| Mote of Light |
–The Mote of Light
The Mote of Light, also known as PSI King, is a mental figure that takes the form of a small floating orb. It is all that is left of the consciousness of a brain that's been sitting dormant inside of a jar at the Motherlobe for around 20 years, and has forgotten its previous life and identity. When Razputin enters this mind using his Psycho-Portal, it reactivates all of its senses, creating the Sensorium.
Appearance[]
The Mote of Light appears, as the name implies, as a small glowing ball of light. This is the result of the mind's owner forgetting his own identity and appearance. As Raz reconnects the members of the band representing its senses, it takes on additional features, first becoming a floating eye and then gaining a small arm and ears or a nose and mouth around the eyeball, depending on the order in which the segments are tackled.
Personality[]
The Mote of Light has a great love for life. He is a kind person who is extremely curious and enthusiastic about rediscovering the world and his past identity after being in stasis for so long. He loves music and is the lead singer of a band that's composed of his senses. He follows Raz as he travels throughout his mind and comments on each figment that Raz collects.
Background[]
The Mote of Light is what remains of the consciousness of Helmut Fullbear, a member of the Psychic Six who was thought lost in the Battle of Grulovia, as his body fell into a lake frozen by Otto Mentallis' hyperhyglaciator. Before losing consciousness at the bottom of the freezing lake, Helmut took out a capsule of super sneezing powder he carried for emergencies, which caused his brain to shoot out of his body and out of the water, where it was discovered by Ford. Ford put Helmut's disembodied brain into a jar and took it home with him, but his attempts to use the Astralathe to cover up the truth of what happened resulted in his own mind being left fractured, which caused him to forget about the brain.
The other Psychonauts searched tirelessly for Helmut in the frozen lake, but could not find him. Unbeknownst to them, Helmut's brain remained in a jar at the Heptadome, causing his consciousness to atrophy and fall into darkness. The brain was eventually only discovered many years later when his fellow founder, Otto Mentallis, wandered in by coincidence. Oblivious about its identity, Otto left it in his hall of brains as an unprocessed mind and labelled it as "Heptadome Harry".
Story[]
Psychonauts 2[]
Razputin comes across the Mote when he looks for a "loaner brain" for Nick Johnsmith's brainless body, so he can gain access to the office inside the Mailroom. He picks out an anonymous unprocessed mind from Otto's Hall of Brains known only as "Heptadome Harry". When he uses his Psycho-Portal to enter the mind, he finds only total darkness and the Mote of Light, the remains of the brain's owner's sense-deprived consciousness. The Mote is happy to have a visitor after all of these years. Laughing with glee, it remembers words and the existence of other people beyond itself, and enthusiastically consents to being returned to a body.
Upon being inserted into Nick's body, the previously deprived mind immediately becomes overwhelmed by all the sensations he'd missed for so long, as he ecstatically runs around trying to experience his surroundings. Raz enters his mind again to help him get a grip on the situation.
Inside the brain, colors and images of Nick are swirling all over, and a Panic Attack pops out. Raz tries to fight it off—unsuccessfully, as the creature proves too fast to keep up with. The Mote of Light shouts at the universe to shut up, tuning everything out and leaving a dark void that now has a sense of space and some wispy silhouettes that represent long forgotten memories. Not long after, there's a knocking on the wall: Vision Quest, a representation of the brain's sense of vision, shows up to grab the Mote of Light, who he refers to as "PSI King", and take him outside of the void, which turns out to be the inside of a Memory Vault. Raz follows them out into the newly formed Sensorium, a mental world that takes the form of a colorful music festival celebrating the senses.
In the Sensorium, Vision Quest is attempting to set up a concert to a rowdy crowd of little Nick Johnsmiths, eyes, ears, and noses. For this musical performance, all five of the missing band members that represent Helmut's senses and their instruments need to be tracked down. Raz and the Mote of Light first visit the Eye Shrine, a domain inside Vision's eye where his violin can be found. The Mote teaches Raz how to use Time Bubble to get past rapidly spinning fans so he can recover the violin. The crowd isn't satisfied with a mere violin solo, though, and so the group sets off in the Feel Mobile to find Audie O and Dr. Touch at the Campgrounds, and Tasty and Sniffles at the Concession Stands. While there, Raz and the Mote enter domains dedicated to hearing and touch, and taste and smell, respectively, to recover the other members' instruments as well. The Mote is occasionally overcome by another Panic Attack, which Raz defeats using Time Bubble. For each recovered instrument, the Mote of Light also transforms to add an eye, nose, ears, mouth, and nose to its form.
Finally, the group can properly perform. As the PSI King sings his song "Cosmic I/Smell the Universe", he regains his old identity and takes on his old body's form: Helmut Fullbear, the missing member of the Psychic Six who everyone thought dead. Suddenly, the show is rudely interrupted by a traumatic memory of Maligula. She reminds Helmut of the Battle of Grulovia, and of the 20 years of abandonment he suffered at the hands of his friends. This terrifies and overwhelms him so much he shuts everything out again, returning to being the Mote of Light in the darkness of the memory vault. One memory at a time, Raz helps him come to terms with the events of 20 years ago, and reminds him that his friends really did care about him all these years. This gives Helmut the strength to fight back, and he traps the mental Maligula in a time bubble so Raz can finish her off.
Psychic Powers[]
- Time Bubble: The Mote of Light has been stuck in the void of his mind for so long that time no longer has much meaning to him, resulting in the development of this psychic power. Razputin learns this power from the Mote.
Relationships[]
Vision Quest[]
The Mote of Light's sense of sight is personified by a human mental figure with an eye for a head. He wears mostly green and sports an American southern accent.
Sniffles[]
The Mote of Light's sense of smell is personified by a human mental figure with a nose for a head. They wear a purple color scheme.
Dr. Touch[]
The Mote of Light's sense of Touch is personified by a human mental figure with a pink hand for a head. Touch wears a red coat over a stripped orange sweater. Unlike some of the other senses, Touch has a mouth.
Audie O[]
The Mote of Light's sense of hearing is personified by a human mental figure with a blue ear for a head. They wear a blue color scheme.
Tasty[]
The Mote of Light's sense of taste is personified by a human mental figure with a yellow mouth for a head. Taste wears a yellow color scheme.
Razputin Aquato[]
Razputin is a friend of the Mote, and he helps him reconnect with his senses and cope with the emotions that came with his restored memories, for which he is very grateful.
Trivia[]
Description of the Mote's synesthesia.
- An official Double Fine Discord Q&A explained that the brain's owner is a synesthete[1]. Synethesia is a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory pathway. This phenomenon is observable in his mental world where his senses are often intertwined with each other, an example being how each sense is represented by a color and a different musical instrument.
- His voice actor, Jack Black, has a history of working with Double Fine, voicing Eddie Riggs (the protagonist of Brütal Legend) as well as Harm'ny Lightbeard in Broken Age. Jack Black is also a well-known movie actor and voice actor, notably voicing Po from DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda, and used to be a member of a comedy rock band called Tenacious D.
- When Clairvoyance is used on the Mote of Light, Razputin appears as a wild burst of color.