Life Evocation - Amendment

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Life Evocation Amendment
When the lore games started, I wrote Life Evocation in a way that was largely conservative, due to contemporary lore team demands and a lack of any previous lore for conjuration. A few years on, it’s evident Life Evocation has fallen behind even within it’s own niche. This amendment is meant to bring Life Evocation up to par, as well as clarify and reduce redundancies. This is a pure ‘balance patch’, and as such there will be no fluff. This will also be an opportunity to work on the single largest complaint I’ve heard since Life Evocation has been posted; the formatting. As formatting requires a loremag vote the same way any other amendment would, much of this post will include whole sectors of the original lore reprinted as explanations of the reformatting to be done. Due to this, this amendment will be fairly long and unusual compared to most. Re-stated content will be clearly labeled, as to reduce confusion and allow people only interested in the new stuff to read that instead. Furthermore, unless otherwise stated, any existing redlines or mechanics will continue to exist in their present state. Furthermore x2, let it be known in advance this is largely a collection of buffs for the magic, alongside a few spell reworks.

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General Conjuration Redline Changes

 

These are mechanics that affect every spell in the magic, collected in one place so they don’t need to be repeated indefinitely. However, many of the redlines are not actually redlines, so much as explanations of how the spells work or requirements for Life Evocationists to cast specific spells, which would fall more under ‘mechanics’. As such, I have split this section into two parts, for better read/findability. Several of the former ‘redlines’ have been rewritten for readability.

General Conjuration Mechanics

 

Spoiler

• Any use of feet as a measurement system acts under the assumption that three feet is equal to the length of a single minecraft block. An unrelated clarification, all emote counts include the emote required for voidal connection.
• The process of creating life is a difficult one, beyond what standard mages could normally accomplish, and so conjurationists utilize a ‘shorthand’ (elaborated later) of shortcuts and optimizations in order to enable them to even create life in the first place. While the conjured life is functionally unharmed by these shortcuts, fine control of the aesthetics of the creature are largely out of the conjurationists control, though they fall in line with the standards of the species in question. Functionally, this means it is impossible for a Conjurationist to mimic an existing creature, such as a childhood pet, or (in the case of summoning a humanoid) a clone of a person.
• Another side-effect of the mystical efficacies lies within the control of the beasts summoned. In order to make the control of living beings into a task which is reasonably completed by a fellow of average mental capacities, several layers of automation are weaved into the ritual to cast a spell. Complex biological functions, such as respiration and circulatory functions in animals, or photosynthesis within plants, are automated thoughtlessly by the spell itself, with only the vaguest control by the Conjurationist. The Conjurationist can override these automations with excessively simple commands, such as causing a beast to howl out, hold its breath, or even outright stop it’s heart (irreversibly). These overrides need to be extreme and simple, however, and vocalization is perhaps most heavily limited by this. While grunts and whimpers may even come automatically from a creature in combat, and screams or howls are easily forced out in any general scenario, any form of speech (whether by mimicry, such as from a parrot, or from proper speech, such as a humanoid) is beyond the complexity of what a conjurationist can handle. Unfortunately, the original methods of conjuring beasts without the Conjurer’s Shorthand has been lost to time, never to be discovered again. As a result, these limitations are absolute.
• When a conjured being, plant or animal, is killed (or otherwise finds it’s death), the conjurer intuitively knows the moment it happens, and generally chooses to allow the spell to fizzle out and stop wasting his energy. This is not a necessity, however, and a conjured corpse can be maintained for as long as the Conjurationist has both the energy and the will to keep it around, whether it be for intimidation value or to teach an anatomy lesson.
• In order to summon a living entity, the Conjurationist must have an intimate understanding of that entity. In order to obtain such an understanding, a Conjurationist generally requires weeks, even months, of studying the behaviour of the creature in question, how their limbs move and bend, the gait with which they sprint, dietary habits, and general lifestyle. In addition to the logistics and pathos of the creature, they require a detailed understanding of the inner workings of any beast they wish to summon. Generally, this requires a few butcherings, to see how the organs are laid within the body, how tendons and muscle wrap around bone, the skeletal structure itself, and so forth. (ooc note: this is largely based on the honor system, since there’s no real infrastructure for logging the expeditions and anatomy self-teaching your character progression (unless you decide to put a gallery of character magic progression in your character card, which is above and beyond the call of duty and would make you a cool dude). However, Conjuration has a unique method of power scaling, and that would be the fact that character knowledge directly influences your available options, and therefore power level. Because of this, and because both metagaming and powergaming are against the rules, I’d suggest keeping evidence, at least for exotic creatures you’ve studied. For the sake of categorization, non-exotic creatures would be those one can easily find in abundance and pose little threat (such as squirrels, pigeons, rabbits, most fish, deer, and other similarly benign and overpopulated species.), as well as creatures which exist within minecraft itself.  Exotic creatures would consist of the latter, though these are not an exhaustive and total list;
  • Anything easily capable of causing harm to a person, such as naturally feral and territorial creatures, and any other creature that would pose a challenge to kill in the first place.
  • Creatures which are uncommon to find, such as anything from a Savannah, Arctic creatures, life native to deep jungles, creatures from the very bottom of the sea, and so forth.
  • Any creatures which don’t exist in the real world.
  • Bears.
  • Plants which pose risk of health to handle.
  • Particularly difficult to dissect or study creatures, such as insects and crustaceans, or creatures with toxic or barbed skin.
• Different Conjurationists summon creatures in different ways, whether it be forming a portal that slowly grows with time until the conjured creature walks out on it’s own from within the fully formed portal, forming a cloud of smog which slowly condenses until becoming the intended creature, or summoning a skeleton upon which muscle, fat, tendons, and skin coalesce over time (Or even something else fantastical and interesting. Be a cool weird guy, friends.). These differences are purely aesthetic, however, and must follow the same rules;
  • Conjuration rituals are blatant and apparent, and very clearly magical to anyone with direct line of sight(although quiet enough not to be heard through walls).
  • Conjuration rituals cannot take place in occupied space, and will fizzle if occupied for more than a moment (such as the area of the ritual being walked through).
  • Conjuration rituals are intangible until complete, no matter the method of generation.
  • Conjuration rituals may incorporate light, though only dim lights, and cannot actually light darkness an area in any notable way.
• Conjured life requires food, drink, with the same diet and hunger as a standard member of its species. However, conjurations rarely exist long enough for any of this to factor.
• While they are living, conjured beings do not have minds of their own, and are not connected to nature. Sensory Illusion, Mental Magic, and anything else that would prey on directly affecting a creature’s mind or senses would be entirely ineffective. Druids would be unable to commune with conjured beings, although this failure in itself is enough to tip off a druid to the creature’s unnatural origin, if they were not previously aware.
• Enchantments made for Conjured Creatures must specify in the description whether they are for combat or not.

