void construct, or non construct i could say

[ryakoth]

last night i decided to create a psionic void just for intererest sake (i realize this could be considered a combat topic), meaning that i went and drained the space in front of me of energy as completely as i could, has anyone here tried this and what was the result, the result of mine was that a lot of my energy and the residue in the room wanted to go there, but i didnt let it, and when i touch the space it ocupied, it slightly hurt, probably due to the fact that i wasnt letting any energy approach it and it pushed the energy out of my hand

thoughts/comments

[neveza]

How could it be consider combat? Wouldn't you just be pooling energy in you hand? It's basic skills in my opinion.

[The Devil's Advocate]

That depends on whether or not he actually completely drained an area of psi, which I currently find doubtful, but not completely impossible. I have a friend who is the rough equivalent of a psionic black hole. The surface effect is a very 'quiet' area (ie he doesn't project much). Conversely he receives EVERYTHING. I haven't worked with him often so I don't know the full extent of the effect, but that is the equivalent analogy that comes to mind. Now he is not a complete void and does not literally drain everything around him. He has his own energy reserve. But scanning him is rather like looking at a light bulb in the middle of a black hole and discovering you actually can see the darn thing. So lowering the availability of psi in a region appears to be possible, though I would hesitate to agree that it could be COMPLETELY drained of psi, as claimed.

As for combat: I see ways it could be applied, but if others don't far be it from me to give them those answers.

~The Devil's Advocate

[TC]

Just a thought: perhaps it could be thought of as a defense mechanism as opposed to attacking. Draining the energy used to attack with? I'm just thinking, never really got into defenses and attacks.

[innerfire]

Hmm, I guess it *could* be, if the strength of the attraction to fill the void overpowered a construct's ability to move, but I'm not sure it would be more effective than just using a repulsion shield.

[Lancefighter]

ive played with something like this... ive found energy, has freqencys... or something... and that a constuct with a inverse frequency (or something... ) will cancel out the constuct it is the inverse of. I suppose it would be possible to set up a shield/ freild that scans for a incoming constuct, (perhaps determines its intent... ) and then changes its frequency to the inverse- thereby canceling out the other constuct. (it does bear mentioning that the energy seems to stop doing what it is supposed to, so such a defence would need constant-ish energy supply... )
-Lance

[The Devil's Advocate]

It could be useful to disrupt a construct, or frankly any attack. I have a couple of shields that are designed to tear apart and absorb incoming attacks, constructs, and other unauthorized psionic approaches. There it doesn’t actually create a void or a cancellation field, but if either effect could be managed with any reliability they might work. The primary problem I see with using this defensively is knowing which ‘frequency’ to cancel. Psi does not behave entirely like light in that you just have to figure out the ‘trick’ of it to get through it. Signatures, and pretty much any field, are difficult to actually /cancel out/. It may be possible, but that one will require more detailed experimentation, and analysis of how shields against empathy and telepathy actually function. Also how this would relate to TK, the monkey wrench in all ‘psi is a wave’ theories.

~The Devil's Advocate

[lunin]

It almost seems to me like pushing as much energy out of a location as you can then throwing up a one way shield that doesn't allow in would be an efficient way to emulate that effect. I have not tried it before so I can't really say whether this works better than your draining of the area and trying to hold it out, but I think if you could do that, then move the shield, it would likely be more useful as a defensive countermeasure as you could make them then keep them around to be released instantaneously and used as a temporary psionic vacuum/black hole of sorts.

[The Devil's Advocate]

There are other methods that would likely be more efficient, but this conversation is bordering on combat. (Depriving someone of Psi to keep them from attacking you is still attacking them.)

On the mechanics of what you suggest: How long do you think you could maintain that void before it collapsed in on itself?

~The Devil's Advocate

[TC]

I think that may depend on a few things. I'm just going to take educated guesses here because I haven't read extensively on this subject, if there are any articles on it. One thing that might depend on how long you can keep that void might depend on how much psi is already there that you need to relocate, and perhaps the density of the psi. The denser the psi is, the more difficult it will be to relocate it? Eh, my mind's not working today.

[wolfdancer]

I would think it would be more a matter of the density of the psi around the void which is trying to move into the area you are holding clear. It would also depend on the individual's skill in energy manip which can not be quantitativly measured only comparitively.

~Wolf

[TC]

Oh yeah. Maybe I should have worded that better.

Just curious Wolf. Wouldn't that mean someone else is attempting to put energy into the exact point of which you are holding the void?

[wolfdancer]

Not necessarily. Since we do not know exactly what psi is, to my mind if you can empty an area then you can fill it. If I remember correctly pretty much everything (atoms, electricity, and so forth) does not like empty space. It is usually attracted to a void with the intent of filling it or pulled there such as with a vacuum or black hole. Consequently, it would require more effort to maintain the void because you would constantly be blocking or cancelling any psi which attempted to approach and fill the emptiness. (Please, anyone feel free to question my physics or wording in this. I am not 100% postitive of it and don't have my personal physicists on hand to discuss with.

[lunin]

I almost imagined it working kind of like the arch effect all around. If it had an equal amount of pressure pushing on it from every area, where the shield itself may not be able to hold up against the pressure by itself, but the fact it has nowhere to break but pushing against the other parts and pushing them outward to re-enforce it it should hold. I may be wrong on this, I still haven't tried clearing an area of psi and strong shelling is not my strongest suit, but the it's something to think on.

[wolfdancer]

Yes, it is. That is a possibility for improving maintenance time, however it may get complicated considering the number of directions that have to be integrated and connected with one another for that to work.

~wolfdancer