Glare

“Glares aren’t dangerous because they watch you. They’re dangerous because they make you believe everyone is watching you. Perfect for surveillance—if you don’t mind your target losing their mind. I once tried to sell a Grimoire of Glares to a Titan Academy frat boy by promising he could ‘see into any shower on campus.’ He thought I was joking. I wasn’t. He couldn’t afford it anyway.”

— Madame Soki Noles, Pitch Notes to Clients Who Absolutely Should Not Own Grimoires

Description

Glares are pale, floating, translucent orbs—ghost-lights that hover silently around the emotional detritus of human insecurity. They feed on want (the longing to be seen, validated, admired) and paranoia (the dread of being observed, judged, or targeted). Their preferred feeding grounds include paparazzi-dense star systems, corporate performance reviews, reality holo-streams, and anywhere else people feel watched. They cluster around Subspace Shadows like psychic barnacles, draining their host until the emotional well runs dry.

The typical end-state of prolonged exposure is a psychotic break. Glares do not understand restraint; they feast until nothing is left. While feeding, multiple Glares form a syncretic psychic link with each other and the host. This link opens the host’s mind to imagery from subspace—impossible angles, alien wills, the screaming geometry of hostile RAIs. Most victims cannot process these intrusions consciously, but the psychic damage accumulates rapidly.

Higher RAIs and kthonikers exploit this link ruthlessly. By inserting their own awareness into the Glare network, they can achieve crude but wide-reaching clairvoyance and clairaudience, observing the host’s surroundings remotely. This method of “scrying” is risky and unpleasant—direct exposure to subspace feedback—but extremely practical for espionage, blackmail, and divination.

Rumors persist of a rare artifact: a Glare-lens telescope capable of viewing through multiple linked Glares without risking one’s mind. If it exists, it is priceless—and terrifying.

Prophylactic

Glares thrive on paranoia, so anything that cultivates emotional stability, groundedness, or self-confidence starves them. Meditation—particularly the disciplined “empty self” practices of the Seekers of Wisdom—is the single most effective method of detaching Glares without violence.

Environmental defenses include:
• Privacy fields that disrupt emotional resonance
• Noospheric stabilizers that dampen subspace feedback
• Noise-screening rituals that interrupt psychic link formation
• Anti-obsessive therapeutics that flatten intrusive thought cycles

Glares cannot maintain presence around individuals experiencing genuine inner peace, nor can they anchor to someone who acknowledges being watched but does not fear it—zen exhibitionists, seasoned performers, and the shamelessly self-assured.

Utility

Glares are primarily tools of:
• surveillance (clairvoyance through the host’s senses)
• target softening (slow emotional corrosion)
• mental destabilization (leading toward psychotic breaks)
• long-range tracking (paranoia stands out brightly in subspace)

They have almost no utility outside espionage and psychological warfare. Like all psychic parasites, they are difficult to control, but easy to manipulate indirectly—simply induce paranoia in the target and let the Glares gather naturally.

Glare of Attention

Regular; Resisted by Will (to avoid Quirk)

You summon and bind a Glare to a named target. The Glare attaches to the target’s subspace shadow for an extended period—up to several months—without maintaining cost. During this time, the target acquires a Quirk-level Paranoia (“Someone is watching me”). The Glare detaches if the host:
• collapses into destructive Vice
• undergoes a genuine meditative cleansing
• succeeds on a critical Will roll during a moment of clarity

Duration: Months (GM discretion).

Cost: 5 to initiate; cannot be maintained.

Prerequisite: Aura or Mind Reading.

Glare of Scrutiny

Regular

If a Glare is already attached, you can project your awareness through it, seeing and hearing what the host perceives. This is taxing and exposes you to mild subspace feedback.

Duration: 30 seconds.

Cost: 4 to activate, 3 to maintain.

Prerequisite: Glare of Attention.

Glare of Spite

Regular; Resisted by Will

You incite an attached Glare into aggressive feeding. The target must immediately roll Will; failure results in 1d Sanity Point loss, every 10 seconds, for one minute. On a critical failure, the host suffers a psychotic break at 0 SP. After the violent feeding, the Glare detaches and cannot be used again until reattached.

Duration: 1 minute.

Cost: 6

Prerequisite: Glare of Scrutiny.