Tag Archives: Enchanters of Sye

Book of the Dead: Catacombs

The Book of the Dead explains the nature of Church magic in the Enchanters of Sye world.

Sciomancers Perform Ritualistic Spells to Maintain the Ghosts in the Catacombs

catacombs [kat uh kohmz] noun, c.800, ME catacomb < OE catacumbe < L catacumbās < G katakýmbās, hollow, cup; also Under Church or ghost hall.

Physical: Underground stone-lined enclosures
Magic Type: Church/Piety
Spell Group: Incorporeal Matters
Restrictions on Physical and Magical Construction: Priest only construction, Sciomancer only maintenance; all other secular, Magic Guild, and Enchanter magicians disallowed. Only Sciomancer magic may bind a ghost to the corporeal world using a relic.
Ghost Magic: Secular magicians, Magic Guild, and Enchanters may summon a catacomb ghost provided the magic does not confine the spirit.

Sciomancers Light Candles to Warm the Ghosts

Catacombs are underground hallways, alcoves, and tunnels beneath Church buildings that house receptacles for ghost relics.

To build a catacomb, three Priests combine their magical power and draw on the pooled enchantments of an above ground Church building. The town’s Priest tends the structure spells afterwards.

Sciomancers furnish the catacomb hallways and alcoves with candle niches, metal name markers, and locked drawers to hold ghost relics. They support a favorable ghost environment by tending the upkeep of the catacombs, performing ritualistic spells, and lighting candles to warm the spirits.

Visitors Leave Dishes of Magic-rippling Water For the Ghosts

Church followers visit the catacombs, leave small remembrances in the niches, and recite spells to encourage the ghosts to stay in the corporeal realm instead of journeying to the Fields of Yalu.

The gifts are usually flowers or plants, dishes of magic-rippling water, or tiny wind chimes on a stand that have a small spell to make the bells sound.

Explore Sye ghost care and meet a valued catacomb ghost in these blog posts:

Read more about ghost amulets, the Book of the Dead, and how ghosts help a magical charms maker hide a dangerous spell book in these Enchanters of Sye stories:

Stop Your Blather

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Lita takes Gentle Reader to the Enchanters of Sye world today, with an excerpt from her award-winning short story, Wrath, Prequel to Tredan’s Bane.

It Had a Heavy Golden Chain. And Potent Spells.

Retired Enchanter Tredan is alone in his magical curio shop, unpacking a box of charms.

A routine shipment holds an unpleasant surprise–a rival magician called a Church Enforcer has planted a charm inside the box that captures its recipient within a powerful enthrallment.

Tredan poses as a harmless secular magician now, and thought he was far removed from the Enchanter versus Church politics. But he has a shameful secret. This Enforcer knows about Tredan’s spell book, and the day of reckoning has arrived for the retired Enchanter. The Enforcer talks to Tredan through this Compulsion Charm.

Tredan forced his fingers open and stared at the Compulsion Charm. Unlike the other cheap charms in the box, this one had intricate scrollwork etched into a sparkling outer casing. It had a heavy golden chain. And potent spells.

He Kept His Hideous Journal Safe All These Years

Come to me. Bring the journal.

He had been cautious and kept his hideous journal safe all these years. How could he have been so susceptible? He was now caught and could not escape. Tredan bowed his head. His world went dark. For a time, all else went away except his despair. If the Enforcer came now, Tredan would surrender and be done with his furtive struggle.

Time passed. His black stupor lifted. Tredan raised his head.

“I will not hand over the journal. My bane.”

You will, Tredan.

“My marriage would be a sham if I gave up the journal now. I would not have Lanith think I used her to hide my secret.”

Tredan’s Marriage to Lanith Would Be a Sham If He Gave Up the Journal Now

You failed long ago when you accepted His Divine’s magic.

“He tricked me.”

Enchanters were gullible then. That’s why you fell.

“The Enchanters trusted the Church then. There’s a difference.” Tredan took a deep breath. “His Divine’s magic forced me to write the journal. I accept what’s happened.”

You’re resigned. Good.

“I’ve hidden it well.”

I’ll find the journal despite your stubbornness.

Tredan dropped the Compulsion Charm into his pocket. “Stop your blather, Church filth. I have matters to attend to.”

Guild Matters Sye: Midwinter Festival for Enchanters

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The Guild Matters Sye book whispers the arcane secrets of the Magic Workers and Merchant guilds. This is the third of three stories about Sye’s Midwinter Festival.

Previously:

Ghosts of Former Enchanters Enter the Five Schools During the Midwinter Festival

The Enchanter magicians in the Enchanters of Sye world celebrate Midwinter Festival by allowing the ghosts of former Enchanters to enter the five Schools of Magic. The ten Grandmasters adjust the Schools’ foundation spells to coincide with the Priests’ spell weaving at Soul’s Midnight. This coordination keeps Sye’s fundamental magic in balance.

The visiting ghosts are confined to the common areas of the schools. The living and dead Enchanters exchange stories and magical wisdom during the three days of Midwinter Festival. Sye’s ghosts are intellectual beings devoid of emotion, and the quality of the ghosts’ memories have many variables. The living Enchanters plan for months what they will discuss with certain ghosts. Sometimes this preparedness is for naught if a ghost does not visit during the Midwinter Festival.

