Contract Magic Revival?

[𝙻𝚞𝚟 XO 3062]

Contract Magic

 

Contract magic is the art of binding someone to a written contract signed in their blood, by doing so the signer is forced into doing whatever they signed for, at the expense of role-play consequences if not followed through, or broken. Contract magic was a lost art, reason to me unknown, but I believe it had amazing potential and never got to really express that. I submit this 'rewrite' of sorts to see how the community feels about bringing back the magic and to set a basis for the magic if it is to be brought back, or at least given a trial-period. 

 

The most common ways the magic would be used would be for things such as Okars, promising loyalty to a group, promising to fulfill a task for someone, as a punishment promising not to do the said act again, etc. The possibilities are mostly up to you, and if accepted please feel free to message a Lore Team member or one of the teachers if you are unsure of a contract.

 

To be taught the magic the student signs a contract under their teacher agreeing to follow under them as a pupil and to be loyal to them, not a servant however to person still has free will over their own actions. If the signer is to break this bond with their teacher the consequences would be loss of their writing hand (hand in which they signed the contract however this is not common knowledge and will most likely not be shared with the student prior to signing) and loss of the magic. The only time this is not set in place is when the teacher knowingly puts the student at risk of death or the student now is able to teach the magic on their own.

 

The only way to end a contract is to fulfill the contract, bring the written original copy (which will be represented by an RP item which will be GM approved) to a holy arts user (Xan Paladin or Cleric. I am unsure if Druids or Ascended posses the power to destroy dark art presence but if so they would be included in this as well), or the signer is killed.

 

Contracts must be approved OOCly by the signer and contractor, under no circumstance can someone sign a PK clause nor can a dark arts user be forced to teach anyone, more will be added however at this current moment that is all I can think of.

 

The magic will be implemented through means of rediscovery in which I will propose my idea to the lore team, however I do not plan to have this magic keep it’s original small ‘circle-jerk’ status, I wish for it to be a magic that is equally accessible for everyone. This category will still be listed under dark arts. I would like to add that this magic would not be taking up a slot of the five available magics a mage can learn.

 

Some examples of common contract ideas that were brought to me are listed below:

 

Student Contract – This is mainly for students learning the magic, they promise to keep loyalty to their teacher and to keep the fact that their teacher and they themselves are practicers of the magic a secret. If not followed the consequences are listed above.

Liar Contract – This is a contract binding someone to tell the truth, if not followed through role-play consequences are enforced by the signer, however but be stated at the signing.

Promise Contract – This is a contract binding someone to their word in a specific amount of time, if not followed through role-play consequences are enforced by the signer, however but be stated at the signing.

Soul Binding Contract – The art of binding two souls together, a signer can’t sign their soul away with another. Imagine Okar magic.

Life Contract – This contract forces someone to do any one task for them that can be redeemed at any point in the signer’s life, if not followed through role-play consequences are enforced by the signer, however but be stated at the signing.

 

Some other positive uses of the contract magic would be; peace treaties, war documents, a vow of silence, knight-ship. All of these were suggested by Jistuma, the original creator of the magic.

 

 

Implementation (Addition as of 5/5/2016)

This magic would have be recreated by an ex-soul puppeteer who had used her knowledge of the soul binding on puppets, except with parchment and contracts. She would've then practiced this art on her own for a while before showing it to close magical associates that she could then feel confident enough to spread the magic herself. This magic would also be reacted to the same way by Holy Arts as Blood Magic is seeing as it is a magic that lies on the border of good and evil, all is in the caster. Despite what I stated above, with further examination I do understand the similarities and I believe that Soul Contract could easily be a break off of Soul Puppetry, however one is not needed to use the other and are both their own individual magics. This magic would also not be taking up a slot in the mage's five magic allowance, exactly like Golemancy however I understand opposition to this. This magic also would have its own progression system working in the form of how many contracts a contractor could have running at on time.

 

Tier 1 - The mage would be able to hold one contract, and would not be able to progress to forming any other contracts for exactly two weeks after obtaining the magic and signing their magic learning contract with their master.