General Conjuration Redlines

 

Spoiler

• The most important redline: If you’re unsure if you’re allowed to do something, remember mechanical default. That is to say; If it requires breaking mechanical rules of the game in order to accomplish, you probably can’t do it (obviously as well, if it requires breaking the rules of the server itself, it cannot be done). This lore is self-contained and it’s abilities are limited to what is described within this lore itself. Consequently, if it breaks no mechanical rules nor the rules of the lore itself, the actions themselves would be wholly allowed (at LT discretion).

• Conjured creatures are wholly useless and unusuable when it comes to nutrition (Conjured plants and meat would fizzle into nothingness as they’re chewed, the mushy substance hard to maintain concentration on), arts & crafts (Conjured plants and animal byproducts similarly fizzle out when being processed, whether that be through attempting to make a potion of a conjured mandragora or tan a hide off a conjured elk, or anything in between.), and magical rituals (Conjurations are beings made of mana and void, fundamentally. They have no usable genus (and are otherwise wholly non-interactive to Blood Magic of any generation), and any usage of conjured life within any other form of magical ritual would see the being, alive or otherwise, fizzle during the ritual, causing any other used materials or energy expenditure to be irreversibly wasted.)

• Creatures that are poisonous/venomous lose these properties when conjured.

• While conjured creatures do have full sensory ability, they cannot meaningfully transfer any information or awareness to the Conjurationist, and the Conjurationist cannot perceive through them.

 

Removed Redlines
 

Spoiler

• While maintaining a conjuration, no other magic may be used, with the exception of previously enabled enchantments (assuming they’re ‘Passive’, and don’t require any form of input from the Conjurationist themselves). New enchantments may not be activated during a conjuration.

This redline is removed, as it is now a function of the current void lore, written several months after Conjuration was accepted. This still applies to Life Evo, it’s simply no longer necessary to list.

 

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The Conjurer’s Shorthand

Fluff section, no need for changes.

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Terrestrial Conjuration

Terrestrial Conjuration; Non-combat

While Terrestrial Conjuration is mostly getting a format update, non-combat summoning is getting a buff. People like doing magic for flavour things, but the emote counts for Life evocation are fairly restrictive, and this is one of the more common complaints I’ve seen. As a result, all non-combat summons are flatly one emote shorter to cast.

Conjuration Mechanics; Non-combat

Spoiler

• The emote counts for summoning are as follows; Two emotes for up to ten miniscule creatures, up to three small creatures, or a single medium creature. Three emotes for ten miniscule creatures, three small creatures, three medium creatures, or a single large creature. Four emotes for up to three medium creatures, or two large creatures.

Edited each specific emote number down by one.

• All General Conjuration mechanics.

 

Enchantment Mechanics
Splitting this into a separate spoiler for ease of finding. The effects are unchanged.
 

Spoiler

• Conjured creatures created through enchantment follow somewhat different rules. They are as follows;

  • The limitations of enchantment as opposed to the convoluted nature of conjuring a creature results in a lower ceiling of complexity for summonable creatures. An enchanted conjuration can summon the following; Up to ten miniscule creatures, up to five small creatures, and up to one medium creature.

  • Enchantment-based terrestrial conjurations have an emote count of three emotes to summon, no matter the creature/swarm within. The summoning ritual involved would be that of the conjurationist who created the enchantment, even if the activator is a different Conjurationist.

Emote count reduced by one to fit with standard casting.

• • Enchanted terrestrial conjurations, unlike other conjurations, instantly fizzle upon death. This consumes the remaining time for the enchantment until it is restored (This process must be listed on the item or taught/displayed to the recipient of the item, and if questions arise the creator of the enchantment is held responsible to answer them (within reason)).

  • Enchanted terrestrial conjurations cannot stray farther than thirty feet (ten blocks) from the holder of the enchanted item.

