Empathy

"The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart."

― Narration (The Little Prince)

"When we have the wisdom to use mercy and compassion instead of force...we human creatures will finally be on the path to perfection."

― Leslie Thompkins (DC Comics)

"Those who have strong bond give off the scent of trust! But all I'm picking up from you two is the scent of fear, hatred and repulsion!"

― Tanjiro Kamado (Kimetsu no Yaiba)

"If you don't share someone's pain, you can never understand them."

― Nagato/Pain (Naruto)

The power to perceive and interact with the emotions of others. Sub-power of Psionics. Variation of Telepathy. Opposite to Apathy. Not to be confused with just Emotion Manipulation or Telepathy. The User is called an Empath.

Also Called[]

Emotion/Empathic Perception/Senses/Inception
Emotion/Emotional Induction/Contact/Insight
Emotion Sharing
Empath/Empathic

Capabilities[]

The user can fully interpret the emotions, moods, and temperaments of others without reading apparent symptoms, allowing them to understand introverts or discover one emotion is actually hiding another. They can attack someone in a personal and emotional way since they know exactly what emotion is flowing through themselves and can use this knowledge to play against them. Some users may learn to read emotional imprints left into environment or objects.

This particular ability is a nuanced extension of Empathy which allow a user to perceive the lingering emotional energy that has been embedded in a place or item due to significant events or the release of strong emotions. For instance, in a room where a tragic event occurred, an empath might feel waves of sadness, fear, or anger that still linger, even if years have passed. Similarly, a location associated with love and celebration might radiate joy and warmth, making the empath feel uplifted.

Through it, an empath could perceive echoes of past events, almost as if the emotions themselves tell a story. This could manifest in visions or sensations that provide clues about what happened. If the users were to touch an object that belonged to someone, they might be able to sense that person’s emotional state during pivotal moments connected to the item, almost experiencing their feelings firsthand. These experiences can help the empath understand people and situations deeply or solve mysteries by uncovering hidden emotional truths.

Sometimes, emotional imprints can even influence the environment itself. A space might feel heavy, cold, or bright and comforting based on the emotions that have saturated it. An empath could walk into a place and immediately sense its emotional past, feeling the shadows of pain or the warmth of love left behind. With practice, an advanced empath may be able to trace the emotional history of a place or object, piecing together a sequence of events based on the lingering emotions.

Usually over time, an Empath's power grows to the point that they can manipulate emotions in others, and possibly use them to empower themselves. The user may learn to extend their power over/on vast numbers of sentient beings or reach extreme distances, even other levels of existence but this may be possible only if the user has an emotional link to those the search is already in effect on.

Etymology[]

A twentieth century borrowing from Ancient Greek ἐμπάθεια (empátheia, literally “passion”) (formed from ἐν (en, “in, at”) + πάθος (páthos, “feeling”)), coined by Edward Bradford Titchener in 1909 to translate German Einfühlung.

Applications[]

Ballistic Empathy
- Killing Intent: Projecting one's murderous intent through their negative emotions.
Citified Sense
Ecological Empathy
- Animal Empathy
- Plant Empathy
Emotion Detection
Emotion Manipulation (Varies to stronger users)
- Empathic Inundation
Empathic Projection
Empathic Communication
- Omnilingualism: Some empaths can speak, write, understand and communicate fluently in any language, and as such is potentially able to understand and communicate with anyone, even non-humans on an emotional level.
Empathic Echoes
Empathic Hearing
Empathic Link
- Empathic Charging
Emotional Intelligence
Indomitable Emotions
- Indomitable Compassion
Psychic Navigation
Psychological Mastery
- Lie/Truth Detection: Empaths can sense when a person is lying or telling the truth to them, as lying can cause an irregularity in one's emotions. More skilled users can pick out the lie and find the truth.
- Social Mastery
Sensorial Link

Techniques[]

