Understanding Empathy and Telepathy

Empathy and telepathy are two types of powers that manifest quite frequently in the World of Gaianar. Changelings all have at least a moderate potential to manipulate the emotions of others. Likewise, the Mentalist character class has access to very powerful empathic and telepathic spells. The “E” rating indicates the power level of the empath/telepath in question. For instance, a person with E40 would be significantly more powerful that someone with a rating of E20. The progression is on a geometric scale. In other words, someone with E20 would be twice as powerful as someone with E10. Likewise, Someone with E30 would be twice as powerful as an E20.

Standard Empaths: Changelings are the most common standard empaths. Typically, a Changeling is born with an empathic potency in the E20-E40 range. Their Empathic Resistance is equal to their general empathic rating. While Changelings cannot generally read surface thoughts (except for their bonded mates), they can read another’s emotional state and effect changes to another person’s mood. It’s worth noting that empaths of high potency can also impose illusions into the minds of their targets. Strong empathy is also beneficial in treating mental illness in others.

Passive Empaths: These are people who can read the emotions of others but cannot actively modify their target’s mood. Their E-rating also doubles as their Empathic Resistance rating.

Empathic Resistance: Some spells grant a resistance to being empathically (or telepathically) probed. While it is usually the same value as the person’s base empathy, certain spells can increase (or decrease) this value. Likewise, the Game Master may allow specific situations (for storytelling purposes) that would have a character with a mismatched empathy/resistance value.

Touch Empathy: While most empaths/telepaths can exercise their power over a range (it is stronger at close distance and decays as the distance increases), some casters may have to make physical contact to use their power. Touch empaths are rare and their power level is generally higher than that of a standard empath.

One-directional Telepathy: The caster can send a telepathic message to another person (or even multiple people at once). However, the recipients of the message cannot reply unless they also have a spell or power that gives them that ability. Typically, one-directional telepathy is equivalent to the spoken word. It does not convey images and the recipient must know the caster’s language.

Surface Telepathy: This is essentially the magical equivalent to a cellular phone call. The caster and recipient can converse over distance, but both have to know the same language. Neither party can read each other’s mind.  

Touch Telepathy: Like “touch” empaths, a touch telepath can communicate with others by touch. Telepaths of this type generally have a higher e-rating that that of a conventional telepath. Moreover, many touch telepaths are also concept telepaths.

Concept Telepathy: This is the most potent variety of telepathy. The caster can communicate in ideas, concepts, and images. This form of telepathy bypasses the language barrier. Concept telepaths of high potency can also create illusions in the minds of their targets.