Puppet Creature [Light Magic Grandmaster | 45 Mana]: Take control of one of your enemies, using their own brain against them! The spell lasts for 3 hours, and can control any enemy with a living brain.
What horror does a creature under the influence of Puppet Creature experience? Are they screaming inside, unable to control their limbs and blades as they slaughter their own allies before slicing open their own throat? Are they aware, as their whims and desires are subverted, turning all their mind towards serving the caster? Or do they never realize they were under the influence of the spell, subtle machinations of their own brain making sure that the caster is and always will be more important to them than any friend or family?
I have been under the influence of that spell. I have had the blood of my close friends, men and women I had trained with, lived with, loved as my own brothers and sisters, on my hands. And I still can't see anything wrong with it. That is the magic of Puppet Creature. They will never realize, without outside help, that the time they were under the spell was not their own mind, their own thoughts, their own actions. My memories still convince me it was my own doing, that I had been mistaken in seeing them as friends. The spell still lingers. I can't see anything wrong with it.
I like the idea that high-level spells tend to go full SMAC and have some horrifying implications. Especially Light Magic (electricity, magnetism, and rational thought) Dark Magic (Culture, History, Legend, and Memes) and Spirit Magic (Emotions, irrational thought, and death/life). Ever wonder why a person who was just resurrected screams bloody mary?