Mindscape

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Mindscapes are landscapes on the Astral Plane, mentally created and maintained by masters of psychic magic. An almost endless number of mindscapes exist on the Astral Plane at any given time, constantly being created and disappearing according to their creators' whims, except for a few that exist in a permanent state.

Mindscapes can be of any shape or size, limited only by their creator's imagination. Most are re-creations of locations which their creator treasures and could find refuge in; others take the forms of entire planets created by inscrutable creatures whose waking thoughts can create entire worlds that live and die in an instant.

Types

Scholars have differentiated mindscapes into two distinct categories: binary and immersive mindscapes. A binary mindscape serves as a blank background for a psychic duel between two beings and only lasts as long as the duel does. Binary mindscapes appear ghostly, without definition, trappings of technology nor modern architecture, since their energies are usually pulled from the most primeval stored memories. Powerful instinctive metaphysicists can force creatures into a binary mindscape to engage in a psychic duel.

Immersive mindscapes are much rarer than binary mindscapes, created when powerful minds will them into existence, either through powerful magic or when someone with psychic potential suffers a traumatic experience. They appear as real as the mind that perceives them, and imperfections are only created by faults in the creator's imagination.

Access

Foreign creatures can enter mindscapes with the assistance of magic or items. Most do so as a being of pure thought known as a mental avatar, identical to their real-world counterparts, except that using items in the mindscape does not consume their charges in the real world. Creatures inside a mindscape cannot control their physical bodies, but their mind's subconscious still provides some resistance to destruction. Minds within binary mindscapes maintain some connection with their bodies and can tell if they are harmed, but those in immersive mindscapes cannot, and risk getting lost within them while their physical body wastes away.

It is possible to physically enter mindscapes by being bodily transported to the Astral Plane at the mindscape's exact location. Doing this is almost impossible without powerful magic or artifacts designed specifically for this purpose. Even normally harmless mindscapes can cause real harm to creatures that are physically present.

Traits

Like planes, mindscapes have specific traits, decided by the creator, that dictate their appearance and properties and supersede those of the Astral Plane. Most of them imitate the traits of the Material Plane, but this is not a rule in any way. Although the creator holds the greatest control over a mindscape, foreign creatures who know that they are inside one can alter it to suit their will.

Transparency

A mindscape's transparency describes whether it lets other creatures know if they are in a mindscape or not: overt mindscapes actively do so, while veiled mindscapes hide their true nature. Creatures that enter a veiled mindscape might not even feel that they are leaving their own body, not realising that the doorway they passed through is actually a magical portal, or that the spell they just cast is a trap. The most powerful psychic spellcasters can disguise their spells that way, transporting victims into a mindscape without them knowing, where they could later suddenly drop dead as their physical body dies from physical trauma or starvation. All binary mindscapes are overt.

Shape and size

Mindscapes can be finite, with clearly discernible limits where they lead to nothingness or insurmountable barriers; infinite, whose creators subconsciously generate more content through procedural generation; and self-contained, meaning that they fold back on themselves, usually created when the creator wants to emphasise a specific location. All binary mindscapes are finite.

Feedback

In a harmless mindscape, injuries and conditions experienced by occupants are not real and cause no harm to their physical body (which is only affected in minor ways); if they die, they wake up in the real world with no ill effects. In contrast, in a harmful mindscape, psychic feedback convinces occupants' bodies that their injuries are real, and the body reacts accordingly. Particularly creators might even relay afflictions and diseases to physical bodies. All binary mindscapes are harmful, but most do not convey diseases.

Usage

Telepathic species have been historically associated with mindscapes. To lashuntas, they are one of the oldest forms of recreation, while shirrens are excited by the choice to create or enter a mindscape, but the potential for being at another's mercy is a reminder that false existences come with a price. Followers of Damoritosh use them to engage in psychic duels or recreate past battles to see if they can change the outcome. Some disciples of Eloritu use mindscapes to hold knowledge without the need of physical servers while the creators' bodies are kept under exceptional security, something which has drawn questions about ethics. Followers of Ibra enter mindscapes to search for answers for cosmic mysteries, and those of Weydan do so to see what exists in others' minds.

Inhabitants

Some mindscapes are populated by creatures drawn from their owners' psyche. These semi-mindless simulacra cannot exist outside of the mindscape (but are usually recreated if forcibly removed), and explode into psychic shards when killed.