Illusion
Written by Kiryn Asha'man
This class is not currently in use.
[Board Intro/Signup Message]
[Lesson One]
[Lesson Two]
[Lesson Three]
[Lesson Four]
[Lesson Five]
[Final]
[Return to the Archive]
Intro/
Taught by Kiryn Chaimere Asha'man
Kiryn is the current M'Hael, and as such his reputation precedes him. It hasn't always been that way. Darkly handsome and dressed in the typical way of his people, the Tuatha'an, he is not quite the typical Asha'man. There is a boyish gleam in his black eyes, and a hint of knowing something others can only guess at. With a joyful bow, he greets you as you enter. His voice is kind and soothing, and you think you can understand what drove him to his former Ajah, the Grey.
OOC: You do not have to wait for responses to post on the next lesson, except the final.
Welcome, please sign up!
The first time you arrive in Kiryn's classroom, a red-haired Accepted welcomes you, introducing herself as Avrane. She leads you to a table in a corner of the classroom, where a roster is laid out with pen and ink next to it, and asks you to fill out one of the entries.
Full IC Name:
Rank:
Email:
When you are done, she thanks you and points to a chair where you can wait until the teacher arrives. Avrane will show the weaves for any female students, while Kiryn, the Master of Soldiers, will be firmly in charge as the teacher.
Lesson 1: Static Illusion
Kiryn watched with a smile as he entered the classroom. Many new students had come, each of them fresh and eager to learn. It seemed ages ago since he had taught this class - before he had Aviaine, before they had their children - and it felt strangely like coming home.
Class fell silent when they noticed the Tinker's entrance, and Kiryn leisurely took his place in front of the classroom. He was wearing a rather decent amount of colours today - blues and purples, mainly, and bright yellow boots. His black coat, adorned with the rainbow cord of his office and the Dragon pin - Kiryn never wore the sword- , was hung upon a peg on the wall, and he took a seat while looking at the faces before him before he started his introduction.
Avrane, a promising Accepted from Tarabon, flashed him a smile which he readily returned. Aviaine mocked him sometimes for his preferred company - young women, most of them beautiful - but he found they were the only people he could be at ease with, most of the others being too austere or just plainly too violent for his tastes. Despite his decades in the Grey Tower, Kiryn hadn't strayed from the Way of the Leaf. The peace he so longed for was also his reason for trading his initial Blue Ajah cord for a Grey one.
"Well, are you ready?" he intoned, his voice a bit higher than one would generally expect. Kiryn wasn't a large man, but his raven-black hair and suntanned skin combined with near-black eyes made him a rather impressive figure. "My name is Kiryn Chaimere, and I am the M'Hael of the Grey Tower. Today, though, I am your teacher. The subject, as I'm certain you're well aware of, is Illusion, one of the scarce Talents granted to me, and a fine one." Despite his low strength in the One Power, Kiryn had always shown great aptitude in the weaves of the Illusion Talent, which had led to him starting up this class.
"This young lady is Avrane, and she will be my assistant in watching you, as well as show the weaves we will be learning for the female students." Avrane nodded politely.
"Illusion is one of the most commonly found Talents," Kiryn continued. "To those gifted with the Talent, weaves will come naturally. To those without the Talent, they are rather complicated but can normally be learned up to some degree. Either way, you will benefit from this class. Today, we will cover the most basic of Illusions; the static Illusion. That is, an Illusion of an immobile object."
Kiryn seized saidin, suppressing his distaste as he forced its fire and violence into place. "The most commonly used Powers in Illusion are Fire and Air, followed by Spirit. To create a static Illusion, you start by forming an outline of Fire and Air."
He wove a rectangular shape of finely interlaced thin threads, while Avrane showed the female equivalent. The shape was not yet visible to those unable to channel, but it seemed to bend the light slightly, as if it were a ripple of warmth.
"Earth and Water can be used for colour and texture. I can't explain to you how it is done, you will have to try for yourself to find out." He wove thin threads of Earth to turn his Illusion - a book - into a deep shade of rusty brown, and then made it look a bit rough and matted, worn with age. Avrane was working on a lantern, gleaming with reflected light.
