Telepathy
From Mizahar Lore
Telepathy is the ability to communicate across vast distances and speak directly into the minds of others granted by Leth.
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Leth and The Mark
Once a wild, voracious god, Leth underwent a significant alteration to his nature and personality to achieve the tenuous balance he now maintains. His story is one of redemption motivated by love, but accomplished through great reflection. His realm of influence is not limited to the moon, but stretches to the incorporeal elements of thought and change.
His marked followers are often those who sympathize with the journey of the soul from a shadowy, unsteady place to a calmer state. Leth's followers are frequently imperfect, like the god himself, and struggle against darker circumstances or natures. However, they share the goal of self-control motivated by love. Like the moon Leth governs, the god is a steady light in a dim place, never fully removed from the dark, but enduring as a beacon within it. Gnosis marked followers are frequently characterized by sacrifice for others, a kinship with the evening or a desire to change.
A cursed mark from Leth is rare, and usually bestowed on those who work against his followers, Ethaefal or those who seek to spitefully confound the redemption process of others.
When Leth awards a positive mark, he arrives in a semi-corporeal fashion and demonstrates the capabilities and mechanics of the mark by communicating with the follower using telepathy. With every level, the conversation grows more powerful and personal, as the god and the follower are able to share more of themselves. Leth is a complicated divinity with a dark past curved around power but a present mindset bent towards redemption and sacrifice. His conversations show a noble struggle to be the god Syna believes him to be without betraying who he is. He frequently sees his followers as being on the same journey and is interested in their path.
To receive a negative mark from Leth is to know why he once served alongside Dira. Arriving only in evening, the shape of a malevolent Leth is a denser shade of dark, voracious and monstrous. It has no more substance than moonlight. What weight it bears is numinous instead of physical. This Leth overcomes the victim in perfect dark and the cursed one feels his skin undergo a painful dissipation. After this small destruction, the cursed one is released with a new mark: the only evidence of the encounter.
Mechanics
Telepathy transcends language barriers as it is the communication of not just words, but thoughts (Leth's realm) and ideas. It is communication in its primal form before words have begun. When a mind receives a telepathic message, the mind is able to take the unfinished form and refine it with its own tools. Because of this joint process of expression and interpretation, there is an inherent intimacy in its use. Often, those who receive the message are able to make it more powerful or detailed as it is personalized to their method of understanding. The speaker's voice will phrase the thoughts, no matter the language, identifying the message as coming from an external source. In higher levels, an influential sense of the marked one's presence can accompany the message as well. If the marked one has a very precise thought, and wants no dilution or interpretation, she can override this nascent form. This is accomplished simply by thinking the words "As I have made it." The creation of the thought or words to send are no different in either form, save the use of this phrase.
The messages sent are not restricted to words, but can encompass feelings and images. The higher the mark, the more layered the initial message, and the more precise its target. When communicating with a fellow gnosis bearer, some of the barriers of levels are removed. One does not have to be familiar with the gnosis bearer to target them. The message can simply be addressed to any Leth marked within the range the level allows.
The positive gnosis is used at will by those marked. The only time it is muffled is during a lunar eclipse, but this lapse is more symbolic than related to the mechanics of the mark.
Unlike positive marks, negative marks require the trigger of moonlight. A negative mark from Leth produces an intolerance for moonlight. When a cursed one steps into moonlight, they experience burns and blindness, the serverity of which is dictated by the depth of the curse. The effects can be avoided by completely covering oneself, and not allowing an iota of moonlight to touch the skin or eyes.
Appearance
The positive mark of Leth rest in the center of the wrist above the carpals. It is slightly luminous with a violet or blue sheen. When in use, it glows slightly. The first mark manifests as a crescent moon, the second a quarter moon, the third a gibbous moon, and the final is a full moon.
A cursed mark follows a similar transformation, but instead of a bright emblem, it is a corrupt harvest moon: fiendishly red with sooty smears.
Mark Progression
| Marked [Cursed] - 1 Gnosis Mark | |
| Marked: A marked follower is able to communicate words or their equivalent. Sometimes, a powerful feeling can accompany the words and wash over the receiving party. Any Leth gnosis bearer within a region can be targeted. Otherwise, the marked one has to know the rough (within fifty miles) current location of their intended target and be familiar with them to impart a message to them. This means they have met before in person and had enough communication to easily recognize one another if they met again.
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| Favored [Despised] - 2 Gnosis Marks | |
| Favored:
| |
| Priest/Priestess [Adversary] - 3 Gnosis Marks | |
| Priest or Priestess:
Adversary: | |
| Champion [Nemesis] - 4 Gnosis Marks | |
| Champion
Nemesis | |