Psyche Struggles

I turned to make my wishes known to my officers, and the power fell upon me, and I was stricken speechless.
I felt the contact and I finally managed to mutter ''Who?'' through clenched teeth. There was no reply, but a twisting thing bored slowly within my mind and I wrestled with it there.
After a time when he saw that I could not be broken without a long struggle, I heard Eric's voice upon the wind:
''How goes the world with thee, brother?'' he inquired.
''Poorly'' I said or thought, and he chuckled, though his voice seemed strained by the efforts of our striving.
''Too bad'' he told me. ''Had you come back and supported me, I would have done well by you. Now, of course, it is too late. Now, I will only rejoice when I have broken both you and Bleys.''
I did not reply at once, but fought him with all the power I possessed. He withdrew slightly before it, but he succeeded in holding me where I stood.
If either of us dared divert his attention for an instant, we could come into physical contact or one of us get the upper hand on the mental plane. I could see him now, clearly, in his chambers in the palace. Whichever of us made such a move, though, he would fall beneath the other's control.
So we glared at each other and struggled internally. Well, he had solved one of my problems, by attacking me first. He held my Trump in his left hand and his brows were furrowed. I sought for an edge, but couldn't find one. People were talking to me but I couldn't hear their words as I stood there backed against the rail...

Nine Princes in Amber

The third combat arena, after Warfare and Strength, is that of Psyche.

Metaphysical Environment

So what happens in Psychic combat? How do you describe what is going on?

In a Psychic duel the combatants wield ideas and symbols. It's like an ultra-fast shadow shifting contest, one where both opponents have Exalted Shape Change as well. The setting, the appearance of the people involved, absolutely everything in the battle is totally imaginary.

The procedure usually goes like this:

Once mental contact is established, the initial conditions for the psychic combat are chosen.

First, the defender, the one whose mind is being attacked, chooses the setting of the combat. This is not a static terrain, it is simply the place where the combat starts. Later actions by either side can wildly alter the initial environment.

Then the attacker chooses a form which is their initial appearance in the setting. They may choose a form that matches the setting, that is 'in-genre', or they may choose to show their power by choosing a form that is totally out of context.

The defender then chooses a form.

At this point the mental battle begins.

There are several things to try for in a mind battle. The simplest and most common are to gain information, or to cause physical or mental damage. These things are quick and easy to do if you have the advantage.

Other things are more difficult, and require you to completely subjugate the opponent's mind first. These include taking over their body, altering memories and implanting suggestions to be carried out later.

Psychic combat itself is very swift, usually taking only a second or so. Initiating mental warfare, and then implementing the more difficult results, usually takes a bit longer.

Check out this example.

Making Mind to Mind Contact

The first rule of Psychic combat is making contact. The nastiest, most powerful Psyche in the universe, facing off against a pathetic wimp of a human, can't do spit until there's a contact between the minds. Here are some, but not all, of the ways of plugging one brain into another.

Physical or Close Visual Contact

Physical contact must be flesh to flesh. A handshake, a touch on the back of the head. Clothing, armour, or any artificial covering blocks the contact. Separation, or the insertion of a barrier, will instantly sever a mind link that relies on physical touch. When physical contact is broken, the Psychic contact is as well. Physical contact requires a few seconds to initiate.

Eye-to-eye contact must be very close, with the characters no more than an arm's length apart. The contact will be broken as soon as anything comes between them, or when either one looks away.

Trump Contact

The classic approach. Any Trump contact forms a junction for Psychic manipulation.

The main trick is to get the contact in the first place. If someone resists a Trump contact it generally takes a really over-powering Psychic force to break through.

A Shadow ranked character could resist one of Partial Psyche. One of Partial rank could resist all but the greatest Psyche.

And anyone of Real level or better could resist even the greatest Psyche of any one individual (though their resistance may be able to be broken by a co-ordinated attack by two or more characters).

Power Contact

Touching someone with an extension of the Logrus or the Pattern is the equivalent of making physical contact.

However, it should be noted that this kind of contact is far from subtle. In terms of what is needed to break through a character's resistance to contact, it's the same as a Physical Contact.

