Love Potions and mood makers

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    • Love Potions and mood makers

      What are the appropriate rituals/disciplines for a Sirhibas to create something like a love potion or some other emotion manipulating an NPC?

      Are things like love potions, or even hate potions for that matter, within the scope of Shard sorcery? I know based on the rules it might not be long lasting at all, or a few days at most unless a story point is expended on it.

      How would this be implemented with other players if say I wanted to make magic rum that was true courage in a bottle?
    • That's an excellent question!

      Magic in Shard, as you may have discovered, comes in four general categories; the arts of the Seer, the arts of the Healer, the arts of the Summoner, and the arts of the Endower. It is within the last of these categories that you will find the Ritual and Disciplines you seek!

      "Endowment" is a fairly broad category that includes rituals that allow the creation and manipulation of Wards, rituals that allow the manipulation of weather effects, and rituals that let you change the essential nature of things both alive and inanimate in various ways. It is the last of these rituals that you are looking for. Creating the effects of "love", "hate", "strength", "weakness", or any other similar attributes fall into a very specific Discipline that can be found in the Ritual of Endowment.

      The Ritual of Endowment, in general, contains many useful Disciplines! To quote our newest book Magic and Martial Arts, "Of all the rituals employed by Dárdüni mages, the Ritual of Endowment is by far the one that most defines their art in the minds of common jánah. It is through the use of this Ritual that illusions of various kinds may be woven, objects of great variety can be made to contain enchantments, jánah and suthra can be cursed in various ways or endowed with wonderful traits." The things you've described fall solidly under those last two descriptions... Almost any object (including specially-made potions) can be Endowed in some way to contain enchantments that might create the effects you desire, such as the semblance of "love" or "hate"... The Disciplines within this Ritual that would most like serve this purpose would be "Divine Inanimate Quality" (to allow the potion to contain the magical effect you want it to contain (and be delivered when it is drunk, poured over someone, slipped in their bath, etc), and either "Woeful Mortal Tithe" to cause that magic effect to be the more-negative "hate" reaction, or "Blessed Living Trait" to cause the (potentially) more positive effect of "love" (either of which you'd work with your GM to appropriately define for that single circumstance)...

      Just remember, though, that every act of magic is an individual "working", that may or may not turn out the same way each time you try it... Time and effort would need to be spent coming up with the right ingredients for the potion, and other details that the GM should consider when either giving bonuses to the effort or describing the result in interesting way that should be unique to each ritual even... Magic is never totally "dependable"... Its results and effects should seem somewhat mercurial depending on the rolls you make during the Ritual, the efforts your character went to when coming up with ingredients and the special "words" you must say when such Endowments are cast, and a variety of other factors that could change the nature of your final results.

      Hopefully this answers your questions!

      Scottie ^^
    • Also another important thing to remember about the magic in Shard is that for every spell cast there is some sort of price which must be paid.... Some have discovered this fact too late, I say this to remind each user of the arcane, to exercise caution and wisdom when tampering with the magic of this world because it is full of uncertainties and a failed dice roll can be the herald of disaster... :evil: