Teknoguild, Empathy, Farseeking and Coercing

[seito_no_senshi]

The Tekno Guild:

Guildmaster: Garth
Guilden: Jak
Ward: Fian. He replaced Pavo as ward when the latter died in TF.
Function: The scientists; they are concerned with knowledge, especially of the past.
Misc. Notes: In chapter 4 of “The Keeping Place”, Elspeth says that “there were only fifty or so teknoguilders spread thin over many projects.”
The Teknoguild also has the highest death toll among the Misfits because of their habit for going to the edges of the Blacklands - to dangerous places and doing dangerous things in general.
New projects, requests for information/research and sharing new discoveries are conducted during teknoguild meetings.

The Ability

The teknoguild appears to have the least “flashiest” in terms of all the Talents. Their powers seem to be minute in comparison to all the other Talents; the prime “power” being an intense interest in the past (though knowledge in itself is power).

The Finer Points

• “A vague empathy for inanimate things”
• “A slight power to move things by will alone” i.e. Telekinesis.
• From the above point, it appears that Telekinesis factors in both tekno and coercive Talents. In fact, the coercers are seen using telekinesis more than the teknoguilders. Like deep probing, this could be an ability shared by more than one Talent.
• Garth encourages all the teknoguilders to have their own pet projects, and also encourages them all to share discoveries and the like with each other so that no vital links that could mean the difference between a break through and … continued ignorance are missed.

The Empaths Guild:

Guildmaster: Dameon
Guilden: The twins Miky and Angina. The two manage guild affairs in Dameon’s name since he spends much time working with Rushton and when he stayed in Sador for a season.

The Ability
Empathy is the ability to receive and project emotions. An empath will always be able to receive emotions, though not necessarily transmit them.

The Finer Points

• Music enhances a person’s ability to empathize.
• Unlike all the other major Talents, Empathy can reach even shielded/mind sensitive people. The only way to block off an empath successfully is to have a strong emotional shield, which is different to a normal mind shield. This could be incorrect; Freya says that she couldn’t reach her father because of his natural mindshield. However, it could be because of the way her Talent works, which is different from normal empathy. She is a Talent enhancer, and Angina says that her ability appears to be closest to what he can do with Miky.
• This, of course, raises the question as to how exactly empathy works. Do empaths send out mind probes or what? This does not seem to be the case; the Talents that are required to send out probes seem to be “dead” to the material world when they do so.
• Empathy is also unaffected by the Demon Bands that were introduced in TKP - again, the only Talent to be so. Perhaps this is because empaths don’t actually have to enter minds; instead, they just transmit emotions the way a radio station would transmit radio waves (though an empath can reach everybody).

On Linking:

Ashling gives us the idea that there is some sort of mind linking with empaths, just like there is with farseekers and coercers (healers are most likely included in this as well). The one example in the entire series concerning an empath would be Freya and the bear in the Battlegames.

To recap, if a person is killed while a farseeker/coercer* is linked to them (that is, there is a probe within their mind), that farseeker/coercer will also die. As the events in Ashling transpire, it is clear that this is not the case with empaths - indeed, Elspeth herself says so.

* Though only farseekers and coercers are mentioned in the above notes since Elspeth only named those two when she mentioned linking in Ashling, there’s nothing to suggest that it doesn’t apply to healers since they too probably create some sort of partial bond when they enter the minds of others. This is probably less likely for beastspeakers since communication is on an open band (which gives the suggestion of a gathering of minds, as opposed to sending out probes specifically to whichever mind. If that made sense.

“Freya shrieked horribly and fell into a faint, for her mind had been linked empathically to the bear’s. If Freya had been a farseeker or a coercer, she would be dead.”
Ashling, chapter 40, page 477

Instead, they are merely knocked unconscious - it stands to reason that there is probably some temporary mind trauma to the empath that was linked, something like a mental concussion, though with no lasting effects. However, that being said, that example is perhaps not the best one, as Freya’s Talent has already been established as different and as such, may not work entirely the same way as normal empathy.