Magic Contact

A magical mind link, an essential ingredient in many magic spells, is sufficient to create a Psychic connection. Once established, the link can be used from either end. Those artefacts and creatures with the ability to make ranged mental contact do so with the same kind of magic link.

Psychic Shadows

Quirky Shadows exist where Psychic contact is as natural as speech. Each of these Shadows operates in a unique manner.

Some are such that Psyche is only possible at close range, equal to that of the spoken voice, others exist where Psychic contact is possible with anyone, anywhere. Some Shadows form a metaphysical environment that is the same as the physical environment - and vice versa.

The type of contact, whether it is like a Trump, touch, or Magic, also depends on the nature of the Shadow.

Breaking Contact

Physical or close Visual contact can be broken at any time by whoever still has control of their body's movement.

Psychic contact initiated by Trump, Power or Magic can only be broken off under certain conditions.

The victor of any individual mental attack can decide to break contact. In order to break contact with a stronger mind, you must either beat them with trickery, or willingly lose to their next attack and suffer the consequences.

Psychic Attacks

There are many, many possible things that a more powerful mind can do to you once they've squashed your resistance.

The more difficult tasks take longer to implement than the combat itself did.

Leech Information, or Mindrape

Frequently a Psychic attack is begun in order to gain some kind of information from the opponent. A very skilled opponent can make you forget you had the fight, or even change your memories so that you think you won!

Each deeper effect includes the shallower ones - learning your opponent's psychic focus also tells you their name and origins.

Name	This is the simplest of all information to acquire. It only gets difficult when the opposition is confused about who they really are. It's pretty hard to stop someone learning this, even if your Psyche is better than theirs. It takes a very short time to learn this (unless they've got a very long name).
Origins or Bloodline	These things are also pretty easy to learn, not much harder than a name. The attempt can be blocked, however, by a strong-minded or careful opponent. This doesn't take long either.
Psychic Focus	Now we start to get interesting. You have to be pretty good to learn where an opponent's willpower is focused. What do they worry about at night? What challenges do they find easiest? What do they spend a lot of time thinking about? This knowledge is very subjective. You only learn what your victim thinks is true - what they believe about their abilities and relationships. You don't get names or statistics, either. You might get a face, if the person concerned is very important to the mind you are leeching from. The face won't just be an image either, it will include a pile of emotions associated with their relationship with that person. Still a relatively quick process.
Specific information	The really useful things are here. If you want names, dates, places, plans, you better be ready to delve deep. Specific information is nearly as hard to drag out of someone as it is to make them forget it. This takes a little bit longer, long enough to be relevant to the result of the Psychic battle. It's like holding off your opponent in a sword fight while you read the small words on his T-shirt.
Memory loss	This is where things begin to get tricky. If your opponent can force themselves this deeply into your mind, you are likely to forget important things. Note that only specific information can be lost this way. You won't forget who you are, or who your friends are (although you might forget their names!). You also can't forget things that are intrinsic to your idea of self: your own name, for example. Detecting such a forced loss is moderately difficult. Recovering the lost data is more so. This takes a long time to do, and can't be undertaken in the midst of a struggle.
Altered Memories	At this point, you are pretty much at the mercy of your opponent. They can change not only specific information, even information that they couldn't make you forget. Detecting such an intrusion can be very difficult, especially if the psychic invader has had a lot of practice. Restoring the changes can be almost impossible. You need longer for this than you do for erasing memory, of course.
Latent Suggestion	They're all over your mind. Not only can they change your memories, they can make you do what they want afterwards (and you might not even remember doing it!). Suggestions implanted for later actions must be acceptable to the victim. Inappropriate suggestions are likely to be distorted. Way out commands simply appear as dreams or visions, and will not be acted upon. Implanting multiple suggestions requires even greater mastery of the opponent's mind. This takes the longest of all, up to a minute or so as you chase down all right thoughts and set things up nicely.
Physical Assault	Forget subtle. The attacker drives their Psyche like a lawnmower, seeking to rip into the victim's brain and do as much damage as possible. This attack has immediate results. The drawback is that if they come out worse, they get hurt instead. After every successful mental manoeuvre, physical damage takes place. Eventually, if continued long enough, this can lead to the death of the victim. Watching someone lose to this kind of attack can seem like they are being attacked by someone invisible. Blood pours out of fresh wounds, and their bones start to break. Even a marginal advantage in Psyche will succeed in a Psychic Assault, if carried on long enough. However, if the mental combatants are relatively equal this kind of battle could easily go on long enough for Endurance to become a factor. This happens very quickly.
Psychic Assault	This kind of result damages your mind, not your body. It is also relatively immediate. Now the lawnmower doesn't have much in the way of visible effect. But next time you try a Trump contact, its much more difficult. Often this is a prelude to a second mental attack that aims to gain information that you could have held back when you were stronger. The drawback is that as they make the attack against your willpower, you can hurt their willpower too. The successful attacker can decide what form the damage takes. A weak attack might result in a headache, while a stronger one might cause fear of heights (especially if the image of the mental attack involved falling). Instead of death being the final result, a coma is the worst that can happen to you when your mind is mulched. Another very quick event.
Mindlock	At it's most basic, a Psychic move designed to simply lock up the brain of the opponent. This does the victim no particular damage, but it forces them to devote all their attention to defending themselves. While in a Mindlock, the victim is unable to move except with slow and careful deliberation. In other words, they are helpless against physical attacks. A victim of a Mindlock is still capable of thought, and of using those powers that require the use of the mind alone. Slapping on a Mindlock is about as hard as leeching specific information or forcing a serious wound. It's no slower, either.
Possession	An attempt is made to completely take over the victim's brain. If successful it means the attacker can move the victim as a puppet, even moving into the victim's brain (although leaving their own body helpless). Once ''moved in'', the attacker can manipulate the victim's body as if it were their own, relying on the victim's natural reflexes and powers. However, because the actual Psyche of the victim must remain locked away, the attacker has no access to the victim's thoughts or memories. If the Psychic contact is somehow severed, the dominator will instantly go back to their own body, and the victim will be freed. Only someone with a significant superiority in Psyche can succeed in a Psychic Possession. Succeeding in a Possession attempt is about as hard as implanting latent suggestions or inflicting a death blow, and as slow.

