Some questions about Milliene

[Isa]

Okay, there's just a few things I've been wondering about Milliene. Truthfully, I've wanted to ask since I got caught up... but I'm lazy like that.

If Amena get's all of the memories and abilities that old Milliene had, exactly what is the difference between them? I mean, is Amena some sort of opportunistic spirit trying to possess Milliene now that her mind is gone? I can't think of any significantly different explanation of how the two could be not be the same.

Assuming that the only difference between Amena and new Milliene is memory and ether abilities, wouldn't Milliene become Amena if she somehow recovered?

Amena insists that the new Milliene is an empty shell. A blank personality. Why doesn't she use her psi ether to fuse her mind to Milliene's? If there is really so little to Milliene, Amena's personality would be unchanged, aside from gaining the ability to control their body full-time. Further, the new Milliene would probably agree, if Amena phrased it as "This will let me give you all your memories back".

Considering the above, I can only think of two explanations:
1. Amena is a body/memory/skill stealing thief. And she's been lying to both Solaria, and the new Milliene.

2. Amena/Milliene are the same... But she is a psi-ether user who either doesn't understand how the mind works... Or she became a psi-knight rather than a psi-mage because she's not exactly the brightest bulb in the box.

Anyway, I was wondering what you guys thought. I don't know that HW can say a whole lot, though, since the answers would probably spoiler everything about Milliene/Amena's character(s).

[Antonymous]

Amena could have a distinct personality from Milliene even if she has the same memories. And she might have a different metaphysical identity, if there's such a thing in their world. Milliene-2 seems to have a different personality from (what little we saw of) Milliene-1 - she's shy and passive and wears a dress instead of something practical. (A spear and a long dress - now that's an accident waiting to happen!)

Amena is a body/memory/skill stealing thief. And she's been lying to both Solaria, and the new Milliene.

I was wondering about that too. Might Amena be evil?

• She appeared after Milliene's mind was destroyed by a demon. That's not suspicious at all.
• She takes over Milliene's mind without asking, and has somehow convinced Solaria not to tell Milliene about her.
• The sound effect when she takes over sounds like a low laugh, which is an unusual choice for multiple personalities, but normal for demonic possession.
• She claims to have Milliene-1's powers, but she's never used them, even in battle - or maybe that was Amena's subtle influence?
• She claims to like Solaria, but has never done anything to help her or Milliene, nor provided them with any information from her memories.
• In her last appearance, she denied noticing anything odd about Lavian, even though she's obviously familiar with mind-affecting ETHER.

On the other hand, Amena's visual effect is a Psi-Knight mask, which suggests she's for real. Maybe multiple personalities are just an effect of having one's mind shattered by dark ETHER.

Anyway, I was wondering what you guys thought. I don't know that HW can say a whole lot, though, since the answers would probably spoiler everything about Milliene/Amena's character(s).

We can speculate just fine by ourselves.

[Isa]

I tend to view the personality as a function of experience (memory) and a person's innate nature (which could be genetics or the soul). Thus, I figured that if Amena was distinct from Milliene-1, then one of those two is changed--or added to. So if Amena isn't to be Milliene-1... There's something we aren't being told here. Milliene-2 being different from Milliene-1 is something I expected though, simply because a person isn't the same if s/he has undone ~20 years worth learning, mistakes, and disappointments.

There are two new points you made me think about, though.
1. Maybe Amena really is Milliene-1. I mean, all we know about about Milliene-1 is that she really wanted revenge on Xantrich. She might not have been a nice person. She might even have been evil. And even if she wasn't, as you said: Amena appeared as an end result of a demon's spell. So maybe Milliene-1 + evil = Amena.

2. While Amena thinks she's the heir to Milliene-1's memories and powers, we don't know for certain that she's actually collected her inheritance, yet. She claims that she's inherited the memories, but even she might not know how complete they are.

[Furikku]

I can't think of any significantly different explanation of how the two could be not be the same.

In actual cases of Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder) it's not uncommon for distinct alters/personalities to share memories of one another or of the core/original identity (even if the core is unaware of the others), but to not be affected by them as "theirs." Similarly, DID tends to produce very different alters with wildly divergent traits, ranging from personality to even things like allergies. So, it's not entirely unheard-of for two "personalities" to be even more different than Amena and Milliene ver.2 are. (And, presumably, Amena and Milliene ver.1.)

Why doesn't she use her psi ether to fuse her mind to Milliene's?

As she says here, "I lack the ability to maintain a hold on conscious control for very long." Possibly such a thing would be too difficult or time-consuming for her at this point. Or possibly Mill1 never bothered to learn that sort of thing. Or, as in many actual cases of DID, maybe she'd rather maintain her individual self, even at the cost of less control. (I mean, would you be willing to be fused with someone you kind of look down on, and risk having their traits? Especially if, since Mill2 is the "dominant" alter, there's a possibility that Amena could be diminished or even obliterated. I know I wouldn't want to take that chance.)

She appeared after Milliene's mind was destroyed by a demon. That's not suspicious at all.

I thought the destruction was her overloading her Psi ETHER to block Xantrich's attack.

