Of Oaths, Obligations, and the Enchantment of Objects

The binding of persons to their word, the enchantment of objects, the anchoring of principles to places - these are instruments of administration as much as of magic; several have made their way into the formal infrastructure of Singhapura’s courts and commerce. Your Grace may find that the workings here are, in that sense, among the most quietly useful to her rule.

Of Contracts, Bonds, and Obligations

Sapumal’s Five Elements Binding Oath

One of the most widely used Rituals. Enforces contracts using the collective energy of all participants, requires five distinct elemental correspondences to function. The initial cost is distributed and therefore light; anyone who defaults, however, receives from the universe a blow proportional to the age and integrity of the oath they have broken — as though the universe holds the debt in surety against default, releasing it all at once when the oath is violated. This may be one of the most useful tools in Your Grace’s arsenal. Sapumal worked briefly as a banker in Lusia before devising this, and the mechanism perhaps reflects his experience.

Sapumal’s Sundering

Dissolves magical bindings. It requires a violent burst of effort; the older and more established the binding, the harder it is. Backlash from failure is considerable, equivalent to the energy released if the oath is violated. This, too, Your Grace may find useful.

Gajaba’s Thread

A Ritual devised by an LTU Grandmaster studying the Sympathy of Galdors and Vedics. It creates a connection between separated parts of the same entity, allowing effects on one part to propagate to the whole. However, the effects are bidirectional in nature, and thus can be exploited if discovered. Skilled magicians work in deliberate asymmetries, often in the form of delays, filters, or conversions from one form to the other.

Manike’s Gate

Yet another lesson from the Galdors of Ealdorfold. This Ritual binds an abstract principle to a physical location, creating a space where that principle is magically enforced - held in or kept out according to the caster’s design. The Heart Sutra requires that the principle carry genuine narrative weight, and the Iron Sutra matters in choice of location; a truth-binding takes more easily in an ancient temple of justice and fails entirely on a suit of new steel armor. It is common that courtrooms in Singhapura carry Gates of Truth and Justice to guard against deception. The Gate requires many casters, and often creates a great deal of magical residue, and thus is easily identifiable by magicians.

Gananth’s Benevolence

This Ritual is derived from the study of Primals and the Diefic; it temporarily transfers an aspect of the caster’s Authority to another person. The mechanism turns the recipient into something resembling a temporary Invoker; it is easy to conceive of this in terms such as Your Grace temporarily lending a page your seal and authority. However, the impact to the caster is greatly unpredictable, and because of this the Benevolence is not used lightly.

Rehobaum’s Dark Binding

This ritual exploits the Heart Sutra’s recognition of a near-universal cultural motif: across every tradition we have examined, the shadow is closely linked to the idea of the person, and often their soul. The Dark Binding anchors the flesh to the shadow, such that wounds upon the flesh can be redirected. However, the Wheel Sutra is its enemy; it will spend eternity undoing the result, and there are enough horrific stories of magicians haunted by their own vengeful shadows, their bodies and powers broken. The Ritual is banned across most jurisdictions except in serious medical emergencies.

Of Site, Material, and Object Work

Marambe’s Amplification

Searches the area for living plants and drains them of energy before providing said energy to a given target, be it person or Ritual. Living plants are among the finest conductors available - they have passed through the seasons of the world, seen growth and decay, and thus participated in the cycle of life. The practitioner who takes the time to read the plant life before using it as a lattice will find the costs reduced considerably. For this reason it is customary, in Singhapura, to level the ground and plant a garden before construction work begins. The darker aspect, Your Grace, is that places where Singhapura shock troops have fought tend to see withered crops and forests drained of all green.

Kumara’s Purifying Flame

Burns away traces of magic from a location. The Temple of Eighteen was the origin; this is the Taprobane formalisation. Accompanying the Sin-Eater Legions of Singhapura are magicians and Temple of Eighteen adepts known as the Pyre Wardens who specialize in cleansing with this Ritual; they are not long for this world, and are given much respect.

Yamuna’s Heart

Enhances an object’s natural properties; may also be used to replace those properties for a brief period with those imagined by the caster. The Iron Sutra actively resists this Ritual; the Heart Sutra partially offsets this, but only for objects that already carry sufficient narrative weight. On a famous sword, a named ship, an heirloom passed through generations, it may be viable to extend such properties as already ascribed to it for some time; on a brick of no history, or an empty page, the cost would be ruinous.

Tailor’s Power of Two

For an infinitesimal period of time, this Ritual produces a double of the target and erases the original in the same operation. This Ritual is highly unstable. The double inherits physical properties cleanly; it does not inherit life, magic, Authority, or suchlike. It is often used to amplify brief effects such as explosions, as the energy created in the explosion can fuel the spell briefly before the universe notices. Using it on uncountable nouns or living subjects - or even on two subjects in a confined space - is, if fortunate, lethal; students are often taught of the unfortunate case of a monk who doubled himself, resulting in a horrific monster with two heads and no arms.