Notes prepared by Casstiel, Former LoreKeeper of the Horsemen
Man you guys got my face permanently stuck in
the books! Okay, Demesnes, ever mage aspires to live in a Demesne.
Demesnes represent the very pinnacle of what a sanctum can be: A place beyond
the ordinary, free from Paradoxes, where all magic is covert. Through a
mage’s own soul sympathy with a Supernal realm can be brought forth into an
area and allow the workings of magic more freely. Demesnes aka Domains,
are built on the foundation of one or more soul stones. Sleepers
witnessing Magic in a Domain can still induce paradox.
NOTES FROM: The Book of the Awakened Truth, with margins and comments by Gabrielle!
NOTES FROM: The Book of the Awakened Truth, with margins and comments by Gabrielle!
A soul stone is created when a mage
intentionally distills a piece of his soul into matter. By doing so, the
mage hinders his own ultimate Supernal potential, but gains worldly power here
and now. He must be a Master to distill this stone and use magic to erect
a Demesne. Mages usually combine soul stones (max 5) to create a very
large Domain ((they correspond to the size of the Sanctum)). A soul stone is a
physical object placed in the safest part of the Sanctum.
If another mage gets ahold of your soul stone
he could use it to siphon Mana from the owner, and gain a perfect sympathetic
connection to the owner. Soul stones can take almost any form, animal
parts, books, paintings, jewelry, or even children’s toys; each is unique to the
owner.
Creating a soul stone is considered a sin
against magic because it limits your gnostic potential. There is a rare
ritual that lets you re-aborb them.
It is said that an incomplete soul with never ascended… so the creation of a
Soul Stone, taking Mana from someone against their will (with other spells too)
and damaging soul stones, even your own, is an act of hubris and a sin against wisdom.
Initiate of Death, practice of Unveiling spell called “Soul Marks” lets you see any damage
on a soul, ie. Scourging
from the Abyss, creation of soul stones, high or low Wisdom, etc.
To create a soul stone, it is an intentional
act not made carelessly and takes an enormous amount of will. You have carved out a piece
of your soul and forged it into an object, trading spiritual potential for
temporal power. The form is unique and usually in line with the creator’s
Path.
Soul stones can outlast the mage who created
it, Domains are perpetual and never go away, even if the mage dies. You
can re-integrate your soul stone by reclaiming it (ending the Demesne if there was only stone used
to make it). You cannot integrate stones that are not yours into your
soul.
They can be destroyed only by magic and only
through physical contact.
Capturing someone’s soul stone makes the owner
your Thrall. They must perform 3 favors and then the capturer must give
it back.
No more than five soul stones may be combined
to create a Domain, but soul stones could be placed next to each other’s
area of effect to extend the range of the covert zone. Creating a Domain
takes Arcane mastery and only will participants can use their soul stone for
such. To combine soul stones to create a domain of multiple Supernal Realm
alignments and greater size all stone owners must participate in a group ritual
version and keep their soul stones together. An owner can remove a stone
physical which reduces the Domain and another group ritual is needed to rejoin
it. Mana is required form each caster, this is a covert Practice of Making.
There is also an Adept of Mind Vulgar
Patterning practice that allows someone to re-shape their soul stone to
different forms after creation. It’s harder to make it look like
something less in tunes with your Path however. Master in Mind (that’s me), let’s me
re-shape other people’s stones as long as I can make physical contact with it.
Identifying a soul stone takes time to scrutinize
an object for pure resonance that belongs to the owner. Gnosis also
affects how easy it is to identify an object as a soul stone, but it courses
with Supernal Power of both a Watchtower and an Awakened Soul.
NOTES FROM: A short essay by called “The
Nature of Soul Stones” by a mage only know by name The Tyrian, a rumored Archmaster who disappeared.
“A soul stone is pure magic, carved from the
Awakened soul of a willing mage and given form. Containing not only an
intrinsic, unbreakable bond to one of the Watchtowers, a soul stone also holds
within its demurely mundane shape hope, aspiration and ultimate realization of
a Mage’s potential. Few more potent Tools are found outside of Soul
Stones.”
No amount of mental coercion can FORCE a mage
to craft a soul stone, it must be a pure act of desire. A mage levers his
magic and will against the sanctity of his soul.
The most effective way to begin the process of
creating a soul stone is to cross into your Oneiros and explore your inner self, contending with
personifications of your angers, hopes, and dears until you find a
quintessential expression of your soul made manifest in the dream state. He then, while still in the Astral,
creates a Facsimile of this object he found in his soul within the physical
world… the object is pulled out of one’s body and shaped while still in
meditation copied from the actions of the dream space.
The appearance and meaning of a soul stone is
completely unique in appearance by always inanimate though it can appear alive
(like a plant that has the touch and feel of a plant but never grows and does
not need to be watered).
On finding a Soul Stone: Discovering the
resonance of a denser material is harder than a thinner of softer
material. Spells such as Death
2 “Suppress Aura” of Prime 3 “Disguise Resonance” can be used to make it very
hard to tell. Finding your own stolen soul stone is infinitely easier. You can feel when someone is casting or
scrutinizing your soul stone as if they were doing it to you… also the loss of mana through your soul stone is a very odd sensation.
