ESPers are those who possess what is called "ESP," alternatively known as "Extra-Sensory Perception" or "Extra-Sensory Potential." The basic requirement for ESP is for someone to be capable of performing extraordinary feats without the aid of artificial enhancement but simply with the power of their minds. There are many variations of ESP in the known sentient population; specific races or genetic sequences can permit a range of capabilities including telepathy, telekinesis, electrokinesis, and pyrokinesis.
A number of ESPers are independent agents. Some simply wish to live in peace as if they did not possess such capabilities. Others are drawn into organizations of ESPers that perform everything from mercenary services for the highest bidder to collective bargaining in providing service to a number of institutions. Some states draft all detected ESPers into government service, others persecute them, and yet others leave them alone. Religious institutions tend to either promote organizations for ESPers to live up to their religious creed or in some cases shun them. Finally, there are independent organizations of ESPers motivated more by ideals than money, who desire to make the universe a better place through application of their craft.
Types of ESP
There are various forms of ESP capability. Some, like Empathy and Telepathy, are fairly common; others like Electrokinesis and Precognition are rarer.
Empathy
The ability to send or receive emotional feelings.
Telepathy
The ability to send or receive sensory information (vision, hearing, touch, etc.), memories, and thoughts.
Telekinesis
The ability to move or manipulate objects using the mind.
Pyrokinesis
The ability to create or control fire with the mind.
Electrokinesis
The ability to create and control electrical charges and current with the mind.
Physical Augmentation
Some ESPers train to use their mental abilities to improve their senses and physical capability. Agility, dexterity, strength, stamina, and the five normal senses are thus enhanced, turning an ESPer into an effective combatant, particularly in melee situations.
Precognition
The ability to acquire future information that cannot be deduced from presently available and normally acquired sense-based information.
Sense of Perception
This is a catch-all term developed by the Institute for Neurological Research in the Altacaran Empire; the origins of the name are lost in the historical literature. It refers to a spectrum of closely related abilities that permit the ESPer to sense distributions of matter and energy around them, independent of the normal senses such as sight and touch.
Exact capabilities of ESPers with this gift vary in terms of distance, precision, and the range off phenomena that can be observed. The most common abilities classed under the "sense of perception" are the ability to identify the composition of materials, to find hollows or pockets of different materials buried inside a larger mass, or to discern the structure of otherwise invisible force fields. Some similarities to various forms of hyperwave deep-radar have been noted, but this may be coincidental.
The exact method by which the sense of perception functions is still not entirely clear; it is independent of light levels and can see through most normal matter easily. It does not, however, have any ability to penetrate anti-psi fields such as the Altacaran Null Field.
Magic
The ability to do one or more of the above through the use of rituals and/or verbal commands, such as song.
ESP capabilities can be manipulated in various ways with certain technologies, most often to limit such capabilities.
Altacaran Null Field
Null fields are energy fields that dampen ESP abilities. Null field generators come in all shapes and sizes, but more powerful ones are typically larger and bulkier. More powerful ESPers can also overwhelm weaker null fields. Their purpose is to provide a means of limiting the abilities of ESPers against particular individuals or in certain locations, without making ESP abilities useless (hence the ability to overwhelm null fields).
The Altacar Empire is known to have a keen interest in null field technology (via the Institute for Neurological Research), and manufactures and sells a great variety of them.
Chamarran White Noise Generator
A white noise generator broadcasts psionic "white noise" on most documented telepathic frequencies; only psychers are sensitive to this "noise," and the effect has been variously described as "bloody unpleasant" or "like a fire alarm going off next to you." The effect makes using psionic powers in general more problematic due to the interference. The white noise generator also provides an easy way of detecting even inactive psychers in the area of effect, as few psychic individuals are so steeled that they can show no reaction when under its influence.
The Nova Atlantean psi-jammer operates on a similar principle, though its mechanisms are quite different.
