Pandemic 284 members · 30 stories
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What are all of the varieties mind magic present in the (written) universe? Off the top of my head I can think of the Vision, Tonya's 'want', Phobia's 'fear', the astral projection of Rebecca and Josie, and I recall mention of somepony with the power to communicate with birds, but surely there are more examples that I'm either missing or forgetting.
For that matter, aside from licensing/classification assessments, how do they determine which mind magics they crack down hardest on?

Do the magics of Storytellers all border mind magic, or is it mostly just Jenny's?

Finally, I'm curious what the following ability would be classified as, Mind/Storyteller/Mix:
A pony whose ability to focus on a pony or object at limited range (further with drawbacks) and gain knowledge about them (feelings/intents included) through the use of tools and interpretation. For example, a pony might have their picking of tarot cards guided by their magic when doing a reading, through which they are able to divine with startling accuracy, or they might be able to use the surface still liquid to see afar. (keywords: psychometry/clairvoyance/scrying, exclude keyword: foresight/future sight)

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You forgot the fear inducing presence of the antagonist in Aftermath.

Storytelling involves no mind magic, that is a direct link to the Story, and it is basically being able to tell something from the past, present, or possible future. Storytelling can manifest in multiple forms, but it is ultimately always going to tell one of those three things. It isn't taking anything directly from anyone's mind, it is taking it from the Story–like reading a book or seeing a show.

Mind magic that lifts information directly from another individual's mind about the past or present or motives of what they may do is not Storytelling (and would be banned by Dreamwardens if done without consent since this is a massive violation of privacy).

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I knew there was one in Aftermath I was forgetting. Thanks for catching that missed one.

How would the OMMR classify the harm/direct damage potential for it, I wonder.
Rebecca's astral projection getting one makes sense, given that it's not doing anything that would violate the sanctity of a person's mind beyond allowing them to see/hear a projection, and if I remember my reading correctly, things learned through projection could fall under Dream Realm acquired knowledge restrictions. I imagine the sort of information gathering described in the initial post would, if operating strictly as mind magic, would have a greater potential for (indirect) harm if misused, both to anyone used on, and to the user themselves.

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Now, there is a cavet to what Jenny Tanner was doing in Aftermath. She was Storytelling, but she was also creating complex illusions and also mind-magically forcing people into roles in her illusions. That is actually three different things at work, of which only.the third the Dreamwardens were concerned about.

Projected astral forms actually come in three known flavors. There is the one that Rebecca and Josie use that merges the physical and dream realm. There is another form, even rarer, that merges physical realm with another realm which you could call astral or celestial or divine (think the realm where Celestia spoke with Twilight when Twilight ascended to alicorn, which is also the same realm glimpsed my Wild Growth before she collapsed at the end of Monsters We Make, and is also the realm Triss hangs out on most of the time). There is a final projection, which is the merger of that realm with the dream realm–this one is almost universally used by Triss, although Luna could theoretically do the same.

Now the restrictions involving using knowledge gained while using astral forms (at least the dream realm touching ones), is the same restriction as using knowledge learned in a dream, rather than mind magic. Although this interpretation of the rule is debated among Dreamwardens, and not all six hold the same interpretation. All six do agree that if it is an offense (which again, is debated) it is a minor offense, and, therefore, not something they would ever commit to a warrant or trial over and they typically just hand out fines unless the knowledge used was done without others knowledge that it was even acquired, which may result in a temporary ban on the ability (like Josie got when she spied on the Youngs location for Sunset Blessing). This is a compromise between those that think it is an offense and those who don't. It is the undead Dreamwardens who see it as an offense, since they got to watch the person acquire that knowledge so they view it as they would anything else in the dream realm. Those that are still alive don't take this view.

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