"You have permission to practise now," he said, putting the illusionary object down on his desk and tying off the weave, "and Avrane and I will inspect your endeavours. Proceed."
(ooc: If you're a female channeler, RP Avrane coming to your desk after a while, if you're a male channeler Kiryn will grade you. If you have much difficulty with this weave, a short roleplay can help you develop skill.)
Lesson : Dynamic Illusion
After last week's chaos, Kiryn was glad to see his students fell silent when he entered. He knew some of them joked about him behind his back, but apparently his status still granted him the privilege of not having to hear those jests. He knew that, as possibly the only member of the Tower that followed the Way of the Leaf, he was an easy subject for gossip and jokes.
"Dynamic Illusion," he began, as Avrane finished cleaning the blackboard and took her place beside him. "The basics, you have learned last week. This time, though, you will need Spirit. Because the weave is similar to the one we used last week, there will not be a lot of explaining to do."
He seized the source and channeled a net of Air and Fire, turning them into the shape of a little man one foot tall, and coloured it with Earth and Water until it resembled a miniature version of himself, bright red shoes included. "To make an Illusion move, fill the parts you want to be mobile with Spirit." He demonstrated it, while Avrane was doing the same with a copy of herself. "Next, attach strings of Spirit to the Illusion, as if it were a puppet on strings, and manipulate those strings to make the Illusion move."
He was well aware Dynamic Illusion was something learned best by repeated practise, as the way the things moved wasn't at all obvious. The small man in front of him made a graceful bow and then waved the the students, his tiny face flashing a smile.
"Try something now, and begin with something easy. During the rest of the week, I want you to practise in the Channeling Yard - supervised, naturally. Proceed!"
Lesson 3: Folded Light
Gleefully, Kiryn looked into Avrane's direction and waved. The class was half-full already, and students were chatting excitedly, half of the conversation being about their legendary Illusion skills and the other half general gossip. The rest entered drop by drop, and after a while, the bells tolled. It took a few more minutes for the first students to get restless, and after five or so minutes one of them was actually offering to go and see whether Kiryn was still in his office!
Chuckling softly, the sound lost in the turmoil, he stood up and spoke. "Please remain calm," he said, his voice forced into a darker cadence than usual. "Your teachers will be here shortly." And then, as previously decided, he and Avrane let go of their weaves at the same time, virtually materializing in front of the classroom.
A novice let out a shriek as if she'd seen a three-foot-tall spider and several other students did, in fact, turn a rather sickly pale. "Today, we will study Folded Light!" Kiryn said, a broad smile on his face. "While this weave does not, exactly, make you invisible, it is very easy to make yourself unnoticed. Watch." He put the weave back in place, and this time it was quite clear something was wrong with the air around him, as if a piece of it had been cut out or bent.
"Use Folded Light when you have a good reason to go unseen, and make sure you stay in shadows and by walls. It is clever to stay still as much as you can when using this weave, because the air will ripple when you move in it."
Avrane readied herself to demonstrate the saidar weaves and Kiryn started piecing saidin together as he spoke. "Fire and Air are the prime components of Folded Light. Use a blanket of Fire and Air to hide yourself - or anything, really - under." He demonstrated with a square span of Air and Fire, students would notice how the air grew dull and what was behind it became more or less invisible, but it was quite obvious something was in place.
"Water and Spirit can be used to make the illusion more realistic. Again, this is greatly intuitive. Look at the Water as a maker of reflections, the Spirit as an improver of realism." He wove careful threads of both powers into his net, so that it became an empty patch in the air, a part of the desk hidden behind it.
"If you're not yet comfortable with the weaves, it's often easier to start with a smaller weave. Try hiding a part of yourself, or an object. Avrane and I will walk around to watch your progress."
Lesson 4: The Mirror of Mists
Kiryn and Avrane spoke softly while the classroom filled up, and when everyone was in Avrane closed the door while Kiryn addressed the students. "Today, we will study two simple weaves, one of them rather similar to what we did last week. They are weaves commonly used by Aes Sedai and Asha'man out of Tower, when in need of impressing people. I'm sure you've seen both of them at work before."
