Resonance
Resonance is the ability for Persona Users to detect the supernatural and sort through the information they receive. It is a 'sixth sense' in how your Persona grants that unto you, but how your mind interprets it is often by filtering it through your other senses.
Think of the Collective Unconscious as a vast ethereal sea of information that your Persona can draw from by virtue of its narrative archetype. By having a Persona, characters possess an intrinsic ability to detect psychic presences within that sea. Everyone has a psychic signature which can be picked up by resonance, including Demons, Shadows, and other cognitive entities. Likewise, all supernatural beings have resonance, not just Persona Users.
Some Persona Users possess sensory capabilities from resonance that are greater than average, which their personal narrative focuses upon. These individuals are often referred to as navigators in the Persona communities.
The Basics
All Persona Users have resonance. Not all people with a Persona are aware of this from the start. However, some do become aware when flashes of insight warn them of danger or hostility a short distance away just in time. These are often filtered through your psyche as physical sensory cues. Smells are common, as they interfere with your hearing and sight less, but other noises or flashes at your periphery do sometimes happen.
So too do 'vibes' that soon become part and parcel with being a part of the supernatural world. Most Persona Users passively put this off by existing, and other Persona Users can sometimes pick it up even if they're not in a Supernatural Space. These feelings are not necessarily obtrusive, but those with greater abilities in resonance are more likely to feel them. Certainly, these sensations become much stronger when someone actually summons their Persona.
As an example, if one is close childhood friends with a Persona User, or family, it's possible your psyche will pick them up as a 'warm hug' that resonates nostalgically with your psyche's impression of the person. One shouldn't mistake this as meaning anything personal if one doesn't get such a reading, though, even for their closest friends. Some people are just more reserved as a matter of course.
The Persona User does not specifically control what others receive, and while the intensity varies, it is typically at its peak when you encounter their Persona for the first time before one becomes more used to it with repeated exposure.
These feelings should not be understood to be a mood ring that gives a real-time sense of what the person is feeling. It is instead a personal signature, so to speak, that your psyche is responding to based on how close you are to them. As a rule you don't get their feelings--you get the sensation of their aura.
For strangers or acquaintances, Personas may offer different emotional input depending on its narrative. Some Personas might give off the sensation of fear, anger, or even feelings like desire. To other Persona Users, these feelings are understood quickly to just be a part of the process and never equated to anything that might be considered a status effect.
People who don't have a Persona might be more drawn into those feelings, and are likely but not always intimidated by their brush with the supernatural. One shouldn't expect hardened soldiers or SWAT teams to just run away from these feelings; instead, they are more likely to open fire. Sometimes this is more positive, such as Rumormonger Toro's ability to charm people more easily with his own resonance--but it's nothing more than a vibe, a little nudge that might make people feel more at ease. It's not hypnosis or mind control, but an ability an experienced Navigator has as a specialty.
In places where the supernatural has greater influence on everyday life, these sorts of powers can be even more effective. Rumormonger Toro can influence a demon with his Persona of desire to really want something. On the other hand, the negatives are more pronounced too: Reiji Kido's negotiations would be harmed if he tried to use his fear-inducing Resonance to sell something.
So too do Demons and Shadows emit such signatures. Mindless Shadows might give off feelings of intense apprehension or fear from the deadly danger they pose; Metaverse Shadows give off a signature that's a blend of the place they're a part of and the archetypal form they transform into. What your Persona receives might depend on its own archetype and its relation to that archetype, as well as your own Narrative. As a simple example, someone with Thor might pick up a subtly playful hostility from Loki.
The most dramatic examples occur when there is a Persona User who is in a sense your antithesis displaying naked hostility. Not every Persona User will ever meet such an individual, but they will most certainly recognize it when they do. When this happens, it can be sensed much further away than usual. You might hear and feel a pounding heartbeat, the world may flash in other monochromatic hues, and things might just smell wrong in a way specific to them that just turns your stomach.
For some, this is as far as their resonance goes. Others are able to train themselves to sense when someone is a Persona User merely by being near them. While some Persona Users may call this a function of training up one's chi, the reality is that focusing on developing their Persona's resonance through mental exercises, meditation, and mindfulness training is just as effective. Some of these exercises are documented within the rare Cognitive Psience book or paper still floating around.