Enchanters Share Loving Dreams During Their Midwinter Festival Slumbers

During the three nights while the ghosts roam the schools, even the Enchanters who normally sleep alone find bed partners. They retreat into their private rooms where the ghosts cannot go.

Whether bedding other Enchanters or their favored Consents, the most powerful magicians in Sye weave spells to share loving dreams during their Midwinter Festival slumbers. Their emotional and physical intimacy during these three nights stave off the madness that would otherwise result from commingling with the ghosts.

Read more about the Enchanters of Sye world:

Guild Matters Sye: Midwinter Festival for Secular Magicians

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The Guild Matters Sye book whispers the arcane secrets of the Magic Workers and Merchant guilds. This is the first of three stories about Sye’s Midwinter Festival.

A Secular Magic Worker’s Home Decorated for Midwinter Festival

The Midwinter Festival in the Enchanters of Sye world is held on the three darkest days of the year, when the sun shuns the northern sky. The yearlong snow fields of the mountain passes creep down the slopes and claim all but the low coastal towns and arid desert in the continent’s interior.

Almost all of Sye’s mountain dwellers abandon the heights during winter and join their family and friends in the more hospitable coastal towns. They begin this journey in late autumn because the ghosts walk during the three darkest days of winter. Without the proper magical preparations, ghosts can drive the living mad.

Small Light Charms Fueled With Enchanter Essence

Sye’s living denizens adorn the windowsills and the outside of their homes with small charms that shed light fueled with essence. Because the dead do not care for the Enchanters’ magical essence, the ghosts avoid the magical glows.

The living decorates the inside of their homes during Midwinter Festival with rich colors, sweet-scented pine branches, and musical charms that play soft tinkling melodies. The secular magicians gather friends and family for feasts on all three Midwinter Festival nights.

Next time: Midwinter Festival for Church Magicians

Read stories from the Enchanters of Sye world:

Book of the Dead: Ghost Amulet

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The Book of the Dead explains the nature of Church magic in the Enchanters of Sye world.

A Spirit Inside of a Ghost Amulet

ghost amulet [gōst amyələt] noun, c.900, OE gāst < ME goost; c.1550 amalettys < L amuletum; also spirit fetish or periapt.

Physical: Charm, midsize
Magic: Church/Piety
Spell Group: Incorporeal Matters
Restrictions on Physical Construction: Secular, Magic Guild, and Enchanter magic allowed
Ghost Magic: Sciomancer or Priest summons only; Secular and Magic Guild disallowed due to safety; Enchanters disallowed per agreement

A ghost amulet is a charm no larger than a woman’s fist. Its purpose is to house willing incorporeal beings (“ghosts”) who wish to stay in the Sye physical realm under shelter of Church magic. Ghost amulets are portable magical items and can be worn if the carrier has specific spells for protection from the ghost. A typical ghost amulet has a gold metal casing etched with beautiful spells.

Last Year’s Winner in the Magic Guild’s Contest for Best Bubble World Inside of a Ghost Amulet

The inside of ghost amulets are much larger than the outside. Amulet interiors range from simple single rooms to intricately furnished multi-chamber homes. The best ghost amulet makers create small “bubble worlds” that include landscapes, sunlight, and weather.

Summoning and manipulating ghosts is a Church Sciomancer magical specialty. Secular magicians and Magic Guild are forbidden to manipulate ghosts because of the danger to the magician. According to agreed-upon magical segregation, Enchanters do not practice ghost manipulation. However, only Enchanter Grandmasters have enough magical power to send (and retrieve) living visitors to the Fields of Yalu.

Explore Sye ghost care and meet a celebrated Sciomancer ghost in these blog posts:

Read more about ghost amulets, the Book of the Dead, and how ghosts help a magical charms maker hide a dangerous spell book in these Enchanters of Sye stories:

Necronomicon Enchanter: Uslar Rings

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Within the pages of the Necronomicon Enchanter book in Lita’s library, the curious may learn the Enchanters’ magical matters. Beware, for the knowledge might drive the reader mad with bitter desire and luscious regret. Today we learn about deadly consequences for non-Enchanters.

A Grandmaster Talks with a Sentient School

Previously:

Uslar Rings

In the early days of the Enchanter Schools, the Magic and Merchant Guild workers had free access to the school’s grounds. The schools’ early foundation spells did not differentiate between the Enchanters and the other school residents. The schools pulled essence from everyone on site and the non-Enchanters fell ill. The weakest died from magical deprivation.

Many non-Enchanters fled the schools to protect themselves. To stop the crisis, the Grandmasters talked with the sentient schools and devised powerful charms that would identify the bearer as an Enchanter. The schools fashioned the charms into beautiful gems. The schools produced seven gem colors: Earthe (brown or deep green), Mer (aqua or blue), Aer (clear), and Fyre (scarlet or amber).

The Enchanter Schools Set the Gems From the Pool of Light Into Intricate Rings

Pool of Light

The Old Forest School created a place called the Pool of Light and placed the stones at the bottom.