He motioned for his students to embrace or seize the source, Avrane had taken her place next to him and seemed to be glowing with joy, revealing to Kiryn that she was probably channeling already.
"The Mirror of Mists," he said, weaving the net of Air and Fire that had been used in Folded Light. "Do not use Water this time, only Spirit, and start with a net that is approximately your own size." He tied strands of Spirit to the sections of the net where Air and Fire touched. "Next, pull on the strings to expand the size of the net, and make sure to keep it in front of you."
As he did what he said, Kiryn seemed to grow some four feet taller, a rather imposing figure all of a sudden. Avrane next to him was also increasingly greatly in size, and a few oohs and aahs could be heard.
"The second weave," he said, having tied off the Mirror of Mists and already pulling a few threads of Air, "is a simple tool to amplify the volume of your voice. Use Air, and shape it like a funnel." He did as he said and placed the funnel in front of his mouth. "IT IS AN EASY TRICK, BUT NONE THE LESS EFFECTIVE!"
Letting both of the weaves dissipate, Kiryn smiled at his students. "Give it a try."
Lesson 5: Disguise
This is the last regular lesson," Kiryn began, looking over the now-familiar faces in the classroom. "We will deal with a more sophisticated weave, and those without a Talent in Illusion will be hard-pushed to perform it at all. Still, I urge you all to try it and practise it over the next week, because I will expect you to do it during your final exam."
He realized it was a bit harsh on the weaker students, but the Disguise weave could also be used for minor changes to one's appearance, something even the weakest channelers could normally do. "The topic is Disguise. You may have noticed that my voice sounds a bit curious." Some of the students started looking from Kiryn to Avrane and back, and Kiryn responded with a smile. "Very well." Both of them dropped their disguise which they had painstakingly crafted during the previous hour simultaneously, and to the students it would look as if they had just traded places in less than a second.
"What you just saw is difficult, tedious and requires a lot of practise. In principle, all you have to do is weave static and dynamic Illusions over the part of your body you wish to change. Static Illusions can be tied off and will stay in place, but keep in mind that almost everything moves, and it will not look very realistic. Dynamic Illusions must be held fast and it is difficult to change your appearance with many dynamic Illusions at once. Still, even a change that isn't very dramatic can have incredible effects."
To illustrate the last part, he changed the skin of his face into a creamy shade of ivory, making him look like a Borderlander. "The second weave is a weave to change your voice. When Avrane was speaking with my voice, she was using it. It is a rather easy weave, but to impersonate someone you will have to do a lot of work on it. Use a cylinder of Spirit as the main weave, and use Air and Earth to create a change in your voice. Air will make your voice higher," he squeaked, "while Earth will lower it," he droned. "Fire and Water can be used too, feel free to experiment with it."
He let go of his weaves and nodded. "I want you to change one of your features and your voice. Use the mirrors on the wall if you want to test the effects of the former weave, use your ears for the latter." Kiryn grinned. "Have fun!"
Lesson 6: The Final
All students had been informed well before today that the last Illusion lesson would take place in the Grey Tower amphitheatre, and besides the students a lot of curious others were present. The Illusion final was an event that had attracted more and more interest over the years, and Kiryn was eager to see what his students would make of it this time.
"Good afternoon!" he said, amplifying his voice slightly, standing on the stage. Silence fell quickly, and he smiled. "Today, my students will show what they have learned during the Basic Illusion class. As always, some very promising new Illusionists have found their Talent here, and I am sure their final display will be enjoyable to all. All students have to demonstrate the following weaves: Dynamic Illusion, Folded Light, the Mirror of Mists and Disguise. They may use whatever other weaves they deem necessary to make their presentation more interesting, and the most creative among these students will get bonus points for their display. Enjoy the show!"
He left the stage and sat down on the front row, deliberately not seizing saidin so that he would be able to fully appreciate his students' skills without having to look through the weaves all the time.
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