Mesmerize

Mesmerize is one of Emily Kaldwin's supernatural abilities. It allows her to summon a void spirit to distract living enemies and keep them trapped into a dream-like state for a short time.

Quotes by characters influenced by the effects of Mesmerize can be found here.

Upgrades

Ability	Runes	Previous upgrade	Description
Mesmerize	6	N/A	Summon a Void spirit to enthrall humans or hounds.
Mesmerize Three	3	Mesmerize	Enthrall up to 3 human or canine targets.
Mesmerize Four	3	Mesmerize Three	Enthrall up to 4 human or canine targets.
Lasting Mesmerize	2	Mesmerize	Extend duration.

Usage tips

• Mesmerize works on guards, wolfhounds and gravehounds, allowing Emily to sneak past completely undetected or dispatch them with ease.
• The void spirit mesmerizes the closest individuals to it.
• Enemies not affected by Mesmerize will be unable to see the void spirit, and will simply notice their fellow guards acting suspiciously. As such, their own alert state will increase.
• After Mesmerize has ended, guards and wolfhounds will forget about what happened and go about their normal duties.
• If summoned during combat, enemies will still be distracted by the void spirit, taking up to four combatants out of the fight temporarily.
  • In this case, basic Shadow Kill still takes effect on those who are mesmerized.
• With the Void Rapture bone charm, enemies can fall unconscious when Mesmerize ends. While this can have negative consequences in some cases, for example if a fellow guard is not knocked out and sees an unconscious body, in combat this is very useful, permanently removing some combatants from the fight.
• Upgrading Mesmerize to Mesmerize Four is very important for a ghost playthrough, as it can distract all guards found in most places, while the lower upgrades will often leave a few guards unmesmerized and confused by the behaviour of the mesmerized guards.
• When using Mesmerize along with Domino, more targets will be affected by the attraction. In the best case, it can enthrall up to seven targets.
• The void spirit takes about two seconds to capture an enemy's attention.
• Summoning a second void spirit will disband the first.
• If the mesmerized character is attacked with a sword, but for whatever reason is not assassinated, they will turn hostile and utter the appropriate lines, but will not attack the protagonist, and basic Shadow Kill will not take effect. When the void spirit disappears, they will recall being attacked and will react accordingly.
  • If they turned hostile while mesmerized, but the killing blow was an assassination, basic Shadow Kill does work.
• At the basic level, Mesmerize lasts for roughly twenty seconds.
• Enemies do not have to be looking at the void spirit to be affected, as long as there is a direct line between them and it. If something is blocking that line, such as a floodlight, Mesmerize is ineffective.
• If mesmerized people are attacked by rats or bloodflies, they will shout for assistance and attempt to bat the creatures away with their hands. As this does no damage, they will eventually be killed.
• Mesmerize has a very high mana cost. As such, it should be used sparingly if one is interested in cutting down on resource usage.

Related Bone Charms

• Void Rapture - Sometimes enemies are rendered unconscious by Mesmerize.

Trivia

• When looking at the void spirit, watchers see a kind of beautiful horror.^{[citation needed]}
• If a shopkeeper is mesmerized, the black market shop will not shut. In fact, it will function as normal.
• The void spirit, despite being visible, has no physical form, allowing anything to pass through it unhindered.
• The void spirit always "points" towards a mesmerized individual. If multiple characters are mesmerized, it swaps between them. If there are no characters in range, it twists around randomly.
• Mesmerizing enemies that have detected the protagonist, while making the enemies forget, does still lock the Shadow achievement.
• The Crown Killer, Breanna Ashworth, Delilah Copperspoon and her clones are immune to mesmerize. For the latter three, the void spirit will be dispelled, while the Crown Killer will claim that her mind is "altogether different" and ignore the void spirit.
• If mesmerized, Doctor Alexandria Hypatia will immediately transform.
• Mesmerize is based off Emily's role as Empress, in this case commanding the attention of a large crowd of people.

Gallery

Concept art of Mesmerize in action.

Mesmerize Three icon.

Mesmerize Four icon.

Lasting Mesmerize icon.

Mesmerize affecting Overseers and a wolfhound.

Emily mesmerizes members of the Grand Serkonan Guard on the streets of Karnaca.