  • If the owner of the enchantment enters into battle while their creature is conjured, it immediately flees to the edge of it’s available radius, and fizzles out.

  • If the enchanted item leaves the summoner’s hand (or otherwise their possession), the conjuration fizzles.

  • Conjured creatures must be commanded verbally, and the commands must be fairly simple.

  • Enchanted terrestrial conjurations can exist for no longer than an hour.

  • Enchanted terrestrial conjurations count as independent summons.

These mechanics are unchanged (other than emote count), though to be added in a separate spoiler.

 

Removed Mechanics

Spoiler

• Conjured beings can’t act on any sensory data they may or may not perceive, as they are functionally extremely sophisticated puppets. As a result, the conjurationist themselves must be able to fully see what it is they attempt to command their Conjured beings to do, in regards to more complex tasks. For example: If your character happens to lose all of his fingers and therefore the capability to properly wield tools, he may conjure up a human servant to hammer nails in his stead. However, in order to accurately pound the nails, he’d need to be positioned to see both the hammer and nails at all times, else risk hammering the surrounding material.

This is a function of the general mechanics as well as voidal magic as a whole, and as such is redundant. This is still how the magic works, it simply isn’t required to be repeated again.

 

 

Redlines
Unchanged.

Terrestrial Conjuration; Combat

No buffs for combat. Just a reformatting.

Conjuration Mechanics; Combat

No additions/changes.

Enchantment Mechanics
 

Spoiler

• Conjured creatures created through enchantment follow somewhat different rules. They are as follows;

  • The limitations of enchantment as opposed to the convoluted nature of conjuring a creature results in a lower ceiling of complexity for summonable creatures. An enchanted conjuration can summon the following; Up to ten miniscule creatures, up to five small creatures, and up to one medium creature.

  • Enchantment-based terrestrial conjurations have an emote count of four emotes to summon, no matter the creature/swarm within. The summoning ritual involved would be that of the conjurationist who created the enchantment, even if the activator is a different Conjurationist.

Unlike non-combat, the emotes for a combat enchantment have not been reduced.

• • Enchanted terrestrial conjurations, unlike other conjurations, instantly fizzle upon death. This consumes the remaining time for the enchantment until it is restored (This process must be listed on the item or taught/displayed to the recipient of the item, and if questions arise the creator of the enchantment is held responsible to answer them (within reason)).

  • Enchanted terrestrial conjurations may be summoned for up to ten emotes. This includes summoning emotes. This resets the following day, in other words, twenty four hours after combat concludes.

  • Enchanted terrestrial conjurations cannot stray farther than thirty feet (ten blocks) from the holder of the enchanted item.

  • If the enchanted item leaves the summoner’s hand (or otherwise their possession), the conjuration fizzles.

  • While enchanted creatures don’t require focus to be maintained, the level of control the summoner has over them is limited. Commands must be made in either loud verbal shouts, usually paired with obvious physical gestures (such as pointing one’s entire arm in the direction of a target.)

  • Enchanted conjurations count as independent summons.

 

Removed Mechanics

 

Spoiler

• The summoning capacity for size categories, however, has been cut in half (rounded down) when compared to non-combatative creatures. This results in a cap of ten miniscule creatures, five small creatures, two medium creatures, or a single large creature.

Removed for redundancy, as the exact number of summoned creatures is re-iterated in the following mechanic.

 

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Perennial Conjuration

I’m just gonna come out and say it, I dropped the ball for plants. I personally never used or had seen them used for anything beyond parlour tricks, and assumed it wasn’t particularly popular. I’ve come to find that there are those who do enjoy the plant aspect of conjuration, and as such have decided to give it an actual shot beyond what I had originally written. Consider this section largely rewritten.
Perennial Conjuration Mechanics

Spoiler

• All general conjuration mechanics.

• Perennial conjuration requires suitable ground to cast. Soil, sand, muck, water, whatever it is the plant would normally require to root itself in. This land does not necessarily need to be arable, however, and salted earth works just as well as the freshly fertilized.

• Rather than size categories, as Terrestrial Conjuration has, Perennial Conjuration uses an area measurement system. With 2 emotes, one may summon a simple flower (or other plant) in hand, or a patch of plants in a 3 foot (1 block) radius. With three emotes, this raises to six foot (2 block) radius. With four emotes, this raises to nine foot (3 block) radius. This radius is spherical; instead of creating a patch of clovers, one may create a single citrus tree.

• Plants may be conjured centered on a point within eight blocks of the caster, so long as the caster has direct line of sight and no blockers between themselves and the target area. The casting is evident, and it would be obvious to anyone looking upon the soon-to-be plants that something is happening, even if they can’t discern what.

• If  the space plants are intended to be summoned is occupied, whether that be by furniture or living beings, the plants would grow around said objects. If the plant is dense enough, this is enough to cause minor disruption and impediment to those within, though an emote of half-dedicated action would render them freed from the plants. The remaining terrain may cause further inconvenience, though not necessarily so much as to cause a significant combat advantage.

• Plants grow in density and size standard to their species. Trees come solitary, though moss would cover the entirety of the terrain summoned upon, albeit not much higher than a fragment of an inch.

• All summoned plants must be of the same species, though individual plants within the patch may be aesthetically different as common for the species, such as variably coloured tulips.

