[✗] Mirrors of Truth (contract magic re-re-re-re-write)

[Jistuma 1995]

The Mirror of Truth

 

Bronze, Silver, Arcanum, Ferrum, Tin, Carbarum, Emeralds, Lapis, Glass, Ice… When polished, when clean, when prepared the right way they could reflect the images of everything around. A way for an eye to look into itself. A peculiar young dwarf would stare into them for hours at a time, and the rest of her time spent making more. ‘Stark’ they called her, crazy, everyone was sure of it. She was almost forgotten in her house and workplace, only after tax was due did the other dwarves noticed she was missing. The inside of her house was filled with mirrors, everywhere, thoroughly disorienting any who walked in. There was one oddity that struck the part amid the oddity of all the mirrors, a frame which should be holding a mirror, held a light  gray sheet instead, engraved with a darker gray symbol. Over it, glowing words were written.

 

 

“I tried to see, far and close. There were always things I could not. Two eyes are not enough for the size of this world, and many things remained unseen. Mark this symbol on what lets you see what your eyes on their own cannot, and I will give you truth and honesty in return for that new eye.”

 

Spoiler

 

The power

 

The power comes from a weak Daemon, one who did not have enough power to see through the veil, but still wanted to look at the world of mortals. So she did what she could and came into the mortal plane as a female dwarf, and saw some of the great wonders of the world. Yet, she saw the limitations of having a mortal body, only two eyes, which could not even look at one’s own face. She became obsessed with mirrors because they enabled her to look beyond what mortal eyes could see; she thought of them as a new eye. Then came to her an idea of having more eyes, eyes not bond to her own self. She knew she could not place these eyes herself due to the limitations of Daemons, so that task would have to be up to the mortals. For the mortals to give her those eyes she so desired, she knew she had to be worshiped, or give something in return for their devotion to her. She had little power, so she couldn’t give much. All she could give was sought after truths and unbreaking oaths. Those connected with the deity could cast a single spell on themselves.

 

The power of the Daemon’s Eyes is a spell which will serve as a contract. Useful to all agreements between two or more entities, or even a promise to oneself. The pact is made by verbally reciting a vow to the mirror; should one break the said vow, they will be disciplined accordingly. But a mere repercussion isn’t enough to deliver justice in full, and so, a punishment may be alleviated upon proper repentance from the offender. There are some repercussions that can’t be removed, however; if the deed done is deemed to be extreme, then death is the final repercussion, hardly ever enforced.

 

The Spell

 

Anyone with a soul and access to mana can use the Daemon’s Eyes (this means no to Ghouls, Homunculi, Darkstalkers, etc, yes to frost witches, liches, wraiths, etc). To use it, the person touches the Mirror without a glove, and swears towards it out loud (mutes can write in it). What they say starts being written in glowing letters in the mirror. What they swear, they have to keep, because if they do not, they will suffer a repercussion. This repercussion is told by the mirror at the end of the swear, and is most usually associated with what was said. In most cases, there is also an act of repentance, which allows for the repercussion to disappear. This is also told by the mirror at the end of the swear. If the person touching agrees with everything, the connection is complete, and the spell is cast. Multiple contracts can be in effect for the same person at the same time.

 

After the spell is cast, the person would feel a bit light headed and tired, unless they were experienced mages. This fatigue would end soon, just a few minutes. In the Daemon’s Eye, the words would disappear, but reappear whenever touched by someone else. A signature of one of these contracts is the connection to the deity, so there could be no name on the words in the mirror.

 

The Daemon’s Eyes

 

The creation of a new eye for the Daemon, requires practice and knowledge. Just like not all smiths can make a golem, nor all necromancers can make a lich, not all glass makers can make a Daemon’s Eye. The symbol is actually created by deforming the mirror in such a way that only the symbol on the mirror shows a distorted image. The mirror maker will know when he achieves it, as the mirror will lose all reflection, and turn bass light gray, dark gray for the symbol. Note: A mirror is anything solid that reflects light. So while some can be glass mirrors, others can be made entirely out of metal. Liquids can not be turned into a Daemon’s Eye.

 

After a contract is done, glowing words of what was spoken would appear whenever someone touched the mirror. The lights would have warm orange, yellow and light red hues, giving a feeling of comfort. The mirror will remain bass for the rest of it’s existence, but some, especially the makers, would hang them up like regular mirrors.

