#deepfolk

Tesca

hi!!! happy wbw!!!

the deepfolk magic is something i’ve kind of been building on the fly in echoseers - there’s been posts in that particular worldbuilding tag before, but the world’s changed a lot through the actual drafting phase so those don’t apply anymore - and it’s ended up really weirdly unique and otherworldly in comparison to the other magics in the ehlverse!!

basically, Deepfolk have a very specific kind of psychic magic that’s kind of similar to Mind Elementalism (aka Dark Mages, like Dusk and Xavi) but more abstract (?); making eye contact with a Deepfolk individual basically opens the floodgates for them to know everything about you.

which isn’t terribly useful on it’s own (and not terribly common, since they’re not often high enough in the ocean for other peoples to encounter them)

BUT.

the mind link isnt where all of the power comes from

im not sure if i’ve mentioned this here before, but Deepfolk have multiple voices that come out of their throats, and the sounds aren’t formed by lips (they dont have those) or vocal cords like us (they are Fish)

their voices are a magic in and of themselves, and when they speak in a way that land dwellers can understand, more often than not they’re also humming away with one or more of the other voices, and those notes can be used to exploit that psychic link

............ which means deepfolk can control your mind and send you visions from other people/things theyve made eye contact with, including pretty much every single other adult deepfolk, regardless of distance, though meaning gets warped the further from the sender you are

tell me about the deepfolk calling!! that sounds dope as fuck

HI HELLO HAPPY WBW

i got to dive into the ~basics~ over here with ash, but i’ll dive into the Weirder Parts here :D

SO. they can send you dreams and control your brain if you make eye contact.

the big important thing, though, is that they have to sing to do that. and, at least in the case of the mind control, you have to hear that song, whether you consciously notice it or not, in order for it to work.

(quick warning for echoseers spoilers, i talk about a major plot point throughout the book and also a major portion of the last two chapters)

for some examples from echoseers: throughout the book, ember has Weird Fucked Up Dreams that bounce between dreams of the goddess delta (normal, at least for a prophet) and dreams at the bottom of the ocean that mimic the  layout and eeriness of the prophet dreams, but are Infinitely More Threatening (not a prophet thing at ALL)

this is because they met a deepfolk, very briefly, at the end of part two in firebreathers, and that deepfolk Knew the moment they became a prophet because of the psychic link. it broadcasted that new information to the rest of its people (basically a relay through everyone it knew, then everyone they knew, and so on and so forth) until She Who Sends Dreams got wind of it and was like “ah. this one may be able to help us with this Problem we are having”

unfortunately, because ember is so far from the ocean, and more specifically, She Who Sends Dreams, for the entire book, they literally do not understand what she’s trying to say.

smash cut to the end of the book, they wake up one night and have the Urge to go walking. they zone out, end up at the docks, and BAM they’re getting visions and SWSD is there ready to chat in person because she can tell they haven’t gotten the message

the only reason SWSD was able to do that was because their window was open, and she was singing a note just barely within the range that ehlves can hear. and the only reason no one else did the same zombie-walk was because she was singing another note more generalized and on a different frequency that made everyone else in the city fall asleep