Aura Reading
Empathic Combat
Empathic Energy Conversion
- Empathic Conversion
Empathic Healing
Empathic Illusions
Empathic Mimicry
- Intuitive Empathic Replication
Empathic Power Absorption
Empathic Power Randomization
Emotion Empowerment
Emotion Projection
Intuitive Empathy
Psychometry: There are some places that have constant emotional residue (due to major events happening in that location war, death, historical moments, etc.). Some empaths are able to tap into those emotional (lower-level users that enter these places are overpowered involuntarily) imprints and re-experience those emotions as if they were happening in that moment. If skilled enough, some empaths can also see the emotional echoes (images/residual ghosts) still there. This would be due to high levels of concentrated emotional energy.
Remote Empathy
Tactile Empathy
Techno-Empathy
Tranquil State
- Tranquil Emotions
  - Spiritual Meditation: Clearing your negative emotions can help you know those of others.
Visual Empathy

Levels[]

Empathy: Sense, feel and understand the emotions of others.
Cosmic Empathy: Skilled empaths can feel other's emotions on a cosmic scale.
Omni-Empathy: At full power, empaths can feel the emotions of every single being in existence that has emotions.

Variations[]

Empathy has many branches of power, ranging from very weak to very advanced. As the user becomes more advanced, these branches may grow. Here are some levels that other empaths have displayed having/may gain:

Clairaudience: Some empaths have displayed the ability to not only feel emotions, but also "hear" the heightened thoughts associated with those specific emotions. This is probably due to the fact that both cortices (emotional and mental) so closely relate to one another. An example would be if an empath senses two spouses aiming a lot of hatred towards one another. The empath might get the echo of thought along with that emotion (E.g., "I can't believe he's cheating on me after all these years"). However, this is not to be confused with Telepathy. An Empath can only get visionary "echoes" related to certain emotions. They cannot read full memories.
Clairempathy: More advanced users of empathy have shown the ability to sense emotions over great distances such as cities, countries, continents, and other dimensions and planes (The Astral Plane AKA The Emotional Plane).
Clairvoyance: An empath can forge an emotional connection with another being. If that connection stays opens, the empath is able to sense when that person is in danger and is also able to locate them by their "emotional scent". To give you a better understanding of this, one could consider this the empathic version of "Vampiric Siring" (see "True Blood", "Buffy", "Moonlight", and "The Vampire Diaries" for an understanding of supernatural "Siring"). See also Sensory Scrying. Also, could be used to sense/feel/detect spiritual/demonic beings, as well as feel the danger within a place.
Empathic Force Manipulation: Empaths can manipulation an energetic and robust variation of Emotion Manipulation.
Empathic Summoning
Musical Empathy: Empaths gain various abilities based on the type of music one listens to and/or plays.
- Musical Empathic Projection: Project emotions based on the music one plays.
Spiritual Empathy
Tattoo Empathy: Empaths with tattoos which affects how they think and feel.
Telempathy

Associations[]

Used By[]

Limitations[]

In real life and in fiction, this doesn't have to be an actual power, but it can be a skill/ability that can be developed. However, in real life, it is highly unlikely that you could reach the level of empathy as addressed above.
Defenceless against beings that have no emotions, such as robots or users of Apathy.
Users of Empathic Power Resistance (Resistant)
Could be negated to users of Indomitable Will/Psychic Shield/Empathic Shield (highly resistant), Psychic Immunity and Empathic Shadow (impervious)
Emotion locked users are immune.
The user may suffer from a Sensory Overload due to absorbing too many emotions.
Cannot work on mindless beings such as users of Zombie Physiology.
May only be able to receive emotions.
- Might get taken over and act on those emotions.
Inexperienced Empaths may find their powers completely useless in a fight.
May experience headaches.
May not be able handle large amounts of emotions at once.

Known Users[]

See also: The Empath.

Live Television/Movies[]

