pan2000

Imprints in my stories aren't an easy thing to make, resist or comprehend. They are a twisted form of love, which results in mutual obsession. An imprint can also be called a Dyad.

Only one character can make these at will, the Dark One, who uses them to corrupt and ruin people. To make an imprint, you have to be purely Dark. And not just that, you have to possess incredible power, such that even most Force and magic users can't ever achieve. Even Palpatine barely falls short... in both counts.

Imprints are not mind control, so the usual mental resistances and de-brainwashing methods won't work. Instead, an imprint binds two souls together, which results in them always being in contact with each other. For the creator, imprints make two person one.

Imprints can be resisted, if: someone's soul is close to pure good, they have strong willpower and they have friends who really love them. Most fail the first part.

Not all imprints are made willingly. Some might be the result of an accident, or a curse. In the latter case, the curser must also be pure evil and really powerful.

So far, the only way to break an imprint is to kill just one member of the couple. If the imprint is used to justify abusive relationships and one of them was an abuser even before, it's relatively easy on paper. But what if both are flawed but not evil?

On the surface, imprints can be beneficial, and their bond is even stronger than true love. There are cases where people imprinted willingly on others. The imprint allows people to see each other all the time. Also, they can instantly get some of the abilities of each other and be as good as the other person with them, which stay even after an imprint to a degree. Even outside of that, an imprint can make someone several times more powerful, to the point others can't catch up.

Being one of the few pure Dark techniques, it grants overall easy power to those affected. Imprints also make the couple immune to any form of hypnosis or mind control, as the imprint is more powerful than all of them. Pathokinesis can work except if the other half or the master of the imprint are threatened, then it stops working, or if it's not close to the power of the creator.

The imprinted can instantly and flawlessly cooperate with each other, even from a long distance, and one member can easily locate things for the other. Plus, there will be no case of cheating with anyone. These are able to fool people and make them think the imprints are the will of fate/God/the Force, which the Dark One pretends to be.

However, things are not as good as they seem. The obvious disadvantage is the forced obssession the imprinted have with each other. They are willing to kill themselves for each other... for a certain extent of willing: even if someone doesn't want the other person, the imprint will slowly poison their minds and make them obsessed with them even if they did nothing to deserve love. Also, all imprints are abusive relationships. All of them.

There can be imprints on children. Let's leave it at that.

Apart from the unhealthy obsession, which is just like a love potion but mutual and stronger, the imprinted are also blindly obedient to their dark master. Just like how they can not say no to their imprint (or they will be beat up by them), they can't say no to their creator except if they struggle against the imprint itself.

The Dark One can use the imprints to have sleeper agents who are fanatical to him. Also, while an imprint brings two people very close, it makes them push away everyone else who cares about them. Common result of an imprint is for the victims to drive themselves away from their real friends and start blindly chasing after people who abuse them.

The imprinted will be aggressive to anyone who doesn't support the imprints, or each other if the other person says no. There is no real consent in an imprint.

As a result of the abuse, and any and all creators of imprints being evil, everyone imprinted becomes filled with Darkness and becomes more cruel.

The ability to see each other all the time also can completely violate privacy, as an imprinted person can watch their soulmate bathing or sleeping from far away without asking. If they are in opposing sides, they can also give away secrets of each side, meaning nobody else should trust the imprinted with important secrets. They can even read each other's thoughts.

And again, if someone doesn't want it, too bad, they will be forced to. And have to be seen sleeping, even haunt each other's dreams. While death of one person can free the other, the imprint might take control again in the presence of its creator (who is always extremely powerful), and might drive someone to suicide to be with their "true love".

It's why only someone purely evil can make an imprint.