Musing: Thaumaturgy

 Previously on: Psionics

    In my last post about psionics I briefly touched on thaumaturgy and how I view it. Just to refresh, I'll post its excerpt:

"All these musings leave a gap that needs filling: neither [psionics or magic] can affect a metaphysical property. Think about fate for a moment. Is that a physical property? No, you can't see fate. Maybe unless it's retrospective. What about a soul? This one is more in the air, but typically you can't see a soul unless it's a ghost. But even then ghosts are sometimes just lingering personalities that a dead body leaves behind. This leads me to my third and final idea: A source of power that affects the fate and soul of others and nothing else. I call this Thaumaturgy, and associate it with people who have a strong presence. Think about this for a moment: What marks the ability to change fate? Often it’s an outside force, like a divine will. But other times someone is simply so powerfully “them” that they bend fate around them."

 

    I came across this idea completely by accident and fell in love with it. It describes a source of power that is usually grouped with divine magic (but also other types of magic, to an extent). Problem is I'm not satisfied with something until I can categorize it's aspects perfectly. This problem is: What type of ability score can represent fate? My first thought was Charisma, but I like neither D&D nor Pathfinder's definition of it (that's a muse for another time). Charisma is defined as both your ability to interact with people but also your force of personality? Someone can be impressionable but be really bad when interacting with people. Think about an online user with a strong presence because they're anonymous, but would be terribly shaken and maybe even incapable of verbalization if forced to personally interact with people.


    My point is, if I define Charisma as solely the ability to present yourself to people, there may be another "ability" that represents a person's capacity to influence fate. Quite honestly, I haven't thought of an idea that makes me go "aha! That's it!". I thought perhaps "discipline" would be a good fit. It represents someone who is able to control their actions, and perform actions they don't want to do but must (have to get up and do those dishes. Sigh.). Discipline is also a great way to resist effects that attempt to forcibly control the person. So perhaps discipline is the best way and I'm just being a stickler for detail. It could be used to resist fate, because fate is trying to arrest control of your life.


    On the same topic, what is fate? I don't always define fate as a "path that everyone is guaranteed to take" or "the path a higher power has laid out". Fate means outcome, and at times a fictional character can change an outcome by simply being stronger than the outcome itself. Imagine a protagonist who is destined to do something, but ends up breaking that line. This is a common trope in eastern animation and storytelling in modern times. Deku from My Hero Academia comes to mind, but I won't spoil how; it's obvious when it happens. Within that same vein, fate can also bind people together, which is a fun narrative to play with.

- Red

Musing: Psychic Abilities and Other Powers

 Ugh

    Psionics is such a strange topic. Everyone has their own view of how it should work what what rules it should abide by. Some people have a very simplistic view that it's magic, but using your mind instead of a "spellcasting focus" (such as a wand, staff). Others pretends psionics is its own thing, but their view still ends up with it just being magic (telekinesis is just Mage Hand without the visible hand). No matter how these people define psychic abilities, I'm never satisfied because magic usually has no limit on what it can do, which makes it indistinguishable from psionics. Is there anything wrong with that? In the case of principle: No. In the case of narrative: I think so. If there's no "hard" mechanic to distinguish them from each other, then what's the point of calling it psionics? Take my earlier example of spellcasting focuses; if a person requires a mind to levitate an object, isn't their brain just a spellcasting focus? What about making a ball of fire? If there's no distinction of limit between the two then in my eyes it's all magic, no matter what the source is. (It's even more offensive if a person role playing a psychic needs to look up a spell but is required to pretend it is something else).



    Whatever their views are, I have my own which seems to be either in the minority of unique to myself: Psionics should only be able to affect the minds of others, while magic is restricted to the world they can see. This immediately creates a stark contrast that I love. If you recognize that your emotions are being forcibly changed, you instantly know a psychic is nearby. If you see a table hovering off the floor, you immediately know there's a spell caster at work. Doesn't this feel better? There is no guessing. Think about D&D; When you observe someone using smite, you absolutely know this person is at least a 2nd level Paladin. There is no mistaking it. What if everyone could use smite, just flavored differently? (I'm not speaking about smite spells.) Smite loses its "oomph" and becomes mundane. Imagine if other smite spells were Paladin only features; it would immediately become more distinguished. My point is: I love it when something has a hard limit.



    All these musings leave a gap that needs filling: neither can affect a metaphysical property. Think about fate for a moment. Is that a physical property? No, you can't see fate. Maybe unless it's retrospective. What about a soul? This one is more in the air, but typically you can't see a soul unless it's a ghost. But even then ghosts are sometimes just lingering personalities that a dead body leaves behind. This leads me to my third and final idea: A source of power that affects the fate and soul of others and nothing else. I call this Thaumaturgy, and associate it with people who have a strong presence. Think about this for a moment: What marks the ability to change fate? Often it’s an outside force, like a divine will. But other times someone is simply so powerfully “them” that they bend fate around them.


Anyway, thanks for coming to my musing! There’s plenty more to come.

- Red