Tier 2 - The mage would be able to hold roughly three contracts, and would not be able to progress to forming any other contracts for exactly two weeks from then.

Tier 3 -  The mage at this point can balance up to five contracts at a time, another two weeks from this point is when they would reach tier 4.

Tier 4 - The mage is able to balance up to seven contracts at this point and is able to, if accepted, self-teach Soul Puppetry and create a TA of their own, breaking them from their loyalty bond with their teacher.

Tier 5 - The mage has reached the peak of this magical journey and will not be able to hold up to ten magical contracts and even form contracts linking their own soul with someone else, such as making an Okar link for themselves, and would be able to obviously hold a TA.

 

Drawbacks of Using the Magic

1-2 Contracts Open - Slight physical deterioration.

3-4 Contracts Open - More physical deterioration.

5-6 Contracts Open - Hard time sleeping, more physical deterioration.

7-8 Contracts Open - Shaky hands, Insomnia, and intense physical deterioration.

9-10 Contracts Open - Very shaky body, Unable to sleep, Weight loss, and intense physical deterioration. 

 

With every contract written the contractor will begin to develop worse and worse hemophilia, that will not reset after losing contracts, voiding a contract also does no undo the damage done by this side effect. This is implemented because to have the contract work both parties must sign, if the contractor is unable to stop bleeding, there is a problem.

 

Soul Puppetry vs Soul Contract

Even though the magics do originate from the same art of using souls and manipulating someone's soul, the magics are VERY different in their purposes and in their level and skill progression. Soul Puppetry is a magic with the intent to harm someone else, correct me if I'm wrong, as the magic is in a sense Voodoo. With Contract magic the user really has a lot at their hands for good or evil. The contractor could use their contracts to better others and help others, or to benefit themselves and put others in pain. The line where a magic becomes a dark art is very prominent with Soul Puppetry, where with Contract magic it can be seen more as a 'Grey Art'. Soul Puppetry really doesn't have any uses in which it can bring well-being to another person. Along with that I feel that the two magics do not have ENOUGH in common to simply be sub-types of one another or one to the other. They may have the same basis of using souls but they do NOT have any sort of morality and humanity similarities nor do they have progression similarities or actual role-play influencing similarities. Along with this, Soul Puppetry progresses with how much damage can be down to the puppet that is cushioned to you. Contract progresses with how many contracts you can hold at a given time. They do not stack up and in my eyes I don't see them fit to be under the same magical heading. The point of this paragraph is to dismiss any reasoning that the two magics should be merged. 

 

Red Lines

Once you OOCly and ICly agree to the contract there is no voiding the roleplay, unless subject by GM or LM.

A mage can't hold more contracts than allotted for their tier, if caught doing so will result in magic being revoked.

Contract Magic can't be used on players of less than 2 months experience on the server, as the contracts are virtually unvoidable.

Contracts can't be made without OOC permission from all directly affected parties.

 

As time goes on and I receive more and more feedback there are bound to be more redlines, however the ones stated above all remain.

 

[excited 10833]

The peace seems all over the place and needs more organization. As for the concept itself, speak to Jistuma, the former creator and writer of the pre-established lore for the magic back in the day. 

[Jlyoko 95]

It seems interesting. I feel as if this would be an interesting thing to RP, if done correctly.

[Cooliomafia 397]

I believe this should be readded and I'm still unsure of why it was removed in the first place, it provides quality RP along with the sense of control to the user. It should be able to fit right in and could perhaps cause a few interesting events to take place in the near future if this should be accepted and reintroduced to LOTC. +1

[Gone 868]

Just now, Cooliomafia said:

I believe this should be readded and I'm still unsure of why it was removed in the first place, it provides quality RP along with the sense of control to the user. It should be able to fit right in and could perhaps cause a few interesting events to take place in the near future if this should be accepted and reintroduced to LOTC. +1

 

If I remember right the magic was removed at least partially because so very few people used it. Inactivity kills. 

Pretty sure there was another reason or two as well but too tired to look it up.

[𝙻𝚞𝚟 XO 3062]

Just now, Tiliena said:

 

If I remember right the magic was removed at least partially because so very few people used it. Inactivity kills. 