Antagonists are encouraged to pose the specific sensory information that others receive of them when this occurs. While protagonists are in control of that reaction to the signature to some extent, they should be mindful that it doesn't reinterpret the antagonist's feelings in an unintended way.
The Third Eye
Taking the ability Third Eye, Spotlight, Jamming, or Sneak Guide at character creation indicates that you want your Persona User to have more focus on resonance than normal. This does not necessarily mean the person is a full navigator. It just means they have better sensory capabilities. They may take a handful of navigator support or interference abilities for their repertoire, but it doesn't have to be their focus.
Many examples exist in Persona Games of characters who are fully combat functional, yet capable of serving in that function by having a little more sensory capability than usual. Mitsuru Kirijo, Teddie, Morgana and the Black Mask are all characters that fit this archetype.
It certainly isn't exclusive to them either. Early in Persona 5, Ren Amamiya receives the ability from his patron to receive specific sensory information through resonance. It functions like augmented reality by letting him see footprints or other bits of insight about the cognitive world he's traversing.
Each Person's way of experiencing resonance with the Third Eye is unique to their own Persona's narrative, and for some it may indicate a focus more on interference than increased sensory capability. For more on that, see the section below.
Whatever the case, taking one of these passive traits is required for a Persona User to have more sensory capability than a normal user. It is, to repeat, not necessarily a statement of making one a full-time navigator. To put it another way, every navigator has one of these traits, but not everyone with them is a Navigator.
For more on that, read below!
Navigators
Your character being a full-time navigator is a statement, and a very specific one. It means you are trading out more combat ability for supreme abilities of resonance. This is not just represented by taking Third Eye, Spotlight, Jamming, or Sneak Guide as a passive trait at application but at least a third of your attack list being navigator abilities, if not more.
A navigator is not simply a Persona User who is focused on sensory details over long distances, but able to sort through and analyze the information as well. This means they're someone who can tell the abilities of Demons, Shadows, and Persona Users through careful analysis of the information they're sensing through the Collective Unconsciousness.
Many navigators offer teams of Persona users greater freedom and flexibility to explore cognitive spaces, but also offer great support through healing, distraction, interference, and abilities which strengthen their teammates while weakening their foes.
Navigators of this level also possess telepathy, and can psychically coordinate battle strategy with their teammates. This telepathy has some limitations. It is difficult to speak to someone who doesn't want to be found, even if they're someone you know well. The person they wish to link with must be within that same supernatural space and a reasonable distance. Fuuka finding someone in Tatsumi Port Island during the Dark Hour is entirely reasonable. Her speaking from Tatsumi Port Island to someone in Sumaru is more of a stretch.
Skilled navigators can also sense when other navigators are prying in. Even those without interference capability might be able to tell you're talking to someone nearby that they're focusing on and 'hack' that telepathic line to force themselves in. Another ability both experienced and powerful navigators might develop is sensing someone's bonds through resonance, so long as it is a bond that they themselves share in the first place.
Ex. Maki Sonomura senses through Maya Amano upon first meeting her that she is friends with Yukino Mayuzumi through her resonance and declares that any friend of Yukino's is a friend of hers.
While in Persona canon, navigators can perform support from great distances, on Velvet Room MUSH, the staff have made the judgement that navigators must be in combat range in order to utilize more in-depth analysis on enemies and support on their allies.
Navigators thus have a stat block and are fully valid targets. As a result, navigators are welcome to take more offensive abilities than canon, or to eventually develop an offense mode to their navigation Persona as Rise Kujikawa does, typically after an arc of personal growth.
Each navigator also has their own personal aesthetic, specific to their personal narrative, for engaging with resonance. Futaba Sakura might float over the battlefield, providing support before dashing away; her resonance might be treated as a hacking minigame. Meanwhile, Fuuka Yamagishi might see it as a more spiritual experience and speak mystical chants for awe-inspiring sensory feats, making her Persona the defensive 'rock' that anchors and protects her team.
It is noteworthy that manifesting a Persona for longer periods of time is implicit to the navigator experience. As a result, simply manifesting it and using it for navigator feats is less draining on a Persona User's stamina than offense or defense--but if a navigator's Persona gets targeted, it may rapidly drain their stamina if they're not careful.
For more on Navigators and playing one, see our file on Navigator Personas for guidance.
