Anatomy of an Artifact

In The Demon of Histlewick Downs, Flinch is often called upon to predict the function of a magical device based on the item’s schematics. In The Heiromancer, Michlos and Marguerite debate the risks of tinkering with Vane’s Amulet without knowing how it was constructed. While a detailed account of such schematics would have sidetracked these stories, I suspect at least a few readers would be intrigued by an example of what such schematics might look like. In that vein, I offer plans for Samulian’s Signet, the ring the old priest purloins from Albert’s “profanities” museum. First, however, I’ll need to cover some basics on how magic functions in these works.

Basic magic principles:

Since the The Dreamweaver Chronicles’ magic system is based on a role-playing-game system I devised years ago with the intention of giving the players more agency with respect to using magic, it needed to be governed by basic principles that applied across the board. That way, players willing to put in the time could achieve actual system mastery. Like Flinch in Histlewick, they would be able to predict the function of a device based on its schematics, and, potentially, to tweak such devices to achieve specific goals. Player mages could then strategically use spells to generate impressive results in the same way a skilled carpenter can outperform some random guy equipped with the same woodworking tools. And nothing was lost for those players who lacked interest in such nuances. To them, the artifacts simply “did magic” as usual.

Nature of a spell: At the most fundamental level, spells in this system are patterns that are stabilized by certain types of complexity. As such, they tend to work mainly on solid objects (not liquids or gasses). The necessary energy for driving the resulting effects is latent in the ambient magical field (much as the energy for lightning is present in the atmosphere waiting for a lightning rod to unleash it). Casting a spell organizes the surrounding magic to manage the energy and shape the result. The resulting spells can be instantaneous (say, a momentary shroud of darkness), or they can be more lasting if they impose a sufficiently complex and cohesive pattern on an object (say, a Color spell cast on an item). Because such spell patterns break down over time, a spell cast on an object will last a maximum of about a day. The complexity of living creatures also has an impact on such fields—it serves as the basis for creating the creature’s spirit/soul. The soul also has interesting magical implications, but we’ll limit the discussion here to say that souls reduce the maximum duration of spells cast on them to an hour instead of a day.

Range: Since spells are achieved by influencing nearby magic, distance from the caster is limiting. For purposes of this system the maximum range for vesting spells on objects is about 150 feet. Spells that produce fields in a radius are limited to a maximum of 30 feet. Proper targeting still requires uniquely identifying (e.g., seeing) at least a portion of that object for purposes of properly aligning the patterns.

Attunement and Vesting—What Constitutes an Item? Before we can predict the result of casting a spell on an item, we first need to know what qualifies as an item. For example, is a sword a single object? Will a purple Color spell cast on the blade spread to the pommel or only color the blade? What determines where the spell stops? If the sword is sitting on a table, would the Color spell also spread to the table? The floor below? Would the caster end up turning the entire world purple? Clearly, at least two limits are required for spells to be practical. The first is a mass or extent limit—if a spell spreads too far, it loses its integrity. That limitation avoids casting spells on entire planets. For purposes of this discussion, assume that limit is larger than a typical person. The second requirement is some way to determine the item’s spell-spreading boundaries. This limit is determined using the concept of attunement. Presume that items in contact with each other for long periods of time have magical identities that adapt to each other. When they touch for long enough, their magical fields align, and they become “attuned.” The result is that they behave as a single object for purposes of vesting spells. But how long is long enough? A week? A month? This system has arbitrarily chosen a year for full natural attunement. But what about partial attunement? What if the sword and pommel have been together for 11 months? Because we’ve introduced an element of time, we need also to introduce an attunement cutoff threshold. For purposes of this system, that threshold is 95 percent. If two objects are at least 95-percent attuned, they behave as though they are 100-percent attuned for purposes of vesting spells. So, if the sword and pommel have been in contact continuously for 347 days, the Color spell spreads to both. If not, the spell only colors the element the caster originally identified (the blade, in this case). That’s a rough estimate, though, since with natural attunement, both pieces are attuning simultaneously. Once the Color spell is done spreading, it is said to have “vested” on the object. If the object exceeds the mass limit, the spell will be spread too thinly to sustain itself and will dissipate before it has a chance to vest.

