Misfit

Description
A Misfit is a person born with additional mental abilities or difference in the mind. Not all Misfits have such complex abilities as those at Obernewtyn. Most are simply defective or dreamers. But the population of Obernewtyn fit into the minority that do have such abilities. Such abilities are called Talents.

Those who are born with talents are condemed by the Council and the Herder Faction.

Farseeking
Essentially telepathy; the ability to communicate with others mind-to-mind over distance. Possible range depends on the mental strength of the individuals involved. Also the ability to read the mInds of untalented without this power.

Farseekers can also combine their strength to farseek further distances.

See also: Elspeth, Matthew, Ceirwan, Jik, Wila, Zarak, Kader

Coercion
Mind-control; the ability to manipulate others' minds without them knowing. One of the three Talents that uses the ability to deep probe. Skilled coercers can also use this Talent to manipulate matter/objects, and create illusions; however this requires a great amount of strength and power.

Coercers can also tap into latent Talented minds to access their powers.

See also: Elspeth, Gevan, Harwood, Kally, Linnet, Merret, Miryum, Domick, Taril, Dragon, Ariel

Empathy
The ability to receive and feel the emotions of others, and, in some Misfits, the ability to transmit emotions. Freya has especially strong empathy abilities called 'enhancing' that allow her to improve the performance and abilities of others.

See also: Dameon, Miky, Angina, Freya, Dragon, Ariel, Jik, Blyss, Kader, Kally, Kella

Healing
The ability to heal others' bodies through the use of a finely-tuned mental deep probe. Can be used to drain fatigue or pain.

See also: Roland, Kella, Kador

Futuretelling
Seeing the future; performed by sending a deep probe dangerously close to the mindstream, a probe will hover above the mindstream which 'bubbles' will come out of and reveal the past, present or future.

See also: Maryon, Dell, Christa, Ariel

Beastspeaking
the ability to communicate with animals mentally; not all Farseekers are Beastspeakers, nor vice-versa.

See also: Elspeth, Alad, Khuria, Merret, Zarak, Lina

Teknoguilding
A deep affinity and slight empathy with machines as well as a love of knowledge and discovery, especially of the Beforetime. Possibly entails some ability to manipulate machines mentally.

See also: Garth, Pavo, Fian, Jak, Cave of Zebkrahn

Killing Power
The only known misfits known to possess this power so far are Elspeth Gordie and her brother Jes Gordie. It is a dark power related to coercion talent. Elspeth often describes this power as a "dark snake" coiled at the base of her mind. It has the power to kill people as seen in Obernewtyn when she kills Madam Vega. This power also seems to augment her other powers, as seen in the book Ashling when she uses it to break through Dragon's mental defences, and also in The Keeping Place to break through demon band static. This power seems to be activated by extreme emotion, especially rage and is often extremely difficult to control. Using this power also comes with some risks. In Ashling, Elspeth is about to use her power on a Herder, but he is killed before she can. Elspeth's strong mental connection to him while he dies almost results in her being killed as well. It is not completely bad, as Elspeth learns to control and hone it in The Sending, where it becomes a powerful tool in her arsenal.

UnTalented
UnTalented people may still have natural mind shields or mind sensitivity.

Known Misfits
For an extensive list of known misfit characters, see Misfits