Psionic class lore

[Narindor]

Now I don't know if this is where I should be posting this, so feel free to move it.

I've always thought that the lore regarding the psionics of Maj'Eyal is mostly unexplained or mentioned, as the ways to unlock the classes don't really mention where the powers came from in the first place, besides the mind that is. As I find that saying "people evolved them!" isn't the best of excuses, even in a fantasy setting, I've started this thread to help come up with some lore ideas and later hand them to Darkgod or Grey should they find the ideas fitting in the lore of Maj'Eyal.

[Grey]

Not everything in the game needs to be fully explained...

(yes, that's the worst cop-out ever...)

Psionic powers are simply another manifestation of "Wild" powers, but being a concentration of power in the mind rather than the flesh. There's nothing too exotic about them other than rarity.

[Narindor]

And yet every other unusual ability has been explained,(magic, wild powers, etc) so why not psionics?
It would also be better if we didn't have use our imagination and pretend that Dogroth Caldera is surrounded by get-high-quick gas too.

[darkgod]

/me whisp Grey !
Too long since loring !

[parcel]

Nature has a mind furtively growing, and as part of a consequence of that local minds are starting to see a path to growth. Even before M'E gained its weird sentience, there were psionic aspects of certain large minds like those of bloated horrors (try giving them a rubik's cube in between mind sears and see what happens). The mind that psionics learn to assert, be it as a team effort in the Way or an individual effort as typified by the solipsist, can assert itself for or against Nature just as much as it can be Good or Evil.

The afflicted are technically psionics but the catalyst in their awakening was a horror. The cursed are formed during a traumatic experience (usually involving moral anguish for sentients) that the horror lays its eggs in. Doomed are the result of another horror feeding on psychic channels that are often opened in the course of a weird form of mana channeling that is of interest to those seeking limitless power. The result in sentients is that magical affinities are largely stripped and a portion of the subconscious is laid bare, acquiring psionic powers of its own. The afflicted minds are not consciously psychic; they are ruled by a psionic unconscious that they must bargain with in order to gain the power to survive, and (don't even hope for it, Doomed Halfling) live the rest of their miserable lives in peace.

Curiously, the yeeks have a good understanding of the etiology of these afflictions, but command wayists to open themselves to affliction anyway from time to time, in order to gain warriors suited to certain tasks. They don't really like doing it, but the Way is far above individual concerns and Wayists know the value of self-sacrifice.

[astreoth]

yeah it's weird that psionics has never really had any description in the lore even with how rare it is.

I always thought psionics was a more direct application of the force used to tap into the ley lines of eyal for magic and wild gifts and that it was so rare because anyone with potential for it would just end up going the easier routes of magic or nature.

I mean seriously mana is just the concentration needed to pluck the threads of eyal all the power from spells comes from eyal same with wild gifts but with psionics you have to draw in power from yourself or directly from your surroundings instead of from some kind of theoretically infinite reserve like with mana, equilibrium, positive, negative, and paradox.

I think psi, hate, and stamina are the only resources based more or less on your own reserves everything else either taps into some kind of practically limitless outside force or is ripped out of your victims.

[edge2054]

I figured Solipsist power comes from the dream forge. Which is basically the heart chakra to use eastern/new age nomenclature. To borrow from Descartes, Solipsists go I feel therefore I am. The beating of the heart is the echo of the dreamforge and everything experienced by the senses is a reflection of the Solipsist's feelings.

For the Solipsist everything is themselves. When they watch an enemy being attacked by nightmares it's the Solipsist having the experience. They don't see things as separate in a typical sense. The Solipsism threshold is basically an apathy meter. I believe this is called fatalism in western philosophy. In other words, why should I do anything since it's all me anyhow? Hence when Psi falls below the threshold they have trouble bothering to do anything.

The Caldera could be almost a 'holy place' for Solipsists. Magma being the lifeblood of Eyal's own dream forge buried deep in the center of the planet.

Just some thoughts. Not official lore by any means.

[SageAcrin]

That fits pretty well with how I see Solipsists. A class that elevates the mind to a near-philosophical state.

Similarly, I've always thought of Mindslayers as a kind of rigidly militaristic, almost scientific form of mentalist, that rigorously quantifies their abilities.

Stylistically, their entire ability set is simple, to the point snippets that directly describe what they're doing, their very name implies nothing but an orientation towards psionics as weaponry, etc., they seem like someone who is entirely into psionics as a simple tool, not as a way of life or anything expansive like that.

In a way, I don't feel like they need much lore. Maybe just some story about how there used to be a sect or military college that focused on the mind, which was destroyed or went obsolete without their teachings becoming entirely forgotten.

[Narindor]

That fits pretty well with how I see Solipsists. A class that elevates the mind to a near-philosophical state.

