Dweomer (Deverry Cycle) - Abilities

Abilities

During the course of the novels, dweomer-workers have demonstrated a number of supernatural abilities.

Second sight (also dweomer sight, etheric sight or Sight (with a capital S)) is the ability to perceive supernatural phenomena. Examples of such phenomena described in the novels include spiritual beings, auras of energy emanating from living beings, and magical constructions.

Scrying: is the practice of viewing distant people, places, or things by magic. In order to scry for something, a dweomerworker needs to have actually seen it first. Scrying is usually described as looking at some bright or reflective object while concentrating on the object of the search.

Elementel Control: With the aid of spirits called Wildfolk, dweomer-workers can manipulate five classical elements: earth, water, air, fire, and aether (light). This allows a dweomer-worker to accomplish such feats as controlling the weather, instantly igniting and extinguishing fires, or creating phantasmal lights.

Dweomer-workers are accomplished at creating thoughtforms, which are objects crafted from the substance of the higher planes. By an effort of will, a dweomer-worker can sculpt etheric or astral substance into a desired shape. A "body of light" is a thoughtform used as an artificial vessel for one's consciousness. By transferring his or her spirit into such a vessel, a dweomer-worker can travel on metaphysical planes in a form of astral projection.

Astral Seal: An astral seal is a magical barrier. It blocks a dweomer-worker from scrying for anyone or anything inside its boundaries of protection. It also prevents a dweomer-worker from entering the warded area in a body of light.

Ensorcellment: To ensorcel a person is to produce an effect similar to hypnosis by manipulating the person's aura. Ensorcellment is much less easily resisted than hypnosis, and can produce much more pronounced effects than hypnosis. Some effects that can be produced by ensorcellment include: stunning or dazing an individual, altering a person's emotional state, causing someone to forget (or remember) certain things, planting subconscious instructions to be carried out at a later time, or controlling the individual by totally subsuming their will. Only a dark dweomerworker will ensorcel an individual without his or her explicit consent. (For those wondering why anyone would consent to this, the Deverry novels feature one example of an

Invisibility:' This spell doesn't make someone truly invisible; it just makes them hard to notice.

Invocation: Dweomer-workers sometimes call on powerful spirits for aid or advice.

Enchantment: One of the least-often seen dweomer workings is that of placing an enchantment on an object. Such objects are very rare. Enchantments which have been discussed throughout the Deverry novels include a talisman of noble virtue known as the Great Stone of the West, an enchanted metal that glows when one of the Westfolk comes near it, and a silver ring which gave its wearer the ability to command the dragon Arzosah Sothy Lorezohaz. In the books "Time of Omens" through "The Fire Dragon", a dark dweomer example of a talisman is a lead curse tablet created by a sorcerer in Lady Merodda's service. Though the precise details aren't given, it's obvious from the first that it's meant to curse Maryn (his name's on it!) and Nevyn manages to discover that the curse is meant to poison the beginning of things and bring Maryn's death should Burcan die. Lilli gives her life to break the curse, although she has already fulfilled it unknowingly.

Glamour: A glamour is a false seeming. It can make an object appear to be something else, or cause a person to appear more charismatic.

Binding of Spirits: Dark dweomerworkers have been shown binding Wildfolk in gemstones as a form of imprisonment, and to recently-dead corpses to create a sort of zombie servant. Dweomerworkers of the light will never bind one of the Wildfolk in this way without their consent. An example of this is the previously mentioned Great Stone of the West, which draws its powers from the spirits who inhabit it.

Shapeshifting: The dweomerworkers among the Westfolk know a working which allows them to transform themselves into animals, usually a bird. The working is extremely dangerous; if not done properly, it can kill the practitioner. The technique is described as an extension of the more common spirit-projection ability. The dweomerworker begins with an animal-shaped body of light, which is used as a "mold" for the substance of the phnysical body. Dweomerworkers who use this technique sometimes exhibit animal instincts while in animal form. This ability originated with the Westfolk, but some human dweomerworkers have also learnt it. Whether human or Westfolk, the dweomerworker has no control over the form they take - it is instead a reflection of his or her true self. In some cases, the form may not even be one known to the Dweomerworker (for example, the Westfolk dweomerworker Dallandra takes the form of a small bird, similar to a linnet, but which no one seems to recognize).

Retrocognition: The ability to see what occurred somewhere at a previous time.