Something that could be considered would be that empathy isn’t entirely a power to do with the mind, but combination of mind and soul.

The question then is how exactly empathy works. Perhaps, in this case, more effort was needed to reach the bear as it had been drugged, and so Freya had to pour more of “herself” into empathizing with the bear, hence the link.

There’s also the possibility that it was merely the shock of having emotion cut off combined with the fact that she was empathizing with all her power to one specific being and this could be what knocked Freya out. Perhaps the empathic link isn’t like the links that farseekers/coercers can have.


The Farseekers Guild:

Guildmistress: Elspeth Gordie
Guilden: Ceirwan
Ward/s: Formally Matthew (O to A), but has been replaced by Zarak and Aras as of TKP.
Function: to locate and recruit Talented Misfits as well as people in need, and execute rescue expeditions where necessary, offering them a place of refuge. They are also responsible for gathering intelligence in the Land; Tomash handles Council/Rebel related matters, while Wila handles Herder affairs.

The Abilities

Farseekers have the ability to read conscious thoughts and speak mind to mind over varying distances. It should be noted that farseekers seem to be the only Misfits with the Talent to send their minds over distances (providing they have the strength and that their way isn’t obstructed by things such as tainted grounds).

The finer points

• A farseeker can only mindspeak with a non-farseeker if the person is a beastspeaker, or if they have the ability to deep probe. The seems to apply only to coercers, however.
  
  "Matthew interrupted eagerly. ‘I farsensed him.’ I was astonished. It was impossible to communicate over distance with anyone but another farseeker unless communicator and communicant possessed some deep probing ability.”
  The Farseekers, Chapter 11, page 107
  
  However, this could be interpreted differently - that if both communicators could deep probe, then it wouldn’t be necessary for them to be farseekers. Again, this seems to apply only to coercers. Elspeth has only mindspoken with beastspeakers, coercers and farseekers in the entire series (as well as Rushton). This latter point seems less likely, though.
• When sending out a probe, a farseeker is able to pick up the individual thoughts of people, however, the further away the probe is sent, the less likely a farseeker is to receive them.
• Awkwardness wastes energy when farseeking.
• With this comes the ability to locate minds over distances, however, this is more difficult if the person being scryed for lacks coercive or farseeking abilities. It’s also more difficult to farsense a person who’s never been farsensed before, particularly if that person is unTalented.
• It is possible to send out probes that are attuned to a specific person’s mind signature, however, if that person is asleep, their mind signature changes considerably. A sleeping mind is so different to a waking mind that it’d be practically invisible to a probe that is attuned specifically to the mind when it’s awake (at least, this is the case with Maruman).
• Drugs can block a person’s mind from a farseeker.
• The above point doesn’t necessarily apply to another farseeker, or if the mind being searched for is well known to the farseeker. The latter case is more likely. Elspeth says that if Matthew had been drugged to fall asleep, the drugs still wouldn’t have prevented her from sensing him, though they would’ve blocked communication. This applies only to normal drugs; the drug from Sador (spiceweed?) that makes people suggestible and docile warps mind patterns.
• Elspeth speculates that Sadorian spiceweed produces a certain sensitivity to mental intrusion.
• Farseekers cannot speak mind-to-mind as well as out loud at the same time.
• They can farseek above ground, but not below it.
• Focusing on flames or water always helps to steady a farseeking probe.
• Farseekers generally don’t have the ability to deep probe, but Elspeth does admit that the Misfits don’t know nearly as much about their minds as they like, and that their powers are still developing. In TKP, she mentions that some farseekers can deep probe, so this could mean that farseekers may one day in the future be able to deep probe. She could also be referring to farseekers with secondary or tertiary abilities. However (yet again), she and Ceirwan speculate that Matthew is developing Deep probe ability in TF.
• They can also create farseeking nets to warn them of movement if they’re busy with something else (e.g. In Ashling, when Elspeth is busy farseeking Matthew, she creates a net that warns her if somebody is approaching her while she’s occupied).
• If a farseeker or a coercer’s mind is linked to somebody else’s, and that person is killed, the farseeker/coercer will also die.
• It seems it’s also possible for a farseeker to see material objects while farseeking.

