Telepathy is a form of communication that allows the communication of abstract and concrete concepts without using the five common senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. There are two distinct aspects of telepathy: the ability to project thoughts and an uncommon senses to receive them.
There is some debate about how much of telepathy is magical and how much is innate. Much of the debate is the lack of resonance that most telepathic communications drive, though powerful communications, such as to a thousands of people at once or over great distances, can trigger feedback.
Conventions
In the stories, the convention to mark telepathic communication is to surround them with guillemet such as « and ».
Telepathic Projection
A telepath is one able to actively initiate and maintain a telepathic connection with another being. They are also able to project their thoughts and read surface thoughts of others in the connection. This is a magical effect and has a magical signature which can be blocked and detected. Since telepathy has a mild resonance, it rarely causes significant feedback.
This is also known as the “active” member in the connection.
Passive Reception
Telepaths can project their thoughts and read the mind of others who don't have telepathy. These other people, those without the “magic,” are called the “passive” members in the communication.
It is noted that a passive member cannot truly project their thoughts into the mind of others. Instead, someone skilled in passive telepathic communication is able to present their thoughts as distinct from their surface, which makes it easier for the active side to isolate from the background noise and results in a clearer communication.
If the active member connection allows, there is little distinction between an active or passive member in the telepathic communication but ultimately, the active side controls all responses and information.
⚠️ SPOILER: From this point, this page reveals spoilers for Flight of the Scions.
She looked over at him, and then reached down to grab his hand. As soon as she felt the itch of his telepathy, she brought up the image of the gun. It came quickly, like with Ruben's knowledge. She focused on it. Images flashed through her head and she continued to pull the construction of the weapon, how to use it, and what it could do. The images burned through her thoughts and she used it to explode it into parts and reassemble it in her mind.
«Kanéko Lurkuklan, we need to discuss your manners with telepaths,» came the amused thought from Tagon.
— Flight of the Scions 42
Researchers believe that the passive reception and presentation is called telepathic receptivity and is an uncommon sense that is dormant in the majority of the population. List most senses, receptivity does not have a distinct magical signature that can be manipulated or detected.
Communication
Telepathic communication is rarely as formal as writing or reading a letter. Instead, it is a matter of triggering specific memories or ideas in the receiver's mind.
Ruben sat down in front of her. He pointed to his eyes and stared into Kanéko's. "Telepathy is about memories and concepts. To communicate, you bring up a shared memory. For example, say I want to transmit the idea of looking over a cliff, I will pull up these…
In Kanéko's mind, she found herself recalling the cliff where Maris fell over as she was peering over the side. The memories were bright and sharp.
Ruben continued. “Now, you can read. So I can also bring up letters or words.”
As he spoke, the words he used also appeared in Kanéko's head, but it took her more effort to focus on them. It felt like an obscure thought, one that she struggled with.
The vomen nodded. “You'll notice it is harder. Abstract ideas will always be more difficult to imagine than something personally experienced. So, what we do is we build up a set of images and memories that we both know to make it easier. The more we share experiences, the more I can project…”
— Flight of the Scions 28
Distance
The easiest telepathic communication requires everyone to be physically touching. The distance requires more energy, therefore produces more feedback, with the demand increasing exponentially with distance. Increasing the number of people in the same communication also increases the energy required.
Interestingly, folding magic also shortens the distance requirements for telepathic communication. It is far easier to reach someone through a portal than it is to travel across the continent.