Magic in the Savage Age (WIP)

[Ghostman]

Damnatio Memoriae
There is widely held belief that associates the Imperial House of Argyros with an ancient and terrible magic, said to be passed down from Emperor to Emperor. This magic is known as Damnatio Memoriae, a powerful curse that can completely erase all traces of a person's existence. When it is used, the name of it's victim will disappear from all records, the memory of his life and deeds fades from the minds of his friends and relatives, everything he ever accomplished and built crumbles to dust, and the children he sired will be the children of someone else - or perhaps disappear entirely. For all practical purposes, the world will be as if that person had never been conceived.

It is thought that this curse is reserved for especially scandalous or offensive cases. There must be either a pressing need to protect the glory of the Emperor's lineage, or the perpetrator has so extraordinarily transgressed against Imperial authority or the Emperor's person that any ordinary manner of execution/torture is deemed insufficient punishment. Besides the Argyrian Emperors, the rulers of Erytania are also believed to be able to bestow Damnatio Memoriae. This is based on a legend of a daughter of an Argyrian Emperor who was married to the King of Erytania. Supposedly she smuggled a stolen manuscript to her husband-to-be, containing the secrets of the curse.

Whether the rumours concerning this sorcery are true or not, it is impossible to say. No reliable evidence exists to prove it, although several scholars have noted suspicious anomalies throughout history that could be explained as the side-effects of Damnatio Memoriae.

Spell Tablets
A type of magic practiced throughout Eurian cultures. Spell Tablets are cryptic curses and invocations carved on tablets of lead, using secret formulae and language. They can be used for a wide variety of purposes: bestowing curses upon people, places of objects; as safety-giving wards against all manner of dangers and misfortunes; and to influence the relationships between peoples toward some end (Eg. to encourage peace between warring tribes, to sow discord within the ranks of an organization, or to cause the target of your desires to fall in love or lust with you.)

Spell Tablets can only be created by magicians that have mastered the occult power of written words and symbols. However, once created such a tablet can be used by anyone. The actual spell in the tablet will not take effect until the object has been wrapped, sealed and placed in an appropriate location, which depends on the spell's purpose. For example, to curse an antagonist the tablet might have to be hidden in his home, while a spell designed to protect a ship from reefs might be nailed on the prow. There are also thought to be bewitched places, possessed of particularly strong Genius Loci, where Spell Tablets are buried to ensure their effectiveness.

[Steerpike]

Love Damnatio Memoriae.  What would happen if you Damnatioed the architect of a building (say the building had secret passages and you didn't want the architect to spread the word to thieves).  I understand that's *way* too petty a reason to use Damnatio, but what would happen to the building?  Would it have been simply designed by someone else (thus *not* solving the problem, merely shifting it)?  Would it collapse?  Would its architect simply become "unknown," becoming one of those "suspicious anomalies"?

Does the person who invoked Damnatio Memoriae remember doing so?

[Ghostman]

The details here are a bit shifty, and intentionally so. It might be that the curse has no regular way of affecting things, and that even those who would know how to invoke it aren't able to predict the ramifications - which would be a good reason to be extremely conservative in it's use. There might also be other restrictions (perhaps it only works on the subjects of the ruler in question?) At any rate it's primarily meant as a bit of background flavour and possibly to be used as a plot device.

The subject of the Damnatio Memoriae is himself completely unchanged - if he's alive when being cursed, he will suddenly find himself in a world that doesn't remember him. That could make a rather interesting story.

The person who bestowed the curse would remember doing so, but not necessarily why he did.

[Seraph]

I like the approach you're taking to magic here.  Having recently taken a class on Greek and Roman religion, I appreciate the variety of forms of divination.  Augury responds to the Tiresias figure, and to the Augurs of Rome, while the Oracles and Mystics sound more like the classic Delphic Oracle.  It's interesting and kind of neat to think of these being totally different kinds of magic.  Trying to design one magick system is hard enough, making several is very ambitious.

[Ghostman]

[ic]The prison quarters of Peshkauri were separated from the rest of the city by a massive wall, in which was set a single iron-bound door under an arch. Over the arch burned a lurid red cresset, and beside the door squatted a warrior with spear and shield.