Similarly, I've always thought of Mindslayers as a kind of rigidly militaristic, almost scientific form of mentalist, that rigorously quantifies their abilities.

Stylistically, their entire ability set is simple, to the point snippets that directly describe what they're doing, their very name implies nothing but an orientation towards psionics as weaponry, etc., they seem like someone who is entirely into psionics as a simple tool, not as a way of life or anything expansive like that.

In a way, I don't feel like they need much lore. Maybe just some story about how there used to be a sect or military college that focused on the mind, which was destroyed or went obsolete without their teachings becoming entirely forgotten.

That sounds good, and the Dreamforge idea for the solipsist feels like it would fit nicely into the game too.

[The Revanchist]

They both have my plus one.

Now should we get working on afflicted, or is everyone 100% on board with parcel's explanation?

[Doctornull]

I figured Solipsist power comes from the dream forge. Which is basically the heart chakra to use eastern/new age nomenclature. To borrow from Descartes, Solipsists go I feel therefore I am. The beating of the heart is the echo of the dreamforge and everything experienced by the senses is a reflection of the Solipsist's feelings.

Skeleton Solipsists would laugh at you, but they don't acknowledge your existence, so that puts a damper on their mockery. But they will dream about you, and in their dreams they'll mock you to death... and then you'll die in reality, because their dreams are just that horrifying.

is everyone 100% on board with parcel's explanation?

What explanation?

I saw some high-quality technobabble but it had very low explanatory power.

If you're not sure what I mean by "explanatory power", this is a decent definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explanatory_power

[HousePet]

Solipsists don't actually have a solipsistic view point. They have mental powers that can alter the world around them as though they are solipsistic. They have to struggle to identify what is real and what isn't, or they will be trapped in a delusion.

[edge2054]

Solipsists don't actually have a solipsistic view point. They have mental powers that can alter the world around them as though they are solipsistic. They have to struggle to identify what is real and what isn't, or they will be trapped in a delusion.

You're right. I played with a lot of ideas and themes while building them and I should have checked the class selection screen before saying anything.

[astreoth]

yeah I'm pretty sure horrors come from amakathel or whatever the name of the sher'tul god is not from the minds of the afflicted, and that psionic unconscious thing I agree a lot of the afflicteds power probably isn't something their consciously using like shadows or gloom but bargaining with some kind of inner horror for power that doesn't seem quite right.

then again the afflicted do seem to constantly drain energy from their surroundings or themselves (healmod drop, healing from kills, sanctuary) where that energy's going is unaccounted for in a lot of cases may not be a horror though could just be the energy dissipating or stowing it away in some deep dark corner of the mind stockpiling to fulfill some mad purpose who knows what darkness lies in the minds of madmen

yeah pretty sure affliction is just psionic power sent out of control by trauma or madness and then channeled in whatever general area the afflicted can send it though now I want to know where all the energy they absorb goes coming down from the hate adrenaline high doesn't necessarily mean the energy they sucked up with it just goes poof

[parcel]

The model that I am generally proposing is that pure psionics are the most conscious users of something that they identify in other classes as well. Basically, mindslayers are correct that mind and matter and energy are fundamentally yoked together and that the reach of perception and intended movement can extend beyond the channels set for sense and movement by the body of a living organism. Solipsists are correct when saying that the mind precedes all things, and are in a certain sense the 'archmage' of psionics.

Minds are everywhere, though sophisticated minds did not exist in the primordial past. Psionism is about extending the power and reach of mental processes beyond the natural bounds of the body. For solipsists, this is primarily the process of Identity. For mindslayers, it's object manipulation and tool use. Both of these are consciously accessible to contemporary races, though one requires a dreamlike meditation that is hard to back out of. Other more exotic processes in the subconscious can be grown to great lengths, just not through conscious training, and the results are generally tragic since the conscious mind then becomes weak in comparison.

Psionic training is new because it is linked with wilder training. Nature is shifting into a proto-deity and has a mind of a sort that it is learning to assert directly. Psionics have observed this process and adapted it to their own ends. Effectively they are using wilder-type talents but without calling on a Nature-mind that is very powerful but also very fussy about the way and extent to which a being may use its power. Instead of using Nature as the focal mind, they use some amplified version of one of their own mental processes -- or in the case of the most salient aspect of Yeek civilization, the Way, which is a deliberately constructed Overmind for the race as a whole. The Way has no life apart from the Yeeks that it touches and the powerful Psions that sustain it, but it is alive and has an agenda that is often at odds with Nature itself. In general Nature has poor understanding of sentients since it is not actually sentient in the traditional sense, so the Way is largely incomprehensible and invisible to it, despite its fairly enormous power as an orderly aggregate of Yeek mental processes.