Cyberization
An unintentional byproduct of the Nova Atlantean cyberization process is that of psionic termination. All psionically inclined individuals who have undergone said process have had any and all psionic potential they might have had removed permanently as a result. At the same time, the minds of those who have upgraded to the Nova Atlanean standard of posthumanity are harder for the psionically inclined to read and detect. Reading the mind of a posthuman has been discribed as up a radio broadcast with a fair bit of static, although they say that the effect that the machine components have on the mind makes this alagory only true to a certain degree.
CE Rig
Also known as CE Enhancers or Psi-Amps. The product of deep-black CEID research into psionics, cerebroenergetic (CE) rigs are devices that boost the mind's power beyond what the body can ordinarily tolerate (or generate), significantly increasing the power of a psion's metafaculties and, by extension, the effects the psion can generate. A typical CE rig is a very large device, as it has to fully encase the psion in a full-spectrum life-support system in order to compensate for the extreme strain use of the rig places on the human (or alien) body. Even with such support prolonged use of a CE Rig is very dangerous and can burn out lesser minds in a matter of minutes; however, in the scope of those minutes a trained psion can generate truly impressive levels of power. The Sovereignty manufactures CE Rigs exclusively for use by CEID and the military; these devices are unsurprisingly illegal for civilian use in much of the galaxy.
Mana converter
A Tianguo technology, this allows power input (typically electical, but plasma and other types can be used) to be turned into mana, which can be directed by a Moshushi to a specific end (or used by a continuing spell for power).
Psychic Amplifier
If there are nullifiers, naturally one would expect that amplifiers to exist. The Byzantine Imperium has long studied the use of amplifiers to amplify psychic power. The most powerful known amplifier is known to give a few times in amplification. Further, the amplifier can be made to operate in reverse: it can act as a nullifying field for psychic powers as well. Naturally, one would expect that such technology is closely guarded, and these are largely controlled by the Imperial Inquisition.
ESPer Policies Among Nations and Races
Altacar Empire
The Altacar Empire is extremely tolerant towards ESPers and the like: only in matters of safety, privacy and national security are there limits - for example, the Royal Family and both Houses of Parliament are protected by "null field" technology which negates ESP abilities within the area of effect.
The Centrality
The Centralist government has been dominated by ESPers since the beginning, and thus are highly respected and feared by the citizenry. Potential ESPers are registered since birth, and are sent to special schools to develop their abilities. As they age they are sent to more specialized facilities to train for government service. After "graduation," ESPers are sent to a Center (analougous to a Department) which their training prepared them for. It goes without saying that the President has the right to choose his succesor from the ESPer population. The Centrality is home to several powerful ESPers, but presently there is no Centralist ESPer capable of matching Heraclius XX Komnenos or Haruhi Suzumiya, the two most powerful human ESPers that currently exist, as well as the Karlack OVERMIND. The Centrality had long planned to do something about it, but all attempts to create the "Perfect ESPer" have been unsucessful. Despite the setbacks, however, the Centralists have never stopped trying.
The Karlack Swarm
The Karlack Swarm considers all ESPers as high value targets which must be added to the Hive Mind, the OVERMIND finds them useful in the further evolution of the Karlack. Although the Swarm will not attack ESPers of other nations, unless in a case of war, those unlucky enough to find themselves in Wild Space or somewhere without protection whether by military forces or diplomatic means of their home nation - can expect to be pursued by Agents of the Swarm. Once caught all psychic individuals are infested and added to the swarm, thus serving the OVERMIND. Only the most powerful ESPers, such as Alyxia Komemnos are turned into Aspects.