• Casters do not have any overt control over their plants after they are manifested, though they also require much less focus to maintain.

• Plants maintain any properties they naturally hold, whether it be numbing or irritation, up to a limit. The effects cannot surpass a moderate itching, which naturally fades when the spell ends, as the irritants fizzle from the victim’s skin.

The net total of these new mechanics is that the whole is simplified and much less wordy. The previous iteration required a static four emotes for up to a 3 block radius summoning, while this update changes that to two emotes for a simple summoning in hand, up to the 3 block radius at five emotes. Furthermore, it can now be cast to a limited range near the caster.
The entirety of this section is newly written, and intended to wholly replace the existing mechanics for Perennial Conjuration.

 

Enchantment Mechanics

Spoiler

• Perennial Conjuration enchantments cause plants to grow around them, though in ways that can be ‘coded’ into the item. Whether this be a sword hilt which encircles itself in roses, a nice cape which coats itself in moss for warmth, or a planterbox that manifests it’s own topiary.

  • Perennial Conjuration enchantments require three emotes to activate, and the ensuing plant matter can take up a space no larger than three feet by three feet.(one minecraft block).

  • These enchantments are purely aesthetic and add no combat capabilities to the item in question.

 

Perennial Conjuration Redlines

Spoiler

• All general conjuration redlines.

• In order to negatively impact others in combat, perennial conjuration must be charged for at least three emotes.

 

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Disjointed Conjuration

 

Disjointed Conjuration mechanically does as I would want it to, though its long emote count makes no sense in either balance or internal consistency. Used in combat, it’s outpaced by a bow-and-arrow, and other evocations four-emote spells are causing serious damage, usually to multiple people. Used out of combat, and it’s pace is absolutely glacial, taking less emotes to summon a fully-formed breathing living human than just a dead human arm. As such, I’ve minorly reworked how Disjointed Conjuration items are summoned. Additionally, I’ve added specifics for enchanted item usage.

Disjointed Conjuration Mechanics

Spoiler

• The Disjointed Conjuration can be conjured in one of two (and a half) ways; Either directly in the hand (or otherwise within the immediate radius of the caster), where it functions as a mundane version of the conjured organs. If a Disjointed Conjuration is created in this manner, it cannot be later launched as a projectile. Conjuring in this manner requires a uniform two emotes.

• Disjointed Conjuration may use either Terrestrial or Perennial Conjuration as a base, with the same requirements of study as otherwise.

• Alternatively, one may summon the Disjointed Conjuation in the form of a projectile. If summoned this way, it is thrown either straight forward or in a similar manner to an underhanded lob. Conjuring in this manner requires a uniform three emotes, as well as the following properties;

  • Unlike most voidal projectiles, the limbs hold both weight and physical mass, and their range is inversely proportional to their weight. Under ideal conditions, a Disjointed Conjuration fired as a straight projectile can reach sixty feet before losing velocity and hitting the ground, and a lobbed projectile can reach it’s maximum impact distance at half that range. (Twenty and ten blocks, respectively.) The larger a Conjured limb is, the lower this range becomes, ranging from the listed values at approximately the mass of a human femur, scaling down to half the listed values when nearing the mass of a standard fifteen-pound bowling ball.

  • The vast majority of conjured objects would be wholly and totally useless for the purpose of launching at enemies. Most organs and limbs are simply too fleshy and malleable to hit with any particularly damaging impact. Under ideal conditions, using a particularly pointed, narrow, and light object (such as the aforementioned human femur), the maximum wounding damage a Disjointed Conjuration can perform is roughly equivalent to an arrow lobbed from a shortbow under similar conditions. Other organs and body parts may deal damage as expected of an object of the size and properties the item has, at the discretion of involved parties.

  • A projectile conjuration may be held indefinitely for as long as the caster remains focused, floating and bobbing alongside them in a manner that is highly evident and unable to be hidden. If the item in question is interacted with, such as being smacked out of the air, it loses the ability to be used as a projectile and falls to the ground as expected, becoming a baseline representation of whatever was conjured for as long as the caster maintains focus on it.

• The maximum size of a Disjointed Conjuration is roughly equivalent to the size of a bull’s head. However, small collections of the same individual portion of a creature’s body may be conjured up to that size limit, whether that be a gush of blood, a sprinkle of teeth, or a bluff of hair.

Item & Projectile Disjointed Conjuration are existing methods of usage for the spell, however both previously required four emotes. The new emote counts fall more in line for an entry level spell, as well as with it’s relative power level.

 

Disjointed Enchantment Mechanics

Spoiler

• The primary application of a Disjointed enchantment would be to grant an item a projectile attack, similar to the projectile function of the spell. An enchantment created in this way requires four emotes from front to end to fully conjure and eject the projectile, which cannot be ‘held’ in the manner the original spell can.

• The secondary application of a Disjointed enchantment is to create some form of emission. A blade that soaks itself in mysteriously apparating blood, a hilt that manifests a bone club made of a femur and a skull, a coat that fills itself with fur to keep its wearer warm. These manifestation enchantments take a uniform three emotes from start to finish, and may have a duration up to one hour.

 

Disjointed Conjuration Redlines

Spoiler

• Particularly exotic properties of an item are lost when conjured. For example, bile loses its digestive properties when summoned in this manner. Furthermore, anything gaseous, flaming/exceptionally flammable, poisonous, of an extreme temperature, or otherwise directly harmful lose this property when conjured.

