Psionics

AX.GAT.08.03

The Velhari do not think of Psionics as a power. They think of it as a sense, the same way a human thinks of hearing or peripheral vision, present as background awareness before it is ever trained into deliberate use. The emotional content of a room arrives before the words do. The weight of what someone is not saying is legible before the conversation begins. This is ordinary, for Velhari. It is the baseline from which the tradition is developed, not the achievement the tradition produces.

What the tradition produces is control and extension. An untrained Velhari empath reads the room because they cannot help it, the emotional content of their environment arrives whether or not they want it, and the physiological response (the bioluminescent shift, the involuntary posture adjustment, the tells that experienced non-Velhari learn to watch for) follows the reading. A trained practitioner has learned to narrow, direct, and project: to choose what is received, to reach further and with precision, and to send as well as receive. The tradition is the discipline of a sense that was always there becoming something the practitioner actively wields rather than passively experiences.

On Astraeus Terminal, Psionics occupies a specific social position. The Vigilants' analytical division is heavily Velhari-staffed, and no one discusses in detail what that means for their investigative methods. The Directorate's contract offices track which of their counterparts in negotiations have Velhari staff. The Oblis Consortium maintains a standing interest in skilled psionic practitioners that it does not advertise. Every faction knows that Psionics exists and that some of the people in their org have it or have worked with it. The Terminal's approach to this knowledge is studied indifference: nobody bans it, nobody formally acknowledges it, everybody factors it in.

Non-Velhari practitioners are uncommon. The tradition requires extended contact with Velhari instruction, not because non-Velhari lack the neural architecture but because the discipline was developed entirely within Velhari practice and has never been formalized for outside learners. A non-Velhari practitioner typically emerged from close working relationships with Velhari communities and learned obliquely, which produces practitioners who are technically capable and socially aware of the tradition's sensitivities in ways that purely academic study would not produce.

System Integration

Psionics as an Odd Talent

Psionics functions as an Odd Talent per AX.C.04. Standard rules apply:

The roll is: Wit + Psionics (+ Focus if applicable)
Maximum Tradition rating: 5D. Maximum Focus rating: 3D
All three Expressions draw on the same Odd Talent pool
Psionics is not available through Independent Study. Without the Velhari lineage or a qualifying Profession, a character has no path to this tradition.

Governing Attribute

Psionics is governed by Wit exclusively. There is no alternate governing attribute, the tradition is entirely a function of perception, pattern recognition, and directed mental reach. Characters with high Body ratings who want psionic capability must still invest in Wit to develop it.

Access

Velhari Lineage: Velhari begin with lineage-direct access to Psionics at 1D. This die does not come from the Talent generation budget. A Profession that additionally grants Psionics access provides the 2D affinity upgrade rather than stacking independently.

All other lineages: Access via Profession only. Non-Velhari practitioners are rare on the Terminal, associated with specific professional contexts (Vigilant analytical work, long-term Survey Corps diplomatic roles), and draw social attention that Velhari practitioners largely do not.

Mechanics Summary

Feature	Detail
Tradition	Psionics
Category	Resonance, emotional and intentional perception, projection, and psionic defense
Governing Attribute	Wit (exclusive, no alternate selection)
Roll	Wit + Psionics (+ Focus)
Flux	Clear (first use per scene) / Overloaded (subsequent uses; Disadvantage)
Action Type	Primary Action
Expressions	Sense · Project · Shield
Foci	Empathic Lens, Projection Amplifier, Insulating Discipline
Lineage-direct	Velhari at 1D
Backlash trigger	Roll while Overloaded + Wild Die shows 1 + total successes = 0

Expressions

Sense

The practitioner opens perception beyond the immediate and visible, reading emotional states, scanning intent, detecting other psionic presences, and receiving information that the target has not chosen to communicate. Sense applications do not require the target's awareness or cooperation; they do require proximity.

Unremarkable interaction: Human characters with the Unremarkable lineage perk cannot be detected by passive psionic awareness and require one additional success beyond the listed Threshold for any Sense application targeting them directly. This is a lineage property, not a defense the target actively deploys, a practitioner simply finds the read harder without knowing why.

Emotional Read

Threshold: 2 (willing or unaware target) / 3 (target actively resisting or on guard)
Range: Close
Duration: Instant, snapshot of current state
Effect: The practitioner learns the target's current dominant emotional state, its character and intensity, as described by the GM. Surface content only; cause and intent are not included.
Notes: GMs should describe the read as texture rather than information, "there is fear here, close to the surface" rather than "she is afraid of the figure in the doorway."

