After referencing some books I have on souls, I have determined that targeting the soul is more of a difference in method and will achieve the same outcome as targeting the mind. The soul is a reflection of the body and mind, so any change to the soul results in a change to the former two. The soul is not directly observable, and thus “soul control” would provide results that are indistinguishable from mind control, as they are intertwined. The reverse is also true where altering the mind would also alter the soul.

Where taking this alternate route could be useful though, is when it comes to avoiding countermagic. All magic users know that counterspells are highly specific and generally require knowledge of the original spell to work properly. In the era of industrialized warfare, counterspells have taken on new life as unicorn and changeling soldiers are wielding identical spell matrices in a way the more artisanal warfare of yesteryear would not have allowed for. It also applies to Kirin, I suppose, but I doubt they even have spell matrices in Kiria; the Silence has kept them quite primitive. If I use a standard approach to mind control, it is likely a counterspell will be developed in a short time. Soul control, on the other hoof, promises a longer development time for my enemies.

Actually, on the topic of countermagic, there could be another benefit to soul control as long as I ditch the “control” part and replace it with the “alteration” I was thinking about yesterday. While not technically countermagic, dispellere is a widely known spell and magic neutralization is a mature technology. The Abyssinian magic neutralization collars I have are one example, and I have read a piece describing the Queen’s Tower in Vesalipolis which talks about how Chrysalis' seat of governance houses a stone which neutralizes all non-changeling magic. The mind control methods I have been testing would immediately lose effect upon contact with either of these.

Puppetry with levitation being interrupted is obvious, and Asinti’s demons would obviously not be affected, but the reason for Cogeria and Fiducia being affected is more interesting. It is because neither spell actually alters the target’s mind. Instead, they are what I will coin as “active” methods of mind control. Cogeria acts as a blanket over the mind, preventing too much thought via active interception. This requires constant magic, and is therefore vulnerable to being dispelled or neutralized. Fiducia adds artificial mental pathways which are powered by magic and is thus also dispellable.

If I were to instead, through soul alteration, actually change the minds of my targets, it would birth a new kind of mind control which I will coin as “passive”. In this method, the neural pathways will be rewritten at the moment of casting the spell such that, for example, a target will serve me unconditionally. Now that the brain has been reprogrammed, it requires no further magic input from me which means there is no magic to be dispelled.

The mind has proven too complicated to work on directly as it is part of the body. The complexities of individual minds and of the biomechanics means passive mind control has not been thoroughly studied. Biomancy does exist, but it is incredibly niche. However, my recent jaunt into necromancy has opened my eyes to manipulating the mind through the soul. If necromancy already has an in-built framework for manipulating the recreation of the soul from parts, I believe it will only be a small leap to manipulating an existing soul.

The question remains of why no one else has tried passive mind control before. I believe that there actually do exist examples of passive mind control via soul alteration or otherwise, but that they simply haven’t been replicable. The lord of chaos, Discord, for example, is said to be able to rewrite minds on a whim, but it seems an extension of his frankly unfathomable powers of reality alteration and therefore out of reach for any normal creature.

Now that the matter of method has been established, all that remains is the matter of, well, matter. What in a creature’s mind do I actually want to change? I can see a number of different methods working. The most relevant part of the mind is memory, but memory encompasses quite a broad spectrum of known things. I’ll have to do some research into how it works to get a better sense of how it is structured. I have not heard of spells that interact with memories, but I should check for texts on the subject regardless.

Hergriff Ebbinghaus’ book Memory. A Contribution to Experimental Psychology is an interesting read, but it reveals that the nascent field of experimental psychology will not be of that much help to me. This book is lauded as one of the seminal texts of the field, and yet the only experimental subject he had was himself. The book does cover much on forgetting and remembering but does not define an information structure of how memory is organized. Surely there is a difference between reminiscing on a past experience and knowing how to take a derivative. It seems I’ll have to be the one to develop the theory myself.

On the subject of memory spells, I was unable to find anything besides an old scroll written by Clover the Clever. It depicts a story of his battle with a sorceress with an object referred to only as the “Memory Stone”. This stone was apparently able to erase memories or even parts of memories. It does not, however, speak to its method of functioning. The scroll seems strangely truncated, ending right at the sorceress’ defeat. An interesting writing choice given the detail prior, which leads me to believe it is incomplete. Annoying, as it doesn’t speak to the storage of memory, the returning of the erased memories, or what Clover did with the stone. It seems I’ll have to improvise solely based on the necromantic principles from Silver Star’s books.

Author's Note

The information on counterspells is based solely on the depiction of the counterspell from Rainbow Rocks, which I think is the only counterspell in the show.
I also don't think there are any memory spells besides the stone from Forgotten Friendship.
I feel like an investigator trying to see if there is actually anything Viira can use from different parts of canon.