Mind Control and Williams
There is one legal school of mind magic.
Mind magic amounts to telepathy. A mind healer is a telepath that can ÔfixÕ anotherÕs mind. This is a very rare skill not due to any real rareness of the ability, but instead due to a conviction that the ability is very hard to understand. Most mind healers are taught to look at a person's mind in reference to a concrete thing. Many people see minds like weaving, or like houses.
The first real uses for mind healing was for helping people with nightmares, or psychological problems. However, like any power, mind healing can easily be used badly. It is mostly a folk science that is centered around a teacher, students, and case books of examples.
Mind healers also fix when one of their own have hurt a personÕs mind. This is where the case books are important. Most mind mages or blood mages who work on people's minds follow patterns, so a case book becomes important because it allows the mind healer to predict how the mind was changed, and therefore fix it faster.
The two illegal schools of mind magic are works by mind mages, and blood mages. Mind mage control spells -
These amount to destroying the original pattern, and then laying a new one over it.
This form of control, unless the original personality was some how preserved, is basically uncurable.
There is a second, milder form, is where geis, or prohibitions are layed upon a personality.
This is usually combined with hallucinations to help weaken the personality of the mind so the original personality can be destroyed. The milder form can be repaired.
Problems -
When personality is destroyed, there was a risk of person dying just from shock.
If replacement personality works, then itÕs usually very unnatural and zombie-like. Most of the mind mages were working out of a scientific fascination with how the mind works.
Usually you can tell controlled people because they miss simple reactions for example catching objects tossed at them, or reaction to pain. They don't live long usually because the mind mages forget simple basic and important things.
Blood mage control spells -
In this form, a blood mage weakens the will of a person, and then as in the weaker form of mind mage control spells, adds geas to the person. These spells, unlike the mind mage spells, want the victim to survive and preferably live a long time.
The victim, if not too traumatized, can be healed.
Problems -
Blood mage control spells are centered on breaking the will of a victim, and then forcing the victim to do things against their will. The blood mage then gains power and a sick satisfaction out of the victims attempts to struggle. However, this means that the victim is very obviously being forced to do things against their will, so the spells are far easier to spot compared to mind mage work. Also, since the victim's geas are dependent on the blood mage's personal tastes, the spells are practically signed by the blood mage.
Yonathen is a special case since he combined both mind mage and blood mage techniques.
Williams' Family
Williams basically had a fairly normal childhood up until just after his eighth birthday. His mom, Tirena Evanheart, married Gerrioth fairly late, and was not happy with the boring life of socializing, balls, and embroidery. She wanted a big city lifestyle, and she was stuck in a remote community of noblemen who were all mostly inbred idiots. She turned to drinking a little at parties, to drinking a lot at parties, to drinking a drugged wine locally called absinthe. It mostly made her get tittery and cheerful. It also made Tirena feel very relaxed. Gerrioth attempted to help his wife, but was mostly swamped in paperwork and at a loss for what to do. Since they consumated their marraige, Gerrioth rarely shared his bed with his wife.Then, Tirena got pregnant. Gerrioth was practically certain that it wasn't his child, and suspected that Tirena slept with a guest. She stopped drinking (mostly) during the pregnancy, and Williams was born exactly on the winter solstice. Williams was their first child, and therefore he was the heir. Tirena was blond and grey eyed. Gerrioth had brown hair that was once blond, and blue eyes. The child had jet black hair, and his ears were far more rounded then the average Dexian. From this, it was pretty obvious that Williams was not his father's child, even if he enheirted his mother's eyes.
Gerrioth sometime around this point started seeking comfort in a local innkeeper, Ranoka. It was on the route of his travels, and she listened to him. Eventually, Gerrioth slept at least once with Ranoka, and she got pregnant. The result was a blonde haired blue eyed adorable son born near the summer solstice. She named him Trevor. Gerrioth offered to support the child, and support Ranoka. She said that she'd love help with educating Trevor, but her inn could support her.
Ranoka died of a bad fever when Trevor was two. Since Ranoka's relatives were poor/dead, they really didn't want to take Trevor in, and Trevor was adopted by Gerrioth. Gerrioth wanted Trevor to be his heir so that his money would go to his real son. The heir would also be the first canidate to replace Gerrioth as a Peer of the Realm. In other words, the heir is a very powerful young man. Williams had just turned four at that point, and thought that Trevor looked very young and weak. Like someone that needed to be kept safe so that he could grow up to be strong.