A rewrite of a former redline of largely the same purpose. Rather than outright restrict the summoning of items with strange properties, they merely lose those properties when conjured in this way.

 

 

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Chimeric Conjuration

 

Chimeric Conjuration is largely absent from any complaints I’ve heard of the magic, which leads me to believe it’s in a good spot, albeit niche. Changes will be minor, and tailored towards aesthetic/expression rather than balance, as well as updating to fit new perennial conjuration.

General Chimeric Mechanics

Spoiler

• Chimeric alterations may be composed of both plant and fauna matter, whether that mean creating a rose that bleeds or a hawk with leaves in place of feathers. Whether a Terrestrial or Perennial chimera, this takes one alteration slot. This is purely an aesthetic change, and may not give creatures any new abilities.

Life is life, and crossing the boundary into mad science is largely the flavour of this entire spell. With the changes to perennial conjuration, this seems to be a fitting change.

 

General Chimeric Redlines

Spoiler

• The complex, fleeting, and inherently non-replicable process of Chimeric Alteration is beyond the limitations of what a normal enchantment can store. Chimeric enchantments can be made, however, with an accepted Mart.

Changed redline. Previously no enchantments, swapped to mart-only.

• Conjured hybrids cannot be half-plant half-animal, and must fall into either ‘Terrestrial’ or ‘Perennial’ qualifications.

Removed as a result of being added as a mechanic.

 

Chimeric Terrestrial

No changes. It does exactly what it’s supposed to.

 

Chimeric Perennial

With the update to how Perennial Conjuration functions, a pass was also made over Chimeric Perennial conjuration.

 

Chimeric Perennial Mechanics

Spoiler

• All general conjuration mechanics.

• All general Perennial conjuration mechanics.

• Chimeric Perennial alteration may take one of the following forms.

  • Exchanging the outer texture of a plant, such as making the stem of a dandelion woody, or a tree with watermelon skin for bark, albeit this will affect the flexibility of the plant.

  • Substantially altering the colours of a plant’s flower, bulb, or leaves to virtually anything the caster desires (which they have formerly studied). Any other purely aesthetic changes would fall under this umbrella.

  • Merging multiple plants wholesale, such as a tree sapling which ends in the massive head of a rose, or a set of mushrooms growing straight from the cap of another, larger mushroom.

• Chimeric alteration adds one to the emote count of a Perennial Conjuration casting.

 

 

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Jing Artificery

 

Jing does right about what I want it to, and there are a decent number of users of it. However, it’s undeniably very clunky, and can use a great deal of simplification.

 

General Jing Mechanics

Spoiler

• For Jing which affects the caster’s body, there is a limited range of which they can affect. The regions a single Jing may affect are; Left Leg, Right Leg, Torso, Left Arm, Right Arm, and Head. Jing may only be used over natural limbs, and both prosthetics and outright missing limbs mean a Jing bearer has less options with which to use.

Previously, this note was attached to beastmelding, and had a more complicated system of allowed parts that was confusing and unnecessary.

• Jing require mechanical items to represent them, which must be held in the inventory to be used. These mechanical items follow all standard rules for item enchantments, with the added caveat that the name of the creator (mcname or rpname) must be listed somewhere in the description, in order to ensure one is using Jing they themselves created.

Clarified mcname could be used as an identifier.

• Jing may be used as an Arcane Focus, following the rules and redlines any other Arcane Focus would. Additionally, A Jing may be used as an Eminant’s Affection. Jing used in this way may not be used for any other Jing ritual.

Minor flavour stuff, for those who want to use Jing more prominently.

 

General Jing Redlines

No changes.

 

Jing Beastmelding

Beastmelding is fairly confusing for no good reason, and as such several of the mechanics and redlines have been rewritten. Additionally, emote counts have been reduced, in compensation for the voidal sickness changes making beastmelding largely ineffective in combat. Considering scions would have to give up weapons or armour in order to Beastmeld, and Kani is already directly superior, I do not find these compatible magics to be compelling enough reasons to keep Beastmelding nerfed.

 

Beastmelding Mechanics

 

Spoiler

• All general Jing mechanics.

• Beastmelding doesn’t replace any existing features, instead being conjured over the area being modified. As a result, the physical prowess of the mage in question is what dictates the impact and capability of Beastmelding. Similarly, as it is conjured over their body, shallow and surface level damage may be absorbed wholly by the  conjured flesh, though deep cuts and blunt force trauma would still get through to the mundane flesh of the mage beneath.

• Jing meant for Beastmelding must be worn over exposed flesh, and cannot be used with armour overtop. Sufficiently open or loose clothing (robes, a gi, pajamas, a t-shirt) would not hinder the usage of Beastmelding. Armour may still be worn (if possible), just not over limbs intended to be transformed.

An update to previous rules on allowed attire, opening the attire allowed to be used with Jing.

• Anything the Jing user knows how to summon is eligible to be beastmelded onto their body. However, in order to actually use the summoned, the limb it’s summoned over must have the same general shape. For instance, the hand, the most flexible portion of the body, may be used as a bear paw (flat hand), a goat hoof (balled fist), or a canine’s head (shadow puppet). So long as the same general shape may be made, it’s a valid (though not necessarily useful or good) option. 