Byzantine Imperium
The Imperium's policy towards any citizen that bears any form of psychic potential is simple: the citizen is immediately drafted from young into the Imperial Inquisition and is subject to intense training to ensure that they have the discipline and the ability to control their powers. Their psychic potential is heavily evaluated at every step of the way, and they are allocated tasks as per their abilities and knowledge. Some become field operatives in the Inquisition, or even soldiers or Space Marines, or even scientists specializing in psychic engineering. Rogue Psykers are hunted down by Inquisitorial forces, and are often either 're-educated' or simply executed if proven recalcitrant. Void shields and psychic amplifiers grant the Imperium the ability to shield against any rogue psyker attack, and psychic amplifiers allow the Imperium to amplify its own psychic attacks.
Chamarran Hierarchy
Lacking the psychic gene, Chamarrans are distrustful of psychers, keeping close tabs on the activities of those living in Hierarchy space. To restrict the travel options of psychers and to maintain government security, most checkpoints, sensitive areas, and noble houses are screened by psionic activity sensors, psychic white noise generators, or both. Misuse of psionic powers is dealt with harshly in Hierarchy space due to the risk of espionage.
Holy Empire of Haruhi Suzumiya
While ESPers are held in very high esteem within the Holy Empire, they are also very tightly regulated; all ESPers in the Holy Empire are drafted into some kind of government service (usually military, law enforcement, or espionage) and are subject to numerous restrictions on when and where they can use their abilities.
Nova Atlantean Commonwealth of Worlds
There are a few psionic individuals among the Commonwealth's population, and the military (in particular the Unconventional Warfare Corps) does make some use of psionics. Psionic individuals are kept under comparatively tight supervision; screening processes are carried out to identify psionic abilities among the population, and psionics must receive mandatory implants to keep tabs on them and to inhibit their abilities should they be used to nefarious ends. To control psionics, devices known as psi-jammers are used, which emit pulses of psionic "noise" which disorient psionic invididuals in a similar manner to how a flashbang grenade would affect normal people. The population of the Commonwealth is in general not actively hostile to psionics, but they do believe that psionics are ultimately an evolutionary dead end when compared to melding man and machine together. The process of full cyberization into posthumanity has the notable side effect of disabling all psionic abilities in the individual in question and making their thoughts garbled and hard to read by the psionically inclined (though they are still susceptible to the more physical manifestations of psionic abilities, such as telekinetics or electrokinesis).
The Outlander Commissions
ESPer treatment varies under Outlander laws, but they are generally tolerated with distrust and hostility. The Arayna, as a result of their exodus, possess a relatively limited genetic pool lacking in significant ESPer presence, and as such they are often openly hostile to foreign ESPers while extremely supportive of their own, who normally go on to serve in the Crescent Thought, a religious order. The Mechanicals evaluate each ESPer on their own merits and judge them accordingly - but any dishonest use of abilities is punished by death or lobotomy. The Mari, possessing a mild form of empathy as a basic species trait, do not consider many low-level ESPers to be abnormal but are hostile to those of high potency or prophetic bent. The Airaii despise all ESPers as "witches," a policy that has led to a great deal of conflict with the Mari, Angmarids, and Arayna - they themselves produce rare individuals capable of physical enhancement and mild telekinesis, the majority of whom are murdered while young. The Angmarids, finally, are in a distinctly unusual position - almost half of their "E" sub-species possess some manner of extremely mild to moderately pronounced psionic ability, but are unable to manipulate any species removed from the Angmarid brain structure (with some extremely rare exceptions) - including the more wildly divergent "D" sub-species.
The Pfhor Empire
ESPers in the Pfhor Empire are tightly regulated, with them being required to either swear fealty to the Imperial College of Esoterica, or attach themselves to one of several private, Imperially Chartered organizations. ESPers who do not attach themselves soon after the discovery of their abilities quickly find themselves on the run from the law, often being experimented on if they are caught alive.
United Solarian Sovereignty
Practically all psions in the Sovereignty can trace their origin back to CEID's human-Apexai hybridization project, and due to carefully controlled conditioning the first two generations of hybrids were almost exclusively in the service of the Directorate. With the advent of the third generation, however, psions have begun to filter into the general population. These psions are free to go and do as they please, but the Central Bureau of Investigation lets each of them know that the agency will (unobtrusively) keep track of their whereabouts and actions, and that misuse of their abilities will bring swift and unpleasant repercussions.