Attunement Spells: Certain types of spells can influence the speed at which items attune. Of course, they only influence the attunement speed of the object on which they are vested. Attunement spells typically make the process nearly instantaneous. Conversely, anti-attunement spells can slow the process to a standstill. The affected item takes on attunement characteristics from every solid thing it touches. Thus, if a single-item pommel is affixed to a blade and an Attunement spell is cast on the pommel, the pommel attunes 100 percent to the blade, provided it’s touching nothing else. If, however, the pommel is also touching something else (say, a large gem was recently affixed to the pommel) then the pommel will attune partially to both the blade and the gem. To predict the practical outcome, though, it’s necessary to know how much the pommel has attuned to each. In this case, the mass of the touching items determines the outcome, and the 95-Percent rule applies. Thus, if the blade is 97 percent of the mass of the blade and gem combined, the pommel becomes attuned to the blade despite also being in contact with the gem. The pommel also becomes 3-percent attuned to the gem, but that doesn’t meet the 95 percent threshold for having an effect. Therefore, a Color spell cast on the blade would also spread to the pommel, but not to the gem. Eventually, when the gem attunes beyond the 95% threshold, spells will spread to the gem as well, but only spells that vest after the threshold is met. Once vested, spells no longer spread, even to things that subsequently become attuned to the object they’re vested on.

Attunements and Souls: Souls have an outsized impact on attunement. Treat direct contact with a creature that has a soul as though the soul has infinitely more mass than any other non-soul-bearing object the attuning object may be touching. As a rule of thumb, treat an attuning object in contact with two or more souls as attuning only a fraction (roughly 50 percent) to each, since it would be rare for one soul to outstrip another soul’s influence by 95 percent. Souls also have immutable attunement characteristics—while they don’t themselves attune, other things can attune to them.

Spell Integrity: What happens if the object a spell is vested on is damaged? Since spells rely on ordered complexity to sustain themselves, losing parts of a vested spell should lead to instability. This system sets an 80-percent mass threshold for maintaining spell integrity. According to this “80-Percent Rule,” up to 20 percent of the object a spell is vested on can be lost while maintaining the spell on the larger piece. Once that threshold is passed, the spell loses integrity and dissipates. Thus, if the pommel makes up 30 percent of the mass of the sword and is removed, the entire Color Spell dissipates. If the pommel only makes up 15 percent of the mass of the entire sword and is removed, the Color spell dissipates from the pommel (it retains only 15 percent of the original spell), but the sword remains colored (since it retains 85 percent of the combination’s original mass).

Charges, Passive Charges, Reservoirs, Numeni, and Tolerance: Some spell types are more energy-intensive than others. These spell types, termed Numeni (singular, “Numenus”), require infusions of additional energy for their effects to manifest. Common Numeni include Light Spells, Incinerate Spells, Patterning Spells, Physical Alterations, Evocations, and Encryptions, and Extension spells. The basic unit of energy for powering spells is the Charge spell. It’s standardized for use with Numeni. Thus, one would typically cast a Light Spell on a target object and then follow up by casting a Charge spell on the same object. The Charge would be used by the Light spell and the object would glow for as long as both the spell and the charge last. The classic Light spell lasts for 24 hours and uses charges at a rate of one per hour, but variations are possible by tweaking usage efficiency and light output. Incinerates work similarly, but they instantaneously convert all the Charge’s energy to light and heat. Charges can get tricky if more than one Numenus exists on the target object. These spells’ “Tolerances” determine which Numenus gets the charge. When cast, the Numenus is assigned a Tolerance (typically between 1 and 9). Charges are similarly assigned a Tolerance, and their charges, like water, seek the lowest level and do not flow uphill. Thus, if an object holds both a Light spell (Tolerance 2) and an Incinerate (Tolerance 4), Charging it will have different results depending on the Charge’s Tolerance. A Tolerance-1 Charge Spell would charge neither spell (the Charge dissipates without effect). A Tolerance-3 Charge Spell charges the Light spell (lighting up the object). A Tolerance-5 Charge will still be used by the Light Spell since it has the lowest tolerance. However, once charged and active, a Numenus is considered full, and full Numeni are no longer able to accept a charge until just before the charge runs out. Thus, a second Tolerance-5 Charge spell would activate the Incinerate if cast while the Light remains charged.