Simplification and examples regarding allowed transformations.

• Beastmelding requires two emotes to transform. For each additional Jing being used, one extra emote is required. Up to four jing may be activated at once through this method, totalling six emotes. However, this only works when activating in “bulk”. If a jing is activated, then three emotes later another is activated, both would use the two emotes for activating one Jing.

Update to emote counts & max activated. 3 max was always an arbitrary number, at least four allows symmetrical shapeshifting.

• Multiple instances of Beastmelding must affect different body groups. Each body group may be a unique alteration.

• Beastmelding does not require direct concentration to maintain, and so may be used in direct combat. However, being significantly wounded, knocked unconscious, deprived of mana, or having the limb currently undergoing Beastmelding be amputated all end the effect.

Added mana deprivation clause for edge cases & events.

• Beastmelding does not connect the conjured flesh to the Life Evocationist’s, and is instead closer to an extremely tight form-fitting glove. As a result, any conjured eyes or ears do not convey any information back to the caster. They can, however, feel dullened versions of touch and pain through the conjured skin, due to how form-fitting and tight the conjuration is.

• In a similar vein, one must be careful when choosing what it is that they conjure over themselves. With regards to the head, anything which covers the eyes would blind the user, anything over the ears would deafen, and anything over the mouth and nose would suffocate. With regards to joints in general, anything sufficiently stiff conjured over the limbs would prevent proper articulation.

• Similarly to Chimeric Alteration, one must keep in mind that possession of specific bodily traits does not inherently confer the ability to effectively use them. For example, summoning a webbed membrane between the arm and torso does not allow one to fly as a bat would.

• Outside of combat, one may maintain any number of Beastmeldings (to the normal maximum of three) for up to one hour. Inside of combat, the unusual (for a mage) added strain of direct physical combat lowers this time to a mere fifteen emotes.

• The animal limbs summoned must be of an animal that the Life Evocationist can summon through Terrestrial Conjuration. 

These last five mechanics are all unchanged, though included here for the full picture of what Beastmelding does & is capable of.

 

Beastmelding Redlines

No additions, removals explain below. Included for easier browsing of beastmelding.

 

Spoiler

• All general Jing redlines.

• Beastmelding may not be used as a perfect disguise kit to make oneself look like a specific person. Any alterations instead appear similar to baseline mundane species of whatever is being mimicked.

• Jing used for Beastmelding coalesce the body’s mana within the sections of the body being altered over, which is disruptive enough a shift in the natural mana flow of the body that standard spellcasting is not possible throughout the duration.

 

Removed Mechanics & Redlines.

 

Spoiler

• Beastmelding, for a mage at the pinnacle of life Evocation, may affect a maximum of three areas from the following list of bodily features; Left arm, left forearm (including hand), right arm, right forearm (including hand), head, left leg, right leg. The torso may not be affected, as it is too large a surface area for the complex nature of the spell.

• Another side-effect of Beastmelding being conjured over the body is the limitation of what may be summoned over what sections of the body. In order for something to be properly overlayed atop the body, the limb being overwritten must bare some structural resemblance to that which is being created. For example, over a standard humanoid hand, one may summon some form of paw by holding the hand flat, some form of pinsers by emulating the shape of the claws with their fingers, or even a human head by using the thumb as support for the hinge of the jaw. These same things, however, could not be done over the foot or shoulder, as the same general infrastructure does not exist to properly puppet the addition.

• Beastmelding requires three emotes to wholly form. If activating more than a single instance of beastmelding at one time, each additional Jing being activated after the first may be enabled after the first with a single additional emote, for a total of four emotes for two, and five emotes for three. This only applies for specifically Beastmelding, and only if all done at once. If one decides to activate another Jing a short while after enabling the first, the full three emotes must instead be used.

Simplified, merged into two bullet points, buffed numerically.

• Only the creator of the Beastmelding Jing in question may use the item. The MCName of the creator must be included in the mechanical item, in order to show that they are the sole person allowed to use it.

• Beastmelding does not allow one to grow additional limbs, nor to replace limbs that a normal humanoid would possess that is now missing. In order to properly use Beastmelding, one must have an applicable limb to copy over.

Similar notes added to general Jing guidelines, as such removed from here. The abilities still function this way.

 

 

Jing Reconstruction

This spell fits its niche, and as such I see no reason to significantly change it. However, the mechanics can use further explanation.

Spoiler

• All general Jing mechanics.

• Creating a Jing meant for reconstruction requires a ritual taking four emotes in which a Jing is crafted and bound to a specific individual. This Jing successfully heals an area conforming to the bodily region list used by other bodily affecting Jing, listed for posterity below. There is a level of flexibility; A cut from collarbone down the right arm could be handled by a Jing just for the right arm, for instance.

  • Left Leg, Right Leg, Torso, Left Arm, Right Arm, Head.

Emote count moved to the top, alongside a general idea how much a single Jing can heal, where before it was never specified.

• A secondary result of being created ‘In-the-moment’, Jing meant for Reconstruction may be manufactured for individuals other than the creator, including non-mages. All other redlines and mechanics, including occupying enchantment slots and inability to cast other forms of magic still apply.

Moved up in the bulletpoints for better flow.

