercii! All it did was point at whatever I was pointing the staff at. For those of you who wonder what that was in dollars, that cost me roughly $500!”
Control Person
“The next spell, Control Person, is one that can often send some people into fits of fear. Although the spell description does not bring this fact up, many people are horrified at not having control of themselves. Imagine how you would feel if you had to pull out a knife, and stab your friend from behind because he had made an enemy of a mage who not only was powerful, but also sadistic. Then imagine the horror you would feel when someone pulls out a sword to cut you down where you stand and you can't do a thing to stop it, or even worse, you plunge the knife into your own beating heart. I can tell you now, if I were aware I might be going up against a mind mage, I would definitely take care not to approach too closely a mage with this spell! I once heard a story, and I can't verify as to it's truthfulness, but it illustrates how playing with the mind can be such a horrible thing...
“There was once a man who had made a powerful enemy of a mind mage. This mage not only had the spell of control person, but he also had spells of the Illusion College. This mage went on to collect a vengeance so horrible, that I have never forgotten it. “First he went on to create an amulet of Illusion Disguise in the seeming of the victim's worst enemy. Then he sent that amulet to the man's wife with the limitation that it worked for exactly 10 minutes after the last time the words "Augustus eats offal" were spoken. While the husband was away, the mage went visiting, and then cast a spell upon the woman, making her sleep until he wanted her awake. Hiding himself inside once he saw the husband, the man he wanted revenge upon, the mage then cast the illusion of his wife lying in a pool of blood. Then he cast the control person spell on the sleeping wife and spoke the words Augustus eats offal. While slumped under the couple's bed, he controlled the wife and made her stand. Yelling for her husband, he/she screamed and cut it short. Then he grabbed a knife, and cut him/herself and waited those short seconds for the husband to come bursting into the house. Seeing his hated rival with a blooded knife, and seeing his wife on the floor, unmoving, the man quickly jumped to the conclusion that his enemy was responsible, and quickly began to hack on the woman. True to his sadistic inclination, the mage then released her just before her husband gave the killing stroke, and let her beg for her life. The husband within minutes found what he had done, and was heartbroken for the rest of his life.
“That same mage in another encounter, was up against a group of 7 or 8 men at arms who were bent on tracking him down and bringing him to justice. They were woefully unprepared when they caught up with the mage on a forest trail. He had doubled back and waited in ambush for the men. One by one, they passed him by, unaware of how close he was to them. Fingering a gemstone, the mage made no sound, nor made no gesture as he cast his spell upon the last man in the file. It was the seeming of himself on that man. The second last man in line got controlled with the control person spell and began to shout "By the gods! He's behind us!" As all of the men turned to see what the shout was about, the controlled soldier struck forcefully at the unsuspecting man next to him, giving that man no chance to defend himself, and then began to fight the others. For a few seconds they were totally surprised by the events, and by the time they could react, two were lying in pools of blood, while the remaining three in front were hurting. One of the three took the bait and went after the "disguised" soldier and fought harshly. The other two fought the truly controlled one, and slew him. After that fight, three were dead, and the remaining four were badly wounded….”
Possession
“Of the spells Possession, and the various improvements in duration of the spell, I can only say that I am mostly inexperienced in them. They are at best, intellectual curiosities to a mage like myself, and at worst, nightmares to be wary of. In a way, they are improved editions of Control Person, and allow the mage to either commit the crime of controlling a body that is not his to control, or they allow the mage to live life in the stolen body, as is the case with Permanent Possession. Possession spells are either for the purpose of improving one's only abilities by means of taking a superior body and using it to your will, or it is a means to commit crimes in a body that will not have to pay the punishment for the crime. How often have we heard "but I didn't do it! I don't even remember doing it!" and not believed the person? How often have we heard tales of evil aging mages who steal a younger body? In fact, while the mage is in possession of another body by use of Permanent Possession, he no longer ages. As long as he can put his real body in a safe place, and can trade bodies on a regular basis, that mage is effectively immortal!”
Exchange Bodies
“Exchange Bodies is a more drastic effect of Permanent Possession, in that it allows the mage to switch places with the other soul. It has the effect of "rooting" the soul to a new anchor point, that of the new body. The problem with this spell is, from a legal standpoint, once the soul who rightfully belongs in the exchanged body is dead, there is absolutely no way to determine who's soul should be in that body! For all intents and purposes, there is no way to determine (except for divination and the like) that the current occupant is not the original one.”
