Syonics

Syonics

AX.C.08.04.03

TRADITION: **Syonics**

Category: *Force (kinetic/biological Disciplines) + Resonance (perception/consciousness Disciplines)*

Focus Terminology: Disciplines

Default Attribute: Wit (see Design Notes, Speed valid for many 
Disciplines)

Access Grant: Fantasy Genre Catalog, assigned by Lineage and 
Profession entries; also applicable in Sci-Fi and Horror Genre 
Catalogs where the tradition represents innate mental ability 
rather than magical tradition

Genre Context: Fantasy Genre Catalog (primary); cross-genre. 
Syonics is the power of disciplined mental focus, the use of 
trained psychic potential as a direct extension of will. Unlike 
Arcane Magic (which requires external systems) or Faith Magic (which
requires relational attunement), Syonics requires only the 
practitioner and their capacity for sustained, precise mental effort.

Syonics is sometimes called "magic without the crutches"; it dispenses with symbols, rituals, and divine relationships in favor of raw mental discipline. A Syonic practitioner does not learn spells or pray; they develop the capacity of their mind until it extends beyond normal limits. The tradition is as much about who the practitioner is as what they can do.

The Split - Force & Resonance

Syonics does not sort neatly into one universal category. Some Disciplines manipulate the physical world directly (Force); others perceive, attune to, or influence consciousness and probability (Resonance). A Genre Catalog assigning Syonics access grants should specify which branch, or both, the grant covers.

Force Disciplines: Telekinesis, Healing, Protection Resonance Disciplines: Empathy, Far-Sensing, Telepathy, Psychometry, Medium, Astral Projection

A character granted Syonic access typically begins with access to both branches, unless the Lineage or Profession specifically grants only one.

Foci - Disciplines

Force

Telekinesis

Domain: Direct physical manipulation of objects and forces using mental effort alone. Telekinesis extends the practitioner's physical agency; they can lift, throw, crush, hold, and manipulate objects and creatures without physical contact.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Move a handheld-sized object at Close range; hold a door closed against mundane force - Moderate (T3): Hurl an object as a ranged attack at Near range; hold a creature of typical size in place (target makes Body Save to break free each Turn) - High (T4): Maintain control of multiple objects simultaneously; exert force on a creature large enough to move them against their will - Epic (T5+): Manipulate microscopic objects (lockpicking without tools, precise surgical intervention); exert crushing force on a large target; move objects at Far range with fine control

Recovery: Short Rest for minor manipulation. Long Rest for sustained holds or targeted attacks. Full Rest for precision or large-scale work.

Healing

Domain: The triggering and acceleration of natural biological healing processes, and the disruption of those same processes as a form of attack.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Stabilize a dying creature; reduce a Stress result by 1 on a target at Close range - Moderate (T3): Remove a physical condition (Staggered, Bleeding) from a target; accelerate natural healing to reduce one injury penalty for a scene - High (T4): Close a significant wound without medical tools; impose a disruption effect on a target (they are Staggered and take -1D on physical rolls until they succeed on a Body Save) - Epic (T5+): Perform emergency major healing that would otherwise require days of rest and care; deliver a biological disruption attack that incapacitates a target

Recovery: Short Rest for stabilization and Stress reduction. Long Rest for condition removal and injury reduction. Full Rest for major healing or significant disruption attacks.

Protection

Domain: Psychic and physical defense, mental shields, barrier constructs, and resistance to incoming force.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Grant +1D on the next Save against a specific incoming effect; resist a minor mental influence (an emotion, an impression) - Moderate (T3): Establish a mental barrier that blocks further psychic intrusion for a scene; grant a target resistance to one damage type for a scene - High (T4): Project a protective field across Close range, granting all within it +1D on Saves for a scene; break an active psychic compulsion or intrusion - Epic (T5+): Create a sustained barrier that deflects physical attacks as well as psychic ones; sever a significant ongoing psychic influence

Recovery: Short Rest for minor bonuses and resistance. Long Rest for sustained barriers. Full Rest for major protection and severance effects.

Resonance

Empathy

Domain: Perception and influence of emotional states. Empathy reads the emotional reality of individuals and groups, allows the practitioner to influence those states, and provides a fine-grained read on deception and hidden feeling.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Sense the general emotional state of a target at Close range; detect whether a target is actively lying (not whether they are mistaken) - Moderate (T3): Read the specific emotional content of a target's current state; impose a single emotional influence (calm, unease, mild sympathy) that persists for a scene - High (T4): Catalogue the emotional history of a strong experience a target carries; shift a group's emotional state (crowd influence at Near range) - Epic (T5+): Impose a deep emotional state that persists beyond the scene; read emotional impressions from a location or object connected to intense experience

Recovery: Short Rest for sensing and minor influence. Long Rest for specific reads and sustained influence. Full Rest for group effects and persistent states.

Far-Sensing

Domain: Extension of the practitioner's senses beyond normal range, sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch at distances the body cannot reach.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Extend one sense to a known location within the same building; hear through a wall - Moderate (T3): Remote-view a known location within the same district or settlement; listen in on a conversation at Near range without line of sight - High (T4): Remote-view an unfamiliar location given a strong sensory anchor (an object, a vivid description, a person's face); extend multiple senses simultaneously - Epic (T5+): Conduct extended remote surveillance of a location across significant distance; perceive a location the practitioner has never visited given only an indirect connection

Recovery: Short Rest for local extension. Long Rest for remote viewing. Full Rest for distant or multi-sense work.

