Guild Wars 2

Like the title says; are mesmers able to read minds? I’ve tried to find any bits of lore that confirms it or proves it impossible.

It seems that they can- it happens twice in Edge of Destiny, both times in the form of the mesmer (Jennah and Faolain) reliving the subjects memories (Logan and Caithe). Both times, iirc, involved physical contact, so that’s a possible limitation. However later in the same book, Jennah and Anise were able to combine their talents and peer into Kralkatorrik’s mind, so when working in tandem it seems that obstacle can be surpassed. I can’t think of any examples of it happening in-game, though, so I expect it’s very rare.

We know that they can communicate with one-way telepathy on a general scale. But as Aaron said, exceptionally powerful mesmers are known to have entered a willing particpant’s mind and witnessed their memories. It should be noted that Faolain did not relive Caithe’s memory – that was more of a flashback sequence to “shoehorn” (kinda sorta) Faolain into those past moments revealing that she’s been following Caithe the entire time. Jennah and Anise are exceptionally powerful mesmers, so just because they can do it doesn’t mean any mesmer can. And Snaff isn’t outright a mesmer, and utilized gemstones in order to enter Kralkatorrik’s mind forcefully (and with great mental effort too), so he isn’t a case to use as standard – or even exceptional, for that matter, since Jennah and Anise combined got pushed out immediately.

Based on Edge of Destiny, it seems likely that mesmers would need a willing participant to read minds – otherwise they’d be forced out or have to trick their way in. But again, this is with exceptional mesmers and the “forced out” is with a beyond exceptional subject.

Thank you both so much for your responses!

Glint is also a wielder of an ancient mesmeric magic of sorts (very powerful and very old, from before the Bloodstone’s time). Aside from one of the greatest trick of illusion to date (the hiding of her lair), she’s able to hear the thoughts of all creatures from a great distance, and it may be possible she can also affect their way of thinking to a certain degree.

Would it be possible for other spell casters to read minds, like necromancers, or elementalists?

It’s probably possible, but not very common. It could be that an Asura researcher that also happens to be an Elementalist, could for example find a spell or experiement that let them do it. It could be a side skill for some lore characters. But I doubt it’d be very common. It’s like saying an Engineer could learn how to operate like a Surgeon. Maybe they could, but it’s hardly their field of focus and it’d certainly not be a common occurance.

Necromancers are known to converse with spirits – more so than any other profession at least. Exception being within Cantha, as it is a cultural role of necromancers in Tyria and Elona to do the cultural role of ritualists (conversing, easing, and guiding the spirits of the dead to the Mists), while Canthan necromancers’ cultural role is to maintain balance between life and death – which tends to make Canthan necromancers darker than non-Canthan necromancers (whom incidentally also do a combined form of the assassin’s and Canthan necromancers’ cultural role – he former are to balance society – Tyrian and Elonian necromancers have mentions of keeping good and evil forces in balance, which in turn balances the living and the dead).

Beyond this there is no mention or indication of non-mesmers having any form of special communication abilities.