The Mind Arcana covers consciousness, the thoughts and awareness of a being. The arcana allows mages to read minds and memories, interact with dreams, and control a creatures actions through thought. Furthermore, it can be used to transfer mental wounds to another willing target, allowing mages to literally share one’s burdens.
Example Knacks:
- Types of Mind: Human intelligence, Hive Minds, Prey/Predator, Artificial Intelligence.
- States of Mind: When a mage’s knack focuses on a state-of-mind instead of a type of mind, their spells filter onto that specific topic. For example, the fear knack can allow a mage to use telepathy to discuss fears, but not favorite foods. They can read memories to see when a target has been afraid in the past, and the can create new minds embodying these dispositions.
Examples: Envy, Rage, Narcissism, Fear, Greed, Studious, Lust
Psychic Genesis
Wielders of the Mind Arcana can create intelligence within physical objects; minds invested into a physical shell.
The newly created consciousness has functional control over its shell, however limited that might be. For example, an intelligence housed in a computer can effectively use the computer’s resources but cannot move the actual mouse or unplug itself from the wall since the machinery doesn’t exist for those actions.
The caster has sway over the intelligence’s personality, but a created AI doesn’t necessarily have to obey its creator unless a control component was used for the spell. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for solitude and inability to act to frustrate a newly created intelligence.
Spell Components
Level 1:
| Spell | Effect | Potential | Cost | Scope |
| Detect Mind | Detect the location of consciousnesses within an area or in a specific direction. | – | Free | Knack |
| Network Thoughts | Allow targets of the spell to transmit thoughts between each other. Each individual can distinguish their own thoughts from others. | – | Glance | – |
| Alter Awareness | Requires at least 2 groups of targets. Alter how prominent the 1st target group appears in the second group’s mind. | – | Glance | – |
Level 2:
| Spell | Effect | Potential | Cost | Scope |
| Lesser Discover Information | Learn surface level information about an intelligence. Examples: Read surface thoughts and emotions. Ask about a target’s feelings towards a topic. |
– | Free | Knack |
| Create Hallucination / Emotions | Create a single false sensory or emotional input in the target. | – | Glance | Knack |
| Create Mind | Create an intelligence within a physical object. (See “Magical Constructs” on the Spell Potential and Constructs page for more information. | 1 | Hit | Knack |
| Transfer Stress | Transfer 1 point of stress per cost from 1 willing target to another willing target. | – | Hit | – |
Level 3:
| Spell | Effect | Potential | Cost | Scope |
| Enhance an Emotion/Desire/Intention | Increase the weight of importance an emotion, desire, or intention has on a target. | 2 | Glance | Knack |
| Diminish an Emotion/Desire/Intention | Decrease the weight of importance an emotion, desire, or intention has on a target. | 2 | Glance | Knack |
| Hone Mind | Raise Perception, Intelligence, or Resolve by 1. This cannot increase a target’s attributes beyond 4 and does not grant increased Mana, Stress, or Fortune. |
– | Glance | – |
| Create Thoughts | Create new thoughts and intentions within an intelligence for it to act on. | – | Hit | Knack |
| Dream Travel | Allow a group to enter the dreams of a target. | – | Hit | – |
Level 4:
| Spell | Effect | Potential | Cost | Scope |
| Transfer Knowledge | Detect the location of consciousnesses within an area or in a specific direction. | – | Hit | – |
| Transform Memories | Modify up to 30 seconds of memory in a target’s mind. The target regains normal memories once the spell expires. The target may gain a bonus to resisting the spell depending on the strength of the memory: See alter memory table. |
– | Hit | Knack |
| Split Mental Processing: (modifier) | Add this component to another spell to allow the caster to maintain concentration on the spell while also concentrating on a second task. | – | Hit | – |
Level 5:
| Spell | Effect | Potential | Cost | Scope |
| Greater Discover Information | Learn hidden information about an intelligence. Examples: Read a target’s memories. Learn about a target’s fears, habits, or interests. |
– | 2 Hits 1 Mana |
Knack |
| Destroy Memory | Permanently remove up to 1 minute of memory from the target. The spell must be maintained for at least the length of the memory it is removing. The memory remains removed even after the spell ends. The target may gain a bonus to resisting the spell depending on the strength of the memory: See alter memory table. |
– | Hit | Knack |
| Remove Emotion/Desire/Intention | Completely remove an emotion, desire, or intention from the target. It remains gone after the spell ends, though it may be recreated naturally. Has no effect if the specified emotion/desire/intent does not already exist. |
– | 2 Hits 1 Mana |
Knack |
Mind Splices
The Voices; The Dreamers;
Though colloquially considered crazy, the mages that manipulate the magical strands of the mind are fearfully known as the Voices and the Dreamers. Splicing the mind tends to manifest in intelligent entities which take refuge within a caster’s mind. These intelligences often perceive reality through warped lenses and whisper to the caster of their visions and thoughts. As a splice deepens, the entity grows in intelligence and resolve.
Tier 1 Splices: An intelligent entity forms within the mage’s mind. The entity has a low (-2) intelligence, resolve, and perception. Moreover, the entity has a unique personality and its own goals and values, though these often reflect that of the target of the spell that spliced. This entity can perceive what the mage does and hear all thought’s in the mage’s mind, and vice-versa. At least the mage can hide their thoughts and perceptions with concentration. Although the entity can perceive what the mage does, many of its perceptions are warped; colors and smells might be slightly different, another person’s expressions might be seen as more or less intense than it actually was.
Since the entity has its own thoughts and is a separate being from the mage in many ways, it may make its own perception checks and resist mental influences separately.
Tier 2 Splices: The entity in the mage’s mind grows to an average (0) intelligence and resolve and now uses your perception attribute. It will now actively seek to influence the mage to meet its own goals and desires.
When the splice is active, adjacent individuals can also hear the entity and it may attempt to speak with them, though they can willingly hide their thoughts from it.
Tier 3 Splices: Now the entity is assured of its own independence and existence. The entity’s intelligence and resolve has grown a bit beyond the average human (to 2).
When the splice is active, the entity can reach out to influence the minds of Nearby individuals who must make a contested Resolve Ability Check to hide their thoughts from it. Worse, the entity has gained control of one of the limbs or body parts of the caster. To complicate matters, while the splice is active, the entity’s perceptions are all slightly warped, mixing fiction with reality.
Tier 4 Splices: The entity may now freely speak to those standing adjacent to the mage. The entity’s intelligence and resolve have reached inhuman heights (4).
When the splice is active, the entity can speak to Far Away individuals. Nearby individuals fail to resist the entity’s presence will also lose control of a limb to the new entity. As earlier, the entity’s perceptions are more deeply warped, almost as though it lives in a different reality. Though many falsities make their way into the entity’s perception, it may also gain insights beyond what our reality reveals.