The Silence - questions about their powers

[misterharry]

I'm currently working on a write-up of the Silence, but I'd appreciate views on some aspects of how their memory-altering abilities work. In particular, quite how far it extends.

In The Impossible Astronaut, when Amy used her phone to take a photo of the Silence, it appeared that not only did she forget about the Silence in the photo, but also about the photo itself. Is that correct?

Taking this one step further, does the memory loss cover written records of the Silence? So if somebody had managed to scribble something down while the Silence was in view, presumably this would not help them remember - the desciption of the Silence in the notes would be forgotten until they were read again. As with the photo, the notes themselves would be forgotten, not just the Silence. My rationale behind this is that the Silence have been on Earth for a very long time. And although general literacy is only a recent phenomenon (the last hundred or so years in Western civilisation), that's still plenty of time for somebody, somewhere to have been able to write something about the Silence before they forgot. So unless the memory loss also affects written notes and descriptions, their presence would have been uncovered long before the Doctor came along as people would have read about them - unless of course they forgot as soon as they stopped reading.

Does the above make sense?

[korith]

I think that the Silents essentially cause information about them to deteriorate over time while not being actively observed.

Some forms of deterioration are faster than others - the fastest disappearance of such information seems to be from living minds who have briefly glanced at one of them, and then looked away. Information obtained during the observation that does not directly pertain to the Silent remains on a subconscious level (eg, "When you look away, adjust my bow tie") and can trigger an action on the level of the Hypnosis trait.

As for your specific questions: given that the orphanage was filled with written words along the lines of "Get out", the notes would require a certain level of detail to be effective.

Knowledge of the silents existence can remain apart from the memory of having seen one, but this becomes especially difficult.

When it comes to the photo, it seems that the image of a Silent is enough to trigger the forgetting effect. Sound recordings and written descriptions do not appear subject to this effect, but it could be very difficult to believe them without actively observing a silent at the same time.

The Silents also have the ability to disintegrate their enemies. If someone is about to record something that threatens their existence, there's a good chance that the victim might be written up as another "spontaneous human combustion" phenomenon.

[misterharry]

Thanks, that's given me something to think about. Not sure yet how I'm going to reflect all this in a Trait, as it's actually quite complicated - possibly it'll be better to keep the trait itself fairly simple but write up some guidelines as to its application and effects.

[misterharry]

Next question: are the Silence psychic? When Amy sees one kill the woman in the washroom, the Silent tells her "Her name was Joy. Yours is Amelia." (or words to that effect). To me, it seems that it read their minds to get this information. But it could also be that it has been observing them and overheard their names (though Amy isn't actually called Amelia that often). And there's little other evidence either way that I've spotted. I'm tempted to give them the Psychic trait, but not Telepathy. Any views?

[korith]

I agree that Psychic sounds like a good trait to give them. Their "forget me" ability may even be psychic in nature (noting that in the orphanage, when one was dying, it wasn't instantly forgotten), though pervasively (a hologram or a picture can still trigger the forgetting)

[da professor]

Jun 27, 2011 23:45:04 GMT korith said:

I agree that Psychic sounds like a good trait to give them. Their "forget me" ability may even be psychic in nature (noting that in the orphanage, when one was dying, it wasn't instantly forgotten), though pervasively (a hologram or a picture can still trigger the forgetting)

My thought is that it could be the forgetting works with images etc as a result of aeons of psychic conditioning of the species rather than the abilities of any given individual at the time.

[snowman]

Jun 28, 2011 17:14:05 GMT da professor said:

My thought is that it could be the forgetting works with images etc as a result of aeons of psychic conditioning of the species rather than the abilities of any given individual at the time.

Ah, but remember that the Doctor wouldn't be conditioned as such, and he was as susceptible to it as anyone. I think it's more along the lines of "An image of an Angel is an Angel", where their identity itself - image and all - slips from the mind. Over time, it makes one go mad (orphanage worker), and even information about them (though not recorded, or the Doctor's Apollo 11 trick wouldn't work) leaves the mind over time.

[misterharry]

Jul 9, 2011 0:58:09 GMT snowman said:

Jun 28, 2011 17:14:05 GMT da professor said:

My thought is that it could be the forgetting works with images etc as a result of aeons of psychic conditioning of the species rather than the abilities of any given individual at the time.

Ah, but remember that the Doctor wouldn't be conditioned as such, and he was as susceptible to it as anyone. I think it's more along the lines of "An image of an Angel is an Angel", where their identity itself - image and all - slips from the mind. Over time, it makes one go mad (orphanage worker), and even information about them (though not recorded, or the Doctor's Apollo 11 trick wouldn't work) leaves the mind over time.

I largely agree with you, and that's how I ended up writing the stats for the Silence... except "though not recorded, or the Doctor's Apollo 11 trick wouldn't work". The Apollo 11 trick worked because the mind retains the post-hypnotic suggestion , not any memory of the Silence themselves. That's the only thing about them that doesn't get forgotten.

[zebaroth]

but how would you handle the Silence with the players they would have to be real good sports to go along
with it. Gm : you look a way from the Silence and you forget what you just saw.

[Stormcrow]

Feb 12, 2012 2:50:20 GMT zebaroth said:

but how would you handle the Silence with the players

Yeah, it must be really tough to GM a game with Silents. The GM will keep forgetting what the adventure is about!

[Curufea]

Tabula rasa - the players find themselves in different situations and have no idea how they got there.