Control Metaphysical Environment

This is usually something the attacker tries, although a defender can also try to win back control of the environment that has previously been lost. The defender can choose to fight for control, in which case the better Psyche wins, or they can ignore it and attack at another point while their opponent is occupied.

At first sight this seems like a waste of time. Why bother with this, when you can go straight to the mindlock?

Firstly, it's because this is the arena where you can test out your opponent. If you go straight to the mindlock without knowing how strong your opponent is, they might well be able to strip your mind from you before you know what you've run into.

Secondly, it's a psychological thing. If you can take over the environment from the defence, you're in front. It's like being able to force your opponent to withdraw in a sword-fight. By itself, it doesn't mean much, but it is an indication that you are better than they are.

Control Metaphysical Form

This is a personalised version of controlling the environment. Your form is your direct expression of self, more representative of you than the environment is.

Since the environment is decided by the defending mind, this attack is also the clearest way for the defender to show how much stronger than the attacker they are.

Effects are similar to those of controlling the environment.

Break Psychic Contact

A direct attempt to withdraw from the fight. The stronger Psyche wins, unless the attempt is unopposed (for example, using the opportunity to leech some last detail from you while you are closing it up).

Mental Moves

As with the other types of combat, it's not as simple as having the better Psyche. That helps, of course. But there are various tricks that can be played in order to get what you want out of the battle.

Stance

The most basic manoeuvre is to use the best stance for the occasion. Just like every other kind of combat, you can choose between attacking, being opportunistic, or defending.

Attack!

An character on the attack will initiate changes in the psychic environment, reaching out and trying to effect the opposition.

If you are better than them, then your attack will succeed even if they take a defensive stance. On the other hand, you have nothing spared for defence so if even a wimpy opponent who attacks at this point will be able to make a strike against you.

