No one has taken over the world in history. The closest we've gotten is likely some of the older empires, such as the Roman Empire, and even then it wasn't one person. It was a whole country with an effective army. Nazi Germany may have been able to get close as well.
Now, as for Mahli's ability to take over the Welen Empire, there are a few limitations to his plan.
a) The Empire has employed various telepaths. Though I've mostly only demonstrated their use in the courtroom, I'm sure some of them may be used for protection against telepathy as well. Most of these guys are vampires, and if Mahli tried to take a bunch of officials over, especially the Empress? They'd sense it right away. It'd be difficult for him to do it from the shadows too, as they could trace where the magic is coming from and figure out his location, then teleport over there. Also the Empress is a powerful mage herself, though not a telepath, so she'd sense it too and be able to resist for a little bit, which would make it pretty clear something was wrong. Also she's insane, so if she suddenly started acting rationally, that'd be weird XD
b) Speaking of shadows: I was thinking on your point, and I think that this wouldn't work that well for a few reasons. First, distance. All magic loses its strength when you apply it over a distance. Mahli wouldn't lose too much power if he was doing this in the same city, but Rezten is pretty crowded and it'd be hard to find an alley to do this where he wouldn't also get mugged. Most other locations are a train ride away, which would weaken his abilities to do this (the extent of which I'm not sure).
Second: line of vision. Controlling eight to ten people is a lot easier if you can see them all and you are in the same room as them, or at least know the exact layouts of their locations. I think that trying to do it from a distance, when you can't see them all and aren't familiar with their location? Would result in making a lot of people walk into walls. Mahli would probably only be able to "see" (as in, through their line of vision) about... Three of these people are at a time? And that's just my assumption on the limits of the human mind, perhaps it's more, perhaps it's less. This would inhibit his ability to control them well, and also give another big clue to everyone by these people that something has happened.
Finally, humans are known for having decent magical defenses. Not necessarily against telepathy, but once the human community met vampires, they began training people to be able to withstand it to some extent. Since Mahli would be spreading his power across eight or so people, they wouldn't feel the full onslaught of his power (which hurts and is virtually impossible to resist); they'd get the amount you would get from just one or two people trying to invade, which they could initially resist. This would cause Mahli to use more power, which may limit how many people he could get to some extent.
And so that's why being Class VII doesn't let him take over the world. Even if he just tries the Welen Empire, there are still dozens of other people to sense and resist him. He may be able to cause a decent amount of calamity, but in the end, he'd lose. He'd have to go about the old-fashioned way, using his telepathy as backup, and Mahli is just too unsettling for most people to be interested.
Thanks for the reply though! Gave me a good thought exercise.
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branchandroot
Re: Well...
Date: 2013-06-10 03:36 pm (UTC)No one has taken over the world in history. The closest we've gotten is likely some of the older empires, such as the Roman Empire, and even then it wasn't one person. It was a whole country with an effective army. Nazi Germany may have been able to get close as well.
Now, as for Mahli's ability to take over the Welen Empire, there are a few limitations to his plan.
a) The Empire has employed various telepaths. Though I've mostly only demonstrated their use in the courtroom, I'm sure some of them may be used for protection against telepathy as well. Most of these guys are vampires, and if Mahli tried to take a bunch of officials over, especially the Empress? They'd sense it right away. It'd be difficult for him to do it from the shadows too, as they could trace where the magic is coming from and figure out his location, then teleport over there. Also the Empress is a powerful mage herself, though not a telepath, so she'd sense it too and be able to resist for a little bit, which would make it pretty clear something was wrong. Also she's insane, so if she suddenly started acting rationally, that'd be weird XD
b) Speaking of shadows: I was thinking on your point, and I think that this wouldn't work that well for a few reasons. First, distance. All magic loses its strength when you apply it over a distance. Mahli wouldn't lose too much power if he was doing this in the same city, but Rezten is pretty crowded and it'd be hard to find an alley to do this where he wouldn't also get mugged. Most other locations are a train ride away, which would weaken his abilities to do this (the extent of which I'm not sure).
Second: line of vision. Controlling eight to ten people is a lot easier if you can see them all and you are in the same room as them, or at least know the exact layouts of their locations. I think that trying to do it from a distance, when you can't see them all and aren't familiar with their location? Would result in making a lot of people walk into walls. Mahli would probably only be able to "see" (as in, through their line of vision) about... Three of these people are at a time? And that's just my assumption on the limits of the human mind, perhaps it's more, perhaps it's less. This would inhibit his ability to control them well, and also give another big clue to everyone by these people that something has happened.
Finally, humans are known for having decent magical defenses. Not necessarily against telepathy, but once the human community met vampires, they began training people to be able to withstand it to some extent. Since Mahli would be spreading his power across eight or so people, they wouldn't feel the full onslaught of his power (which hurts and is virtually impossible to resist); they'd get the amount you would get from just one or two people trying to invade, which they could initially resist. This would cause Mahli to use more power, which may limit how many people he could get to some extent.
And so that's why being Class VII doesn't let him take over the world. Even if he just tries the Welen Empire, there are still dozens of other people to sense and resist him. He may be able to cause a decent amount of calamity, but in the end, he'd lose. He'd have to go about the old-fashioned way, using his telepathy as backup, and Mahli is just too unsettling for most people to be interested.
Thanks for the reply though! Gave me a good thought exercise.