• Wounds are functionally healed by Reconstruction, though the process generates notable fatigue, and a dull phantom pain remains in areas of reconstructed flesh until the healing process is fully complete. This process takes a total of three IRL days, and if the Jing are destroyed or removed before this process is complete the wounds will re-open as they were. After this time period, the Jing are rendered defunct, and may be removed without harm.

• The skin of flesh generated through Reconstruction is noticeably different from the rest of the body, whether that be due to discolouration or scarring. This cosmetic malformation is permanent, and one who frequently abuses the process may one day find themselves resembling a patchwork quilt. 

For some reason, I buried the emote count for rituals at the end of this bulletpoint, and said sentence has been removed.

• Unlike other Jing spellcasting, Jing meant to be used for Reconstruction rituals may not be made in advance, and are instead made to fit the situation and injury they are meant to overwrite. As a result, they may not be manufactured or utilized mid-combat, and must instead be created in the aftermath if one desires to create them at all. 

• Reconstruction may only be used to ‘heal’ wounds (‘Wound’ referring to cuts, stabs, slices, and fileting. As a general rule of thumb, any injury resulting from a sharp or pointed end), and any other form of injury (including blood loss that may have resulted from the wound itself) may not be repaired by the process.

Mechanics without editorial text are unchanged, and included for a better idea of the full picture of what Reconstruction can do now.

 

Reconstruction Redlines

No additions, removal listed below.

 

Reconstruction Removals

 

Spoiler

• Reconstruction may not regenerate limbs, and in the event of using reconstruction to heal such an injury, conjured flesh will instead fill in the remaining ‘stump’ of the now missing body part.

Removed for redundancy, added as a bulletpoint in general Jing mechanics. It still functions this way.

 

 

Jing Binding

 

The idea of a permanent conjured creature is a pretty cool idea for a capstone, until you realize it’s functionally identical to owning a pet dog in practice, something which doesn’t require any magic slots. Furthermore, it lacks any real flavour or depth beyond “I have a pet”. As a result, the capability to chimerically alter your friend into an even stranger friend has been added, as well as many of the mechanics and redlines being edited.

 

Binding Mechanics

Spoiler

• All general Jing mechanics.

• All general Terrestrial Conjuration mechanics, as well as Combat Terrestrial Conjuration mechanics, excepting any regarding emote counts or duration.

• All Chimeric Terrestrial mechanics.

• The ritual to create the Bound Conjuration cannot itself be performed in combat, as it is a lengthy and tiring process, involving the creation of two sets of Jing, the binding to said Jing, as well as conjuring a creature. If done in active roleplay, this process would take a minimum of five emotes. This process requires more mana than a single mage could feasibly provide, and as such must be performed at a Mana Obelisk (or fitting substitution, i.e. voidstalker).

Requirement for a mana obelisk added, to fit with similar abilities.

• Up to two chimeric alterations may be made to the summoned animal bound by the Jing. These are permanent, and decided when the item is created.

Added chimeric support.

• The bound conjuration may be manifested or demanifested at the creator’s leisure, albeit with a brief three emote cast time for both. Demanifestation in this manner is considered ‘safe’, and does not bring about any additional consequence.

• If the bound creature were to die by any means, however, this would result in an ‘unsafe’ demanifestation, dropping the jing piece the creature held wherever it dies, possibly irrecoverably. If safely recovered, it may not be reused until performing a ritual to ‘re-activate’ the piece, once again requiring a mana obelisk.

Previous two mechanics added to cement desummoning, resummoning, and bound creature death, which were previously vague/contradictory.

• A bound conjuration must be between small and medium size; Large creatures are too complex and tiring to maintain such constant energy dispersion, and miniscule creatures cannot fully contain the requisite Jing within themselves.

• If one has their Bound Conjuration with them, it must be actively emoted. No surprise ‘I had a dog with me the whole time!’ allowed. If the animal is not sufficiently emoted or described and combat breaks out, the Life Evocationist must act as if the Jing maintaining the Bound Conjuration were inactive, and the animal is not engaged.

• While the Bound Conjuration is active, it permanently occupies an enchantment slot.

• Like other Jing, a mechanical item is required to be with the player in order to cast. In addition to normal descriptions of the item and requisite MCName of the creator, a brief description of the creature to be summoned as well as any alterations it possesses must be provided.

• Due to the communion between the pair of Jing used in the ritual process, Bound Conjurations effectively ignore the range limits of standard conjuration.

Previous five mechanics left untouched, included for posterity.

 

Bound Redlines

No changes. Removal listed below.

 

Bound Removals

Spoiler

• A Bound Conjuration is pseudo-permanently linked to their creator, and as such cannot be de-manifested and re-manifested at will. As such, even when it is not with the Life Evocationist, the mere possession of a Bound Conjuration permanently occupies an enchantment slot.

Removed, due to being inconsistent with the rest of the lore and largely a needless restriction.

 

 

---

Progression

Miraculously, none of the changes necessitate updating the progression guideline, due to a lack of wholly new features or spells.

 

Credits

Cepheid_ - conjuration’s personal editor. Good luck with updating the guide lmao

Zarsies - Still the creator of Jing and Beastmelding.

Squakhawk - General consulting

Mordu - Brought up an exploit with Disjointed conjuration I don’t believe anyone else has ever thought of or used, which is now patched out.