If you are about even, your attack will succeed unless they play defensively. Against an opportunistic or offensive stance, you'll make your attack, but so will they, and both will succeed.

If you are worse than your opponent, you can only succeed if they move offensively as well: in which case you might be in a lot of trouble.

Be Opportunistic

An opportunistic mind will try a few attacks to see how strong their opponent is, without putting their full strength into it, reserving some for defence.

If you're better than them, you'll be able to defend against any attack and still be able to make your attack count.

If you are about even, then this is stance to take to try some trickier manoeuvres.

If you are weaker than your opponent, they'll figure it out pretty quickly because you'll be taking hits and not giving them.

Defend

A defensive character will wait, simply trying to cancel out the attacker's moves. This can sometimes become a lengthy battle. The main drawback is often that since you must attack to break contact, a defensive player is trapped in the battle.

Against a weaker opponent, this move cannot fail. They can't do anything to you.

Against a roughly equal opponent, they can't do much to you. This is a good way to prolong the fight. The only way for them to finish it quickly is to attack all-out, leaving nothing to their own defence.

Against a better opponent, this may be the only way to stop them from getting to you. Once they attack all-out, of course, you can't stop them. But it will take them a while to figure out how weak you are.

Feint

In a sword fight, a feint is to make an attack in one direction and then strike from another for real. A feint is most useful when you appear about even in mental skill with your opponent.

You pretend to go for control of the environment, and then once they start to prevent that, you strike after their bloodline.

If the feint succeeds, you get what you wanted. But their defence succeeds as well, and that might result in damage to you.

Success really depends on whether or not they suspect you. This is a matter of judgement if they're about equal to you.

To a better opponent, your feint will be obvious and you will take damage. Against a weaker opponent, you will succeed but will have wasted some energy. A direct attack is probably better in this case.

Revealed Opening

This is an attempt to lure the opponent into an attack. It's like a reversed feint. So it's most applicable to a fight with an evenly matched opponent.

Because you expect their attack, you can easily defend against it, and can make an attack against them that is likely to surprise them and succeed.

Feign Inferiority

You can willingly give up certain information, or perhaps even take some damage, in order to pretend you aren't as good as you really are. Or perhaps you are just pretending not to be able to hurt them as much as you would like.

Feign Superiority

This is much tougher in mental combat than in physical. If you're pretty sure that Fiona uses a certain kind of form in certain situations, then maybe you could emulate her. But if Fiona never used that form against this opponent you won't be ahead.

Or you could go straight for the big victories, and pretend to back off in order to be kind to your opponent. Once they come at you hard, however, you could be in a lot of trouble: they'll be expecting a better defence than you will be able to provide.

If they believe you're so good, they'll probably try to break off the combat. Probably a good result.

Psychic Cheating

As with physical battles, cheating is often the only way to win. It's just tougher in a Psyche battle.

There are two ways of cheating, external and internal.

Cheating externally is about using some external factor to win the battle - like knowing that someone will use their sword on your opponent while they are distracted. This can be hard to arrange, and you can't be certain that it will work. Or, you could attack when you know your opponent is weak: straight after a sword-fight, for example, when they are bleeding and probably a little tired.

Cheating internally relies on your knowledge of the other person. You have to reveal unexpected information at a critical time, or use forms that have some important symbolic meaning for them.

For example, you might conceal your identity from an opponent who thinks you are their ally, trusts you implicitly. At the right time you let them learn your name and bloodline: then attack all-out.

While they are standing around being shocked at your revelations, you get what you want from their mind (and perhaps are able to erase the memory of the experience).

Using Endurance and Psyche

One use of Endurance in a Psyche battle is when you are losing, but time is on your side. You just play defensive, and drag the contest on as long as possible. For a Psyche contest, that has to be a very long contest indeed.

Another is to go for the Psychic Assault option. If you are pretty sure that you can take more of it than they can, inflicting wounds on your opponent is an excellent way of bringing them to their knees.

Monday, August 25, 1997
Suhuy
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