Glamour: Difference between revisions

Traditionally, [[The Fair Folk]] are reputed to have a powerful and subtle magic that disguises their true (and less than fair) form into one that is beautiful, beguiling and beatific. This was called a '''Glamour'''. It not only cast an [[Master of Illusion|illusion of physical perfection]], but made any hapless viewer think of the fae as graceful, wise, a lifelong friend, and made them easily suggestible if not utterly enthralling them in [[More Than Mind Control]].

Characters with this power become the center of attention. Anyone who looks at the character will suffer effects similar to [[Love Is in the Air]]: they'll consider the character to be flawlessly beautiful, smart, funny, and fall over themselves to do whatever the character says.<ref>(even if the character in question is hideous, dressed in rags, covered in garbage, clumsy, and has the IQ of room temperature... in Celsius!)</ref>. While this isn't direct [[Mind Control]] or a [[Charm Person]], it does affect people psychically by making them want to help the character. Sort of a cross between [[Mass Hypnosis]] and [[The Charmer]]. While weak glamours or strong willed characters probably won't do unethical things or that go against their interests, they ''will'' act at least slightly [[Out-of-Character Moment|out of character]] while under its effects: disliking the character will seem unnatural, arguing against them impossible, and attacking the character would be like committing blasphemy. When it's a powerful glamour (or a [[Weak-Willed]] victim) victims won't hesitate to obey any of the character's whims.

But as soon as he or she leaves the room (or a certain ammount of time passes) the former awestruck followers will get the psychic equivalent of a hangover and wonder what the heck happened. If the character has an especially powerful Glamour the effects may be permanent, require either special shielding to cut off, or the equivalent of [[Mind Control]] [[Deprogram|deprogrammingdeprogram]]ming to return victims to normal. If a character has [[God Mode Sue]] class Glamour, nothing less than [[No Ontological Inertia|killing him or her will end the spell.]]

This is usually a borderline case of [[Bad Powers, Bad People]]. An ethical character that doesn't abuse those affected might actually accrue ''less'' [[Mind Over Manners]] related [[Squick]] than using straight [[Mind Control]]. As a power, it does have a certain degree of [[Blessed with Suck]]. If the glamour [[Power Incontinence|can't be turned off]] the character may very quickly despair at having no intelligent conversation since everyone agrees with them, no ''real'' love since anyone they meet will instantly love them, and otherwise having all the conflict leached out of their life.

Since this is basically a character trait of [[Mary Sue Classic]] turned into a power, it is often explicitly wielded by [[Parody Sue|Parody Sues]]s in fanfiction. When this power [[NoWon't SellWork On Me|fails]] or comes into conflict with an equal and or greater Glamour, sparks fly.

The term, incidentally, derives from "grammar". Like what you learn in school. But since "grammar" was the first of the liberal arts, it came to mean "book learning", and [[Rule of Cool]] demanded that it be used for the coolest form of book learning: magic.

* In [[The Dark Tower]] series (and a lot of other books by Stephen King), there exists a (kinda )subtle type of magic, and along with it a type of Glamour. Used quite often to veil [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]]s from, well, everyone that doesn't want to [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation]]. Which is quite a bit of people.

* ''[[The Laundry Series]]'' has a glamour as a spell any mildly-skilled sorcerer can cast. They're ranked on a scale of one to five, with one being "cover up minor imperfections," three being "make a humanoid entity look perfectly human," and five being "instill outright worship." At one point, Bob buys an iPhone and silently curses to himself that someone at Apple must be casting class five glamours over them.

* Used the traditional way in [[Jonathan Strange and& Mr. Norrell]]: As soon as [[The Fair Folk|the gentleman with the thistle-down hair]], who used to look like a beautiful human male, is in death's clutches, he starts losing his Glamour and reverting back to his weird, ugly, animal-like true form.

* Jasmine on ''[[Angel]]'' used a high intensity permanent Glamour that was visually transmitted to try and [[Take Over the World]].

* ''[[Exalted]]'', oh Christ, ''[[Exalted]]''. Let's just start with the fact that [[The Fair Folk|the Raksha]] outright ''call'' the abilities they use to appear as beautiful ravishers and demon-whores "Glamours." Then there are the various social powers of the Exalted, which range from "everyone in this social group finds ''this'' suddenly taboo" to "everyone who watches me dance falls utterly in love with me, regardless of sexual orientation" to "you find my words stir up shame and loathing within yourself." ... With special mention to [[Complete Monster/Table TopTabletop Games|"you rationalize my every action as being virtuous"]].

* In ''[[Seventh Sea|7th Sea]]'', the sorcery associated with Avalon IS called Glamour, with a few of its knacks able to make the sorcerer more beautiful for bonuses to social skill checks. Likewise, Scryers of Sophia's Daughters get for free the Above Average Appearance advantage (or reduce the cost for Stunning or Blessed Appearance advantages) as part of their sorcerous package. Also, the advantage "Dangerous Beauty" is specifically used for seduction attempts.

* Naminé in ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories]]'' can rewrite people's memories so that they think she's their childhood friend and they're in love with her and so on, if that counts. It's not a sudden "as soon as she walks into a room everyone there is in love with her" kind of thing, but it does make her function in the story much the way a Mary Sue would in a fic, except that you're ''supposed'' to be thinking "wait who is this chick and why does Sora care so much about her all of a sudden". Part of the reason that she is ''not'' a [[Mary Sue]] is that her power has a very narrow range of people that can be affected by it: she can only use it on Sora or those who are close to his heart.

* Arguably the [[Knights of the Old Republic|Jedi Exile]] has this ability, pulling people in and getting them to do what they otherwise would not. It's ''much'' more pronounced if you use this power for evil, as your party members snap out of it after killing whoever you've set them against and react with horror.

* This is how certain individuals who claim to be part-dragon justify the fact that no one else can see their supposed claws and scales. Insanity, perhaps, but a shared insanity if so--theyso—they even have Internet support groups! (They're generally classified as a particularly out-there branch of the Otherkin, themselves an out-there branch of the [[Furry Fandom]].)

[[Category:Mind Manipulation Tropes]]

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