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Sensitive
Sensitive
Magic Type Adept
Power Seeing into the future, reading minds, astral projection (as seen in Book Three by Finbar Wrong), mind-altering, Aura veiwing, hypnosis
Notable User(s) Cassandra Pharos, Finbar Wrong
Ghastly Bespoke's mother
Paul Lynch, Myosotis Terra

A Sensitive is a person who has any kind of psychic powers. Sensitive magic cannot be taught and requires a natural ability for it, although it is still taught in Corrival Academy.[1]

Sensitive Abilities[]

Sensitive magic is, in essence, psychic powers. These are psychic powers that may or may not fall under the branch of Sensitivity:

  • Telepathy
  • Prophecies/Divination/Visions
  • Contact with spirits
  • Psychokinesis (while also meaning telekinesis, the ability to move and levitate things with the mind, it is also an umbrella term for other psionic abilities like pyrokinesis, cryokinesis, electrokinesis, etc. This ability may be a part of sensitive magic since in the third book, a knife is described as 'flying' into Finbar's hand while in a trance. Whether or not this means it literally flew or he moved rather quickly is unknown. It could also have just been the power of the Faceless One possessing him, since he floated in the air at the time being as well. Also Kitana crushed a sorcerer's brain "with my mind")
  • Aura Viewing (the ability to view the supposed electromagnetic field around a persons body that is generally associated with mystical phenomena)

The Night of Knives[]

The Night of Knives was a night between The Dying of the Light and Resurrection where eleven sensitives including Cassandra Pharos and Finbar Wrong, all had their throats cut at the same time in different countries. Little is known about the event.

Known Sensitives[]

Necromancer Sensitives[]

The Sensitives that are with the Necromancers are known not to have the same strength as other Sensitives.

Finbar Wrong[]

Finbar was the first Sensitive to appear in the series. With his powers, he provided the location of where the Faceless Ones' portal would be. In the fifth book, he is possessed by a Remnant. The Remnant uses Finbar under Solomon Wreath's orders, as well as finding out who Darquesse is which leads to the Remnants having a messiah as well as Finbar losing his psychic abilities then getting them back eventually.

Cassandra Pharos[]

Cassandra's visions require a lot more efforts for less effective results. Because of this, she has equipment to help her. Cassandra was the one who showed Valkyrie and Skulduggery about Darquesse, and gave Valkyrie a Dream Whisperer, which later told Valkyrie her True Name, Darquesse. It is said later that Valkyrie burned the Dream Whisperer because it was "blair witch creepy".

Ghastly Bespoke's mother[]

Ghastly's mother was a professional boxer but did not want to be a Sensitive. She would get visions of the future, and had no choice but to watch them. Ghastly's mother saw that Skulduggery would take a dark haired girl for a partner in the future, and that together, they would face a dark force. She sensed futility in fighting the force, and the world on the brink of destruction. It is currently unknown if this vision has been fulfilled yet, or if it is yet to come.

Paul Lynch[]

Paul Lynch has had visions of the Faceless Ones returning and of Darquesse destroying the world. He was killed by Bison Dragonclaw so that he would be unable to tell anyone about the coming of the Death Bringer.

Jerry Ordain[]

Jerry was a very bad sensitive, only being able to predict the weather a few minutes beforehand. He was interrogated under pressure by Billy-Ray Sanguine and a possessed Tanith Low. Tanith then decapitated him.

Obloquy[]

Obloquy has the ability to project thoughts of pain into his victim's heads. Ryan hears Obloquy's voice in his head say "pain, feel pain, too much pain to move" and Ryan staggers.

Geoffrey Scrutinous[]

He is a Sensitive that works with the Sanctuary, with the power to persuade mortal minds to believe what he tells them to. This ability is also Hypnosis.

Philomena Random[]

She is a Sensitive who works for the Irish Sanctuary, with the power to make mortal minds to believe what she says. This ability is also Hypnosis.

Deacon Maybury[]

He can design a new personality as well as a new set of memories, embed them in a person’s mind and create a psychic wall blocking off the old personality. This is displayed when he disguises himself as Ryan in The End of the World, when he makes Argeddion believe he is an ordinary mortal, and when he uses a psychic wall to split Darquesse and Valkyrie’s personalities. He is turned into a rubber duck by Darquesse.

Bubba Moon[]

His Sensitive ability is that he can enter peoples' minds and take control.

Valkyrie Cain[]

As of Bedlam, her abilities have grown to include advanced sensitive powers such thought control and perusal, as well as future visions where she can control the speed and intensity of a vision.

Notable Instances of Psychic Power[]

Vs. Darquesse[]

With the combined efforts of Finbar Wrong, Geoffrey Scrutinous, Cassandra Pharos and Philomena Random, they were able to create a false set of memories in which Darquesse won, destroyed earth, travelled to other planets and killed all alien life in the galaxy. Interestingly, Darquesse lived through all of the memories in the space of a few seconds, after which she opened a portal to the Faceless Ones’ dimension. When she opened the portal, it appeared in both the false memories as well as the real world. This was clearly a herculean feat as the four Sensitives had to fool a literal god, not to mention the stress of impending death that they were working under. The vision/simulation was not flawless, however, as Darquesse can feel Cassandra’s hand pressing onto her scalp throughout the entirety of her simulation. This also raises the question- where did the aliens that Darquesse killed come from? Are they really out there, in that universe? Were they plucked from the imagination of Darquesse or the Sensitives? Interestingly, Darquesse was able to learn new things inside of her simulation, suggesting that she was also affecting the simulation in some way, as the Sensitives likely could not have known that Darquesse would learn how to travel ‘at the speed of thought’. The simulation was likely a mixture of Darquesse’s actions and power, the Sensitives imagination, as well as reality.

Finbar Wrong and the Faceless Ones[]

Finbar Wrong is known for his visions of the future. However, he has displayed another power before, namely telekinesis. When searching for the gateway into the Faceless Ones’ dimension, he gets too close and they possess his mind. His body then flies into the air and an invisible force knocks Valkyrie and Skulduggery back. Shortly before he is possessed, he also uses telekinesis to pick up a kitchen knife and throw it at a map, showing the location of the gate. This shows that he can use telekinesis without the Faceless Ones possessing him although it is possible that his telekinetic powers were boosted by the Faceless Ones, since we never see him use telekinesis to do anything on a scale of knocking people over or flying again (which, you may recall, is something Elementals can do, but only with great difficulty. It’s likely the same applies for Sensitives as well), suggesting that he simply can’t, especially when he was attacked by Solomon Wreath or the mercenary hired by the Supreme Council.

References[]

  1. Derek's Answers on the Skulduggery Forums, 19th May 2011
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