ADVANCED USAGE OF THE SOUL STONES:
YOURS:
-Demesnes – creates a place resonate with the
Watchtower of concern.
-Anti-Demesne – “Annullity” creates an area that still has Vulgar magic and the Inferior
Arcana associated with the Watchtowers used to make it suffer a -2 penalty, no
bonuses
-Imbuing a Soul Stone – they can be used to
create an Imbued item (Prime 3). They take magic easier – automatically
using advanced prolongation factors and adding a +1, a glyph makes this
+2. All spells activated off the item with the same ruling arcana as the
soul stone get a +1 to activation. Highly encouraged that users use Death
and Prime to hide the fact this item is a soul stone.
-Dedicated soul stone – A soul stone that is
not in use as a Demense can be
used as a Magically dedicated tool. It doesn’t work any better than a
normal tool except that it works at any range – ie. Your soul stone could be on the other side
of the planet and you can still get the benefit of -1 to paradox.
-Dispelling Vulgarity – By chanting in High
Speech for
3 seconds and invoking your soul stone (no matter where it is, provided it’s
not a Domain at the time) a mage can convert a single Vulgar spell of his/her
ruling Arcana to Covert. This can be done once per day.
USING THE SOULSTONE OF ANOTHER:
-Patterns of the Soul – the soul stone
provides insight into the magical powers of the owner, those who have achieved
the second attainment to a legacy have essential a blueprint to their legacy on
their souls stone. As a mage grows in power and enlightenment the stone
changes subtly and the resonance changes to match the Gnosis, Arcana, and
Legacy of the owner. A mage studying a Legacy soul stone can use Prime 1 “Supernal Vision”
to scrutinize and study the patterns of resonance of the soul and learn the
Legacy!
-Empowered Dispellations – you may use yours or other soul stones to
help you counter-magic or dispel magic. If the stone’s inferior arcanum is the arcanum being countered you receive +1 to the roll. If you wield the
owners own soul stone against them in this manner it gives you a +3 to the
attempt but counts as a favor.
-Mastering the Tapestry – studying another’s
soul stone for a day and succeeding on full mediation rolls for that whole time
allows the mage to study the soul stone and learn about the Ruling Arcana it
represents. This allows you to overcome arcana caps for unskilled
learning (inferior 2, Common 4, Ruling 5)… also, if you study the soul stone of
an Archmaster in this way it helps you achieve archmastery in that Arcana.
-Tremere Liches – Soul Stones may be consumed by the right Death/Spirit powers to
extend one’s life. Most commonly the Tremere Liches do this.
- Targeting Spells – Having someone’s soul stone makes
them easier to pick out of a crowd or spot.
- Sympathy – Soulstones give you an added +2
on the sympathy chart in conjunction with other items with sympathy to the
caster… this must be done in conjunction with another item. True Name
does not stack with this bonus…
-Weakness of the Soul – With someone’s soul
stone you can opt to preform attacks against the person’s soul in the form of
willpower damage with your normal physical damage attack spells on the
stone. These spells must either be cast within sight of the owner with
the soul stone in hand or sympathetically on the caster with the soul stone in
hand. The attacks appear ghostly and travel into the soul stone and hit the
owner.
-Burrowed Power – (Wanna share stones anyone?)
by using High Speech with the stone, either for an Instant (a turn) with instant cast or 30
minutes per roll with a ritual cast you get to transpose either the Gnosis or a
single arcana from the soul stones owner to you for the one roll. This
may be repeated.
SOUL STONES OF THE DEAD:
-Function mostly as a living soul stone except
you cannot use them to target the owner normally anymore
-Drawing up the Dead – see Evoking Atlantis,
or Being a Treatise on Consulting with Lost Masters books for this
information. Rituals may be performed to summon a Dead Mage from realms
their soul has gone to. Speculation suggests the blood of a relation or
involving spells or activities the mage did in life. Sometimes, sometimes
a Ghost Mage appears and must perform one service. Services include learning skills,
specialties, and Arcana. A Ghost Mage may be demanded to reveal
weaknesses or help fight himself of spells or beings unleashed.
-Temporal Sympathy – A dead soul stone
provides Acquainted temporal sympathy if they mage died a long time ago.
If the death is part of resent events the stone is considered Known
sympathy. This works for Time spells and can only be used once a
day. It does not help with summoning or tasks with the Ghost Mage.
NOTES FROM: Meaning and Dogma of Atlantean
Custom by Latimas
Why Three Favors for a Thrall? There are rumors
and myths:
-Spells cast on the soul stone count as one of
the favors and could force a mage to do anything, even to their own detriment
-Violating the three favors rule are said to
cause a minor abyssal manifestation to sleep through the soul
-Violating the three favors has been said to
provoke the wrath of Oracles or Exarchs, withdrawing power from the violator
for exploiting the sanctify of the soul stone too far.
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