Exorcism
“Exorcism, is a very specific spell, that has but one purpose. I generally don't favor one purpose spells, but this is one that I can approve of unreservedly. It is fifty percent cheaper to cast energy wise than Remove Curse, and can be learned, gods willing, by one with Holy Status.”
Lend Language, Borrow Language
“Lend Language, is another one of those rare one purpose spells that I approve of. It allows one to communicate in any place at any time, assuming of course that the laws of the land don't prohibit spell casting, and more importantly, the natives don't kill you on sight for having this spell! What would make me worry, when confronted with a user of this spell, is that said user, assuming that it is a mage who cast the spell in the first place, is that he has to have access to a few mind spells that I don't approve of. Borrow Language allows one to be able to understand anyone around you who is speaking the tongue of the people around you, whereas Lend Language allows the person you are talking to to understand you. Borrow Language depends upon Lend Language as a prerequisite.”
Lend Skill, Borrow Skill
“Lend Skill and Borrow Skill are basically the same thing as Lend Language and Borrow Language, and in all truth, I don't understand why they aren't one and the same set of spells. For some unknown reason, it is harder to maintain a skill of carpentry, than it is to maintain the ability to speak a really complex language such as Chinese.”
Gift of Tongues, Gift of Letters
“Gift of Tongues and Gift of Letters, are both very strong language aids in that even if you don't have a living representative available to speak or know the language involved, you can understand what is spoken or what is written. The Gift of Tongues bothers me in that it already is provided for by Lend Language and by Borrow Language. The subtle nuances of this spell are as follows: You understand the language at your own native intelligence rather than at the level of understanding of some peasant worker whom you had to borrow the language from. Also, any language can be spoken, not just the language of the person who is nearby, so you are not restricted in its use. A person with eidetic memory, who listens to you carefully, could repeat word for word what you said, and another person whom the language is native to, would know precisely what was said—and possibly think that you were a native of the language being spoken.”
Hide Emotion
“Hide Emotion, a spell from some other Grimoires, is a spell that I can approve of by the criteria that it not only masks your true intents, such that Sense Foes or Sense Emotions cannot easily, if at all, penetrate your true feelings, but it also resists Aura spells as well. This spell would help a poker player win games rather handily. The reason being: you could cast this spell upon yourself, and keep your face truly "pokerfaced", or you can use it's prerequisite Sense Emotion, to determine if the person has a real hand, or a bluff hand. If anyone uses the divination "was this person using the spell Mind Reading, or wizard eye while playing" the answer would have to be no. On the other hand, if anyone had access to divinations, they would ask "did this man cheat" and "did this man use magic to cheat….”
Compel Lie
“Compel Lie, is the opposite of Compel Truth, and has similar strengths and faults to Compel Truth. I am sure there are many who have seen puppet shows about the mortal man who married the bewitchingly beautiful witch wife, who must not use magic in her day to day life. I am also certain that you are all aware of the comedy that can be involved when a man tries to say "Gee Lord, that tunic looks nice on you" and instead blurts out "Gee Lord, you look like a buffoon unfit for human company in that tunic". When you try to correct that horrible thing that escaped your mouth with "actually Lord, I meant to say, you could look great in any tunic" instead comes out as "Actually Lord, you would always look the buffoon in any tunic that you could or would ever wear". I will leave the end results of such a comedy to your own fertile imaginations.”
Vexation
“Vexation, is basically the opposite of Persuasion. There isn't all that much that can be said for this spell, but for the fact it is even more insidious than is a curse. The poor victim of said spell will not even know why it is that most people around him are taking such a disliking to him. In fact, many of the people surrounding him, might not be able to say why they raised the hue and cry against the poor man after they stoned him to death….”
Insignificance
“Insignificance, now there is a really nice spell. In the hands of an assassin, this spell is deadly. This spell would also be nice for those people whom have unwisely brought the attention of the locals or the law upon them. An assassin, protected by Hide Emotion, along with Insignificance, could very easily approach his intended victim, and then make a hurried exit. Since I have never tried to use the benefits of this spell, I can't speak with experience, but I suspect that any Guard, whose job it was to guard the man whom the assassin was killing, would be able to see the guy - since they would be looking for the killer of their employer.”