Interference
Some Persona Users have abilities that can interfere with their resonance or the resonance of others. These are known as interference abilities. Interference abilities do not just work on Persona Users, but often Demons and Shadows as well, obfuscating their presence from detection and allowing for greater stealth in cognitive spaces.
More skilled users of interference type resonance abilities can hollow out their Persona, obscuring the form and its narrative from the analysis of others, keeping them in the dark as to its abilities.
The stronger one is with interference, the more difficult it is for navigators to find them, unless they are well acquainted, or have a specific bond with a person, which always makes things marginally easier to bypass such abilities.
People with some abilities at interference can close telepathic lines that navigators have opened on them by shielding their minds, whereas navigators skilled with interference can prevent telepathic communication at all over a wide area.
When two navigators are in conflict, with one sensing and the other interfering, the interfering party generally wins out unless the one sensing knows this is happening, has some idea of where the interfering party is, and they're well acquainted with the individual trying to interfere with them. Then they have a chance, but only a chance.
We ask that protagonist players play nice with antagonists who have interference abilities. They're the antagonist; interference may be a large part of the narrative they're trying to spin. If you'd like your protagonist to have a narrative of finally overcoming them in this way, then work it out with this person and make it an arc over time.
Examples of canonical characters with focus on these abilities are Chidori Yoshino for navigators, and Black Mask for Third Eye characters. Full navigators almost all have some ability at interference. Fuuka Yamagishi can hide her team from detection by minor Shadows, but it is not what she is necessarily best at in comparison to someone who focuses on this more.
The Will of Rebellion
The Will of Rebellion is of special note when it comes to resonance and interference. Every Persona User with it is granted a low-level interference effect that masks this personal signature from other Persona Users. Unless they desire it, no Persona User can ever detect that they are one by casual brushes with them in the real world.
This also extends to matching up their real life appearance with their supernatural transformations. This is generally a function of cognition. Even if one were to see Joker and understand his height, build, hair style, and eye color, taking a look later at Ren Amamiya in real life would not let them realize they're one and the same. After all, this reserved glasses boy feels nothing like the flashy and spectacular feelings the leader of the Phantom Thieves puts off when using his Persona.
This even includes directly hearing their name. However, the more one hears it, the less they're protected by the Will of Rebellion. This is why the Phantom Thieves of Hearts utilize code names, in order to keep this effect from fading.
Likewise, the closer one gets to someone with the Will of Rebellion, the less and less it protects them. The effect often seen in Persona 5 where one figures out Ren Amamiya is a Phantom Thief based on the strength of their bond is a feature, not a flaw, in the design.
Same goes for Shadows and Palace Rulers sometimes recognizing one with the Will of Rebellion as someone they know. It's a function of the personal nature of their relationship.
OOC Notes
- There are opportunities for characters, in particular navigators, to have resonance abilities not covered in the above or that can't be performed via csys. If you want this, then please note this in your character's application. Justification for why your character needs a unique resonance ability will be required.
- Identifying someone as a Persona User by resonance is entirely buy-in and by OOC consent. Please do not ever pressure other players into letting you identify them this way. However, if you think it's fun to be recognized for scene hooks with some characters, then it's absolutely encouraged.
- This goes double for Will of Rebellion Persona Users. One shouldn't ever assume that merely hearing their name when transformed is enough to identify who they are, even in situations like Shadow Okumura specifically calling Noir his daughter. Their narratives often have grave societal consequences if one pierces this veil casually. Thus, one should always ask for consent first before doing so, or before ICly conferring who they are to someone else. It is always preferred that one collaborate on a narrative of growing close enough to the person that this feels natural when the protection fades.
- Resonance is called 'Detection' by the Kirijo Group since they are mostly disconnected from communities of Persona Users. This is not a common term, and is instead more a divergent one from scientists attempting to understand Mitsuru Kirijo's powers from when she was very young. Kei Nanjo has not yet set the record straight, because he's being close lipped about his experiences. SEES on the grid would almost certainly start calling it Resonance, once exposed to other Persona Users.
- Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons have a form of Resonance that is particularly sensitive to the emotions of all living things, not just humans. This is how they're able to 'translate' animals that don't have language. This ability is only available to individuals whose basis for their Shadow and thus their Psyche is a 'Plume of Dusk'.