But then in TKP, it says that Elspeth farsends something to the other guild masters. Does she relay the message through a person who can farseek/coerce, or does she just plonk the message into their minds?


The Coercers Guild:

Guildmaster: Gevan
Guilden: There seems to be some confusion here. In “The Farseekers”, Elspeth names Domick as coercer ward and Miryum as Guilden. What remains consistent throughout the series is that Miryum is coercer guilden, while Domick’s station is mentioned only twice; in TF as mentioned above, and in the character index in TKP. Be that as may be, whatever station Domick he held, he resigned from that after the events in “Ashling”, his reason being that he could not accept Obernewtyn’s new pacifistic ways.
Ward/s: Rhianon - unofficially raised to ward-ship in TKP.
Function: The function of the coercer guild is to defend Obernewtyn. They are the fighters and the defenders of Obernewtyn and are continually honing their skills and preparing for battle - should it ever come to that. However, this changes when Obernewtyn develops pacifistic views after the Battlegames, and the objective of the coercer guild changes to fit this. As of TKP, the coercers have become magi (singular is “mage”) and developed routines and plays (which have been greeted with great applause) that subtly heighten peoples awareness of being different, of fear, and the like. They travel around the country dressed as halfbreed gypsies to accomplish this and are led by Gevan. This is also seen as a good way to gain intelligence.
Misc. Notes: The Coercer guild holds a Coercer Talent contest. It’s been found that because of it, individual skills have been honed and strengthened, that mindmelds have increased in coordination and that the stress of competition can sometimes reveal unsuspected secondary and even tertiary abilities [“Ashling”, Chapter 33, page 382].
The guild is constantly at logger heads with the futureteller and healing guilds; the latter saying that the coercers are too aggressive. When the coercer guild suggested a Talent competition, the healers and futuretellers were violently opposed, the latter saying that “it would produce anti-social and aggressive tendencies in an already aggressive guild.”
This has possibly changed by TKP; less opposition between the three guilds, though Roland is admittedly very miffed by the coercer-knights saying they present a danger to Obernewtyn by making themselves too obvious.

The Coercer-Knights:
Headed by: Miryum. Linnet is considered to be her second.
Function: The coercer-knights ride out into the land performing good deeds and preaching to anybody who will listen.
Misc. Notes: The coercer-knights are recognizable by the black scarves worn around their necks; these double as face masks. After the events of the Battlegames, Miryum, inspired by a Beforetime book on Knights created her own code basing it on chivalry. Before long, coercers who were unhappy with Obernewtyn’s new pacifistic view joined up with Miryum and became coercer-knights. The coercer-knights appear to be pulling away from the coercer guild’s ideals and Gevan worries that the guild may be split apart by this. However, Elspeth then wonders if maybe the Knights could still remain a part of the coercers, yet have its own charter instead of splitting off entirely into a new guild.

The Abilities

Coercing is an aggressive Talent that manipulates and controls minds by deep probing into the subconscious level of the mind. Deep probing is an ability that coercers, futuretellers and healers all share, the difference being that in this case, the deep probe is shaped to control minds.