Reservoirs and Passive Charges: Reservoir spells can accept and store charges but can also pass them to a lower-Tolerance spell (following normal Tolerance rules) if one becomes available, provided the needy Numenus overlaps some fraction of the Reservoir. A single Reservoir holds only a single charge, but multiple Reservoirs can be vested on the same object. A Passive Charge Spell collects ambient energy over time and, when full, dumps it as a charge to associated Numeni or Reservoirs (again, according to normal Tolerance rules). Standard Passive Charges start empty and generate one Charge per hour. Together, Reservoirs and Passive charges can function to keep the charges necessary for artifacts available as needed.

Patterning: While vested spells dissipate over time, Patterning Spells can be used to force the item on which the spell is vested to imprint the spell’s pattern. While the original spell still decays as normal, the imprinted “Patterned” replica does not dissipate over time, becoming essentially permanent so long as the item lasts. Patterned Numeni use charges normally, and Patterned spells are still subject to the 80-Percent rule. Thus, breaking a stick with a Patterned Color spell in half can cause the Color spell to dissipate. However, since the spell pattern has become an inherent part of the stick’s pattern, putting the pieces back together can restore the Color effect, provided the pieces remain attuned (the 95 Percent Rule for attunement applies). If they’re not attuned, the Patterned elements treat the pieces as though they are distinct objects, so no Color manifests.

Extension: Under normal circumstances, the only way to vest a spell is to cast one, and the only way to do that is for a caster to actively cast the spell. Extension spells, however, can use an existing vested spell as a template for recasting that spell on the same target object. While recasting the same spell on the same object might initially seem pointless, Extension is a critical element of artifacts that vest spells on new targets. That’s true because revesting through Extension enables the extended spell to spread across any attuned material that’s present at the time of the Extension—additional items that are attuned and touching can therefore be included in the newly vested spell. Wands with auto-attuning tips serve as the archetypal example. Such wands can be designed to activate when they touch and attune to something that’s significantly more massive (95-percent rule) than the wand’s handle. Charge-mediated activation of the Extension recasts the resident spells (e.g., Color) to whatever the tip is touching and revests the Color spell on both the tip and the target. Provided the target is significantly larger than the tip (80-Percent Rule), when contact with the tip is broken, the portion on the tip Dissipates, leaving the entirety of the remaining revested spell on the target object. As described in more detail below, Samulian’s Signet functions similarly.

Spell Conflicts: In general, multiple spells on a single object do not interact. An object can simultaneously host both a color spell and a light spell, and they don’t interfere with each other. However, in special cases, conflicts between spells are inevitable. For example, a spell that changes the shape of an object to a cube can’t peaceably coexist with one that changes the shape to a sphere. Frequently, the conflict is the point—particularly if you’re trying to use a spell to Dispel or Suppress an existing effect. Outcomes of such conflicts are determined using the “Thrust” characteristic. As with Tolerance, Thrust is determined at the time the spell is cast, and, as with Tolerance, standard Thrust values vary between 1 and 9. If two spells conflict, the spell with the higher Thrust takes precedence. Normally, only the spell’s effect, not the pattern itself, is suppressed, but Dispels are notable exceptions.

Spell Category: Spells in this system are categorized according to function. Divinations detect patterns, Encryptions record patterns, Summonings affect energy, Alterations (including mental and magical alterations) alter form, substance, or function, Evocations create solid material from air, Enchantment affects magical properties (such as with Patterning, Attunements, and Extensions), and Kinesis deals with attractions and repulsions. Category also constrains what single spells can accomplish. Typically, a single spell can create an effect from within only a single category. Likewise, spells that affect other spells can only affect spells within a single category. Thus, while one can create a spell to Dispel all Alterations on an object, one can’t, use a single spell to directly Dispel two spells from different categories. Artifacts that require effects from different categories are generally built using multiple spells according to rules that govern their interactions. Such interactions include the principles already enumerated, as well as Contingencies and Concentration Durations, which are beyond the scope of this post.

