Illusion

Illusions or veils are magical projections that misled the senses. Those who specialize in them are called Illusionists. This synergizes well with Faerie Magic<ref>“What are you, then?  You practice, clearly.  What do you practice?”

“Illusion.”

“Glamour?”

Joseph shook his head.  “Only illusion.”

“Hardly a fitting match for my daughter.” - Excerpt from Interlude 5 </ref><ref>Good illusionists can wear the same glamour for years, if they attach it

to some power source.  Some never change their clothes, only changing 

the glamour. - Excerpt from Breach 3.2</ref> and/or Enchanting, <ref>“She’ll teach my children well.  Well, ‘my’ children, even if they aren’t my blood.  Enchantment works well with illusion.  Maybe that’s what we need, in terms of different approaches.”

“You’ve defined yourself by those games, by these studies,” Isadora said.

“Books and deception.  An illusionist’s prerogative.  An Enchanter’s too, now that I think about it.” - Excerpt from Interlude 5</ref> but is distinct from either.

Methodology

Illusionists generally employ a mysterious blinding powder to work their arts.<ref name=":0">Joseph reached into his coat.  When he withdrew his hand, he dashed blinding powder in a half-circle around him.

The powder expanded rather than dissipate.  A rolling cloud.

Along the length of the short side street, people coughed.  They would see it as smoke from one of the nearby factories, fumes from the automobiles, or something of the sort.

One by one, they found a reason to leave.

“Expensive magic,” the companion said.  “Manipulating people to this extent.”

“I’ve been preparing for this day for some time,” Joseph said, not taking his eyes off the door. - Excerpt from Interlude 5 </ref><ref name=":1">Joseph struggled to move so he could reach into his jacket, all the while striving to avoid moving his shattered knee.  He found the powder, then flung it out.

Masking his location, a veil.  Altering connections, as well.

“Illusion, you said,” Canfield told him.  “You haven’t moved.”

He leveled the rifle in Joseph’s general direction.

[...]

As the powder cleared, Joseph remained out of sight.

But Canfield had donned a monocle.  Another trinket.

The man aimed the shotgun - Excerpt from Interlude 5</ref> An illusion can be helped by giving it some physical backing, such as a crude mannikin with a piece of a person's hair to make a decoy.<ref>He snipped off a lock of hair. [...] One long piece of wood, propped against the wall.  He used duct tape to stick the lock of hair to the top.

One horizontal bar, a third of the way down, nailed in place with two deft strikes of the hammer.

Another, at the base, to help keep the thing balanced.

He drew some powder from his pocket, and drew a series of solid lines, forming a triangle around the thing.

“What is it?” I asked.

“It…” Fell said, licking his thumb, then dragging it across the hardwood floor, “is a distraction.”

I could sense the connection shift, and I saw facsimile connections appearing between it and my friends.

Fell’s back blocked my view of the stick thing.  When he was out of my way, I saw a Blake Thorburn sitting inside the powdery pyramid. - Excerpt from Subordination 6.5</ref> They might also use a rune instead of powder to hide something.<ref>She checked over her shoulder, and she saw Emily.  Fell’s niece, the little illusionist.

“We need to avoid being detected with the Sight,” Rose said.

Emily traced a sign in the snow.  A rune.

“It won’t hold for long, but if you need to slip away, this is the thing.  One for each of us.  Or you can put it on an object to hide it.”

“We need it to hold,” Rose said.

“It’s going to burn up whatever fuel you give it,” Emily said.  “I don’t know of much else.  I’m still newish.” - Excerpt from Judgement 16.5</ref>

Illusionists can fool not only vision and sight, but even connections,<ref name=":1" /> keen animal senses,<ref name=":2">"Stop!” a high voice called out.

They stopped.

Heads turned.

It was the little girl, Fell’s niece, who had called out.

“They’re on our heels,” the Elder Sister said.  “Why are we stopping, Emily?”

“Illusion,” Emily said.  “Malcolm.  It has to be.”

“Illusion?” Alister asked.  “Here?”

“My bird eye superpowers don’t see anything,” Evan said.  He’d landed on the girl’s shoulder.

“I- I’m not sure,” Emily said.  “I mean, you can keep animals from seeing too, even with the keener senses, and I guess he could.  But it is illusion.” - Excerpt from Judgement 16.2</ref> or one's sense of temperature.<ref>She picked up the pace, pressed on despite the intense heat.

All she could do was run harder and run faster, trying to resolve the situation as soon as possible.

The fire closed in, and it made contact.

It wasn’t any hotter than before.

They were immersed in fire, consumed by it, but they were left untouched, unburnt.

Surrounded by darkness, hidden by the illusion of bright flame, they forged onward.  Past the lawyers, rounding a corner, leaving the flames behind. - Excerpt from Judgement 16.5</ref> In some cases they can affect a person's actions more directly,<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3">Fell was already throwing the powder into the air.

Midge released the blade of glass, an underhand throw, quick and accurate.

I could see the powder taking form.  Another me standing two feet to the left, catching the glass in the stomach.  Impossibly, it went all the way through with a wet sound, made a louder thunk sound as it hit the car, and then belatedly shattered.  Leaving illusion-me with a morass of glass shards in his midsection.

Fell, just to my right, raised his gun.

She caught his hand and crushed it, gun and all.

[...]

Leaving him to bleed out, she reached for the car.

The real Fell threw out a handful of powder, directly at her maimed reaching hand.

She closed it into a fist, then turned toward Tiff and Maggie, car forgotten. - Excerpt from Subordination 6.8</ref> perhaps altering memories.