The finer points

• Can read minds, erase minds, manipulate thoughts, etc.
• Coercers can tell when a mind has tampered with, unless the tampering was done with exquisite care.
• An aggressive ability; if not trained, coercing can hurt people.
• Coercers have the ability to fudge around with nerves, by tweaking them. (e.g. in TF, Elspeth pinches a nerve of a ship captain and makes him vomit)
• Can impose “a rough nerve control” on somebody’s will. Elspeth says that it’ll fade quickly though. There are two reasons to why it lasts only so long: a) that it’s not done subtly enough, and because it’s “alien” to the mind, the mind rejects it, or b) the one time in Ashling that Elspeth did it, she did it too quickly and too roughly, so that it didn’t last.
• They can block the Talent of a person so that it’s as if it never existed (i.e. crippling). This is usually done in the case that a Talented Misfit is incredibly disgusted by their ability, resents being a Misfit and wishes to be normal.
• Coercers are easily disturbed by things that effect their own perceptions and balance (e.g. Sea sickness, heights, etc). Elspeth says that Roland thinks it has something to do with how coercing works, as well as the way their deep probe is shaped. Not an unreasonable assumption, and either way, it’s a nice joke for the people who alter other people’s perceptions. It could also be a control factor; “a strong feeling of ‘this isn't how it's meant to be, the ground is meant to stay still’”**. The coercers mind could be so used to controlling things, that when it something because out of control, the mind unconsciously dithers about and tries to rectify the situation, and then the coercer gets sick. The stronger the coercer (i.e. the more the coercer is able to control), the more violently the mind reacts, the more sicker the coercer gets.
• Can create coercive cloaks which work by heightening and enhancing disinterest and inattention. The more conspicuous a person acts, the more energy is required to make it work. However, if lost and there are people staring, there isn’t a way to reinstitute it.
• Can lock their muscles in place (what does this do?)
• They can deflect other probes. (e.g. When Domick is about to wipe Jik’s mind, Elspeth stops him. TF, page 44).
• Coercers can mindspeak with farseekers, but only because they have the ability to deep probe. Their mind probes often seem very harsh, mental voices too strong, and Elspeth often comments on this. It’s unclear if coercers can mindspeak with anyone other than a coercer; this doesn’t seem to be the case, as coercers are to do with manipulating, a subtle art.
• A mind shield won’t stop a coercer from forcing their way in. There just isn’t much of a point.
• It seems that a coercer can draw on another to increase their range. (TKP, page 509) It’s not clear how far a range a coercer has, but they do have to be close enough to their target to coerce them.
• Gevan contacts Elspeth mentally in TKP just before the moonfair starts. At first, there might be something wrong with this. However, Gevan can deep probe, which means that Elspeth would be able to speak mind to mind with him. The distance for however far Gevan’s probe must be sent is not mentioned, so the fact is, Elspeth could be within range for him to send her a message like so. Given that Gevan is as strong a coercer as Elspeth, what’s to say that the more power a coercer has, the further away he can coerce?
• Coercing somebody takes more strength than Beastspeaking/farseeking.
• Coercers all appear to have a very, very slight variation of telekinesis. (e.g. When Elspeth snaps the rope that holds Faraf’s burden [“Ashling”, page 55], when coercers make sure that knives don’t slice off any noses or ears in the moonfair [TKP, page 305].) Like deep probing, this could be an ability shared by more than one Talent.
• Elspeth, when she was younger, played hide and seek as a child. When Jes was “it”, she was always able to manipulate him by making his mind look anywhere by directly at her. However, her brother had a block, so either this is a discrepancy on Ms. Carmody’s part, or there’s no need to be within a mind when doing that. This type of manipulating is done within the semi-subconscious mind. However, in “The Farseekers” when Elspeth saves Kella and Pavo, Elspeth says that she “meshes” with the Priest’s mind. “To mesh” - that is, to entangle, or to interlock, or is a network, so perhaps Elspeth’s mind surrounds Jes’s, and nudges it in direction, or… something else. Elspeth calls this a child’s trick. Alyce suggested, that this could like what Maruman does with Elspeth when he wraps his mind around Elspeth’s so that you hardly realize that it’s there, and that Elspeth comments that her mind has all but accepted Maruman’s as part of her own.** Another example that can be brought in would be when Daffyd is trying to get into Ayle’s mind in “Ashling”.
• If a farseeker or a coercer’s mind is linked to somebody else’s, and that person is killed, the farseeker/coercer will also die.
• Talent can be used to enhance hearing. Elspeth does this in TKP. This is probably a trick of coercing, as coercing is capable of fudging around with the body, though not to the extent of healers. (another trick being when she locks her muscles using coercion in Ashling)