Isabelle Tyler (The 4400)
Lily Tyler (The 4400)
Cognitive Interpreter (Alphas)
- Agnes Walker
Mima (Aruna's Magic)
Cordelia Chase (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel)
Drusilla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Vengeance Demons (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Empath Demons (Angel)
Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan (Angel)
Marcus (Angel)
Empaths (Charmed)
- Phoebe Halliwell (Charmed)
Maggie Vera (Charmed 2018)
Prue Halliwell (Charmed); temporarily
The Doctor (Doctor Who)
Isolus (Doctor Who)
Musa (Fate: The Winx Saga)
River Tam (Firefly/Serenity)
Aiden Lucas (Ghost Whisperer)
Beth Gordon (Ghost Whisperer)
Mary Anne Patterson (Ghost Whisperer)
Melinda Gordon (Ghost Whisperer)
Will Graham (Hannibal series)
Lydia (Heroes)
Sylar (Heroes)
Crybaby (K-12)
Angelita (K-12)
Ben (K-12)
Celeste (K-12)
Magnolia (K-12)
Fleur (K-12)
Lilith (K-12)
Dryad (Legacies); Limited
Tim Roth "Dr. Lightman" (Lie to Me)
Zeke Landon (Manifest)
Mantis (Marvel Cinematic Universe)
Emma DeLauro (Mutant X)
Tele-Empaths (Mutant X)
Chloe King (The Nine Lives of Chloe King)
Psycho Green/Trek (Power Rangers)
Darkseid (Smallville)
Dan Smithson (Species)
Sam Winchester (Supernatural)
Maya (Spirits TV series)
Betazoids (Star Trek)
- Deanna Troi
Jedi (Star Wars)
Cara Coburn (The Tomorrow People)
CJ Ward (Tower Prep)
Vampires (True Blood)
Frost Sisters (The Gifted)
- Esme Frost
- Phoebe Frost
- Sophie Frost
- Mindee Frost
- Celeste Frost
X-23 Children (X-Men Movies)
- Rebecca

Comics/Cartoons[]

Nari (Tales of Arcadia)
Mento (DC Comics)
Miss Martian (DC Comics)
Raven (DC Comics)
Various Metahumans (DC Comics)
Cybernary (Image Comics)
Various Mutants (Marvel Comics)
Blackheart (Marvel Comics)
Psylocke (Marvel Comics)
Silver Surfer (Marvel Comics)
God of Stories Loki (Marvel Comics)
Ahura Boltagon (Marvel Comics)
Cordelia Frost (Marvel Comics)
Manuel de la Rocha/Empath (Marvel Comics)
Jean Grey/Phoenix (Marvel Comics)
Rachel Summers (Marvel Comics)
David Haller/Legion/Susan in Sunshine (Marvel Comics); persona of Legion
Meggan Puceanu (Marvel Comics)
Luna Maximoff (Marvel Comics)
Mantis (Marvel Comics)
Aranea Serket (Homestuck)
Spawn (Image Comics)
Sunset Shimmer (My Little Pony Equestria Girls)
Steven Universe (Steven Universe)
Butterfly Miraculous wielders (Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir)
- Gabriel Agreste/Hawk Moth/Scarlet Moth/Shadow Moth /Monarch
Peacock Miraculous wielders (Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir)
- Nathalie Sancoeur/Mayura
- Gabriel Agreste/Shadow Moth
- Felix Fathom/Argos
April O'Neil (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012 series)

Video Games[]

Anita (Darkstalkers)
Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep)
Seraphine, The Starry-Eyed Songstress (League of Legends)
Mind Guardian (Legacy of Kain)
- Nupraptor (Legacy of Kain)
- Kain (Legacy of Kain)
Alex Chen (Life is Strange: True Colors)
Marcus (Reverse: 1999)
Black Doom (Sonic the Hedgehog)
Lillia, The Bashful Bloom (League of Legends)
Harrier Du Bois (Disco Elysium)
Gardevoir (Pokémon)
Hatterene (Pokémon)
Mesprit (Pokémon: Legend Arceus)

Anime/Manga/Manhwa[]

Eves (Denma)
- Cell
- Edrei's Eve
- Bon
Jay (Denma); via Emotion Transferring Bot
El (Denma); via Little Emperor's Branding (El's Mark)
Ran (Denma); via Control Transcriptomes Quanx ability
Tanjiro Kamado (Kimetsu no Yaiba)
Satoru Fujinuma (Erased)
Meredy (Fairy Tail); via Maguilty Sense
Dhianeila Y Leisha Altoria Ol Yunos (Heroic Age)
Ayano Tateyama (Kagerou Project)
Users of Kenbunshoku/Observation Haki (One Piece)
- Aisa
- Coby
- Otohime
- Shirahoshi
Sheena (Pokémon)
Damos (Pokémon)
Kenshin Himura (Rurouni Kenshin)
Fushi ("To Your Eternity")