Half-Deryni

[Laurna]

Sorry Bynw. I just can not agree with the statements 2,3 and 4 above.

[Bynw]

Lords Ian, Lionel and Mahail, and Bran Coris are all empowered humans. No different from the Haldane Kings since the Restoration. But as I noted previously the difference is to what level of Power and skills, they were granted from the Deryni(s) who empowered them.

Of course, the King of Torenth or the Shadowed One isn't going to empower a human ally with enough Power and skill to overthrow them. That is why they don't come near the power and skill of an empowered Haldane King.

Camber and his kin empowered Cinhil with the power to defeat Imre. And that power has been passed down the Haldane line ever sense. Not to mention that influx of Deryni blood it gets periodically too.

That is why the Haldanes are more powerful than the other empowered humans we have seen so far. It was a gamble that Camber was willing to risk.

Derry is human. He is very open to the use of the magic of the Deryni and has been taught a few things. A mindset to use the mindlink medallion. But the power to actually use mindspeak is not his power. It comes from the imbued medallion. The medallion takes its energy from the host aka Derry but that is as far as it goes.

Derry has all the theory of how it works but none of the practice in terms we would use today. Meditation and centering are skills anyone can learn they are not Power specific skills.

Revan was human as well. He doesn't have Power thus he is not affected by Merasha the way a Deryni would be. He has no real powers just like Derry. He has Charisma and was the leader of the Baptizer Cult that was used to Block Deryni to save them. He didn't do the Blocking and it was all an elaborate illusion (not magical) to make it look like his baptism did the removal of Deryniness when it was really Tavis and others who did the blocking.

[ReikiDeryni]

I offer the suggestion/proposition that "made" Deryni are merely descendants of blocked Deryni or Deryni some place in the ancestry. As I believe is the case with the Haldanes, Bran Coris, Warin de Grey, etc.

[Bynw]

I offer the suggestion/proposition that "made" Deryni are merely descendants of blocked Deryni or Deryni some place in the ancestry. As I believe is the case with the Haldanes, Bran Coris, Warin de Grey, etc.

I'm sure some are as it would be easier to empower someone that has Deryni blood in their family tree even if it is very diluted to the point that the individual themselves doesn't have any Power naturally.

This is very true for the Haldane's as many Haldane Kings have married Deryni since the founding of the Kingdom.

Bran Coris we are not sure of even though we know he married a Deryni woman.

But Warin de Grey, it has been said in multiple places that he ISNT Deryni, made or otherwise. He is something else.

[ReikiDeryni]

In the Camber trilogy, when they empower Cinhil, Camber and his family do it with a set of spells included into the empowering. So following that line, it is more than likely that is how all empowerings going forward probably happen. As to Warin, considering all magick in the Deryniverse comes of Deryniness, he has to be descended of block ancestors, diluted blood or divinely imbued and those seem to be the only choices. The second sight of the border folk would probably also extend from ancestry of blocked Deryni for the most part, especially considering that seems to be where most of the blocked Deryni were sent after being blocked.

[Laurna]

I know that KK has said that Deryniness comes from the people who were from Caeriesse. but it has not been clarified how and why there are other members of the human population who can use magic. Two theories that come to my mind are:

1) The ability to use magic developed solely in one place on this planet- the Isle of Caeriesse in a single race of people called  Heldurnii (descendants of the old pagan Gods)who eventually migrated to the mainlands and became know as Deryni. they intermarried with other races. All magic that has defused into the human population has originated from that one source. Magic would not exist on this planet if it were not for the Heldurnii(latter called Deryni)(I think this is what most people perceive from reading the books.)

2)OR Magic is an element in the natural world of this planet. Certain humans and maybe even animals have learned to tap into that element and use it in different ways to assist their own survival.
a)Some animals might use scrying to stay away from predictors,
b) a group of people along the northern coastline can scry for water because normally it is too scarce to find without some magical assistance, and they found the ability to form minor energy wards for protection.(second sight)
c)Humans learn to adapt to protect themselves with shielding when they are around people who might read their minds or harm them.
d)A Family or two found, through ceremony and trauma, that an individual could instinctively Chanel the element of magic and they become leaders in a human world.
e) And lastly a group of people called the Heldurnii from an island in the west had a mutation different than other humans that allowed them to learn the knowledge of magic and studied its effects. they taught it to their children who learned even more about it. They kept to themselves, occasionally venturing onto the mainland until their island sunk(Was it something they did to sink it?) and they migrated onto the mainland.