Hybrid psions are ever so slightly different from esper 'regulars' (insofar as such a thing can be said to exist) because of their part-Apexai nature. Although their metafaculties are still impeded by anti-psion technologies they have an easier time switching their abilities 'off', and consequently tend to suffer far less from the negative side-effects brought on by such technologies (and are harder to detect with devices that scan purely for psionic activity). On the other hand, there are definite genetic markers in their DNA that betray their non-human heritage, which tend to manifest in certain physical traits (amongst which are large eyes, very pale skin, and a vaguely androgynous appearance).
Sultanate of Klavostan
ESPers are required to be registered and have mandatory training to teach them to control their powers. An ESPer who has completed this program may continue civilian life unhindered, so long as they do not abuse their powers. However, in a relatively rare case of successful memetic engineering by the Sultan's government, continuing on to join the Klavostani Intelligence Service's ESPer branch is generally seen as the natural thing to do, to best use their powers to help their fellow citizens. Anti-ESPer equipment of various foreign and local manufactures are used to secure sensitive locations.
Tianguo
Moshushi are registered by the goverment, but generally have the same freedom of action as any other Tianguo national. This is in large part due to the need for a mana converter in order to create large scale effects. Moshushi who commit crimes are punished like any other individual, up to, and including, deletion of backups and death.
Shinra Republic
Known simply as Espers within the Shinra Republic, these gifted individual are generally accepted by the Republic. While most find themselves in government or military service, such duty is not a requirement. Nevertheless, considerable effort is expended to monitor and police all Espers who are within Republic borders. The use of ESP-nullification technology is common around sensitive government and military facilities, as well as protecting Army and Fleet units from Esper attacks or other interference.
Argenti Federation
Only a tiny minority amongst Argenti citizens possess ESP ability. Each citizen with proven ESP ability must be registered under the Department of Psionics (under the Interior Ministry) and wear bracelets that identify them as such. ESPers are constantly monitored by both the Department of Psionics and Section 8 of the Argenti Security Unit (responsible for dealing ESPers). Anyone refusing to submit to government regulations are declared rogue and stripped of their citizenship.
Most government buildings and corporate HQs are equipped with ESP-nullifiers to prevent any untoward incidents. Military installations and ships also feature nullifiers as standard equipment.
Eoghan United Commons
There are three main types of Eoghan gifted above the mundane; Listeners who are able to listen to the eldritch undercurrent of space, Whisperers who have miniscule ablitiy to influence the local eldritch power, and finally Callers who can bring forth eldritch constructs into real space. However both Whisperers and Callers suffer from vastly decreased lifespans, so much so in the case of Callers that it is rare for one to make it far into their third decade. Listeners have reported that common anti-Esp devices usually quash the local currents, and as such are usually seen as a respite from the crawwling chaos that the listeners live their lives with (altough despite the respite there is always reported to be some voices that leak through on the interstellar winds). Whisperers and Callers react more typically to such devices.
Various cults, of both the violent and respectable variety, make use of the gifted as more of a rule than the government.
The Technocracy of Umeria
The Umerian gene pool is relatively esper-poor, and espers do not play a major role in Umerian government, except incidentally (espers selected for reasons other than their abilities). The Foreign Intelligence Directorate cultivates large numbers of espers; almost any Umerian citizen with noticeable psychic ability is vetted for recruitment into ForInt, though only a minority are actually brought in. There are few laws governing use of telepathic power; common law precedents tend to pigeonhole legal issues arising from psionics into preexisting conventional legal categories.
Umeria makes extensive use of Altacaran null-field generators in major public buildings, and has developed some minor variations of its own on the technology (mostly in the form of extremely miniaturized generators that work at low power and small scale).