Coercive Blocks

“We had all set up coercive blocks that would erase our memories in an emergency. These were Obernewtyn’s safeguard in case one of us was caught and tortured. Only Jik had not been able to be blocked, being too untrained.”
The Farseekers, page 54

Obviously, to set up a block that would erase memories would require a coercer. How they are activated on the other hand, is something different. Given the fact that all the Misfits at Obernewtyn all seem to have a larger awareness of their minds (given that even teknoguilders can create mind shields), it’s not unreasonable to think that these blocks can be set into motion by their own minds. Perhaps the mind has just been coerced to automatically erase its own memories should a person be tortured. However, Pavo is tortured in “The Farseekers”, yet his block has not been tripped, which would suggest that only when the person is about to break and start giving information would the block be activated. That Jik is not blocked because he is too untrained might add credence to this; his mind, being too untrained, would be unable to set off the block so it’d have to be done manually by Domick or Elspeth.

On how Coercing works

The ability to coercer appears to be a straight forward talent, and it’s true, the basic fact is that coercers manipulate others by descending into the unconscious mind. This however, seems to be contracted several times, for example, the time in “Ashling” (Chapter 13, page 140) when Elspeth considers coercing the gypsy who has been following her (i.e. Swallow) but then dismissing it, because “his natural shield would prevent me coercing him except at a subconscious level and there would be no gain in that.” This obviously means that coercing can be done at both levels, but with different effects.

There is the implication that the most effective and subtle coercions are done via the subconscious. If the conscious level is the “here and now” section, while the subconscious level is for thoughts, desires, etc, it might explain a few things. For example, it would explain why going into the subconscious level for information would be useless to farseekers, hence their not being able to deep probe. Perhaps coercing is done from the subconscious level, where actions and thoughts are only half-formed notions, ones that haven’t risen up to the conscious level of the mind and occurred to the thinker.

This theory is instantly put paid by the fact that coercers cannot coerce people with natural mind shields (NMS). However, if one considers the fact that the NMS of a person dissolves at the subconscious level, then one can assume that the reason why coercers can’t coerce people with NMS is because the mind shield prevents the alien thought from passing through it and up into the conscious level. Returning to the point where Elspeth says she cannot coerce the gypsy except at the subconscious level and that there’d be no gain in doing that, perhaps in this case, Elspeth meant that it’d be useless because the mind shield would prevent the coercion from taking effect by not allowing the coerced thought to pass through. However (yet again), perhaps what Elspeth needs to do is to coerce the gypsy from the conscious level of the mind, which merely means that a lot more factors have to do with a successful coercing than what people seem to be assuming. If this is the case, the question that must be asked is what good will coercing a person with a NMS from the subconscious do?

The building blocks of a successful coercion:

On suggestions:

The reason Elspeth is so successful in getting around Sutrium in “Ashling” is her male gypsy disguise. She then reinforces this with a general coercive cloak.

“I began to back away, weaving a general coercive net, but the burly stallholder lumbered from behind his stand with unexpected speed and pushed me hard, sending me stumbling back against Gahltha’s warm flank. Anger filled me, hot and unreasoning as fire.
I choked it back, realizing too late that I had let my coercive cloak fall again. Since it worked by heightening and enhancing disinterest and inattention, there was no way I could reinstitute it with so many people goggling at me. Especially not with energy so depleted. I must slip away and regain my precious anonymity.”
Ashling, page 176

The cloak heightens inattention and disinterest. This is a suggestion; the cloak suggests to the subconscious mind that hey, this person here isn’t really worth paying attention to because he’s a gypsy. So, when people see Elspeth, they see her in male clothes, they see the gypsy tan, so therefore Elspeth must be a male halfbreed gypsy. Because of that deduction, people look no further. The coercive cloak would build on this gently suggesting to the mind that what they think they’ve just seen is true, and that because it’s true, there’s no need to look any further. This is done subtly as a gentle confirmation**, and it’s also why remaining anonymous is so important. Had Elspeth not bothered with the gypsy disguise, she would have to expend more energy in maintaining the illusion that she was indeed a male gypsy halfbreed.