Williams and Trevor
Williams and Trevor end up sharing a room and they quickly become good friends. Williams read to Trevor, and Trevor talked with Williams during long parties. Williams read almost Gerrioth's entire library, and quickly moved on to borrowing any book that he could find. At this time, Williams discovers that he and Trevor are telepaths, and they are trained in the bare basics. He also makes a mind link with Trevor. This basically allows Williams and Trevor to be in constant contact mentally. Gerrioth contacts Yonathen about Yon casting the deciding vote for Trevor to be Peer and not Williams - even though Williams was the heir to the Evanheart family. Yonathen says that he'll go along with this _if_ he can see the boys as they grow up. Maybe teach them the Mainlander language.Yonathen and Williams
Williams was six the first time that his parents and him rode to Yonathen's castle. It's about a day's ride on easy roads that are fairly safe. Trevor came along. They spent most of the trip hiding in Yon's big library and being bored at dinner.That summer, Williams and Trevor rode alone to Yon's castle and stayed for three months (by our calandar May, June, July. The winter visits were December, Januar, February.) Williams picked up Mainlander quickly and was becoming an apt pupil at fencing. Trevor was a little slower, but showed potential despite his smaller size.
The winter of Williams' eighth birthday, Trevor got very very sick with a fever. Williams rode alone to Yon's castle. Once he arrived, it was much the same. Williams studied Mainlander (mostly alone since he'd exceeded Yon's limited grasp of the language,) ate dinner with Yon, and practiced fencing. He missed Trevor desperately.
The Mind Control (adult)
Williams had his birthday on the solstice. Things continued much the same till January the 13th. On that date, it was a grey cold snowy morning. Dark clouds like it would try to snow. Williams went out into the courtyard and practiced his fencing till he could feel his muscles burn, and then went in. It had just started snowing. He washed up, and then went to dinner/lunch with Yonathen. The conversation was mostly about power. A evasive confusing circling in circles kind of conversation. Williams tried to argue that power didn't need to be huge - just used properly. He didn't argue it too well since he was tired. It was snowing big huge flakes of snow.Yonathen poured two glasses of red wine, and offered one to Williams. At first, Williams said no, and then accepted the glass on the basis that he should be polite to Yonathen. Williams drank the wine, and thought it tasted a little odd. Yon was hoping to have a woozy, but fairly coherent drugged Williams, but didn't quite account for the fact that Williams was only eight.
Williams soon slipped into a very dizzy confused daze. However, he does mostly remember what happened that night. Bits and details are very clear, like a crack in the stone walls, or what the floor felt like beneath him, and bits are all faded and foggy with just rumbles of Yon's voice. Yon's theory was basically to hurt Williams, set up a link from Williams' mind to his (so he could work without having to fight the shields so much), add a geas that Williams wouldn't hurt him, and then do whatever it took to get the shields down. Once the shields were out of the way, knock out Williams, clean him up, copy Williams' personality, edit the personality to be useful, and then wake Williams up to test it.
Yon ends up raping Williams to break the mental shields, and then the next thing Williams remembers is waking up with Yon asking him over and over a set of questions - and as he answers, whether he wants to or not, Williams realizes that he can't to anything. It's like there's a wall between him and the real world. When the questions end, he hears his own voice crack a little higher, and he hears himself call Yonathen his "master."
Frankly, Trevor, and most other kid, would have gone insane at this point. Williams did not. The rest of the time Williams is at Yon's is spent perfecting the control spell, and 'Williams' (really Kageashira) is sent back to the Evanheart castle. Trevor notes the difference, but no one really believes him. Gerrioth claims that the changes in Williams was just a sign that Williams was growing older. Williams moves out of Trevor's room and starts acting like he really doesn't like his younger brother. That summer and the next winter, Trevor avoids a similar fate as Williams by Williams' own attempts to protect him, and pure luck. Each 13th of January, Yonathen takes Williams aside and scares the hell out of him. Pick your poison how, Yon likely tried it. This was intended to keep Williams weak and convinced that Yonathen was the stronger of the two of them.