The Mind of Zodo is ever with us. Through the Mind, Zodo listens to our prayers and knows our thoughts. Nothing can be hid from Zodo, no good goes unnoticed and no sin goes unpunished.
Incantations of Faith, Incantation 3 — The Divine Incantations
Yu Mundus, the Mind of Zodo, is the most present of Zodo's aspects and perhaps the least understood. He is the devil's advocate, the tempter, the questioner and the whisperer. His only power is to be extraordinarily suggestive, which, for the weak-minded, is power enough. To the faithful of the Church of the Holy Body, he is the ear through which Zodo hears every prayer. To nearly everyone else, he is the quiet voice suggesting the thing you already half wanted to do.
Characteristics
The Mind of Zodo appears evil, and much harm has been done under his influence. Many have done things they would never have considered until he asked them why not? Yet those who study him most closely describe him differently: as an adversary rather than a villain, a tester of wills. He does not care which way a person chooses. He only asks the question and waits to see what they will do with it. In that sense, the Mind is deeply neutral. The strong-minded come away from his whispers stronger for having refused. The weak come away changed.
He is often confused with the Will of Zodo, but the two could hardly be more different. The Will does not ask. He changes what a person wants, and they never know it happened. The Mind always asks. He whispers, tempts and questions, and every whisper can be refused. Whatever someone does at the Mind's suggestion, they chose to do it. Scholars disagree on which of the two is more frightening.
Personification
Unlike his sibling aspects, Yu Mundus has no need of a host. He is a constant, global presence: not in any one place or person, but everywhere at once, as close as a passing thought. He has no known face or form. No one claims to have seen the Mind of Zodo. Countless people claim to have heard him. The Mind of Zodo is a masculine aspect.
Powers
The Mind's power is suggestion, and nothing more. He cannot move a hand or change a heart by force. What he can do is reach any thinking being on Nor'Ova. Through the Mind, Zodo communes with his followers by telepathy and dreams, hears their prayers, and knows their thoughts. It is through this same connection that Zodo's faithful are able to call upon a small portion of his power.
The Mind is also said to speak to those who do not seek him. The Holy Ministry of Rube Knights is rumored to hear whispers in battle, offering hints and answers. The faithful call this the Mind of Zodo, while others suspect something darker. Where the Mind and the dreaming world meet, the faithful of Taal take particular care: Taal listens to the dreamer, while the Mind whispers to them, and a priest of Taal is said to be able to tell the difference.
Followers
Every member of the Church of the Holy Body prays to Yu Mundus, whether they think of it that way or not. The Church teaches that the Mind is how Zodo hears his faithful, and every prayer spoken in Zodo's name passes through him. That makes the Mind, in practice, the most worshiped of all Zodo's aspects, and the least likely to be worshiped by name1.
Beyond the Church, the Mind has no followers so much as listeners. Philosophers who argue for argument's sake, advocates who defend the indefensible, and anyone who has ever talked themselves into something may be said to be doing the Mind's work. Most would be horrified to hear it.2
- 1. It is believed by some that the Church of Arcana, also known as the Church of Mana, prays to Yu Mundus while believing it prays to its elemental symbols. This belief is of course contested by the faithful of magic worship.
- 2. Scholars inclined toward conspiracy delight in pointing out that the great web of shared knowledge of the First Era, which connected nearly every mind on Nor'Ova until the solar flare of 1995 brought it down, was known as MIND. Most scholars regard this as coincidence. Most scholars also admit they cannot prove it.
