History
Psionic Magic began with an act that Elemendia still names the Treachery of Ramanthus. As Holder of the Grimoire of Mind, Ramanthus possessed knowledge entrusted to him under the laws governing Grimoire custody. Rather than preserve the book under his charge, he consumed it. How he was able to achieve this remains uncertain, although myth speaks of using powers within the Nightmare Plane imprisoned there for their sheer force predated the Grimoires. He awakened regions of his mind that mortal thought had not been shaped to contain. The Grimoire became inseparable from his memory, will and bloodline. In that moment, the recognized School of Mind ceased to exist within Elemendia, all its disciples were stripped of their knowledge and the first Psion arose. Few magic items still remain from that era, and most are preserved inside Elemendia’s school vaults.
Ramanthus could then release arcane magic without ordinary formulae, gestures or material preparation as arcane mages did, shaping it through thought alone. This transformation brought heightened brilliance, foresight and powers no Elemendian tribunal could easily restrain, but it also contributed to the infamy and fear that followed his name. Before he vanished into the hidden places of history, he fathered three sons: Moltan, Retus and Thodrien, each of whom displayed their psionic inheritance. From them descended the secret Caste of Mind. Starfall’s traditions place the bloodline within its borders, protected in hidden sanctuaries near the Forest of Lastlight, while both the Arcanum and Elemendia guilds condemn its continuance.
Elemendia considers every surviving Psionicist living proof of the lost Grimoire theft and therefore guilty of the highest form of treason. Dedicated hunting parties, trained to recognize the magic trails left by mentalcraft, pursue suspected bloodlines beyond Elemendia’s borders. They are secretly authorized to kill Psionicists on sight, for the Daaris deem that neither trial nor imprisonment can safely contain knowledge carried solely within the mind itself. The appearance of Dali among the Heroes of the Seed proved beyond dispute that Ramanthus’ inheritance survived and her assistance was instrumental in successfully planting the Seed beyond Cord’s Arm, though few Psions have since dared such public revelation.
By Will Alone
The Psion shapes power through concentration, perception, emotion, memory and disciplined will. No spoken phrase betrays the beginning of the casting, and no gesture warns an enemy where it will fall. To those nearby, Psionic Magic may be felt as an unnatural stillness, a thought that seems briefly to belong to someone else, or the disturbing certainty that one’s mind has been observed. Its practitioners may influence perception, move force without touch, defend the mind, enter dreams or reproduce effects resembling the schools of the Grimoires by willing them into action. This ability to imitate and internalize arcane spells without structured guild control is the chief cause of institutional hatred. A guild may imprison a stolen book, destroy an illicit copy or forbid the teaching of a formula, but it cannot confiscate knowledge written into blood. Psions are nevertheless limited by the very instrument that empowers them. Feelings and their own body can fuel their powers, but pain, trauma, divided identity and uncontrolled emotion may disrupt casting at its creation, while repeated intrusion into other minds erodes the boundary by which the practitioner distinguishes the self from another consciousness or even reality from thought.
Limits of the Mind
Ramanthus’ Archive within the Plane of Dreams, guarded by memories and Echoes rather than walls, is a fitting monument to the Psion path: every pathway of the mind may also be a trap, and not every thought should be acted upon. Psionic power can be unleashed with terrifying speed and intensity because the practitioner requires neither memorized incantation nor prepared components, although the number of powers available to each Psion is more limited due to the time it requires to perfect and control one. A Psion may compress the force of a prolonged arcane spell into a single moment, shattering an enemy’s concentration, breaking through mental defences or hurling power with a violence few conventional mages can immediately equal. Yet the mind cannot sustain such expenditure for long. The inner force burns rapidly, consuming concentration, clarity and even the Psion’s physical self. Each successive manifestation becomes more difficult to shape, while pain gathers behind the eyes, memories fragment and the distinction between intention and reality begins to weaken.
For this reason, Psionicists are sometimes compared to knights whose victory depends upon the first charge. Their initial assault may break an enemy before resistance can form, but if that blow fails, their advantage quickly diminishes. A Psion who does not overwhelm, disarm or defeat an opponent within the opening moments may find one’s mind exhausted while the enemy remains standing. Arcane mages can rely upon prepared spells, stored formulae and carefully ordered spells, while the Psion burns through a limited inner reserve directly, and once that fire has consumed its fuel, no book or component can restore it in the midst of battle. Those who recklessly exceed their limits may collapse unconscious, lose memories, suffer permanent fractures of identity or remain trapped within a thought they can no longer dismiss. Psions live reclusively not only because they are hunted as beasts but also because they know how quickly a bright flame may consume the vessel that powers it.
Every pathway of the mind may also be a trap.
“The Psion carries a library no fire can reach — and is, in the end, consumed by the reading of it.”
Eolon of Oemon · Loremaster