Applications of their illusions include:

• They can bolster summons by making them seem more fearsome or controlling which targets they focus on.<ref name=":4">Canfield bent down as best as he was able with his feet trapped in position, and began drawing out a line of chalk.
  
  [...]
  
  Another trick, then, taking advantage of the pieces already on the board.  Dust, thrown out.  Illusions.  One for the hounds, to make it seem like they were more.  One for the rust spirit, to narrow its focus to Canfield alone, and one for the companion, the bogeyman familiar.  Another illusion for Courtney herself.
  
  [...]
  
  The circle was complete, and the illusion did nothing to break it.  The hounds landed and stopped.  The rust spirit halted. - Excerpt from Interlude 5</ref>
• They can project images that might make an enemy leave themselves open, such as an ally or loved one being hurt.<ref>“Father!” the familiar screamed.  Courtney’s voice.
  
  Canfield turned, then went white.
  
  The familiar held the skin of the manservant’s face dangling from one hand.  Courtney’s face was the one that it wore, his body matching hers.
  
  Canfield turned to look, and he saw Courtney in the window, slumped down, her flayed face having left a smear where it had dragged against the window.
  
  It was an opening.  The familiar strode forward and broke the circle.  Canfield blocked the knife before it could strike home.
  
  [...]
  
  The illusions had faded, Courtney was fine, as was the familiar. - Excerpt from Interlude 5</ref>
• They can make things invisible.
• They can prevent themselves from leaving footprints or disturbing dust when invisible.<ref>“Aren’t invisible assholes supposed to leave footprints or disturb the snow?” Peter asked.  “That’s how it works in the movies.”
  
  “I learned how to stop doing that on my second day of studying illusions,” Emily said. - Excerpt from Judgement 16.2</ref>
• Appear as if they have moved when they haven't and project a decoy of themself or an ally.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" />
• Hiding a trap.<ref>Fell was entering the kitchen, scuffing the floor with one toe. 

Where he scuffed at the ribbon, it effectively disappeared.  The part I could see stuck out from the gaps in the tile as if the tile had been laid out over the ribbon.

“Neat trick,” I said.

He used his fingers on the part of the ribbon that stretched up to the microwave, turning it until I was looking straight on at the thinnest side.  When he was done, he threw powder at the microwave itself.

[...]

"He told me it would bind the person to the object on the far end of the ribbon.  The snare releases them only so long as they carry the object on the other side.  If they put it down, the snare seizes them again.” - Excerpt from Subordination 6.5</ref> Illusionists have some ability to sense when illusions are in play,<ref name=":2" /> possibly due to specilized Sight.

Unlike Enchanters, illusionists tend not to be social butterflies with lots of Connections.<ref>“In enchantment, we pay particular attention to degrees of connection.  There tend to be figures who serve at the heart of the intricate webs of connections.  People who have far more connections extending from them than your typical person.  Social people, players of the game, catalysts…  You most certainly are not this kind of figure, Malcolm.”

“Few illusionists are.”

“Putting aside the fact that you’re an enchanter, not just an illusionist, we should give thought to who the lynchpins are in this tangled web.” - Excerpt from Interlude 5</ref>

Weaknesses

The deceptions tend to fail a third time when used.<ref name=":5">“Okay,” I said.  “Fell, can you do this again?”

“No,” he said.

“Why not?”

“If illusion like I use is going to fail, it’s going to fail on the third try.  Deceptions work that way.  Besides, I need to have her attention before I can redirect it.”

As he’d caught her fist with the powder, or the thrown object. - Excerpt from Interlude 5</ref> For an illusion to work, the illusionist must have the attention of the one they are deceiving.<ref name=":5" />

Paige Thorburn learned a technique from Isadora to project light that would show (as a shadow) the real location of anything hidden by illusion magic, and to shatter illusions into sand.<ref>Fell had moved, too.  Rose turned to look to the left, where Fell now stood, distant from the house, then reached out to touch the shoulders of Paige and the Elder Sister.

Paige, again, produced the revealing light.

The image of Fell disintegrated into sand.  The real Fell was revealed as a shadow, a solid twenty paces away, more to the group’s left than to the front.

Before anyone could break the shroud, he swept one arm at the ground.  Snow stirred, a cloud of powder six feet high, blocking the light.  When the stirring came to a stop and the light shone through, Fell wasn’t there. - Excerpt from Subordination 6.5</ref><ref>“Paige,” Isadora said.  “As we practiced.  When we studied the way things were, we used tools, remember?”

[...]

“I need light,” she said, not looking away from Peter, though he was hardly equipped to fulfill the request.

The Elder Sister produced a flame.

“Brighter,” Paige said, looking away from Peter.

As the light increased in intensity, Paige raised a hand, a short knife held high.

The blade caught the light, and it reflected it, casting a thin triangular beam on the houses around them.

She turned the blade to adjust the direction that the beam was cast, walking backward.

Passing over Laird’s house, the blade cast shadows.

Above the door, perched, was a small figure, feathered wings spread.  Below, moving across the front lawn, were two large, adult-sized shadows.

“Show yourself!” the sphinx ordered.

They weren’t given a choice.  She’d pushed, and whatever was shrouding them broke, stirring around them as sand, rather than snow.

The figures were still mid-stride as the shroud peeled away, closing the distance. - Excerpt from Subordination 6.5</ref>

Notable Illusionists

• Atwell family
  • Joseph Attwell
  • Matthew Attwell
  • Fell
  • Emily Attwell

References

<references/>

Trivia

• Older versions of Pactdice put Illusionist in between Immaterial and Interaction similar to Finders and Egoists.