Hello,
I hope this Mind Domination Instruction Manual finds you in good health. If you're reading this, then you are about to unlock the power to control people's minds. Who are you, and how did you obtain this power? That's for you to decide later. Maybe you found it in an old chest, recited a magic spell, or was randomly gifted this power in your sleep!
This power can be slight, or it can be immense. There will also be a risk of attracting the attention of other magic users, who may not take kindly to you. Some fine-tuning will be required to make sure your domination power works the way you want it to.
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By default, there will be five limitations on your power.
Limit One: You must touch someone in order to take control of their mind
Limit Two: The person you are controlling will be aware that you are controlling them, and may not like it
Limit Three: To get the person you're controlling to do anything, you must state commands verbally
Limit Four: You can control up to four people at any given time. If you want to take control of a fifth person, you'll have to free someone from your control
Limit Five: Most other magic users will be able to detect the mind-controlling energy coming from your soul, and you may become a target of their harrassment
All of this can be very restrictive. HOWEVER, your powers can be increased beyond these limitations, using "spirit marbles". They look like any typical children's marble, except that an undying white flame exists inside of them. Absorb a whiteflame spirit marble into your soul, and you will be able to level up your magical ability.
And, well, it just so happens that you have three spirit marbles already! This means you can get right to work increasing your power. Let's go on a little shopping trip and explore what you can do to level up.
Category One: Capture
How will you capture people's minds? By default, you must touch someone with direct skin-to-skin contact to control them. However, at the cost of one spirit marble, you can also take control by line-of-sight. If you can see someone, then you can take control, though you still have to take people over one at a time.
At the price of TWO marbles, you can take control not only by touch and sight, but also sound. If the subject can hear your voice, they can fall under your influence. You can take over multiple people at a time this way. Run into a crowd and shout loud enough, and every single person should be affected.
Alternatively, you can choose to actually decrease your transmission power to "hypnosis only". This means that you would need someone's full attention for several minutes, slowly lull them into a relaxed state, and willingly consent to your control at first. If you take this option to actually decrease your powers, you will gain an all new spirit marble that you can spend somewhere else.
Here is how the cost shakes out:
Hypnosis [+1]
Touch [0]
Touch and sight [-1]
Touch, sight and sound [-2]
Category Two: Depth
How deeply can you control your subjects? By default, a hypnotized subject will follow your commands physically, but not mentally. You can command them to sweep your floors and they will do it, but they might not like it. You can command them to not complain, and they'll keep their mouth shut, but they might silently hate you.
For the cost of one marble, you will have some control over your subject's personality as well. You can change their opinions and emotions, and force them to actually enjoy being ruled by you.
For two marbles, you can make it so your subject is not even AWARE that they are being mind-controlled. You can command them to give you a massage, and they'll suddenly decide that they want to give you a massage. You could ask them what they're doing, and they won't have a good answer beyond "I don't know, I'm just doing it" or "I really like it".
And finally, for the cost of all three marbles, you can totally reprogram your victim's mind. You can erase their memories, create new false memories, completely change their personality, or do absolutely anything to the way that they think. These changes will remain, even if you release them from your control.
Here is the chart:
Physical control [0]
Mental control [-1]
Unaware control [-2]
Total rewrite control [-3]
Category Three: Command method
How do you issue orders to your subjects? By default, you must verbally speak an order, or write it down on paper. Both speech and writing will work as long as the subject understands the instruction, and as long as they know it's coming from you.
For the cost of one spirit marble, you can also issue orders telepathetically. You have to be within 100 meters of your subject, but can tell them to do whatever without lifting a finger or opening your mouth. Another advantage to this is the subject will inherently understand what you are thinking without any cumbersome language getting in the way. So this will be required if you want to control someone who doesn't speak the same language(s) as you.
For three marbles, you can create a hive mind. You can fully communicate with your subjects, and they can communicate with you. You could switch consciousnesses with a subject, or all take part in one hyperadvanced shared consciousness, or any combination of anything inbetween.
Conversely to all this, you could decrease your command transmission and get an extra spirit marble. You can weaken your power such that you can't communicate telepathetically, or even verbally; but by written instructions only.
Once again, the chart:
Writing [+1]
Verbal [0]
Telepathic [-1]
Hivemind [-3]
Category Four: Number of subjects
By default, you can have a maximum of only four subjects at any given time. We'll just skip straight to the chart:
Maximum of 2 [+1]
Max 4 [0]
Max 32 [-1]
Max 512 [-2]
Max 4,194,304 [-3]
Unlimited [-4]
Category Five: Stealth
By default, most magic users will detect your mind control energy. This could pretty quickly earn you enemies or rivals. Or friends, who knows. Do you want to use a marble to mask your energy?
And with two marbles, you could also become "inconspicuous" in public despite doing weird things. Public nudity, or physically abusing your subjects...you could do it and no one will object, or even comment on it. It will just be normal to them, as long as you don't steal anything, hurt anyone or damage any property.
Or perhaps you want to go the other way, and make your power even more detectible, such that even non-magical people get an unsettling feeling being around you?
Chart:
Bad vibes for everyone [+1]
Magic users will detect you [0]
Standard magical cover [-1]
Inexplicable inconspicuousness [-2]
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Now obviously, you don't have enough spirit marbles to buy all of these upgrades. How could you ever have the "unlimited subjects" upgrade which costs 4 marbles? Well, there are in fact more spirit marbles to collect out there. How do you get them? They are not gotten easily, that's for sure. You may have to rob a museum, stripmine a forbidden island, or do battle with a wizard or dragon.
By the way, there's other things you can do with your spirit marbles, that aren't even related to mind control. In particular: you can throw away your humanity and become a magical being. All magical beings have the ability to cloak their identity and create a human-looking facade to fit in with society.
If you want, you can put one or two (or all three) of your marbles into becoming a magical being, at the cost of less powerful mind control. There are hundreds of millions of different types beings out there in the cosmos, but here are just four that you might find interesting.
SUCCUBUS/INCUBUS
Demon of lust.
Total control over libido, sexuality and fertility [-1]
Can produce impossible quantities of lactation/ejaculation; and other incredible sexual feats [-2]
SHAPESHIFTER
Change the form of yourself and those around you.
Ability to alter age, sex, physical attributes and DNA within the boundary of a species [-1]
Ability to change DNA into any living species [-2]
Ability to change into anything whatsoever, made of any material [-3]
GHOST
The classic spooksters.
Ability to become invisible, fly, phase through walls and possess people and objects [-2]
All of the above, but also immortal and a powerful commander of the dark spirit world [-5]
PROVIDENCE
Become a member of the cosmic nobility.
Demigod: Extremely strong, high vitality, attractive and superintelligent [-6]
Galaxy lord: About as powerful as a star [-206]
Police officer of the multi-verse: Control over time and space; able to traverse dimensions [-51,666,828]
Divine council member and advisor to The One [-10^123^456^789]
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And that's it! Enjoy your new mind control powers.
Now it's your turn... who are you, what's your story, and how did you get these powers?