I personally believe that Magic is an element in this world. and different groups have learned to use it in different ways. Second sight, Deryniness, and humans who can adapt to using magic, all different mechanisms to attaining that element that is already part of their world, Magic.
However, I suspect that I am most likely the only one here who thinks this way.

********************

I have been requested to move my last comment to this thread. To keep it from appearing as a new reply and people saying "but I already read that over there", I shall just add my latest theory to this reply. And I dearly hope that it does not offend anyone. I was just talking aloud while trying to do research and understand the concept of empowerment.

I am a serious romantic and anyone who knows me in real time or virtually can attest to that.
I am going to try and take a bite out of Empowerment of humans to gain better understanding. I am not going to delve into whether a human had to have Deryni in their ancestors or if some humans are just able to adapt. That is a different discussion.
I want to discuss how much power (level of spell crafting abilities) an empowered human can become. Because apparently not all humans that are empowered have the same abilities.

Deryni Magic pages 237-243 I am pulling out what I think are purtenant quotes:

*"Occasionally... we have come upon characters who apparently are not Deryni yet have powers very like those of the Deryni...."
    *"Haldane subset: The Royal House of Haldane comprises a special bloodline whose members have the potential ability to assume or be given Derynilike powers...."
    *"Well before... in the East, the potential had begun to be observed in other individuals as well.... Endowing political allies with quasi-Deryni powers came to be regarded as relatively commonplace....(We do not know when "making" Deryni became common in the East)"
    *"(Eventually, use of Shiral Crystals broadened to include detecting the power-assuming potential as well as mere Deryniness.)"
    *"The question of whether a female of the Haldane line might be able to Hold and wield the power does not seem to have arisen.... in the less than two centuries documented thus far...."
    *"We also know that full power assumption has never been known to occur completely spontaneously-- though certain individuals carrying the potential have been known to develop varying degrees of Deryni-like talents through repeated contact with Deryni geared toward awakening such abilities."
    *"For full potential to be realized in an individual, the process must be triggered by the direct action and guidance of a least one Deryni well versed in the general principles of Deryni power utilization."
    *"...Two parts: the potentializing and the actual empowering....  The potentializing is far more dramatic of the two, for it must open up hitherto unused channels of energy flow in the subject's mind.... Almost without fail, the sensory overload that accompanies such an opening leads to loss of consciousness, at least for a short while."
    *"in the Potentializing and empowering of a Haldane, the learning involves establishing new patterns and pathways for energy flow-- by a certain degree of force, no matter how willing the subject, and at greater speed and pressure than the virgin pathways are accustomed to carry. Small wonder that the experience is traumatic and the aftereffects staggering."
    *"setting the potential has only prepared the candidate to carry the enormous power that awaits him; he does not yet have the power.... until some final act is performed."
    *"The potentialized and empowered Haldane is the match for just about any Deryni, able to wield all of the ceremonial and practical magic of which the first empowerers were capable. This is not to say that wisdom, judgment, or experience are conferred along with the power...."

I want to point out the strongest quote is "of which the first empowerers were capable." What I confer from this is that Camber, Joram, Evaine and Rhys built from their joint experiences a set of "ceremonial and practical magic" that they felt Cinhil Haldane would need to defeat the Festils and rule the kingdom. That would be a lot of knowledge. Each empowered Haldane king after the original has been able to set the potential of all this knowledge in his sons and heirs. The exception was Rhys Michael who was not able to perform the potentializing so he set the knowledge that Michaela would need in the lion broach. Between the lion broach and the Eye of Rom a resonance seems to help open the pathway for all this knowledge. How? I will leave to the romantic imagination.

Another curious thing to consider in the Haldane empowerment's is that the Four Archangels really do seem to be present in at least most of the rituals we have been fortunate to witness. Is the knowledge of the Haldanes assisted by the presence of Heavens Archangels? Again I will leave that up to the reader.

If I am right in my conclusions, than it is up to the Deryni performing the potentializing of the empowerment just how much knowledge he/she wants to pass down to this human-being made-Deryni. If they do not have the lion broach and the original knowledge that came from Camber and family, then just how much power does the human being empowered get?

Did Conall really get the full Haldane powers or did he only get what Terceil wanted to give him?  Did Lord Ian and Lord Bran only get the limited powers that Charissa and Wencit thought they needed to do the job they wanted and no more than that?

I submit that not all empowered humans are of equal magical power.

Also we know it is possible to be Deryni and to be empowered at the same time. Kelson is proof of this.
What does anyone think of this theory?