'Mockra attack' Interpretation by Corporal Nobbs
Mockra was a Warren also known as the Path of the Mind, and among the rarest warrens accessed by mortals.[1] Mockra-based magic was used to subtly manipulate and influence the minds of others, often through illusion. By making use of proclivities to cloud the mind or fill it with frightening shadows, the target's body could be made to react as if what it sensed was real.[2]
It was the most common natural talent, needing no formal training for some to sense ill thoughts directed at them as a whispering unease or as hair raising on the back of the neck.[3]
Mockra could create a mental block that its victim was aware of and still be unable to penetrate.[4] Targets of Mockra could be made to misread the passage of time or lose control of their bodies and become paralyzed.[5][6] Mockra could force someone to fall immediately asleep[7] or make their brain boil in their skull.[8]
Mockra could be used to block specific memories, but the practice was not without drawbacks. The target would sense an emptiness and always feel on the verge of realization of what was missing. At the same time, the body would still remember and react to sight, smell, and taste without the mind understanding why. The target's whole personality would change as the missing memories gnawed at it.[9] Traumatic memories could be eased by changing how the mind felt about them rather than blocking them. Such a ritual released all of the emotions at once in an intense period of weeping leaving behind a feeling of nothing or perhaps a small sense of remorse.[10]
Mockra also allowed practitioners to see into the minds of their targets. Some practitioners used Mockra to divine visions of the future.[11]
High Mage Ussü speculated that Mockra was the child of High Thyr and possibly associated with the Queen of Dreams.[12] Meanas was Mockra's sister warren as it manipulated the mind through the cunning reshaping of light, shadow, and dark.[13]
Notable users
- Banaschar[14]
- Calot
- Corlo
- Havva Gulen
- Pearl
- Quick Ben
- Senior Assessor[citation needed]
- Seren Pedac
- Shadowthrone[15]
- Ussü
In The Bonehunters
Banaschar used Mockra to slip away from Hellian and the Kartool city guard. Afterwards, they could not even clearly remember what he looked like.[16]
On the night Adjunct Tavore Paran brought the 14th Army to Malaz City, Bottle sensed that the city was roiling with Mockra sorcery. It was being used by Mallick Rel or his Black Glove to twist "the thoughts of the unsuspecting and gullible, filling skulls with the hunger for violence" against the 14th Army.[17]
Shadowthrone used Meanas bound with Mockra to craft an illusion making the Throne of Shadow appear to be destroyed. Mockra added "filaments of suggestion, invitation, the surrendering of natural scepticism, easing the way to witness the broken throne."[18]
Notes and references
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 19, US HC p.494
- ↑ Midnight Tides, Chapter 21, US SFBC p.622
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 22, US SFBC p.864
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 17, US HC p.454
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 19, US HC p.492-494
- ↑ Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 20, US HC p.537
- ↑ Midnight Tides, Chapter 16, US SFBC p.516
- ↑ Midnight Tides, Chapter 19, US SFBC p.590
- ↑ Midnight Tides, Chapter 21, US SFBC p.624
- ↑ Midnight Tides, Chapter 21, US SFBC p.624-626
- ↑ Stonewielder, Chapter 4, US HC p.197
- ↑ Stonewielder, Chapter 6, US HC p.321
- ↑ Midnight Tides, Chapter 21, US SFBC p.622
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 22, US SFBC p.864
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 21, UK MMPB p.997
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Prologue, US SFBC p.26-27
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 23, US SFBC p.887
- ↑ The Bonehunters, Chapter 21, US SFBC p.818