Meteordragon - Putting into scale to me just how worthless perennial conjuration was, and making a suggestion i half-implemented regarding it.

Classybells & Meteordragon (again) - Suggesting plant disjointed conjuration.

Writing & the rest - probably me, alex

Mary Shelley can go **** herself lmao

 

Closing Statements

 

Spoiler

hi heres the amendment.

 

Q. Why is everything annotated?

1. When proposing what is effectively a full suite of buffs for a magic, i figure it’s best to be up front about the why and the what behind what you’re doing. It also helps to distinguish the changes actually being made.

 

Q. Did you really use this format when you only had one imaginary question?
A. yeah lol

 

Edited July 30, 2022 by LoTC's Next Top Model
additional format fixes, added plant-based disjointed conjuration, moved a redline that was in the wrong place.

[farmerclown 3911]

bullet point fixes pending... alex officially hates the forums

[LoTC's Next Top Model 713]

14 minutes ago, Cepheid said:

bullet point fixes pending... alex officially hates the forums

 

i would love for someone to explain to me what i am doing wrong

[saint swag 2445]

i love alex six twelve lore

[farmerclown 3911]

 

[Jaelon 288]

conj conj conj conj

[TreeSmoothie 4895]

smh, no credit for treesmoothie for the emote counts

 

Glad it's getting buffed, though! +1

[ClassyDryad 1733]

I really like the reformatting and adjusted emote counts, since they make using it for just flavor reasons painful, though I have two general suggestions.

Conjuration should really follow the connect, charge, cast system for emotes that all other voidal magics do, because this can cause confusion on if you are able to ignore the first emote or not while already connected and just keeps it clear in line with other voidal magics. Meteor does mention that this could get a bit bloated with all of the various emote counts, so alternatively something in the general redlines saying the first emote is a connection emote would work just as well for this.

This is more of a fluff suggestion but I feel like Disjointed should also be able to summon and fling plant material for people leaning more towards that plant theme, and honestly it does not make any sense that this would not be possible.

Otherwise I think all of these changes make conjuration much more usable without actually really making it stronger outside Disjointed/Perennial. Very good!

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by ClassyBells
Added an alternative to the emote thing

[MeteorDragon 2822]

59 minutes ago, LoTC's Next Top Model said:

Meteordragon

 

There I am-

I love the amendments, it will make Conjuration feel more smooth to cast and overall just give it a better feel. Also thank **** that you changed Plant Conjuration, I was so mad over doing 4 emotes to summon one flower

 

3 minutes ago, ClassyBells said:

Disjointed should also be able to summon and fling plant materia

 

This is also something I feel should exist

[LoTC's Next Top Model 713]

17 minutes ago, ClassyBells said:

Conjuration should really follow the connect, charge, cast system for emotes that all other voidal magics do, because this can cause confusion on if you are able to ignore the first emote or not while already connected and just keeps it clear in line with other voidal magics. Meteor does mention that this could get a bit bloated with all of the various emote counts, so alternatively something in the general redlines saying the first emote is a connection emote would work just as well for this.

This is more of a fluff suggestion but I feel like Disjointed should also be able to summon and fling plant material for people leaning more towards that plant theme, and honestly it does not make any sense that this would not be possible.

 

For point one...

• Any use of feet as a measurement system acts under the assumption that three feet is equal to the length of a single minecraft block. An unrelated clarification, all emote counts include the emote required for voidal connection.

very first mechanic in the first spoiler. this is also something that wasn't changed, this is a copy-paste from the old post.

 

For the second point, honestly, I can't believe I missed that lmao. this was supposed to be the plant boys big break. i'll edit it in.

[monkeypoacher 6993]

😎 really appreciate the emote count adjustment, makes the magic infinitely less awkward to use

[King_Kunuk 888]

Conjurations should be used while a mage uses magic to make fireballs/ice shards/etc. I personally would implemented it as a mere 'can only do that at T4, can only cast up to T3'

 

Also primordial conjuration no love? Sad

Conjurations should be used while a mage uses magic to make fireballs/ice shards/etc. I personally would implemented it as a mere 'can only do that at T4, can only cast up to T3'

 

Also primordial conjuration no love? Sad

[LoTC's Next Top Model 713]

6 minutes ago, King_Kunuk said:

Conjurations should be used while a mage uses magic to make fireballs/ice shards/etc. I personally would implemented it as a mere 'can only do that at T4, can only cast up to T3'

 

Also primordial conjuration no love? Sad

 

you can't cast a spell while focusing on another. that's part of voidal magic as a whole, and i couldn't change it even if i wanted to. it'd also be egregiously overpowered and a must-take if it worked that way.

 

primordial conjuration has also been gone for years, and for good reason. one of the only pieces of input the lore team gave me for the lore games write was that primordial conj has got to go lmao. i will say, though, i wish atronach drones were opened up to not require the feat anymore, for those who want to have lil elemental buddies.

[ClassyDryad 1733]

1 hour ago, LoTC's Next Top Model said:

For point one...

• Any use of feet as a measurement system acts under the assumption that three feet is equal to the length of a single minecraft block. An unrelated clarification, all emote counts include the emote required for voidal connection.

very first mechanic in the first spoiler. this is also something that wasn't changed, this is a copy-paste from the old post.

Oh I missed that! Never mind then!

[IsaaKc 1225]

thank you for actually formatting this amendment