A Note on Design Complexity: The above descriptions cover many of the principles required to craft the artifacts that appear in The Dreamweaver Chronicles. Samulian’s Signet is offered as an exemplar. While complexity for such artifacts has no theoretical limit, as a practical matter, the more complex the artifact, the more likely there are to be mistakes in design or execution. Despite obvious parallels to computer programming, magic compilers to automate artifact features and debug the “code” are not currently available. As a result, most artifacts in gaming campaigns are likely to remain relatively simple. Rarer, more-complex artifacts are possible if the storyline demands, but these become exponentially more difficult to design and execute as complexity increases. While the bulk of the basic system rules are described above, applying them to different situations can give rise to a surprisingly diverse array of artifacts.

Samulian’s Signet—Specifications:

Lay Description: Samulian’s signet appears as a gold signet ring bearing a jasper stone set with a distinctive “S” rune usable to imprint sealing wax on correspondence.

Function: The ring can (mostly, see below) be safely worn and handled. If someone other than the wearer touches the jasper, that person falls into a sorcerous slumber that lasts an hour.

Essential Physical Components:

1. Stone
2. Gold Band

Essential Spell Components:

• Sleep spell (if vested on a person, causes the person to sleep).
• Extension (spell to copy the Sleep spell from the ring to the person touching the stone).
• Reservoirs (to store charges and transfer power to activate the Extension spell (a Numenus)).
• A Passive Charge (to resupply charges over time).
• Patterning spells for the appropriate categories (to make the various spells permanent).
• Attunement spells (to cause various parts of the ring to instantly attune to what’s touching them).
• Suppression for Enchantment (or better still, specifically for Extension, to keep the Extension inactive until needed).

Spell/Ring-Component Matrix:

• 1. Stone: Sleep spell.
• 1. Stone: Attunement spell.
• 1. Stone: Reservoir (Tol 6)
• 1. Stone: Extend-Alteration (or more specifically, Extend-Sleep) spell (Thr. 5, Tol. 5).
• 2. Gold Band: Attunement spell.
• 2. Gold Band: Reservoir spell (x5) (Tol. 8).
• 2. Gold Band: Passive Charge (Tol. 9).
• 1. Stone, 2 Gold Band (together): Suppression for Enchantment (or, more specifically, Suppression for Extension) (Thr. 8).
• 1. Stone, 2. Gold Band (together): Reservoir (Tol. 7).

Creation Steps:

1. Start with the ring’s individual components: the Stone and the Gold Band
2. Cast Sleep on Stone.
3. Cast Extend Sleep on Stone (Tol. 5, Thr. 5).
4. Cast Reservoir on Stone (Tol. 6).
5. Cast Attunement on Stone.
6. Cast five Reservoirs on Gold Band (Tol. 8).
7. Cast Passive Charge on Gold Band (Tol. 9).
8. Cast Attunement on Gold Band.
9. Assemble Stone and Gold Band. Note that at this stage, the ring attunes to whatever it touches, so casting more spells on it gets complicated, since the spells will spread. One could temporarily Suppress the attunements for the subsequent steps or mount the ring on a very tiny object until finished.
10. Cast Suppress Extension on Stone/Band assembly (Thr. 8).
11. Cast Reservoir (Tol. 7) on Stone/Band assembly.
12. Pattern Enchantment on Stone/Band assembly (Patterns Attunements and Extension).
13. Pattern Summoning on Stone/Band assembly (Patterns Passive Charge and Reservoirs).
14. Pattern Alteration on Stone/Band assembly (Patterns Sleep and Suppression).

Signet Operation:

Wearing the ring: When worn, the ring is essentially inert. The Stone, the Setting, and the Band are all attuned to the wearer. As a result, the Suppression for Extension is active across the entire ring, which keeps the Extension for Alteration inactive. The Passive Charge is active, sequentially charging Reservoirs until all are filled, whereupon subsequent charges produced by the Passive Charge are lost. The bridging Reservoir spans the Ring/Stone assembly and ensures that the Reservoir on the stone is filled and ready to go. The Sleep spell is active on the stone, but since Sleep doesn’t affect the stone, there’s no noticeable effect.

