Transferance is the magic of manipulating Resonance. The magic of Transferance rivals Sentient Thought in how often it occurs in mages; mentalists are susceptible to the powers of emotion and resonance all around them, and it's only logical that some mages struggle to control resonance with this skill. A mage with the Transferance talent gains more than the general, vague feelings that other mentalists feel...a Transferance mage can get details and memories from an object that were imprinted on it.

Awakening to the Transferance talent is unusual; while all mentalists can sense resonance, not all can manipulate it. It almost always awakens though a conscious act of investigation and will, and almost never before the awakening of another mystical talent. Awakening is thus virtually traumaless; the only danger comes from the actual resonance itself that they are investigating or using to awaken their talent.

A mage who must use a focus for this talent (because they have a sorcery skill) almost always use something that produces sound or other vibrations, like a bell, tuning fork, or drum. Another type of focus might be one related to the resonance they are trying to manipulate or possibly (such as with a murder weapon) the source of the resonance itself.

Resonance is a fluid, mutable thing; sometimes it resists change, sometimes it seems to actively embrace it. It is not always known which will happen; however, there are some patterns. Trying to increase resonance is easier than trying to decrease it...trying to change one type of resonance into another is more difficult than either. Creating resonance is more difficult still, and equally so is eliminating it completely. Manipulating resonance almost always requires mages to delve into their own emotions and feelings or conversely to suppress them; therefore these mages tend to be either highly emotional or cold and seemingly unfeeling.

Please see the topic on resonance for more details.

LEVELS OF ADVANCEMENT:

None: A mentalist is always susceptible to Resonance; even this skill makes it difficult to protect from Resonance and impossible to eliminate it completely. A person who has Awakened to this talent almost immediately progresses to Apprentice since most awakenings are consciously engineered; a mage who has no other awakened mentalist talents begins to feel the effects of resonance for the first time, but there are no other effects.

Apprentice: An apprentice begins to learn the nature of resonance that he finds in objects; while an ordinary mentalist would be able to discern an ambiance of hatred in a murder weapon, for instance, a Transferance mage is able to determine why there is hatred, details about the murder, even who weilded it.

Journeyman: A mage begins to be able to increase or decrease the level of resonance that he can sense; increasing it generally means delving into an emotion that the mage remembers from his past and deliberately 'stoking the fire'; decreasing it can be accomplished either mundanely (calming a highly emotive person down, for instance) or by leaching resonance out of it. A spell with sympathetic resonance is often increased in power, while a spell with opposed resonance is confused and may go badly, thus making this a good tool against other mentalist mages or for working in concert.

Mage: A mage begins to be able to change one type of resonance into something else; for instance, changing a general resonance of benevolence to a hostile resonance. The more extreme the change, the more difficult it is; changing love into hate is nigh-impossible and would take a very long time.

Adept: An Adept is able to create resonance where there was none before, and erase all traces of resonance within an object. Such an adept is highly sought after for 'erasing psychic imprints' that may lead to an unwanted discovery; such mages are also highly sought over for creating sanctuaries of resonance tailoured to someone's need; for instance, consecrating a shrine involves creating a resonance, and so does empowering a workshop with a resonance that would help the mage cast certain spells. Note that this is very similar to the sorcery talent Alchemy; where it is different is that Alchemy allows someone to invoke a surge that has a specific effect, whereas Transferance affects everything equally and is not evoked. Created resonance must be maintained or it will eventually fade; often it is maintained by those who hired the adept in the first place by casting spells or worshipping or otherwise doing something in sympathy with the resonance. This resonance is sometimes almost intelligent...there is often a personality and emotions that rub off of the Adept and grow in their own fashion. However, it fades like the resonance itself if it is not maintained...though like resonance, it need not be maintained by the Adept itself--it must be created by him, but as long as the item gets to exercise its personality by interaction with its bearer, it won't fade.

LOST ABILITIES: It is said that Wizards were once able to create permanent ambient resonances that they used as sources of energy; only the Delfae have anything similar to this now, and a Delfaen Well is not permanent.