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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6910551" data-attributes="member: 2067">It's definitely a stronger vein than I've been giving it credit for! Focusing on Githyanki and Mind Flayers and throwing in psurlons....yeah, lots of far realm psionic stuff.From my little review, I've seen three or four main threads for psionics fluff:<ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul"> X-Men Mutant Powers: This is the Dark Sun explanation. Psionics is the next stage in evolution, something that life discovers when pushed to the brink. </li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Powers of Lost Eastern Empires: There's a lot of Good-aligned chimeric creatures that watch out for humanity that have psionic powers in 1e and 2e. Baku, ki-rin, shedu, lammasu. All distinctly &quot;old&quot; / &quot;non-European.&quot; This fits a bit with the New Agey orientalism vibe (Ancient civilizations of the East have learned to unlock the powers of the mind! Discover their secrets in my series of 12 home videos!), but could also fit the vibe of some sort of divine enlightenment or spiritual power akin to ki. I'd toss 3e's crystals-and-ectoplasm under this, too.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Weird Pulpy Sci Fi: Kind of an &quot;our magic is different!&quot; kind of explanation, anchored with one foot in drug culture and another in the afterglow of the space race. Here we have a lot of tentacles and &quot;alien races&quot; and lost dimensions of humanoid worms who pursued perfection of body and mind. Far Realm stuff comes in under here, too, though I think it might be important to distinguish between the Lovecraftian Far Realm of ancient and unknowable entities and, say, the Space Age far realm which is another dimension where alien beings come from to invade. These are very different vibes - psionics is not Lovecraftian in the slightest, but it's very sci-fi in much of its presentation. </li>
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[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6910551, member: 2067"] It's definitely a stronger vein than I've been giving it credit for! Focusing on Githyanki and Mind Flayers and throwing in psurlons....yeah, lots of far realm psionic stuff. From my little review, I've seen three or four main threads for psionics fluff: [LIST] [*] X-Men Mutant Powers: This is the [B]Dark Sun[/B] explanation. Psionics is the next stage in evolution, something that life discovers when pushed to the brink. [*] Powers of Lost Eastern Empires: There's a lot of Good-aligned chimeric creatures that watch out for humanity that have psionic powers in 1e and 2e. Baku, ki-rin, shedu, lammasu. All distinctly "old" / "non-European." This fits a bit with the New Agey orientalism vibe (Ancient civilizations of the East have learned to unlock the powers of the mind! Discover their secrets in my series of 12 home videos!), but could also fit the vibe of some sort of divine enlightenment or spiritual power akin to ki. I'd toss 3e's crystals-and-ectoplasm under this, too. [*] Weird Pulpy Sci Fi: Kind of an "our magic is different!" kind of explanation, anchored with one foot in drug culture and another in the afterglow of the space race. Here we have a lot of tentacles and "alien races" and lost dimensions of humanoid worms who pursued perfection of body and mind. Far Realm stuff comes in under here, too, though I think it might be important to distinguish between the [B]Lovecraftian[/B] Far Realm of ancient and unknowable entities and, say, the [B]Space Age[/B] far realm which is another dimension where alien beings come from to invade. These are very different vibes - psionics is not Lovecraftian in the slightest, but it's very sci-fi in much of its presentation. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]

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