One of the few subtypes of psi power in which the Technocracy is a leader is the "sense of perception;" the Ministry of Research has made an exhaustive study of how to harness this power, mostly for scientific research. Umeria also cultivates research into other forms of esper power with industrial or scientific applications, such as electrokinesis. The private Waterville Association is a leading authority on the discipline of metacognition, a method of boosting intuition and effective intelligence by use of precognition.
Federated Ascendancy
Ascendant ESPers, unusually, are not carefully-harvested resources or the result of government programs. Indeed, largely as a result of the second Lady Ascendant's intense distrust of telepaths, ESPers are by-and-large excluded from government positions, and a required to introduce themselves as ESPers before speaking to anyone acting in an official capacity. Most Ascendant cities, and all Ascendant Navy vessels, are equipped with ESP jammers built on the Altacaran pattern. Recently, Ascendant anti-ESPer regulations have been loosened considerably as a result of Lady Sikala II's campaign against historical artifacts.
Kingdom of New Anglia
In New Anglia ESPers are accorded full rights and, once identified and with individual capabilities determined, are given classes on the use of their abilities. Education choices range widely from ESPer-specific classes in both public and private schools to special ESPer-only boarding schools. Membership in specific ESPer organizations can also lead to further education and even refinement of powers, while the Government actively courts ESPer recruits for the military and civil services. Among the alien races of the Empire are some divergent approaches; the Trill have special schools for ESPers and encourage civil service employment while the Dorei tend to see their ESPers go into religious Orders of various size and purpose such as the Order of the Deity's Chosen and the Order of the Silver Moon.
The Refuge
The Refuge has no ESPers, and thus has an official stance of observing and gathering information on the phenomenon before making a final decision. However, the usual response of Refugees towards ESP can be described simply as "sheer, unadulterated terror."
ESPer Organizations
State Organizations
- CEID (United Solarian Sovereignty)
- Goujia Moshushi (Tianguo)
- Institute for Neurological Research (Altacar Empire)
- Imperial College of Esoterica (Pfhor Empire)
- Imperial Inquisition (Byzantine Imperium)
- Commonwealth Unconventional Warfare Corps Division 5 (Nova Atlantean Commonwealth of Worlds)
- Center of Special Abilities (The Centrality)
Religious Organizations
- The Order of St. Michael the Protector (Catholic Church)
- The Order of St. Magdalena the Blessed (Catholic Church)
Private Organizations
- Foundation for Omega Point Experimentation (United Solarian Sovereignty)
Mercenary Groups and Orders
Chivalric Orders
Monastic Orders
- The Crescent Thought
List of Prominent ESP-capable Individuals
- Dovan Aybeem (Founder of the Centrality and the Centralist Party. Deceased.)
- Gabriel Enduvos (President of the Centrality. Assasinated.)
- Heraclius XX Komnenos (Emperor of the Byzantine Imperium)
- Reina II Carlota Schweizer (Grand Duchess of the Grand Duchy of Tyconia)
- Sarisa Marianne Schweizer (Crown Princess and Heiress-Presumptive of the Grand Duchy of Tyconia)
- Hilda I Alexandria Atlan (Queen of the Kingdom of Fynn)
- Abielle Magritte (Director of CEID, United Solarian Sovereignty)
- Mikoto Misaka (SOS Imperial Marine Corps officer, Holy Empire of Haruhi Suzumiya)
- Alyxia Komnenos ( Aspect of The Karlack Swarm )
- Zheng Jiao (Commander, Goujia Moshushi)
- Gwen Hsu (King, Tianguo)
- Stephen "Sephiroth" Roth (Marshal General, Shinra Republic Army)
- Kevin "Kefka" Palazzo (Marshal, Shinra Republic Army)
- Ailill Faolán (Detective Magister of the EUC; Listener)
- Dr. Susan Warren-Marshall (Second Technarch for Ecology, Technocracy of Umeria)
- Sasha "The Leader" (Dictator, The Multiversal Empire of Happiness)