Presence
“Presence, on the other hand, is just the spell that a jokester might find amusing. Imagine having insulted a mage, by stealing his bag of coins. Now imagine such a mage using the trace spell to find his missing money, bag, or valuables. Now picture that same mage making the attempt to place this spell on the thief such that everyone notices him, or most everyone. Watch him as he attempts to pick someone's pocket! Or, better yet, you cast this spell on an unsuspecting person to act as the distraction while you pick some unsuspecting victim's valuables away from them. Do you have a woman who feels insignificant? Cast this spell on her and watch her thrive on the attention. Of course, there are good kinds of attention, and bad kinds, since this spell does not allow you to avoid the problems that sticking a finger up your nose in public generates.”
Communication
“Communication, is a very fancy method for communications between two or more people. The ability to send pictures and sound in addition to just verbal type communication is superior to simple Telepathy. I have to question whether it is worth it or not. While the prerequisites for this spell are all useful in and of themselves, I find it difficult to justify the use of this spell except to show off the ability to do so, and to brag about your ability to use energy.”
Message
“Message is a very handy and secure method of getting information delivered to a person. It could be used to tell an errant child to come home. It could be a message of ‘Hey, Vercingetorix, I was out with you for dinner last night—tell my wife we were out together, or I am meat for the altar of the gods.’ Or it could be used to deliver a warning or a market list.”
Dream Viewing
“Dream Viewing, is another nice spell that allows you to invade the privacy of anther person's psyche. Having said that, it can also be used to understand what nightmares are plaguing a child or friend. If Dreams are sendings of the gods, then it has the ability to allow others to be in on the "message", other than that, I fear this spell would not see much use at the academy.”
Dream Sending
“Dream Sending, is another form of communications that seems too specialized for my taste. It can be useful, and the opportunities to wreak havoc through its use are most likely horrendous. Can you imagine sending a constant barrage of dreams to some enemy's son that they are favored by the gods and that the son should kill his father to reach the goals set by the gods? I am sure there are other practical joke type applications that can be had from it, since this area is ripe with opportunities for embarrassing a person in a culture that takes dream sendings very seriously!”
Dream Projection
“Dream Projection is nothing more than the ability to interact inside another person's dreams. It allows for you to converse as if you were really there. As another secure form of communication, it can't be beat all that well. On the other hand, the number of spells that it takes to get this spell, makes it prohibitively expensive from my point of view.”
Retrogression
“Retrogression, as the last spell in the Grimoire that I spoke of earlier, is a spell I positively hate and admire. I don't think there is a single one of us who wouldn't like to know if we had lived a past life or not. On the other hand, it is hard for me to justify its use in the kind of environment that most mages will find themselves in. It has the potential to mentally stun its victim. What I don't like about this spell is that it takes roughly 3 times the time and energy to get the same result as from either Stun, Mental Stun, or Death Vision. The redeeming feature of this spell is that it combines the idea of a fright check with the possibility of a willpower reduction or enhancing capability. The pity about this is that the cost to effect ratio is much too high.”
“In all, my general impression of the spell college is that it has it's niche in the commercial market, as well as in the din of battle (use Message to get your commands to your leaders—and without the other side knowing what it was you just commanded them to do. In the mundane universe, which I shudder to think about having to go back to now and then, there are devices that armies use to communicate with each other. Imagine what the effects would be if you could get a mage with the spell message inside a city during siege warfare. He could correct the aim of a trebuchet, a big nasty catapult lobbing 500+ pound rocks, into a city by saying ‘100 feet to the right’, ‘ok, you were in line, but not 20 feet further’, ‘ok, keep firing the rocks now—you are on target with their headquarters.’)
“The other applications regarding Communications will have to wait until another day, as I have to attend to my papers on the City Assault exercise.”
“Class is dismissed. If there are any who want remedial work or Tutoring, see me in my office. Also, those students here on scholarships, and those who have Earth Elemental 201 level class projects due this semester, are required to show up at the north construction project tomorrow for the required 200 hours public service. I will allow the junior journeymen to attempt creating the material for use with the projects, while those of you who need more practice in applied engineering theory can work with the public works administrator on design and application.
“It is with regret that I must inform you that the rumors surrounding the death of a journeyman are true. Yesterday, one of the Vilsoth twins from the Gaul territory misspoke a key word during an illegal experiment, and summoned one of the lessor demons. Despite all we could do, the lad was dead before we could get to him. Please make a show of concern and make certain Jalise (eye lese) doesn't get a chance to miss her brother prior to heading home….”
Comments