This warrior, leaning on his spear, and yawning from time to time, started suddenly to his feet. He had not thought he had dozed, but a man was standing before him, a man he had not heard approach. The man wore a camel-hair robe and a green turban. In the flickering light of the cresset his features were shadowy, but a pair of lambent eyes shone surprizingly in the lurid glow.

'Who comes?' demanded the warrior, presenting his spear. 'Who are you?'

The stranger did not seem perturbed, though the spear-point touched his bosom. His eyes held the warrior's with strange intensity.

'What are you obliged to do?' he asked, strangely.

'To guard the gate!' The warrior spoke thickly and mechanically; he stood rigid as a statue, his eyes slowly glazing.

'You lie! You are obliged to obey me! You have looked into my eyes, and your soul is no longer your own. Open that door!'

Stiffly, with the wooden features of an image, the guard wheeled about, drew a great key from his girdle, turned it in the massive lock and swung open the door. Then he stood at attention, his unseeing stare straight ahead of him.

-- Robert E. Howard: The People of the Black Circle
[/ic]

Mesmerism
Mesmerism is subtle sorcery of suggestions and charms, one that robs men of their wills or twists their perceptions. Unlike telepathy, mesmerism does not influence the mind directly, but works via visual or audible means: eye contact, vocalization, humming or singing, music, or hypnotic movements.

A subject of mesmerism might find his sympathies or antipathies shifted, bolstered or suppressed, his confidence strangely shaken or reinforced, his perception or memory of events manipulated, his reasoning shattered in a torrent of confusion, or his soul set aflame with an implanted emotion. While most mesmerists are only capable of minor suggestion and deception, some are fearfully whispered to be so powerful that they might utterly dominate their victims, reducing them to subservient puppets.

[ooc]You've probably seen or read works of fiction featuring this kind of magic. It's the compelling song of the sirens that tempted Odysseus. It's the fell power in Saruman's voice. It's the Jedi mind trick. "Mesmerism" is the best name I've come up for it, though I'm not entirely happy with the word.
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Spoken Curses
There is mystical power in words, power to unravel the threads of destiny and to command strange dooms upon mortalkind. There are men who have mastered the wicked art of the spoken curse - knowledge learned, some claim, via fell pacts with otherworldly beings. Such words are uttered according to a cryptic formula and resonate with the echo of cosmic depths, chilling the bones of all who hear them.

To be effective, a spoken curse must usually be recited in the presence of the intended subject, or else be bolstered by powerful sympathetic conditions (eg. in a specific place, when the stars are aligned in a particular manner, appointing the words at an item or a lock of hair taken from the victim, etc.) Only the least powerful of curses are so simple that an experienced practitioner could bestow one ad hoc, with any decent chance of success. Most curses are so complex that they have to be carefully formulated beforehand and meticulously practiced through hours of repetition. Curses generally aren't reusable: they have to be tailored for each target and often require knowledge of the target's name.

A curse could, at least in theory, invoke just about any kind of doom imaginable and be placed upon most any kind of target: an individual, a family/bloodline, a kingdom, a building or place, an endeavour, a concept... What limits the power of curses is the less than perfect ability of men to grasp the myriad esoteric patterns and conditions involved, which become increasingly complex the more potent a curse one attempts to lay. Furthermore, there are unknown powers in the world that might be stirred from their slumber by arrogant mortals dabbling with forces they do not fully comprehend.

The Death Curse
The moment of death is a magical moment, when some degree of supernatural power might be held even by those who do not normally possess any. A "layman's curse" uttered with one's dying breath is not something to be taken lightly.

[ooc]Curses can be extremely powerful and difficult to lift, but very few people are able to master the art of laying them. It is also not very easy to get away with cursing someone: you might have to do it in public, confronting your victim face to face. Even curses bestowed remotely might be tracked back to the culprit by consulting mediums.

More interesting than personal curses might be cursed places or objects. For example, a cursed goblet where anyone who drinks from it will be betrayed by the person they trust the most. Or curses that run in the family, eg. every 4th generation the youngest son born is doomed to lust after his mother.
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