Puissant

One who has mastered the arts of manipulation and power. They can temporarily control others, both mentally and physically, and have limited psychokinesis. They are the opposite of a conduit in the sense that their powers are more dangerous if they have too much aethir in their bodies. Every time they use an ability, their body absorbs aethir. However, when not maintaining control or psychokinesis, the puissant's body expels aethir at a rate of 10 points per second. Just like most other classes, the puissant is not immune to aethir poisoning. They can maintain control of an infinite number of creatures or objects, but the maintenance costs are cumulative, so a puissant maintaining psychokinesis of 10 people and 5 objects absorbs 35 points of aethir per second.

Puissants tend to be very rare in most villages, but there are several puissants in each noble house. They are often exploited by new noble houses in order to clear the air of aethir, often at the expense of their own lives. Any village with a high number of puissants is also likely to have many conduits and at least a handful of darkenings. Some even believe that these other anomalies exist because a puissant is present, though this argument doesn't hold ground in noble houses.

Puissants can be very powerful nobles. Their ability to manipulate the minds of others often makes them considered tyrants by their subjects and they are also therefore killed in their sleep by assassins. These assassins are often hired using money pooled by subjects who could in no way be able to afford this in their lives, as the puissant tyrant most likely raised taxes to 100%. Puissant characters start out with more cash than normal (150%) due to their ability.