Talk:Beguiler/@comment-32987979-20200112085534

This is all just headcanon, but I created a character who is a Beguiler and came up with my own "rules" for Beguiling, since there's not much information about it, in case anyone's interested since it's here in y mind.

To Beguile means to charm, so in my characters' universe, there's a lot more to this ability than just having a soft voice. Beguilers are typically even more alluring than other elves, which helps them to charm their subject. Basically, they use a lot of facial and body language for Beguiling, more so than just using their voice.

Being Beguiled is a lot like hypnosis. What I mean by that is with hypnosis, you cannot force someone to do something against their moral code. For example, though you might be able to have a subject do something they wouldn't normally do but wouldn't be opposed to doing, like giving up information, you couldn't make them murder someone because their subconscious wouldn't allow them to. The subject wouldn't be aware that they'd been Beguiled (unless specificaly trained to) and would believe that they'd just made a conscious decision.

The difference between Mesmerizing and Beguiling is that when one is Mesmerized, their body is controlled but not their mind; the Mesmer can physically force the subject to do whatever they want, but they can't make them believe in what they're doing. (This is somewhat contradicted in the books, but again, this is all headcanon.) For example, you could Mesmerize someone into killing someone because you have complete control over their bodies. But you couldn't make them give you information because you'd have no control over their minds.

So while Mesmerizing is more powerful and more useful in most circumstances, Beguiling has a few advantages since you'd be able to not only force someone to do something (as long as they wouldn't be morally opposed to it) but you'd be having them believe they're making the conscious decision to do that thing. A Beguiler could, for example, charm a guard into allowing them to pass into an unauthorized area, and the guard wouldn't even realize they'd been tricked. A Mesmer could subdue a guard so that they couldn't keep him from entering, but the guard would be fully aware that the Mesmer wasn't allowed to enter the area.

I doubt anyone cares enough to read this wall of text, but maybe someone will find it interesting. I came up with all this mostly to give this ability its own "personality" and have it differ from Voiciferating and Mesmerizing, and to have something to refer to for my own characters.