The sound effect when she takes over sounds like a low laugh, which is an unusual choice for multiple personalities, but normal for demonic possession.

I always thought of that SFX as a breathy noise, like when you fog up glass, to accentuate the "oooooo, woogety!" goings-on of the transfer.

She claims to have Milliene-1's powers, but she's never used them, even in battle - or maybe that was Amena's subtle influence?

Or, again, she might not have been able to take over and prod buttock. It may even be particularly difficult in a battle situation, if Mill2 is trying hard to focus and stay on top of things, thus maybe having a death grip on the mental situation.

Same general thing for the next point; she might be unable to pop up and be all, "Hay guise, here's some exposition!" (Or, alternately, unwilling to do it, especially around other people.)

In her last appearance, she denied noticing anything odd about Lavian, even though she's obviously familiar with mind-affecting ETHER.

I figured that was a gag based on her eyes having the same mind-controlly thing going on- just wanting to make sure nobody else looks askance when she pops in, perhaps.

Maybe multiple personalities are just an effect of having one's mind shattered by dark ETHER.

That was what I assumed (well, replacing the Dark ETHER part with "overloading on Psi ETHER"). There's also the possibility that Mill1 was DID beforehand, and therefore Amena acted as a backup when Mill1's brain sploded.

A spear and a long dress - now that's an accident waiting to happen!)

IDK, my experience in LARPing was that polearms aren't that difficult to wield in long, flowy clothing. You just have to keep them high enough and the ends out enough not to get snagged.

[Isa]

Hooo boy... I'm gonna have to learn to use the quote function, now... (EDIT: it's not as complex as I thought it would be.)

In actual cases of Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder) it's not uncommon for distinct alters/personalities to share memories of one another or of the core/original identity (even if the core is unaware of the others), but to not be affected by them as "theirs." Similarly, DID tends to produce very different alters with wildly divergent traits, ranging from personality to even things like allergies. So, it's not entirely unheard-of for two "personalities" to be even more different than Amena and Milliene ver.2 are. (And, presumably, Amena and Milliene ver.1.)

Admittedly, I've only taken a few psych classes... But I was under the impression that DID was rare enough that nothing about it could be called 'not uncommon'. Additionally, I was under the impression that the multiple personalities are only separate on some levels, and that at deeper levels of the subconscious, they are still the same person. The schism occurs because subconsciously, the person is trying to adapt to something. Admittedly, this could be what happened to Milliene. In which case, it's a non-magical version of my Milliene-1 + evil = Amena argument, where Amena is just Milliene's attempt to adapt to mind shattering stress.

I mean, would you be willing to be fused with someone you kind of look down on, and risk having their traits? Especially if, since Mill2 is the "dominant" alter, there's a possibility that Amena could be diminished or even obliterated. I know I wouldn't want to take that chance.

Amena being willing to fuse with Mill2 kinda hinged on her being an empty shell. On there not being enough of Mill2's personality to significantly dilute Amena. If instead you figure that Amena was lying when she belittled Mill2 as nothing... Her not trying to fuse them makes perfect sense, as you said.

I thought the destruction was her overloading her Psi ETHER to block Xantrich's attack.

We only have Amena's word on this. Everyone else who weighed in didn't really know that much about psi ether. So if Amena is willing to lie... we really don't know.

I figured that was a gag based on her eyes having the same mind-controlly thing going on- just wanting to make sure nobody else looks askance when she pops in, perhaps.

Same. I had just dismissed it as a joke.

my experience in LARPing

Not to threadjack myself or anything... But is LARPing fun?

[Furikku]

Admittedly, I've only taken a few psych classes... But I was under the impression that DID was rare enough that nothing about it could be called 'not uncommon'. Additionally, I was under the impression that the multiple personalities are only separate on some levels, and that at deeper levels of the subconscious, they are still the same person. The schism occurs because subconsciously, the person is trying to adapt to something. Admittedly, this could be what happened to Milliene. In which case, it's a non-magical version of my Milliene-1 + evil = Amena argument, where Amena is just Milliene's attempt to adapt to mind shattering stress.

Well, it's not uncommon in all the cases I've read about. I used to be a big buff about the condition, and still occasionally read up on it.

The mechanisms are not really fully understood, so it's not safe to say whether the alters are or are not the "same person." From what I understand, the idea is that some unbearable thing happens that the psyche can't handle, the psyche dissociates to avoid having to handle it, and then the brain throws up an alter to take care of business in the meantime.

My point was that fairly complex, distinct individuals with the same memory access can and do spring from a single mind, so it's not impossible that Amena could be distinct from either version of Milliene.

I thought the destruction was her overloading her Psi ETHER to block Xantrich's attack.

We only have Amena's word on this. Everyone else who weighed in didn't really know that much about psi ether. So if Amena is willing to lie... we really don't know.

The sequence in question implies that the demonic attack was blocked and Milliene Red Ringed herself.

Not to threadjack myself or anything... But is LARPing fun?

If you like pretending to be someone else, dressing in costumes, and (in boffer LARP) beating on people with foam weapons, then yes. (Granted, it depends a lot on who you're playing with, as well.)