Telepathy

Domain: Direct mind-to-mind communication, thought reading, memory access, and at high levels, cognitive override.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Establish a wordless emotional-impression channel with a willing target; project a simple thought (a word, an image) to a Close-range target - Moderate (T3): Conduct full two-way telepathic communication with a willing target at Near range; read a surface thought from an unwilling target (target may resist with Wit Save) - High (T4): Access a specific memory from a target; implant a false memory (target accepts it as real unless they have reason to doubt it) - Epic (T5+): Overwrite a significant portion of a target's recent memory; establish a temporary cognitive override (the target acts on the practitioner's will for one scene, this is contested, dangerous, and leaves traces)

Recovery: Short Rest for willing communication. Long Rest for reading and surface access. Full Rest for memory alteration or override.

Psychometry

Domain: Reading the psychic impressions left on objects, places, and people by significant events and strong emotional experiences.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Sense the general emotional charge of an object (was it carried with love, fear, anger?); identify the most recent significant event connected to a place - Moderate (T3): Read a specific past event connected to an object, who carried it, what they did with it; access a location's recent history (within a few days) - High (T4): Trace an object's ownership history back multiple significant events; read a location's history back weeks or months, including a specific event the practitioner is looking for - Epic (T5+): Read the full significant history of an object; experience a major past event at a location as if present (an immersive vision, not just information)

Recovery: Short Rest for general sensing. Long Rest for specific reads. Full Rest for full history or immersive vision.

Medium

Domain: Contact with the spirits of the dead, communication, direction, and at high levels, negotiation with entities that have not moved on.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Sense the presence of a lingering spirit in the area; attract the attention of a recently deceased spirit - Moderate (T3): Conduct a brief, clear exchange with a cooperative spirit; identify whether a spirit is lingering by choice or compulsion - High (T4): Compel a spirit to answer questions honestly; negotiate with a lingering spirit over terms for their departure - Epic (T5+): Contact a spirit that has moved fully on (not just lingerers); conduct extended negotiation with a significant spiritual entity

Recovery: Short Rest for sensing and contact. Long Rest for communication and identification. Full Rest for compulsion, negotiation, or contact with departed spirits.

Astral Projection

Domain: Separation of the practitioner's consciousness from their physical body, travel in a non-physical form, access to planes or layers of reality not reachable physically.

Representative Effects: - Easy (T1–2): Project consciousness a short distance from the body (the practitioner perceives from a nearby location while their body is stationary and vulnerable) - Moderate (T3): Travel in projected form within the same building or district; interact with spirits and psychic impressions in the projected state - High (T4): Travel in projected form across the settlement or region; access a nearby non-physical layer (astral space, the local spirit-layer) with awareness and basic interaction - Epic (T5+): Travel in projected form across significant distance; enter a full non-physical plane with agency and interaction capability; bring back information from that plane

Recovery: Long Rest for any projection (the body is always vulnerable during projection; this is never a Short Rest recovery). Full Rest for plane-crossing or epic-distance projection.

Backlash

Syonic backlash divides along the category split.

Force Discipline backlash is physical: Telekinesis backlash throws the force at the practitioner or their allies; Healing backlash disrupts the practitioner's own biology (they gain a Stress result or a physical condition); Protection backlash shatters the practitioner's own defenses (they lose any active protection effects and are Vulnerable until the end of the scene).

Resonance Discipline backlash is cognitive: Empathy backlash floods the practitioner with uncontrolled emotional input (they are Overwhelmed, Wit-based rolls at -1D, until a Wit Save vs T3); Far-Sensing backlash traps the practitioner's extended sense (they cannot fully retract, they hear, see, or feel what they were reaching for uncontrollably for a scene); Telepathy backlash exposes the practitioner's own mind (the target reads them in return, or the practitioner broadcasts their own thoughts to all within Near range); Psychometry backlash immerses the practitioner in a traumatic impression from the object or location; Medium backlash lets the spirit in rather than out, the practitioner is temporarily possessed or overwhelmed by the spirit's perspective; Astral Projection backlash severs the practitioner's return path temporarily (they are stranded in projected form and must make a Wit Save vs T4 each Turn to reintegrate).

Design Notes

The split matters for access grant design: When a Lineage or Profession grants Syonic access, the grant should specify whether it covers Force Disciplines, Resonance Disciplines, or both. A "natural empath" Lineage probably grants Resonance only. A "war-trained kinetic" Profession might grant Force only. A broad "gifted mind" tradition grants both. This split is the primary design variable for Genre Catalog authors building Syonics-access characters.

Wit vs. Speed: Most Disciplines default to Wit. Speed-based Syonics fits practitioners whose power is reactive and instinctive, an Empath who reads a room before thinking, a Telekinetic who catches a falling object without conscious effort. Genre Catalog authors may specify Speed as the default for Lineages or Professions with an intuitive rather than studied relationship to their power.

Cross-genre application: Syonics is the most genre-portable Odd Talent tradition in AxiomRPG. In a Fantasy Genre Catalog it is psychic power, possibly feared, possibly revered. In a Sci-Fi Genre Catalog the same Discipline list becomes psitech, precognitive probability processing, or neural augmentation. In a Horror Genre Catalog it becomes the terrifying and costly gift of a mind that perceives too much. The Discipline list and mechanics are identical across these contexts; only the fictional framing changes. Genre Catalog authors adapting Syonics for non-fantasy settings should not redesign the Disciplines, they should relabel the tradition and reframe the fiction.