… So if Elspeth can trick all of Sutrium using a GCC, what about the people with the mind shield?

Damn good question. And Ashling has just confirmed it. There’s always a risk that this will not work, but only if their attention is on her while she’s setting it in place (quote from Ashling, page 98). As it is, it works so well because a group of people function together as one mind.

“Unnerved, I shaped a general coercive probe suggesting that I was defective. Given the general prejudice against gypsies, it was not difficult to plant a negative thought and, as the idea took root, they relaxed.”
Ashling, page 101

Similarly, Elspeth is able to encourage a group of people that she is a defective gypsy by create a general coercive probe that suggests this. People do not like gypsies, and because they do not like gypsies, it is easy to accept something negative about a gypsy.

It’d be about right for a general coercive cloak to be done from the subconscious level; that is, the people unconsciously accept this suggestion.

On memories:

Erasing a memory from the subconscious mind would probably be easier, since it’s in the subconscious, and not thought of often. Factors such as how old the memory is and how strongly the memory affected the person would come into it. If a person is erasing a memory from the conscious mind, that’s when the coercer must go into the subconscious to look for a replacement memory that will explain the forgetfulness of the person. The point is that they don’t appear to have the ability to create an entirely new memory, OR if they do, it requires far too much planning and detail (the latter seems to be the case, something that will be continued on further down this section). Rather, they rifle through the subconscious looking for another memory and use that as a substitute. For example, in Chapter 20 of “Ashling”, when Elspeth sends away Bollange, she does so by first checking his memory for something “suitable”, then erasing the reason he came out so that he forgets, then replacing the erased memory with the substitute (in this case, that he was out drinking) and establishing that as the reason as to why he came out in the first place. She then authenticates it by giving it some physical evidence - i.e. she pinches a nerve, giving him a headache, to add credence to the “fact” that he had been out drinking.

“Watching us go, the plump seaman gave Maruman, who was draped around my neck, a long look of bewildered wistfulness that spoke of the strength of his attachment to his ‘mascot’.
I had coerced all memory of their brief association from his mind, and from the crew’s, but clearly the impression had been deep and some residue remained, at least in Powyrs.”
Ashling, Chapter 38, page 450

That being said, there’s always a possibility that some sort of residue of the memory will remain. When Elspeth coerces the memory of the existence of Maruman from the minds of Powrys and his crew (Ashling, page 450), as shown in the above reference, some deep impression has remained. This would suggest that if the subject has a strong attachment to the memory, some impression will remain no matter what the coercer does.

On physical illusions:

The idea that coercers cannot create an entirely new memory seems to be disproved in TKP, in the section when Miryum and her people coerce the soldierguards to believe that Henry Druid has been caught.

“… Only then had they carefully constructed, within the minds of key figures within the camp, the illusion that a small band of soldierguards had taken Henry Druid prisoner in a brilliant coup. …
…
It was a meshing of fact and gossip and rumors sent in motion by Malik’s people, and pure coerced illusion, and played hard upon the ambition of the head soldierguard to become a Councilman.
…
The main problem was convincing the soldierguards that they had Henry Druid in a cell within the camp. Maintaining this illusion was the tricky part, for it was the one thing which relied on physical evidence. The capture and all else could be built of implanted memories, but Miryum had had to create a physical illusion of Henry Druid in the minds of anyone who looked into the cell where he was supposedly being held.”
The Keeping Place, page 530

Fact, rumors and gossip are already there, all that needs to be done is to link them up altogether. However, the final paragraph seems to shoot down this theory, with the words “implanted memories.” It could be interpreted that the implanted memories could very easily have been constructed using the fact, rumors and gossip mentioned. If not, then it could be supposed that implanting entirely new memories requires more energy, more planning, needs to be done very subtly and carefully, and is overall just a pain in the bum.

