“Every empire begins with a spark.”
The Vidient are the descendants not of Pandora herself, but of the shards of her Mirror, which shattered when she looked upon its forbidden reflection. Each shard carried with it a single, pure emotion untouched by mortal complexity. No Vidient perceives the entirety of human emotion; each carries only a fragment, as incomplete as the mirror itself. Yet in that fragment lies clarity beyond mortal ken.
The Golden Glimmer reveals the restless hunger of mortals. Desire manifests as drifting motes of soft gold, swirling like tiny stars around the heart and eyes. Ambition pulls these sparks upward, shaping them into bright, razor-straight streaks of rising fire. Gentle longing glitters like a quiet constellation. Ruthless striving ascends like a pillar of meteors.
Such Vidients tread carefully; they see dreams before they are spoken, and hungers long buried beneath courtesy.
V. The Golden Glimmer
“Desire / Ambition”
Formal Name: Ignis Desiderii
Spectrum: Want ↔ Ambition
Vidient Gift:
- Discerns hidden longing or rising ambition
- Can temper dangerous desire or fuel dormant drive
- Influences creativity, hunger for power, or yearning for change
- Can inspire greatness or breed greed and addiction
A Glimmer-Vidient can:
- Boost a person’s motivation or determination
- Cool excessive ambition before it becomes obsession
- Perceive hidden wants or private goals
They cannot:
- Reveal specific thoughts or plans (they cannot read minds, only interpret the reflections they see)
- Force someone to pursue a destiny they don’t believe in
- Prevent ambition from returning later
Visual Manifestation: Those attuned see flecks of gold drifting from someone’s heart or eyes, trailing behind them like motes caught in sunlight. Simple desire forms drifting sparks, while ambition organises them into purposeful constellations and stretches them upwards, as if seeking something unseen. In deep longing, the Glimmers cluster closer together and may form patterns a skilled Vidient can read to discern the desire’s source. In ruthless ambition they tower until they scorch the air, shooting like meteors. Movements of the Glimmer also reveal hidden wants, motivations, and drives. Vidients can coax existing desire into being—or sculpt scattered longings into fierce, unstoppable ambition.
Overall Vision: For them, the world is filled with small chemical lights — embers of want and bonfires of drive. This perception is constant.
Possible Additional Senses: Desire tingles like static along their fingertips. Ambition feels like a vertical pull, a rising fire along the spine.
Illumination: They can reveal:
- buried wants
- quiet longings
- ambitions people pretend not to have
- the difference between desire and self-deception
Illumination feels like a mirror being angled toward a person’s deepest yearnings. Many find it liberating; others terrifying.
Shaping Risks to the Target: Amplifying desire can cause:
- impulsive life changes
- declarations of love
- abandoning routines or responsibilities
- obsession or self-destructive craving
Amplifying ambition can cause:
- career upheaval
- ruthless choices
- burnout
- destructive competitiveness
Dampening either can leave someone hollow or confused.
Absorption: Can offer a sharpened sense of direction or clarity, but generally the risks far outweigh the benefits for this type of Vidient, and absorption only occurs accidentally (or through addiction). Absorbing desire in relationships can offer a false connection and sense of harmony/resonance the Vidient may find intoxicating. But it comes at the cost of identity erosion. They may struggle to separate their own desires from those they absorb. Golden Glimmers are the most prone to becoming Lost through absorption.
Risks: Desire can prove contagious; they may catch others’ longing like a fever. In the worst cases the Vidient develops ambitions that aren’t their own, or chases goals endlessly, believing the shimmer belongs to them.
Commonly Observed Behaviours: Visionaries, dreamers, and strategists. They sense potential like scent on the wind. They are naturally drawn to goals — everyone’s. They often become leaders or schemers.
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