Power Theory: Telepathy, Empathy and Skill Levels

 Welcome to the Power Theory posts, in which I attempt to explain exactly how the superpowers I have created for my characters in my original (and still without a title) fiction work. In these posts, I'll also end up explaining the basic theory of powers.

I'll start with the basics: telepathy, empathy and skill levels.

Anyone can have a power, but depending on how skilled they are, they will be able to do certain things. Basic paranormals can only do so much, while the professionals can do things that usually aren't considered to be part of that power but are. Everyone starts off at a certain level of skill and through work, study and practice, will improve- but you can only progress so far.

First power: telepathy.

Telepathy is the power of reading minds, as most people know. However, with it comes other powers, such as creating mental shields. Even non-telepaths can create a shield, but these shields will vary in strength depending on the strength of the individual, and most telepaths can easily bypass such a shield. 

Basic telepathy involves hearing the thoughts of others. Medium level telepaths can delve into someone's mind and discern more of their thoughts. High level telepaths can see every part of a mind, tell if someone's lying when they think of something, and attempt to influence their thoughts.

When I say influence, I mean that they can slip a thought of their own into someone's mind. However, no telepath can take control of someone's mind; they simply aren't strong enough. Any telepath can put a thought in someone's mind, but it takes real skill to shape the thought so that the recipient doesn't immediately think, 'Wait, I would never do that, someone must be in my head'. Telepaths who aren't skilled enough to do so are reduced to the mental equivalent of repeatedly screaming the thought at the poor bastard until they either do it or find a shield.

Telepaths can mentally contact anyone. Non-telepaths can think the answers or the questions in their heads for the telepath to hear, but they can't contact anyone else mentally.

Now, onto empaths.

Empathy involves feeling the emotions of others. A skilled empath can alter the emotions of others subtly enough so that they don't pick up on it. Really skilled empaths can feel the reasons why people are feeling the way they do. 

There's also the science of fixing emotions to objects. Think Harry Potter, where the Horcrux locket makes anyone who wears it moody and depressed. An empath can summon up really strong feelings and fix them to an object. The emotion won't wear off except under the durance of time, or unless the object's destroyed.

That concludes our first Power Theory post. I'll continue to discuss the basis of superpowers in subsequent posts, and then I'll start analyzing the powers of certain characters.

 

Power Theory: Telekinesis, Teleporting and Psychics

 Hello, and welcome to the second Power Theory post. Today, we're continuing with the 'building blocks'.

Telekinesis is a simple one: moving things with your mind. The more skilled the kinetic, the more they can move, the faster they can do it, the bigger the objects, and the longer they can move things for.

Teleportation isn't a mental power, it's a warper power. In essence, the more skilled you are, the more you can carry and the further you can go. Teleporters can't carry other people. The most skilled 'porter managed to carry another person about half a kilometer before he passed out from exhaustion, while he could jump over continents without breaking a sweat.

Psychics are the jacks of all trades. They can learn telepathy, telekinesis, telempathy, astral projection, clairvoyance, divining, finding, and future divining. Any psychic can learn all of those powers, but the more skilled you are, the better you can get at them. Having one of them as a secondary power will make you not only really skilled, but better than most others with that power.

Next post: Espers and the different skills.

 

Power Theory: ESP

 Hello and welcome back to Power Theory. Today, we're discussing ESP powers, which can basically be defined as any mental power that isn't telepathy, telekinesis or telempathy.

Clairvoyance involves getting flashes of the future. These can be triggered by anything, and can't be stopped. The more skilled you are, the longer and more detailed the flashes.

Divining involves touching an object and seeing its purpose, what it's made of, who it's been owned/used by, what it's done, and when it was made. The more skilled you are, the more you can pick up.

Finding involves locating anything, from an object to a person. Finders usually see the object/person, in it/their current surroundings, in their heads. The more skilled the finder, the more they can see. How long it takes for the finder to find the lost thing depends on their skill. The other skill-dependent factor is what it takes for the finder to find the lost thing- some can find things based on a sketch or a description, others by their personal experience with the lost thing, and some by photos or pieces of the lost thing only.

Future divining is a mix of clairvoyance and divining in that the diviner touches the object and sees what it will be used for in the future. Again, how much they can see depends on their skill level.

Astral projection involves the projector separating most of their mind from their body and sending it into the material world. Astral projectors cannot be seen or felt (except by other psychics), but they can be heard (but only if they talk). Projectors can't telepathically speak unless they are a psychic or telepath, and they can't influence the material world unless they're kinetic. What they can do is enter another person's mind. However, they can't influence said mind unless they're psychic of some kind, but they can talk to that person mentally. A projector can actually take over someone's mind in one of three ways: they can subtly influence the person's thinking so the person doesn't know they're being controlled, they can dominate the mind so it's like a horse and they're the jockey, or they can completely crush the resident mind and take over the body.

That concludes this post. Next... whatever I think of.