Spiritcraft
From Ardesia
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Spiritcraft is the art of working with the spirits of things.
Spiritcraft as a mindful discipline is relatively unknown in Tayel. Its most common form is in the reading of intimately-known spirits, and is regarded as just wise ones seeing "the way of things". It also manifests in its natural form in the crafting of items. The crafting of enchanted items is
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[edit] Spirit reading
Many who only practice spirit-reading see it as nothing special, and wouldn't call it spiritcraft. Nonetheless, it is a basic skill of the mindful spiritcrafter.
Those who develop it naturally usually do so after long familiarity with a place or thing. An elder who has fished the same stretch of river since he was a boy and who has great reverence for the river might, for example, be able to read the health of the river or catch inklings of tumult farther upstream in the currents and changes of the season. A old veteran soldier may come to sense when her trusted bronze sword has been weakened long before any physical signs show the need for repair. Dowsing is another example of spiritcraft.
Spirit-readers need not know that what they do is spiritcraft in order to be skilled. Not all spiritcrafters are equally adept at reading spirits, or at reading all spirits; so a spirit-reading skill or skills must be nurtured independently of one's skill in spiritcraft.
[edit] Working with spirits
Those who pay attention to the lives of spirits and know their motivations can recruit spirits to bring about effects. The art is as much knowing how to ask, as it is finding the right spirit of which to ask the right question. Getting a spirit to do one's bidding willingly is a matter of convincing them that the actions that the practitioner desires are in line with the goals and purpose of the spirit. Though they have knowledge beyond mortal ken, spirits are not omnipotent and can be deceived in order to gain their aid. However, those who have deceived a spirit often find that the benefits are not worth the consequences.
Some who work with spirits do so not by earning their respect and goodwill, but by earning their fear and awe. These individuals can command spirits to do their bidding with only passing regard for their motives. This path is a dangerous one, though, and only the most powerful, terrible, or subtle of these tyrant spiritcallers manage to keep all the spirits with with they come into contact at bay for long.
Working with spirits directly can only be done by spiritcrafters who practice the art knowingly.
[edit] Spirit calling
Spirit calling is the art of creating a vessel and calling a spirit to inhabit it. There are two fundamental ways of doing this: by asking (or coercing) a spirit to inhabit and give life to a shell, and by calling a spirit into being as a new essence.
[edit] Calling to a new home
The first is a variation of working with spirits as described above. Asking a spirit to inhabit a different object requires convincing the spirit that it would rather do so than remain where it is. A spirit so convinced may abandon its old home, allowing new or neighbouring spirits to move in and inhabit it, or may split in order that a part may live in the offered object. The nature of the inhabiting spirit and of the object determines the new nature of the object. For instance, a staff inhabited by the spirit of a great bonfire may become charred and able to strike with scorching heat.
Such an inhabitation may be temporary, and once the task is fulfilled the spirit will return to its original home, perhaps somewhat changed, or may drift off to find a more interesting home. The arrangement can also be permanent. The original spirit of the object soon becomes joined with the new inhabitant, and the melded spirit will reflect the new nature of the object. Calling a spirit to a new home can only be done in those who practice spiritcraft deliberately, and so requires skill of the practitioner.
A particularly fell use for this sort of spirit calling is the necromantic reanimation of corpses. The nature of a once-living, but now dead, thing is sufficiently far from an animated thing that only very powerful spirits can reanimate a body by itself, and such spirits are rarely to be bargained with. An accomplished arcanus can make the body more amenable to reanimation by the skillful application of all four Principles. A corpse so prepared can be successfully animated by much more common spirits.
[edit] Essential spirit calling
Much like spirit reading, few of those who actually practice it recognise it as spiritcraft.
The ancient art of crafting items of power is usually considered purely an application of arcane magic, but is actually a combination of arcane magic and essential spirit calling. The normal crafting of a particularly fine blade is as much matter of creating a good blade as it is a matter of harmoniously joining the spirits of the components of its creation. The creation of items of power is the natural extension of this. Only, where the master swordsmith creates a fine sword-spirit by working the elements into a fine sword, the arcane item crafter creates a vessel so worthy, in material and enchantment, that it calls a new spirit into being grand enough to inhabit it. For example, a ring of power might be crafted of heavy gold and rare gems and layers of carefully-placed enchantments; not only will the resulting item be a marriage of the spirits that inhabit the metal and stones, but also with the spirit that is called to be the new essence of all of its parts and of the meticulously-joined whole of matter and magic. A deliberate use of spiritcraft is not necessary (though in can be helpful), so creators need not be skilled in it.
A lesser form of essential spirit calling is used by some to give life to magical creations. A construct of magical order and energy may be given a guiding motive force by calling a spirit to inhabit it. Such spirits are even more strange and unfathomable than other spirits, since they are the essence of a piece of arcane magic without natural substance. Such constructs are almost always temporary and of short duration. This use of essential spirit calling may only be done by those who practice spiritcraft deliberately.