Creating a physical illusion would be far more draining than just replacing a memory (i.e. Elspeth and Bollange) and would require constant monitoring. Unlike something like the general coercive cloak that Elspeth is so fond of using, an outright physical illusion doubtless would have to be done via the conscious mind; it is not subtle, it is there. Rumors and fact will bolster the illusion; the soldierguards “know” that Henry Druid is there, therefore, since the knowledge is already there, when Miryum and the others coerce them, they will see him and accept that illusion as “fact”. If there are only rumors and facts and no constant monitoring of their minds, than the rumors stay mere rumors.

On tampering minds in general:

For all the times somebody is coerced in the series, there is always something to support the mind manipulation; there is not out and out controlling because that requires too much effort and is a constant drain on the energies. There is always something to link and build on. In the case of the soldierguards in TKP, that “something” is the rumors/facts/gossip that Malik’s people spread about Henry Druid.

When Elspeth coerces Rosamunde in “Obernewtyn”, what she really does is this:

“Carefully I directed my ability to manipulate thoughts into her turmoiled mind, seeking to create the chains of thought and action I needed, joining them carefully onto her own half-formed notions. I had not used my coercing ability so directly before and, I was curious to see how well the thoughts and decisions I had grafted hastily would hold.”
Obernewtyn, Chapter 5, Page 37

Rosamunde already had some “half-formed notions”, possibly something that she had not yet started consciously considering; all Elspeth needed to do was to link it up to some concrete actions, and let it rise, rise, rise into her consciousness.

Another example is when Domick coerces Kella to asleep - he says that she’s already tired in spirit and in body. Possibly the only other way to mentally impose sleep in somebody is through a sleep seal.

Let’s have a hypothetical situation where Person A loved capsicum. If a coercer wanted to coerce Person A into eating capsicum for breakfast, lunch and dinner for two whole weeks, it wouldn’t be so difficult because all the coercer would have to do would be to bring out the memory of Person A enjoying capsicum. Coercing Person A to eat tomatoes for two weeks, breakfast lunch and dinner would be difficult if tomatoes were his most disliked food EVER. In fact, Person A and their friends would find it very strange if Person A were compelled to eat tomatoes in such a fashion if they hated them with such a passion.

On forcing somebody to do something else mid-action, and why it may not work so successfully:

Forcing somebody into doing something mid-action (e.g. When Elspeth imposes a “rough nerve control” on the Soldierguard Captain in “Ashling”, when Miryum forces the rebels to dance during the Battlegames in “Ashling”, when Elspeth forces Grufyyd not to say anything about the magi wagons to Brydda in TKP) seems as though it must be done from the conscious level of the mind. The reason is that since it’s done in the “here and now” section of the mind, an action is already in motion and the person is AWARE that they want to do said action. The former action (Rebels hassling the bear towards the misfits) has been forcefully taken over by the new action (rebels being made to dance). The rebels don’t want to dance; they want to keep hassling the bear towards the misfits, so if strict mental control is not maintained on their minds, the commands used are more shaky, and therefore more likely to fall apart.

To conclude:

• With coercions, subtle is best. Suggestions!
• There should be something there to work with - usually found in the subconscious, and it can be rumors, facts, gossip, a mere scrap of knowledge from long ago - that will allow the coercer to link and join and make the coercion seem a natural logical conclusion that the person came to, rather than mind manipulation.
• Physical illusions should be bolstered with rumor/fact/gossip. (e.g. saying that Obernewtyn was ravaged by a firestorm [TF], that Henry Druid had been captured [TKP])

Quoted funaga a few times in coercing section (marked with **).