 

Conditions, repercussions and Acts of Repentance

 

The conditions is what the person swears about in front of the Daemon’s eye, agreements on terms, stating they are telling a truth about something, and so on. The conditions can be spoken in peculiar ways, or with multiple meanings, making it difficult to break them. It is up to the imagination of the teller, and the willingness of others present to accept it. Breaking the terms will bring forth justice, in form of a repercussion, which will only disappear if the person commits the act of Repentance. The repercussion and act of Repentance have always some connection to the terms said to the eye. Saying that you will buy flowers for someone, for example, and then you end up not doing so, can lead you to lose the sense of smell, until you would grow flowers yourself to give them to that person.

 

The greatest claim you can say in front of a Daemons’s eye is an Oath, something said to be kept for eternity. These can be removed or ended through some means (death of someone, disbandment of a nation, etc). Breaking an oath brings forth another oath, enforced with magic and permanent. This new oath does not have an affiliation with another person or guild, only to themselves. Examples are listed below.

 

The greatest repercussion is permanent death. This is only dealt when the outcome of breaking the terms leads to massive amounts of death. In other words, war. Only the leaders of nations or great guilds can be subjected to this type of repercussion.

 

Examples:

Conditions -> Repercussions -> Acts of Repentance

 

Lying -> Become mute -> Telling a secret publicly in writing.

 

Stealing/conning/breaking a trade -> Loss of movement of all the fingers -> Giving away valuables to those you don’t know

 

Truce breaker -> The body becomes fragile (loses magic if they are a mage) -> Allowing the same damage to be done to oneself, or doing it to oneself

Nation Truce breaker that leads to war -> PK (very extreme case)

 

OathBreaking -> An oath is created which can’t be broken (magically). No sleeping, always holding a sword, never cursing, never lying, etc. It’s permanent.

 

Breaking a commitment -> Based on the commitment -> Based on the repercussion.

 

Interfering with other magics

 

These mirrors are created with holy magic, which means the consequences of the contracts can not be broken or healed with holy magic. The mirrors themselves can be made of a metal, which means they can not be broken. They can be melted, but it would still not revoke the contract, only weaken it. The repercussion would be slightly less extensive than the original (i.e. being able to move the fingers a bit, being able to make a few sounds, etc.). It isn’t revoked because a connection to the deity was performed, even without the mirror, the connection continues to exist. Breaking a glass mirror would have the same effect.

 

The way to break the connection is actually the opposite of the magic’s roots, dark magic. Though powerful magic is required, a simple necromancer can’t destroy the connection on his own. The great amounts of taint/etc can force the connection to break. When the connection is broken, there are side effects. See the thread for deity connection breaking for some of those effects. Trying to bridge a new connection with the same deity more than once will lead to very bad consequences. Breaking the contract makes use of dark magic, which makes the user appear untrustworthy and appearing to be evil, which can have great roleplay consequences.

Nonetheless, after the contract is complete, the connection with the deity is made useless, and it can be removed harmlessly by making physical contact with the Daemon’s Eye once more. Those that already have a connection to a deity can not use Daemon’s Eyes. This includes Clerics, Ascended, Paladins, Druids, Monks. Those which have made a Daemon’s Eye contract and haven’t revoked the connection yet, cannot form a connection with another deity, in other words, cannot become Ascended, Paladins, Druids, etc. until they touch one of the mirrors once more. The connection can’t be removed naturally while a contract is still in effect.

 

IG Mechanics

 

To create a Daemon’s Eye, the player/character needs an MA for it. It wouldn’t cost a magic slot, as it only creates the Daemon’s eyes. Each Daemon Eye created REQUIRES an item, normally a paper (for when Aviary is implemented) or a book. Those have to be signed. A line or page saying “((Daemon’s Eye created by X))” written by the actual mage is enough (This can be checked, don’t try to write for the mage). SCREENSHOTS are mandatory to be taken by all parties involved with the contract, especially because the item can be destroyed.

 

The Eye Makers

 

Those that create the Daemon’s Eyes or the Mirrors of Truth are named the Eye Makers. To become an Eye Maker, a person has to create a connection to the Daemon, and to do that, they have to touch one of the already completed Mirrors. In theory, anyone can create a new Daemon’s Eye if they are connected to the deity, though only a few would really know how.

 

LoopHoles

 

What people say may at times have different meanings. The Daemon does not judge the meaning, if the person thinks they haven’t broken the vow they made, they won’t receive a repercussion. Example, “I will give you 100 minas” does not say when the 100 minas will be given, and as such, they can not be given at all and the repercussion wouldn’t happen, until one of them died.