Using the ring: When the stone touches the target individual, the Instantaneous Attunement on the stone causes the stone to attune to the target. The Band remains attuned to the wearer because it’s touching the wearer, who also has a soul. As a result, the Suppression for Extension is broken (80-percent rule, since the stone is greater than 20% of the ring’s total mass, the stone and band are no longer attuned to each other). No longer suppressed, the Extension takes a charge from the Stone’s Reservoir (Tol 6). Once charged, the Extension fires and recasts the Sleep spell (consuming the charge). Since the stone is attuned to the person touching it at greater than 95 percent, the Sleep spreads onto and vests on that person. The ring’s activity then stops for lack of a charge—the bridging Reservoir won’t be active on the Stone since it was similarly severed by the Stone’s attunement change. Severing the bridging Reservoir prevents charge delivery from the Band’s Reservoirs to the Stone’s Reservoir. With no more charges available, the ring will then remain inactive until it is no longer touching the target. Once the ring stone is removed from the target, the entire Ring reattunes to the wearer. That reestablishes the Patterned bridging Suppression, which inactivates the Stone’s Extension. It also reestablishes the bridging Reservoir, which transfers a Charge to the Stone’s Reservoir and then accepts another from the five reservoirs on the Band. At that point, the ring is ready to repeat the procedure until all the reservoirs have been depleted. Over the next several hours, the Passive Charge will recharge all the Reservoirs to reestablish the initial fully charged ground state.

Safety Concerns: While this design is relatively safe for the wearer, if the wearer removes the ring and sets it down, it will attune to what it rests on. If the wearer then, while retrieving the ring, touches the Stone rather than the Band, the Extension could be inadvertently activated. A safer way to handle the ring when it’s not worn it is to keep it in a box that’s also attuned to the wearer. Such boxes could be attuned and then fixed with a Patterned anti-Attunement spell to keep them that way.

Schematics:

Symbols for Spell Effects: With these basics, creating a set of schematics is straightforward. Symbols can be assigned to specific spell effects, and additional symbols can be used to represent other aspects of the item. Necessary spell effects include:

Symbols for Additional Spell Characteristics: How the spell effects are cast is also key information. Compound-cast spells are confined to the object (e.g., Attunement). Displacement-cast spells vest on an object but exert an effect up to 30 feet away (e.g., Darkness). In this case, all the spells are Compound, so we’ll need a symbol to indicate that as well as whether the spell has been Patterned. We’ll also need a delimiter to indicate where one spell ends and another begins, and symbols to indicate thrust and tolerance, at least where it varies from a conventional default.

Relationships among the Artifact’s Physical Components: We also need a way to indicate the parts on which the spells are vested. In this case, we’ll color code, but one could as easily start a new line for each item component or otherwise indicate the artifact’s key components on a technical drawing.

Syntax: Spell characteristics should be described in a consistent order to make the code easier to read. In this case, we start with whether the spell is patterned, follow with whether it is Compound or Displacement Cast, and then follow with the effect. Some effects, such as Extensions and Suppressions require extra information to describe the spells (or Categories of spells) they affect. In those cases, follow the spell effect’s symbol with the symbol of the affected spell or category. (e.g., Suppression for Extension, Thrust 8 reads as ). The relationship between the Suppression and Extension can be inferred from the order (Suppression comes before Extension, thus, the spell is a Suppression that affects Extensions rather than an Extension that affects Suppressions). You can also tell that the Extension symbol in that grouping does not represent its own spell since it isn’t preceded by a Cast type or Patterning status indicator. When Tolerance or Thrust is other than the default, the appropriate symbol follows the spell-effect symbols, together with a subscripted number to indicate the relevant value. Finally, if more than one identical spell is present on a component, the total number is provided at the beginning of that spell (e.g., , which reads as five Tolerance-8 Reservoirs). Where possible, I have selected symbols that bear some similarity to each other if the effects share some characteristic. Summonings, for example, tend to be some variation on a starburst pattern, Mental Alterations are variants of triangles, Thrust and Tolerance are pen nibs, and spells’ Cast characteristic use star patterns that graphically show where the effect occurs relative to the star.

Result—Samulian’s Signet Schematic: