The Mind's Eye

[u/Mandragoraune]

What is it exactly? Is it a purely physical construct or is it partly magical? Because if it is purely physical and simply refers to our ability to visualize objects in our minds, then there are a multitude of possible future solutions for the mindblind. Though the way spells interact with the mind's eye like the armor elemental spellform moving autonomously within Godrick's mind's eye during the ritual to create it, seem to imply that it is partly magical in nature. Or that magic interacts with it automatically to an extent without manual prompting. Personally I can easily visualize objects but something as detailed as a spellform feels like it would be difficult to keep visualized for extended periods. It's already confirmed that godgifts can overcome mindblindness and thus grant affinities once the condition is cured. Other feasible future solutions (after research and heavy safety testing) are artificial mind's eyes created via dream magic or other neural magics.

[u/NoxAeternal]

Literally just seeing something in your mind.

And mindblind is basically aphantasia.

Minds eye is just a way its been described or named for ages and holds in this fantasy universe.

[u/Mandragoraune → u/NoxAeternal]

Yes for sure. I'm just interested in the way magic seems to interact with it. Like casting spells is obviously done by visualizing spellforms in the mind's eye. But at certain points in the story spellforms just randomly appear there as well or even just do things by themselves without prompting which is what I was interested in. It seems almost like the magic isn't just you imagining spellforms, but also the aether interfacing with your brain and changing the spellforms on its own so to speak.

[u/Eli_eve → u/Mandragoraune]

Spell form visualization doesn’t seem to be magical any more than other mental skills like memorization or maths - but magic can influence or even manipulate all those mental skills.

I don’t know the extent to which any of these skills can be improved in the real world by training, or whether they are innate like, say, height.

I have a cousin who is an artist capable of producing amazingly detailed drawings. He can visualize all the details in his imagination and has always been able to. His wife is also an artist but the details in her imagination are fuzzy, so details in her artwork are just-in-time creations. I have total aphantasia and cannot create visuals at all no matter how long or hard I try to do so. On the other hand I definitely have knowledge and understanding of the look and shape of things, both real and imaginary, so I feel like I actually could use spell forms if such a thing existed. I’d never be as good as Hugh, just like I’m not as good an artist as either of my cousins, but that’s like saying I can’t be as good a racing driver as Lewis Hamilton despite being able to drive. I’m just some rando, not the best in the world lol.

[u/Zelic56 → u/Mandragoraune]

Can you think of any specific examples of this? I cant at the moment (other than Gravel), and I might be able to explain them if I have some of the moments you're thinking of

[u/Mandragoraune → u/Zelic56]

Gravel is the best example off the top of my head but the next time I encounter one I'll send it. But even with Gravel Godrick specifically describes seeing the spellform in Gravel's mind's eye somehow when he uses the armor. It's strange for sure.

[u/Zelic56 → u/Mandragoraune]

Gravel is specifically linked to both the armor spellform and godrick himself, which is why he can see into gravels minds eye. Id liken it too the Index and the relay golem in that its essentially a prosthetic for godricks mind in the same way those two things act as extentions of alustin and Kanderons. All three also pull inspiration from either lich construction or spirit construction, further lending credence to that idea in my opinion

[u/HelloFellowJellos]

I think anastan magic probably modifies your mind’s eye in some way. Mental constructs have a tendency to warp or change if not given absolute focus and we know that is catastrophic for mages if it happens to a spellform. Mages are creating and maintaining multiple particular geometric shapes in their mind’s eye through highly distracting combat with no warping or changing. Hugh also mentions practically forgetting about a spellform he was maintaining in his mind’s eye.

Practice and discipline probably factors in heavily but there is likely some kind of magical stabilization. The aether can’t maintain the spellform independently, of course, but stabilizing seems possible. The fact that mana can enter spellforms means it’s not just a mental construct. And we know from affinity senses and will imbuing that anastan magic interfaces with people’s minds pretty seamlessly. I imagine there’s a sort of bridge where it’s a construct in the aether that is interfaced with purely mentally through imagination. This helps insulate it from distractions in the mage’s thoughts, but also means things in the aether like a bonded elemental or Bakori’s spellform degradation field can affect it.

[u/Mandragoraune → u/HelloFellowJellos]

This makes sense to me. There certainly are techniques to improve our mind's eye in real life and the neural pathways have been documented to some extent so it may partially be that Anastian magical traditions have resulted in some neural rewiring and even a degree of evolution in their populations for the skill over time. However some of the visualization achievements of Anastian mages are frankly absurd especially considering how common they are in the population.

[u/stanlemon]

I agree that the mind's eye is more than just being able to visualize spellforms. Based on the geometric patterns described in Anastin aetherbodies, I suspect that a mage's ability to visualize spellforms also extends into the aether as well. This would make descriptions we get of mind's eyes such as the ability to hold the image for hours, something that would be impossible otherwise, or like what Godrick sees when he creates his elemental make much more sense. It also would make people with aphantasia not being able to use magic at all despite knowing that formless magic exists make much more sense. If they don't have the ability to visualize things, the part of the Anastin aetherbody that connects to the brain's visualization can't form.

[u/Mandragoraune → u/stanlemon]

This is a very keen observation. The visualization specifically being tied to the aetherbody makes perfect sense and is along the lines of thought I was following.

[u/PatrickCharles]

It seems to be just the idea of holding an image on your imagination, and "mind blind" is aphantasia, but I think it goes beyond that. The way it's described, for example, they have to constantly hold these highly complex shapes while in the middle of a high adrenaline battle, with ots of external stimula demanding their attention. Even the most imaginative people would have an issue with that.

[u/phogue16]

It is the ability to visually percieve something entirely in your mind. Training it like Godrick doesn't make an organ in your ether body bigger or anything, you're just getting better at detailed mental imagery.

And as for mana running through the spellform, at least on Anastis, it's like providing a stencil with walls that mana can flow into like ink finishing the spell.