Psionics, the power of the mind

True Psionics are somewhat more rare than plain Elemental magic, however plenty of Jewel Witches have this power. With the effort of a trained mind and the presence of their genetic potential, they can affect themselves, other people, an area, a substance or even time itself.

Psionic powers often bundle telepathy, empathy and general magical senses – being able to see auras around strong magic users, discern condition or attitude, and sense where forms of magic or psionics have been used. They can also include teleportation, (which the Summoners use, but their extent of Psionics is very limited and highly specialized and they pretend it’s spell magic, anyway), astral projection to allow for extremely distant communication, and even the nullification of Psionic powers.

Elemental psionic power is a more broadly used and easy to understand category of innate magic. Elemental psionics include the ability to sense, control and sometimes create the substance or element in question. Thus, a water-mage is able to locate a body of water, purify it, and perhaps create it out of nothing.

The weaker of users can generally only sense elements. This is also true of Psionics, as the lower end spectrum of users are good at receiving telepathic messages or being affected by empathy, but not actually sending thoughts or controlling emotions in others.

Middle range users are able to sense broadly, and refine their searches for things – a water mage can search for polluted waters, an earth elementalist might sense whether there is a particular ore in their area. They are also able to manipulate existing materials – a fire mage for instance can cause a small spark to erupt into a larger fire, or make a hearth fire dance in shapes to entertain.

High end elementalists are able to do all those things one would expect: pulling a wave out of thin air and dumping it over crops; growing a seedling plant into a towering tree in days. Higher end elemental users are also often sought after as masters of their trade, and very rarely would you find a master elementalist doing anything other than working with their element. While a farmer might benefit from a small amount of earth or plant magic, a plant mage would most certainly be called upon to monitor and maintain crops!

There are in general three weak elementalists to every ten mid-ranges, and one high-end to every twenty middle, that’s across the board and over all Psionicists. These numbers vary tremendously per culture.

Among the Jewel Witches almost all their population are around what would be considered the middle-range, and their breakdown is more like one lower end per one hundred middle, with higher talents appearing around one per fifty middle range. On the other end of the spectrum, the Reed people have hardly any psionics at all, perhaps one in one hundred bears a talent, and among those it would be a stretch to say any have ever become higher-end users. They’re lucky if one per thousand users is above base levels. Griffins delight in their strong use of many different elements, and enjoy showing off their powers to each other. In this manner they often have one element at a very high level of ability but others at lower functionality as well. The Vampires of the Necropolis also show high abilities mingled with lesser, though they tend to be more extreme on both ends, and hardly any of them could be considered ‘middle of the road’.

Numerous Elfin people are culture-specific for their broad elemental abilities. It would be exceedingly rare to find a Viridian elf with metal shaping powers, and likewise a Stone elf would hardly be expected to have air powers. They do happen, but are not encouraged, and eventually individuals who bear those unusual powers may either forget how to use them for lack of need, or be shunned away from using them at all by their peers, or even exiled for their use.

The Lumin on the other hand, are exceptionally gifted and have a strong high-end among their royalty, but for the most part their non-royal lines have a diverse but middle-talent level. Those who don’t have strong Psionics, though, may equally learn some amount of spell-magic; all of them have access to technology that simulates – or even replaces in some cases – the powers or abilities they lack.