“The heart is drawn or driven. Rarely still.”
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 Luminous Thread is the first-born of the Mirror’s shattering, retaining within it the soft pull and sharp severing of human connection. To the Vidient, mortal bonds appear as strands of rose-gold silk drifting between souls — an invisible web revealed only to those who bear the Shard’s mark. When harmony reigns, the threads flow freely, weaving gentle arcs of light. Yet when bitterness dominates, the strands blacken, harden, and lash away like brittle wire.
This Shard grants the power to soften estrangement, to draw together the estranged, or to sever bonds that bind in suffering. Many Vidients call it both blessing and undoing.
I. The Luminous Thread
“Attraction / Repulsion”
Formal Name: Axis Affinitatis
Spectrum: Fascination ↔ Aversion
Vidient Gift:
- Perceives bonds of attraction, though not of romance alone. Their perception includes friendship, ties of blood, love, loyalty, resentment and hatred
- Can intensify connection or magnify distance between people
- Influences charisma, trust, and interpersonal draw
- Can see permanently connected souls
A Thread-Vidient can:
- Strengthen existing attraction (emotional, social, or instinctive)
- Loosen or break bonds of repulsion or tension
- Sense unspoken social dynamics instantly
They cannot:
- Create feelings from nothing
- Force love, allegiance, or loyalty
- Permanently rewrite someone’s emotional core
Visual Manifestation: Vidients attuned to the Luminous Thread perceive the bonds between people as glimmering filaments of rose-gold light, stretching from heart to heart. Attraction tightens and brightens these threads; repulsion frays them into flickering strands. A skilled Vidient can pluck or slacken them with a thought, weaving closeness—or unravelling it. Threads pulse or recoil depending on the intensity. When two people are mutually drawn, the threads braid themselves. Aversion causes them to whip back from each other like struck wire.
Overall Vision: The world becomes a tapestry of glowing bonds and severed lines. This perception is constant, varying only in intensity.
Possible Additional Senses: Some may feel emotional “pulls” in their chest — tugging toward people who are drawn to someone or something, and pressure pushing them away from sources of repulsion. It is like feeling gravity shift around them.
Perception Risks and Emotional Projection: Those who wield their gift too often or fail to harness it properly may lose their own preferences, pulled endlessly toward or away from others with no clear will of their own. Many Luminous Thread Vidients become cynical, and do not believe in true love. Perceiving their own thread is dangerous. Even a skilled Vidient may begin believing everyone is drawn to or repelled by them. Their relationships can easily warp into paranoia, obsession, or manipulation.
Commonly Observed Behaviours: Often social chameleons. Instinctively aware of interpersonal chemistry, they drift toward harmony and avoid conflict. Many become matchmakers, diplomats, or manipulators without meaning to.
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