Pretty sure there was another reason or two as well but too tired to look it up.

If I am granted the power to do so, I would like to make sure the magic well exceeds the activity rate it had during it's prior time on the server, as it was an amazingly interesting idea that fits in with the theme of our server's dark arts. 

[excited 10833]

Just now, Tiliena said:

 

If I remember right the magic was removed at least partially because so very few people used it. Inactivity kills. 

Pretty sure there was another reason or two as well but too tired to look it up.

The magic itself is very small and not worth taking up somebody's entire subtype, part of the reason why there was a lack of interest in learning it or handing it out. Maybe it should just get merged with Soul Puppetry to create an entirely new kind of soul-bound Dark Magic. 

[𝙻𝚞𝚟 XO 3062]

3 minutes ago, Aerial said:

The magic itself is very small and not worth taking up somebody's entire subtype, part of the reason why there was a lack of interest in learning it or handing it out. Maybe it should just get merged with Soul Puppetry to create an entirely new kind of soul-bound Dark Magic. 

I believe Soul Puppetry and Soul Contracts should remain separate, simply because they are very different, however both involving blood. As I see that being the old common thing among them, they could both easily be pinned in with Blood Magic.

 

I do not wish to denounce or belittle your idea, just stating my opinion on it.

[excited 10833]

Just now, Luv (Люблю) said:

I believe Soul Puppetry and Soul Contracts should remain separate, simply because they are very different, however both involving blood. As I see that being the old common thing among them, they could both easily be pinned in with Blood Magic.

They are not in the least bit completely different, that's like saying that because life-force serves many utilities that it's not all Necromancy.

Soul Puppetry: an art focused on torturing people or cursing them through dolls, primarily soul-based.
Contract Magic: proliferating contracts and binding others to you through soul-bound arts.

Both are involved heavily with souls, therefore they could both merge real well into one subtype. 

[TheJollyPear 128]

17 minutes ago, Aerial said:

The peace seems all over the place and needs more organization. As for the concept itself, speak to Jistuma, the former creator and writer of the pre-established lore for the magic back in the day. 

I agree with aerials statements about organizations. I felt kind of confused reading. As I'm no magic expert of any means. Also felt it was sparsely put together. Other than that pretty good.

[Weabootrash 410]

If it's put under soul puppetry. It's gonna be useless, as it's not very hard, but decently hard to get a dark art. (Ecpisally if there's four teachers or so.)

It'd become very useless, guilds normally don't allow dark arts, and someone can easily figure out if they use it. Putting it under that magic is probably very useless.

[𝙻𝚞𝚟 XO 3062]

Just now, Aerial said:

They are not in the least bit completely different, that's like saying that because life-force serves many utilities that it's not all Necromancy.

Soul Puppetry: an art focused on torturing people or cursing them through dolls, primarily soul-based.
Contract Magic: proliferating contracts and binding others to you through soul-bound arts.

Both are involved heavily with souls, therefore they could both merge real well into one subtype. 

I just don't see how they could be under the same 'magic heading'. There are three different individual magics for creating illusions; so I see there can be different individual magics dealing with souls.

[excited 10833]

Just now, Luv (Люблю) said:

I just don't see how they could be under the same 'magic heading'. There are three different individual magics for creating illusions; so I see there can be different individual magics dealing with souls.

There are three different forms of illusion due to the weirdness and stagnancy of the current magic system, magics that can be grouped togehter should be. Contracts and Puppet Cursing could fit well together and establish an actual reason to gain the art. 

[𝙻𝚞𝚟 XO 3062]

2 minutes ago, Weabootrash said:

If it's put under soul puppetry. It's gonna be useless, as it's not very hard, but decently hard to get a dark art. (Ecpisally if there's four teachers or so.)

It'd become very useless, guilds normally don't allow dark arts, and someone can easily figure out if they use it. Putting it under that magic is probably very useless.

I see valid reason to gain both arts separately, I feel combining them diminishes the individuality of both respected arts.

[Mrlollytime 102]

I would find this interesting to use in court rp and merchant rp that I do!