The Awakening of The Mind 

Tranquillity, Resurgence, Power

  • The Gillieabad (Gill-E-A-Bad): Ancient Spirits who live in every moment of every time and of every space.
  • Ancient Lore tells us that they created the world first for the purpose of guardianship and a forgotten duty.
  • It also tells us that they created humanity as soldiers to protect the world against a danger that would rise one day to overcome all that they had made.
  • In the first days they were called the people of the Earth Tribes and lived in the North in the lands of the Chosen.
  • From them came the magic of the Wyld and the Magic of the Weave which are well documented from the dawn of days.
  • Later came the Nexus which spawned the power of the Source and the power of the Focus both of which came to dominate the Six Duchies.
  • History does not record the first days of the Awakening only that there had been reports of those with Astral gifts before the days of Colleges and Churches.
  • When the first of the Haruspex crept into the light they were met with suspicion and hostility fuelled by the words of wicked forces that would one day lay ruin to the land; those that were called Ministers.
  • An Awoken mind is one that looks out onto a different landscape, many have described “The Astral” as a space where once was life.
  • As though what had once been the world, had been Vaklam, was gone, either taken on destroyed or perhaps, even, before it existed.
  • Through this world the Haruspex, as they train, becomes aware of the physical world around them, seeing what sleeps in the Astral and what is awake.
  • They form connections to the world that allows them  to manipulate the physical through thought, through concentration and through clarity.
  • There is also a greater connections of minds as though, through this Astral, all things were once connected and that there paths, perhaps, that led from one animated place to another.
  • Journeys along these paths are possible still to the well trained but it is easy to lose oneself and to never return to the body. 
  • Not only are the paths broken and lost but mist like patches of what is called “The White” exist and are traps for the unwary.
  • More than anything else the Awakened feel a great connection to each other, their minds loosely joined as if in some great circle: A shared consciousness.
  • Harnessing this power is difficult; despite the existence of Haruspex’s for many centuries their training and development has been stunted by negative views and deliberate mismanagement as psionic sabotage continued down the years.
  • A psionicist maintains concentration, discarding emotion and focussing solely on their training and the forms of their casting.
  • Through the mastery of the forms the psionicist learns to manipulate there own physicality, enhance their mind and senses, alter the states of others and journey through the pathways of the Astral in search of knowledge and lost places.
  • Initially this training took place alone until the founding of the Institute of Contemplation which heralded a coming together of like minded folk.
  • From here on in the Haruspex’s learning became more standardised and driven toward an expansion of who and what they were.
  • New affirmations of their power appeared in the form of The Adept’s Assembly and the Kai Rain of the Final Way both boasting new forms and techniques to focus the mind.
  • However they have learned over the years the resonation and amplification of their powers was only, really, possible through the mastery of crystals which were not native to this world.
  • Varrowsight, Goshenite and Axonite, in the hands of a Haruspex, allow them to amplify their abilities outside of their bodies but such minerals are rare and hard to find.
  • The Ritualists of the Wyld have confirmed that they were not formed here on Vaklam and can give no answer as to why they appear as deposits in deep places, waiting for the Psionicists to discover them.

What Psionics is:

  • A form of personally generated magic that requires an emotionless state to resist powers that dwell in the Astral from possessing your mind and physical form.
  • Concentrated on purity of mind and the focus of thoughts to prevent corruption.
  • A magic of indeterminable age that came after the world was created but most likely before the Nexus as the Nexus is believed to have agitated the beings from the White.
  • Personal Magic mainly but one that is capable of being shared through awakened minds called circles that can enhance the power of their talents.
  • Persecuted Magic: For most of its career the practitioners of psionics were branded monsters and were murdered, many of their secrets have been lost.
  • Relearning: The sources of psionic tutelage have proven to be unreliable and most Psionicists are relearning their skills and developing new ones.
  • Righteous:  There are many sources for the persecution of the Psionic Community and a growing number there would seek their revenge in the long term. This is a dark path.

