Psionic

PSIONIC	TRADITION
Combat	Fire
Detection	Air
Health	Man
Illusion	Guidance
Manipulation	Task
Drain	Willpower + Intuition
Note	This is a possession tradition
Preferred Spells	Control Emotion, Control Mind, Mind Link, Mind Probe, Nutrition

This tradition believes that all power flows from the mind, not a nebulous mana field that surrounds the world and beyond. In fact, most practitioners of this tradition consider the other schools misguided and overly superstitious. This helps explain the rarity of the tradition, as it is centered on extreme self-confidence and innate talent rather than a formalized school curriculum like the Hermetic tradition. Psionists appear to lack mentor spirits, as they refuse to believe an outside force can provide any useful power or guidance for their abilities.

Those of the tradition who conjure spirits refer to them as thought constructs, believing them to be extensions of the summoner’s own thoughts rather than separate sapient beings. They use these summonings to empower items or people. This is sometimes referred to as rewiring the victim’s wetware to serve the needs of the psionic or the superior mind, although they do not prepare the vessel in the way more traditional practitioners do. The ability to conjure is not universal through the tradition, as the member’s internal thought processes control their confidence to summon and deal with the result. The members are generally able to perceive the astral and counterspell as any other magician, but they frequently refer to such abilities as “enhanced consciousness” and “squelching a weaker mind.” What others believe are astral manifestations of mana, they believe are visual manifestations of mental power.

Paris hosts one outspoken member of the Psionic tradition, Pierre Dubois, a Quebec native who fled his homeland after the fall of Cross Technologies. Pierre has become a regular commentator on local Matrix shows, regularly attempting to debunk more traditional magical theory whenever possible during his interviews. He has also started a small after-school tutoring program to teach youth to “harness the power of the mind.” While this endeavor has not created any great prodigies of the tradition, it has taught Pierre a number of new instruction techniques to assist him in guiding other psionists to new discoveries.

(p5 Shadow)