Magic Affinities

Yeah, I mean, what better way to pursue knowledge than with a mass database with numerous sources?

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Honestly, there isn’t lol

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Second mind might be the mind flame itself. All thornmouths might be able to share experiences ability and knowledge by putting it in the mind flame.

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I feel like communion magiq is an art of it’s own, but I think it also is used in conjunction with other magics. It can be used to bring a group of healers together to cure difficult diseases, to cast an aura of joy over a camp through group song and dance, to teach a young one the joys of changing form. It is beautiful because it reminds us that while we are all our own people, it shows us the greatness of the many and how much more we can accomplish together.

EDIT: This only works with unity of purpose. If the group cannot agree on what is being accomplished it won’t work. Communion magic at its heart is not about forcing your will on others, but joining together to accomplish what can’t be done alone.

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On shapeshifting, I feel like you can only transform into something you understand. You can go an study an animal for months and not be able to shapeshift into the animal. There are some animals you resonate with and could transform into naturally or with only a little time around the animal. I feel like most Gossmere have at least one animal they can shapeshift into naturally and would be considered their spirit animal if you will. A shapeshifter might travel the world looking for new forms to acquire and may even be the mark of their skill. When I think of this, I think of someone embodying Jane Goodall studying the chimpanzees. Gossmere seek to understand the life around them and in doing so can take their forms.

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That’s how I’ve viewed Communion Magiqs, too!

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Great interpretation of Shapeshifting arts, as well! In the past we’ve discussed Shapeshifting forms and what animals we feel most connected to. I personally believe a bear would be mine because I grew up in Vermont, and frequently encountered bears from afar growing up. I always had a deep love and adoration for them!

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Faulton frays decay works opposite to growth (i cant remember what its actually called), and has the scary concept of being the one really fatal magiq art.

Decay ruins anything it collides with: flesh, stone, plant or wood. It works slowly, aging an object two or three years per second if inanimate, two or three days per second if animate, and only affects a single target if animate or the area of contact if inanimate (the users hand, a pointy stick, etc.)

The backlash of decay is great, the user having a high risk of magiq sickness from over 20 seconds of use. This makes it rather useful for breaking up blockages of land if trapped in a land slide, but aging someone to death is less possible.

It can be used in combination with other arts to set up pitfalls, remove blockages too heavy for human lifting, create windows from solid stone, or other possible methods.

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And remember, from what we know about magic, the unpredictable nature of Neithernor, and your individual intention, what happens when one person performs something like Faulton Fray’s Decay may be different from when someone else performs it. Even if you don’t have access to Neithernor (I mean, I literally only got there last week) we’d love to know how you think something like Decay or any other affinity might work for you.

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Riffing of this somehow, I have a question that hopefully hasn’t been posed yet.

We’ve talked about affinities in the context of use by their respective guild members, but what about being used by people of other guilds? We saw it a bit during Deirdre’s expedition, where she and Colby performed Tome Kindling.

How do we think cross-guild affinity use might alter the effects of a spell? For example, if a Gossmere utilized Sand and Stone Scrying, what would that look like? Or a Weatherwatch attempting time shifting? I feel like the affects of the spells could be similar, but perhaps the method of casting is different. Like a big Goss party being held to attempt a communal scrying. What thoughts do folks have on this?

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Oooh, I really hadn’t thought of that! I just assumed dear Colby was a polyguild!

That’s a really interesting concept… I think Gossmere sand and stone scrying would be like… Amber crystals and sawdust taken from the trees that grow on the plains? Like with Colby the affinity works the same but with a flair of the guild of the practitioner.
I also think there is some magiq totally unaffected by what guild you’re a part of. Silver casts just fine, and they don’t have guilds at all.

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Love a bit of cross guild action.

Biased as I am, I assume Flinterforge can tinker our way into any piece of magiq. But there’d be duck tape, or the magiq equivalent of it, and it might go boing at odd intervals.

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:cjheart: Can you imagine!!! A Flinter in their workshop casting some Magiq while another one frantically flys around them patching bits of it up :cjheart: it just makes me soo happy that they’re tinkering with other guilds affinities and putting their tweaks on them

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Part of The Forge that always resonates with me is:

“There’s a thing that needs doing.”
“Right, we’re on it.”
“But you don’t have half the materials.”
“A few simple swaps will be fine.”
“… and you’ve not read to the end!”
“You said it needed doing now, let’s start!”
(Aghast) “But what if it goes wrong?”
“What do you think the goggles are for?!”

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“What do you think the goggles are for” should be the official Flinterforge motto!!!

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image
Flinterforge aesthetic

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That’s fantastic!

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Who gave you that picture of me???

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It may have been me. Sorry, you’re just too fantastic in the “armor and flames” aesthetic. I couldn’t resist!

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Sorry if this has already been asked or addressed, it was suggested this thread was more appropriate for this line of questioning…

I assume that all magiq can be done by anyone, but your guild affinities make a spell stronger/more likely to succeed?
Or are you limited to you guild affinity magiqs?
Are there magiq classifications that aren’t linked to a guild, too powerful or to weak to be noted?

I also wondered if their was a summary/dummies guide for affinities?
I know there are lots of short stories, and they give great detail, but I guess I’m hunting more of a quick reference guide. These are ones I put together for the Thornmouth affinities and they could be wrong.

  • Time Shifting - elongate or compress time for self/multiple people/tech(compile code in seconds instead of hours) or time travel…

  • Philosomancy - (pure speculation) ability to visualise and run through potential outcomes of a situation applying known and speculated variables, think Dr Strange and the time stone in Avengers: Infinity War

  • Second Mind - splitting of mind, allowing 2+ tasks simultaneously. Possibly similar to Alar and the game Seek the Stone referenced early in ‘The Name of the Wind’ by Patrick Rothfuss

  • Astral Thinking - not a clue

  • Tome Kindling - ability to copy personal knowledge/memory in to a book. External back up of the human mind? Possibly required skill to access knowledge/memories left by others?

  • Peering Arts - seeing what isn’t there, additional context and details, what others can’t see, default out of box problem solving, scrying, fortune telling, reading palimpsest without getting a headache…

Also in TMP Technomancy is mentioned, does this span other affinities and is someone who specialises in technology implementation or is it a unique affinity? Would they struggle to apply the same skill to a person/object? Eg they could blink to cast a protective spell on a server to protect the content, but would struggle to cast the same spell on a home or book.

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