Intent Scan

Threshold: 3 (unaware target) / 4 (target is guarded or trained against psionic intrusion)
Range: Touch or Close
Duration: Instant
Effect: The practitioner determines whether the target's stated purpose aligns with their actual intent, and reads what that intent is in the moment of the scan.
Notes: Reveals intent in the moment of the scan, not plans or history. A target who has not decided what they will do cannot be scanned for a decision they have not made. Trained counter-psionic subjects (Vigilant interrogators, Consortium agents) are typically Threshold 4.

Psionic Presence

Threshold: 2
Range: Near (detection); Far (requires additional success)
Duration: Instant, snapshot
Effect: The practitioner detects active psionic use or the presence of trained psionic practitioners within range, presence and approximate direction, not identity.
Notes: Detects active use more reliably than passive presence. A practitioner who is not currently using their tradition is harder to detect (increase Threshold by 1). Void Attunement does not register as Psionics on this scan.

Ambient Read

Threshold: 2 (calm or neutral environment) / 3 (emotionally charged or crowded space)
Range: Near, the area around the practitioner
Duration: Instant
Effect: The practitioner receives a composite impression of the area's emotional character, current mood, dominant emotional content, and any residual intensity from recent events. Individual reads are not available; this is a composite of the space.
Notes: Useful for establishing whether a location is safe, hostile, or recently traumatized. At the GM's discretion, recent extreme emotional events (violence, terror, grief) may lower the Threshold by 1 due to residual intensity. Being Overloaded during an Ambient Read imposes Disadvantage and risks bleed, the practitioner may receive more than intended.

Project

The practitioner reaches outward and places something in the target's experience, an emotion, an impression, a communication, a disruption. Project applications act on targets who have not necessarily chosen to receive them. Threshold increases with range and resistance.

Emotional Broadcast

Threshold: 3 vs. unaware target / Resisted: Wit + Resolve vs. practitioner's successes
Range: Close
Duration: One scene or until the target has reason to reassess their emotional state
Effect: The target experiences the specified emotion as if it were their own. A target who succeeds on a resisted roll identifies it as external; a target who fails accepts it as genuine.
Notes: The emotion must be specified before the roll. It cannot be so contextually implausible that it immediately reads as false, broadcasting terror at someone currently at a party they chose to attend is Threshold 4. Specify the emotion: "suspicion," "urgency," "calm," "trust." Not "make them like me."

Psionic Communication

Threshold: 2 (willing target, Close) / 3 (Near, or target is distracted) / 4 (Far, or communicating complex content)
Range: Near standard; Far at higher Threshold
Duration: One exchange per use; sustained communication requires a use each Round
Effect: The practitioner opens a silent channel to a known mind, conveying wordless impression and emotional tone. Complex content is possible with sufficient practice.
Notes: The target always knows a communication has arrived; this is not covert intrusion. The target can choose not to respond. A target who actively refuses the channel requires a resisted roll.

Disorientation

Threshold: 3 vs. unaware target / Resisted: Wit + Resolve vs. practitioner's successes
Range: Close
Duration: Until end of current Turn (standard); additional successes extend by one Turn each
Effect: Target gains the Distracted condition (−1D to all actions) for the duration. On a Critical Success, the target is Stunned instead (cannot act this Turn).
Notes: Each use of Disorientation on the same target in a scene increases the Threshold by 1, minds adapt to repeated intrusion. Humans with Unremarkable require one additional success.

Impression

Threshold: 3 vs. unaware target / 4 vs. guarded target
Range: Close
Duration: Instant, the impression is experienced once and then becomes a memory the target may or may not trust
Effect: The target perceives a surface image, sound, or brief sensory memory, experienced once as if real, then retained as a memory the target may or may not trust.
Notes: The impression cannot override what the target is currently perceiving with their own senses. It is most effective when it could plausibly be real, a face glimpsed in a crowd, a sound from around a corner, a fragment of a conversation the target half-remembers. Implausible impressions (a person the target knows to be dead) may trigger a Wit + Notice check from the target.

Shield

The practitioner turns the tradition inward, using psionic capability to defend against intrusion, disrupt another practitioner's active use, and insulate against the ambient costs of deep emotional exposure. Shield applications protect; they do not harm directly.

Psionic Ward

Threshold: 2 to establish
Range: Self
Duration: One scene (or until dropped voluntarily or disrupted)
Effect: All Sense and Project applications targeting the practitioner increase their effective Threshold by the practitioner's Ward successes. A practitioner with 3 Ward successes imposes +3 to any psionic Threshold targeting them.
Notes: Maintaining a Ward while Overloaded is possible but sustains a Disadvantage die on all Psionics rolls until the Ward drops or Flux clears. Establishing a Ward counts as the scene's first use for Flux purposes.

Interference

Threshold: Resisted, practitioner's Wit + Psionics vs. target's Wit + Psionics
Range: Close
Duration: Instant, disrupts one application
Effect: On success, the target's active or next Psionics application fails and the Flux use is spent. On a Critical Success, the target's tradition moves to Overloaded regardless of their current Flux state.
Notes: Interference requires the practitioner to be aware that a psionic application is occurring or imminent. It cannot be used preemptively against a target who has not yet acted.

Empathic Insulation

Threshold: 2
Range: Self
Duration: One scene
Effect: The practitioner is immune to involuntary Ambient Read bleed while Overloaded. Backlash Thresholds for this scene are treated as one tier lower (Moderate → Minor; Severe → Moderate).
Notes: Insulation also reduces the practitioner's voluntary Sense capability for the scene, Emotional Read and Ambient Read Thresholds increase by 1 while Insulation is active. The practitioner is trading sensitivity for stability.

Backlash

Backlash triggers when a Psionics roll is made while Overloaded, the Wild Die shows 1, and total successes equal 0.

Threshold Attempted	Severity	Effect
Threshold 2 (Easy)	Minor	Feedback Bleed, the practitioner receives an uncontrolled burst of ambient emotional content; Distracted condition (−1D to all Wit rolls) until end of scene
Threshold 3–4 (Standard/Difficult)	Moderate	Neural Overload, the practitioner is overwhelmed by incoming or outgoing psionic noise; Stunned condition until end of current Turn + cannot use Psionics until after a Short Rest
Threshold 5+ (Epic)	Severe	Psionic Inversion, the practitioner's reach collapses back inward; take damage equal to the Threshold attempted + Confused condition (cannot distinguish psionic impressions from direct perception) for the remainder of the session; cannot use Psionics for the remainder of the session

Foci

Empathic Lens (Sense Focus) The practitioner has developed Sense applications as a deliberate, extended skill, reading emotional content with greater range and depth than baseline capability allows. The Lens represents a refined attunement, typically developed through sustained work in environments where accurate emotional reads are operationally essential (investigative work, diplomatic support, Survey Corps first-contact protocols).

Benefit: Add Focus dice to Emotional Read, Intent Scan, and Ambient Read applications.
Form: No physical component required. The Empathic Lens is a trained discipline.

Projection Amplifier (Project Focus) The practitioner has extended their ability to project outward, achieving greater range, greater precision, or greater effect on target experience. Typically developed in professional contexts where one-way communication or crowd-scale emotional influence is operationally relevant.

Benefit: Add Focus dice to Emotional Broadcast, Psionic Communication, and Impression applications. When used with Psionic Communication, each Focus die also extends effective range by one step (Close → Near → Far).
Form: Some practitioners use a resonance object, a personally significant item held during active use, as a focusing anchor. This is optional; the amplifier functions without one.

Insulating Discipline (Shield Focus) The practitioner has developed defensive psionic capability as a primary specialization, establishing stronger Wards, disrupting other practitioners more effectively, and managing Overloaded states with greater stability. Associated with practitioners who work in psionic-dense environments or who have experienced Backlash and invested in preventing its recurrence.

Benefit: Add Focus dice to Psionic Ward, Interference, and Empathic Insulation applications.
Form: No physical component required. Some practitioners wear dampening materials during high-exposure operations; this provides flavor but does not add mechanical benefit beyond the Focus.

Access and Cross-Lineage Notes

Velhari practitioners carry the tradition as a biological inheritance. The social dimension of their capability on the Terminal is as significant as the mechanical one, Velhari psionics are simultaneously valued, monitored, and not discussed openly. A Velhari practitioner who makes their capability visible does so deliberately, because the alternative (remaining visible as Velhari in any professional context) is impossible.

Non-Velhari practitioners are rare enough that their existence is noteworthy. A non-Velhari character with Psionics access via Profession has a history that explains it, extended time with Velhari training communities, a specific professional context where the capability was developed, or a relationship that makes them unusual within their own lineage. This history is worth developing.

Human characters with the Unremarkable perk present a specific challenge to Psionic practitioners: they are harder to read, require more effort to target, and do not register on passive scans. This is an ambient property of the lineage, not a trained counter. Practitioners working in human-majority environments (most of the Terminal) learn to account for this. The Vigilants' use of Velhari analysts is partly a response to this limitation: Humans are the station's plurality population, and the fraction of cases involving Human subjects requires practitioners who have learned to work against the additional Threshold.

Psionics and the Oblis Consortium: The Consortium's interest in skilled psionic practitioners is known to certain factions and not advertised. A practitioner who has been contacted by the Consortium, who has worked for them, or who is currently under contract represents a significant faction tension point. The GM should treat this as campaign texture rather than a mechanical note.