What Psionics isn’t:

  • Everyone’s a Jedi
  • Science Fiction: Psionics finds its core in Sci Fi but it has been adapted to fantasy well and doesn’t need Futuristic talk.
  • Playing it on easy: No words are required but it is phys rep heavy and needs obvious casting to make it work.

Choosing Psionics in the Six Duchies:

  • As an identifier the term: Haruspex is generally given to a Psionicist and covers their definition as a user of magics.
  • Generally speaking they have come to be regarded as a fighting form although this is a misnomer.
  • A Haruspex learns a Discipline of Magic which defines their abilities in the world
  • From these Disciplines a Haruspex can perform magical talents that are called Makutu. 
  • Should they wish to affect anything other than themselves they should always be using a crystal as defined.
  • Disciplines which are the extreme skills which need to utilise a chimerical rod to utilise. 
  • The Disciplines available from those that have trained within the Institute can quickly be described as follows:
  • Corporeal – The mastery of the physical self, becoming stronger, resisting physical harm and enhancing the reflexes.
  • Conceptual – The mastery of the expressive mind connecting with others, sharing knowledge and remembering forgotten things
  • Perception – The mastery of understanding, enhancing one’s senses and the keenness to see the essence of others.
  • Temporal – The mastery of the world around oneself, moving from place to place, reading the history of things and touching on the future or the past.

Casting Brief for Psionics:

  • Psionic casting is achieved through three factors that are drilled and ordered and must be exact and precise as was taught by the institute.
  • Casting is through emotionless meditation in which the psionicist concentrates the concepts of what they are attempting to achieve through and into the crystal that they have linked to.
  • Whilst this occurs they confirm their intention through repeated and simple mantra that informs the infused powers of what they are attempting to achieve.
  • This is achieved through the taught stance or form which brings with it the discipline of the body and the mind.
  • Alone a psionicist is powerful but together they are capable of amplifying their effects to a greater scale.
  • Whilst this is a new discipline for them, something that seems to have been hidden from them out of fear by their enemies.
  • This collective power is best formed as a circle which is the same principle as the lost paths in the Astral.

What are the Goals of Basanic Psionicists?

  • All of the other powers have their own Political Tables with power on the Golden Table, the Psionic Orders have nothing but Chapter houses and a voice on the Crimson Table. Fair representation is called for.
  • To understand why they were persecuted and bring any that still survive responsible for that persecution to justice.
  • To discover and eradicate the corruption that is in the Astral which is damaging the use of Psionic Magic.
  • To recover lost Disciplines and spread them through the community
  • To reignite forgotten circles and bring lost and terrified users of power home.
  • Protection and maintenance of the Royal Basin and its traditions

What are the Attitudes of Basanic Psionicists? 

  • In recovery: There is a lot of anger in a community which struggles to remain in a calm emotional state. 
  • Aggressive: The community pursues its goals for recognition and justice relentlessly.
  • Remorseful: Throughout the centuries thousands of their kind have been murdered and thousands more have fought and died for the people that have ignored those killings. They remember those people and they feel their loss keenly.
  • Welcoming: There are many growing minds and ideas and they are all things that are embraced by the Institute that represents Psionic Magic and their ilk.

What is the Aberration of The Astral?

  • The Astral is fraught with danger that has been experienced by many for years but none more so than the white.
  • What lurks here is presumed to be the lost, the abandoned, perhaps even the dead: Minds whose bodies have passed on.
  • Whatever they are or were they seek purchase on the world and dwell within the pockets of White throughout the Astral.
  • The White is considered to be the greatest aberration to the Psionic Users who dare the pathways and is most often reached when the Haruspex has tapped too far into their emotional state and allowed them to ride their castings.
  • The white insinuates itself into the body of the Haruspex taking over their personality and their body. 
  • Once it has entered the world it seeks others who are gateways from the Astral into the world and brings forth other white that is a part of its circle to infest the world.
  • If a Haruspex accepts, willingly or otherwise, power of the White then a link is forged that may never be broken and the path that they may wish to follow could be lost to them forever.
Last updated byHolly Goodall