Train
Art Statistics | |
| Focus: | none DreamSoul |
| Cost: | 0 |
| Orbit Required: | N/A |
| Affected: | Target |
| Duration: | Instant |
Description
Bestows upon a student an art or plateau.
Plateau Effect
Increased level to which a teacher may plateau.
Art Research
Art History
The History of Train
Soon after The Awakening, Gerriel Endeth, a skilled and much respected dreamer, used her powers to to manipulate the essence of the Dreamstate, and formed the first psychic shell we all call coherence. Gerriel was now able to explore the dream in a whole new and wonderful way, for as long as she were able to stay focused. She had her best friend Borith Strynn mastering this new form of dreaming, and soon they had the basic communication forms at hand. They could give each other items, and communicate through whispers on a distance.
They began to explore the raw and unformed Dreamstate, and on their way the met many dreamers, who flooded in and out of the dream in their pure essence. Soon they too, had a coherence.
Gerriel and Borith spent much of their time getting lost on their way, and were trying to find a way they could mark their route, as they wandered along. Borith found that lucidity were the focus of his mental existing, and he used that skill to form the first art of Fatesenders. The ancient art of Pathfinder was born, and it was priceless in the raw and still informed Dreamstate. Now the two pioneers could map there route with ease, as the art created a glowing string through the landscape, marking the route they left behind them.
Gerriel found it strange that she couldn't replicate this new art, as they had done with the other psychic tools they had skilled, such as, the Coherence and the art of Give. She tried and tried and came to the conclusion that this art were not a skill to simply learn from mere observation. Borith too found it strange, and began to explain the basics of the art. For weeks she tried to learn the art, but eventually she had to give it up.
Borith began to explore the reason of their failure, and 1 day he had a theoretic solution. He immediately shared it with Gerriel. The reason why Gerriel couldn´t learn the art of Pathfinder were actually 2 reasons , first, and the obvious one, Gerriel were not of the focus of Lucidity, and therefore not able to create the art of her own, and second, the art were of such complexity, that the mere elements within, had to be binded from the teacher to the pupil by a second and not yet formed art. An Art that takes the components of the teacher Art, from the Teacher, and forms it to the exact components, that the pupil need, for the art to work by he or she. The Art of Teaching were soon a reality, and the first 2 teachers were as you might have guessed, Gerriel and Borith.
How others were able to teach their arts were in the beginning very controlled, as there were still few dreamers and few arts at hand. Gerriel and Borith taught the art of those who created wise and useful arts. Imagine how many arts were forgotten in those early days of the dream. As time went, and more dreamers and arts came along, rules and oaths were made to shield the dream from utter chaotic use of the art. The art of Pathfinder were forgotten as soon the simplified version called Trail were created. by Astrial Zeek
There has been many changes since the beginnings of teaching. This dissertation should leave you a little more enlightened than before you read it. The first detail I will go into dates back to one of the first teachers there was...
One of the first dreamers that led the dream to teaching, was a man named Geoffrey Halander. He developed many of the arts on his own, which took years after his awakening. He was the first to ever research the congruity between the art styles that many had. In this research he came across a fascinating discovery about the dreamer avatar. The dreamer avatars are all in the similarity that they are in the mind of the dreamer, and created by such. This allows one to affect the mind of a dreamer though alterations of the avatar. Geoffrey kept this discovery very secret for a long time, he wished to exploit it, without the chance anyone else could first...
Geoffery began to develop an art, under his Illuminated belief, to destroy the mind of a dreamer, similar to the art we know now as DreamStrike. But he was to make it an evocation, that would take the avatar of a dreamer, and rend it to pieces of energy, and use that energy to destroy the soul of the individual. None knew of his practices as he kept them very secretive, and it is likely that he would have succeeded in the development of such a vile art, were it not for an odd chance. He had recently taken on an apprentice, to aid in his life by doing menial tasks to save him time and effort that he may pursue his interests with more and more diligence. But as would any beaten down apprentice, this boy, simply known as Jerald was all too interested in finding out what the secrets were that his master kept. One day Jerald came across the work of his master and was appalled by what was being created. He spoke with one of the few powerful dreamers at that time and explained a bit of what he had stumbled upon. Knowing that if this art were to be developed, the dream would be oppressed by a man that he found cruel and unkind. Jerald convinced this powerful dreamer, who went by the name of Micaldon, that Geoffrey was planning to complete it within the month and that they both might be the first two subjects. Micaldon unaware that he was being deceived, agreed to help Jerald eliminate his master from the dream...
It was one late evening when Geoffrey had been working very late and was tried as could be any madman at his desk all a night. Jerald secretly let Micaldon into the abode, the purpose to remove Geoffrey, which was done quite effectively. While Micaldon attacked Geoffrey unexpectedly and began to sever his connection to the dream, Jerald raided the study his master kept the information in. He took everything and ran out, leaving the two powerful dreamers to fight, and neither of them were seen for a long time....
Jerald made his way into a distant part of the dream, as he did not want to be discovered by either, especially after he has betrayed both of them. Jerald immediately destroyed all the information that his master had developed about the vile art, which was his main intention. He found that the research his master had pursued left many venues for improvement to the dream. He began to follow it with the idea to speed up the learning process, and he was only marginally successful. He simply did not know what processes could be followed to alter the avatar. Jerald only kept contact with his friend Alexander Moni, besides that, he was not willing to risk the information returning to the hands of a power mad dreamer. His continuation into the research found patterns that were to revolutionize the dream as a whole. Jerald eventually came across the idea of altering the mind, and soul, of a dreamer, rather than the avatar, and this proved to be a great success. He continued to develop his ideas, and after awhile, Alexander came for another visit, and they tested one of the theories Jerald has been working on so hard. After only a day of training, and using a mental link through the souls of the two, Jerald managed to teach a fairly complex art in record time. This was soon to be the end of his contributions to the dream.
Jerald and Alexander lived in close proximity on Cloudsbreak. They shared everything from pennies to life. Jerald taught Alexander everything he could, and vice versa when Alexander learned something new. But there was a terrible accident on Cloudsbreak when a mine collapsed on Jerald. Alexander had little choice but to follow the ideas of his friend, for he knew that it would be a power not to be trifled with...
Alexander unfortunately did not have the same goals as Jerald. His intentions were to gain more power, to make sure that Jerald would never be forgotten, by forcing into the minds of dreamers his accomplishments. Many days Alexander spent in study, his efforts in developing the art into a tangible form. He refined the art into the sense of being able to simply move knowledge from one mind to the next, not necessarily arts, but also facts. When he began to rampantly force into the minds of dreamers everything Jerald had done to aid to the dream, in his mind, it did not go unnoticed. Many dreamers were in desire for retribution, and sought the powerful to end the mental invasion that Alexander had begun... And one to learn of it was the survivor of the first battle over this art, Micaldon. He within days, found Alexander, assuring that it was for the benefit of the dream offered to help him retain safety in Cloudsbreak. Alexander, fearful at this point for his life, not knowing that Micalon had hoped all this time to gain the knowledge that had been now thrust into Alexander...
After two years of captivity in both the dream and Cloudsbreak, Micalon had no success in pulling this information from Alexander, and devised a ploy which was an all or nothing idea. He took another five years to drive Alexander deep into insanity... At that point, he disguised himself as Jerald and came to Alexander, offering to free him and they could be friends again, and that he had escaped the accident. Alexander was too gravely ill of mind that he could not tell the difference, and after a short time of coaxing, provided the knowledge to Micalon, of his arts, his research, his life, and unfortunately, his insanity...
At this point, Micalon killed the young man and returned to the dream, slightly ill of mind... He took on three apprentices, James Taggart, Leander Cross and Alena Cuthbert. They all gathered together, in the dream and on Cloudsbreak as for safety from their enemies. Micaldon taught them his knowledge, and expertise in the arts. James and Leander were both very eager and demanded he use his ability to transfer his knowledge to them at a rapid pace, which he did without hesitation. Alena did not agree with this practice seeing the derangement in her former friends eyes and was perhaps the first to create the art of Mind Blank to protect herself from any of their errand attempts to use it upon her. Micalon never understood why Alena refused the teachings, but never cared in his state, and eventually put his plan before his apprentices. He wanted to use and manipulate the dream, to control most of Cloudsbreak. And he had all three of his apprentices prepared well enough to carry out the plan, so he thought. The evening before they planned to effectuate this "takeover", three of them fell dead at the dinner table, the last wept in tears for the following months, an empty vial of poison never leaving her hand...
Alena being the last survivor of what had been a group of insanity refined the knowledge into the form of the art Train, as we know it now. It was no longer a mind link as it once was to convey information along it. It was simply a transference of an ability from one to the next. Knowing too well the potential of abuse existed, Alena taught this to very few. They did not bicker, but the dream eventually found out, as a whole, what had been developed. Every powerful dreamer began to want this art, and it was instituted soon before her natural death, that arts would not be taught in this fashion, for fear of abuse, and her three apprentices agree to it, for the time being...
Each took on their one apprentice, but only one. The reason was to continue passing down stories, but never the knowledge, unfortunately, Alena had agreed to take on her third apprentice, Ytenmal, a very sly man, who had worked his way into her service. He taught everything he could to his apprentice, through every means possible, including the forbidden art of Train. Eventually the other two apprentices did not return to the dream and could only be presumed dead and Ytenmal took this opportunity to continue his progression towards leader of the dream. He announced that he would capable of Training all in arts, and would do so in return for services rendered. He became very "wealthy" in the dream through this, people would bring him much, in the way of favors, power, artifacts and servitude. He had everything he could wish for, and one thing more than he had wished for, his apprentice Ethan...
Alena did have three apprentices, the other two will always remain unnamed, but never forgotten. Ethan was their "spy" into what Ytenmal had done with his power... And Ethan was perhaps the most noble dreamer that had been in such a position in over two generations, the position to make a dramatic improvement to the dream. He met with a few of those who despised his master, their reasons their own, and organized for him to be dreamstruck. This happened after a good few months of planning, and it was a major impact on the dream. Ethan took everything that was gathered by his master, and put it hands that he trusted. He became a hero who had almost liberated the dream through such actions. He took on his own apprentices and devised a system for the use of the forbidden art. The system was lost with time, and a similar one rediscovered recently, but no one will truthfully comment on how it worked, as none seem to remember.
In recent years, to skip a large amount of time, a system is now in place which requires a task to be completed for the teacher, no longer master, to grant the knowledge of an art. It was developed by a well respected, and still living, dreamer as we call Snowblind. It was a vast improvement on what had been set forth by the Lyrans of recent time. Many herald him as a good teacher, and an amazing man, and will likely for years...
This has been just to enlighten those wishing to learn, there is much to be said for history, as it is nothing but a story, told by one soul, by what they saw. This is the story as the wind told it to me, perhaps those who were there had another story...
by Kard Wylder
Notes
Only available to Teachers.
May only Train an art the Teacher already knows.
May only plateau an art to the level of the Teachers level of Train.
