A Herald's Gifts

The Valdemaran term for mind-magic is that they are 'Gifts' and those with mind-magic are said to be 'Gifted'. This is the kind of magic that is fueled entirely by the person's own mind, unlike 'True Magic' that uses energy from other sources, or Shamanic Magic that calls upon the power of a deity. Valdemar has long depended almost entirely on Gifts and True Magic was considered a myth until its reintroduction. Therefore, this article will focus on these Gifts.

It is a prequisite to being Chosen that the person in question must have at least one Gift, even if it isn't a very strong gift. Gifts are unique to the individual in both strength and quantity; most Heralds have one or two weaker gifts and only the rare few are gifted with very strong gifts. Occasionally a Herald may have all known Gifts at a lower level. These Heralds make ideal teachers, as a trainee is matched to a teacher with the same gifts, so that they may learn control. The gifts are:

• Animal Mindspeech is the ability to communicate with animals. However, as animals think differently to sentient species, it can be almost impossible to get anything worthwhile from them. For example, a dog is much more likely to remember a scent than an image, but how do you describe a smell that your poor human nose cannot even sense? How do you speak to a cat whose only concerns are it's food and it's bed? This gift is most useful at its simplest - commanding a horse to stand still for the farrier, or listening to the thoughts of scavenger birds to find a body.

• Empathy is the ability to sense what other people are feeling. Healers are more likely to have this gift than Heralds. Left untrained, the Empath is unable to distinguish between their own feelings and those of others. They would either become a recluse or go mad from the confusion and strength of emotion. This gift can be used passively or aggressively. Passively, for example, in finding and counselling the depressed or grieving. Aggressively, for example, by forcing an emotion on another.

• Farsight is the ability to look upon places or people that are further than the eye alone can see. It can be a useful spying technique, in seeing how an enemy deploys its troops for example, though it has likely also been used by mischevious boys to spy on the girls changing rooms. Farsight can be combined with other gifts such as Fetching (to bring objects), Foresight (to see the future elsewhere) and Mindspeech (to hear as well as see the scene).

• Fetching is the ability to tranport objects with the mind, i.e. teleportation. It is harder to transport living creatures than non-living. Smaller objects are easier than larger also. Generally the object must be within sight of the Fetcher, unless the Fetching gift is combined with Farsight.

• Firestarting is quite literally that - the ability to start fires with the mind. However, there must be fuel for the fire to take hold. This gift rarely appears in great strength.

• Foresight is the ability to see the future. This is a notoriously unreliable gift as the vision received is only one possible outcome of many different futures. The details are usually vague, to the extent that it sometimes manifests as no more than a feeling. Some Heralds have 'short term' foresight, in that their visions are of the near future. Others have 'long term' foresight, whose visions may be of a time weeks or even months ahead.

• Mindspeech allows the gifted to communicate mind to mind, without recourse to verbal speech. Useful on a noisy battlefield, in high winds, or when setting up an ambush. Many Heralds have this gift; it allows them to speak with their companions. The projecting aspect of this gift allows the gifted to speak in another's mind. The thoughtsensing aspect of the gift allows the gifted to hear another's mindspeech.

• Mindhealing is the healing of the mind and is a gift sometimes found paired with empathy. Mindhealers often aid the regular Healers. Regular healers are never Chosen, even if they have another gift as well, because they are too valuble in their Healing capacity. However, one could hypothesize that Mindhealers are Chosen because it much more likely that they will be needed by other Heralds. Heralds as a group are more likely to suffer from complaints of the mind, due to new gifts and societal upheaval.

• Other Gifts include the mage-gift, the bardic-gift and the Healing-gift, and are topics of such depth as to warrant articles of their own.