 

Red Lines

 

Each Daemon’s Eye has to have an MC item.

Creatures without soul or without the ability to use mana can’t make a contract.

Characters with a deity connection can not make a contract.

All but oaths and truces/commitments of grave importance have Acts of Repentance.

The repercussions and acts of repentance are written on the MC item, together with the words said. The repercussions are permanent until the repentance is done.

Breaking a connection involves very powerful dark magic, and has consequences. Warding only works at the moment when the contract is being made.

Anyone can use the Daemon’s Eyes, but only the Eye Makers can create one.

Daemon’s Eyes can only be used one time each.

A Daemon’s Eyes which has been sworn to by multiple people can only create a repercussion towards one of them before becoming invalid.

PK clauses have to pass through MAT first, and are only for very important stuff.

Having a Daemon’s Eye tell an Eye Maker about something requires LT intervention.

 

Differences between Daemon’s Eyes and Contract magic

 

I tried to look at the problems that Contract magic had, and tried to eliminate them with this magic. The basis of it is the same, a broken contract creates something bad, but the way it works has a few differences.

It’s no longer named a dark magic, making it so that it is not taboo to create these contracts, nor use these contract. Will they be used? I do not know, as I don’t know, for example, what Oren’s view would be on these. Some cultures could accept it, others could outlaw it. At least it wouldn’t be because it is dark magic.

They are far easier to create, while the creation is limited to only those that know how to do it, they don’t need someone to die to make them. The creator also does not need to be the one to write the contract, anyone can.

The addition of the acts of repentance means that more roleplay can be created with them, and breaking a contract is not as bad or as meaningless as before (before it was either permanent so could be very bad, or temporary and so could be ignored).

A few problems with a few red lines were addressed (multiple signatures).

Before, the punishments were normally thought of when the contract was broken, now they are defined at the time the contract is agreed on.

My hope is that these new artifacts are used with more and that the impacts it has favor roleplay, even when the contract is broken.

 

Written by Jistuma

Ideas, help and proof reading by Matheus and Wanderingfriend

[Norman Osborn 247]

Hey, that's pretty good.

[Matheus 525]

As the lore's re-re-re-writer, I approve of this re-re-re-re-write.

[_mkkk_ 193]

So to make Daemon's eye requires an MA. Does this rewrite of contract magic require an MA itself where it takes up a slot? 

[Man of Respect 5431]

I mean, you could teach me.

[Demotheus 649]

Lotha would love this. Heh.

[Jistuma 1995]

11 minutes ago, _mkkk_ said:

So to make Daemon's eye requires an MA. Does this rewrite of contract magic require an MA itself where it takes up a slot? 

Requires the same thing that is needed to make a golem. So I guess it's an MA, but would be self teachable, and you would be able to do everything as soon as you got it. And it wouldn't take a magic slot.

 

 

1 hour ago, Jistuma said:

 

To create a Daemon’s Eye, the player/character needs an MA for it. It wouldn’t cost a magic slot, as it only creates the Daemon’s eyes.

[Demotheus 649]

Just now, Jistuma said:

Requires the same thing that is needed to make a golem. So I guess it's an MA, but would be self teachable, and you would be able to do everything as soon as you got it. And it wouldn't take a magic slot.

 

So it's one of those uh...voidal...things? voidal feats? but it's holy. Apparently

[Jistuma 1995]

Just now, Demotheus said:

So it's one of those uh...voidal...things? voidal feats? but it's holy. Apparently

No, golems aren't voidal (I think). But it's like those things. This would be an Artificery magic subtype.

 

Edit: Or like Further Alchemy. It just that, unlike the other magics, it has drawbacks to knowing how to do it (in this case, can't be connected to another deity.)

[Cooliomafia 397]

Oooh, I really enjoy this form of the rewrite and how it's taken a less dark approach, though will it have any connections with Puppetry at all? 

[Jistuma 1995]

19 minutes ago, Cooliomafia said:

Oooh, I really enjoy this form of the rewrite and how it's taken a less dark approach, though will it have any connections with Puppetry at all? 

Wouldn't have any connection to soul puppetry.

[Corvoo 562]

This lore has been added to this weeks loremag.

 

Expect a decision within a week from this post.

[Corvoo 562]

This Lore has been denied. Topic moved to Denied Lore forum.

 

The majority of the team has strong doubts that anything like this will be actively used, and we'd rather not bring in a magic, just to see it fall within a few months.