Magician Uslar was the first candidate to enter the pool and take a gem. Later Enchanters named the gems Uslar Stones. For convenience, the schools set the gems into intricate rings that Enchanters wear on the middle finger of the left hand. The Uslar Ring gives the Enchanter access to the school’s essence reservoir. The beautiful gems sparkle during spell casting, and they identify the wearer as an Enchanter.

All Enchanters Claimed a Gem from the Pool of Light

The plan worked. All Enchanters claimed a gem from the Pool of Light and experienced a heightened connection to the schools. The essence drain on non-Enchanters stopped.

After the Uslar Stones emerged, the Old Forest School closed access to the essence-producing trees, making it exclusive to the Enchanters wearing Uslar Stones.

Shutting away the Enchanters had serious repercussions for those not living in the schools. Even those who were not essence mad now relied on magical essence for their wellbeing. Many people disliked the wanton affection and enthrallment that come from sharing essence kisses.

The Enchanters’ concentrated magic needed balancing. Sye itself righted matters, but with great pain to the Enchanters.

Next time: Church Magicians

Find out more about the books in the Enchanters of Sye world:

Necronomicon Enchanter: Five Schools

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Within the pages of the Necronomicon Enchanter book in Lita’s library, the curious may learn the Enchanters’ magical matters. Beware, for the knowledge might drive the reader mad with bitter desire and luscious regret. Today we read how the early Enchanters used desperate measures to protect themselves.

Previously:

The Ten Enclave Enchanters Established the Five Schools

Sye Enchanter Schools

To shelter themselves from the frequent and savage attacks of the essence mad, the Enchanters journeyed to five far-flung areas of Sye and established five schools.

The ten enclave Enchanters saturated the foundation stones with protection spells. They designed self-sustaining protections. For all the school’s residents, the school drew off essence to power the spells. The excess essence went into a reservoir.

To fix the impersonal nature of a school’s essence collection, the Enchanters adjusted the foundation spells and gave the schools female personalities. To the Enchanters’ surprise, their efforts made the schools sentient creatures.

Grandmasters Divided the Enchanters’ Magical Discipline Among the Schools

Also to protect themselves from exposure to the essence mad, the Enchanters used their most powerful combined magic and linked the five schools. They could travel between the schools using just five steps instead of taking days on horseback.

Enchanter Grandmaster

After establishing the five schools, two of the original Enchanters went to each school and took up permanent residence. They took the title of Grandmaster.

Much work remained locally at the schools. The Grandmasters divided the Enchanters’ Magical Discipline among the schools and established each site with two magical specialties. They contracted with the local Merchant Guild representatives and had them take over distributing the essence charms out of each school. This created a buffer between the delicate Enchanters and the forceful tactics of the essence mad.

Grandmaster Enchanters Distributed Their Mundane Magical Concerns Between the Guilds

Magic Worker Guild

After setting up a better essence charm distribution network with the Merchant Guild, the Grandmaster Enchanters next hired mages and trained them in the mundane aspects of magic craft. These mages cast dispensary spells and connected them to the schools’ foundation spells. The mages crafted charms with much lower essence levels, and then coordinated with the Merchant Guild to vend the amulets.

These early mages established the Magic Worker Guild to tend all but the essence-generating Enchanter spells. The Grandmasters selected willing candidates from the Magic Workers Guild and began training Enchanter candidates at the schools. While these developments stabilized the Enchanters’ work and made essence available for the rest of Sye’s people, the schools still had some fatal flaws.

Next time: Uslar Rings

Find out more about the books in the Enchanters of Sye world:

Necronomicon Enchanter: Evolution of Sole-Source Magic

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Within the pages of the Necronomicon Enchanter book in Lita’s library, the curious may learn the Enchanters’ magical matters. Beware, for the knowledge might drive the reader mad with bitter desire and luscious regret. Today we read the first chapter and discover how Enchantment came to the Sye world.

Early Magicians Wanted to Improve Their Enchantments

Early Sye

Before Enchanters came, Sye’s plants and animals shared their world’s weak and scattered magic.

Early magicians with an interest in improving their spell craft formed a community. They cultivated the plants with the highest concentration of magic and ate the leaves. The magicians became ill from the plant’s raw magic. Many of them left the enclave, but the few that remained experimented with the flora.

Certain spells and physical preparation made the plants palatable for most, but the puny levels had little effect on the magicians’ magical abilities. More mages abandoned the effort until only five men and five women remained: Surat, Cha, Kesdin, Beel, Sahn, Ree, Narkin, Lika, Cinton, and Durme.

The Old Forest Taught the First Enchanters

The Magical Chaos Theory

As Sye magicians have learned since then, the Magical Chaos Theory seeks order from the mess of random enchantment.

The turning point for the discouraged magicians came when the trees in the Old Forest in the eastern interior of Sye awoke because of the Magical Chaos Theory. What is now known as the Enchanter’s Ten originated from the ten enclave magicians. They also defined the Enchanter’s Two power number. Its enchantments manifest in the duality between male and female, plus the pairing of mind (causa) and body (soma).

Magical Essence Appears

These early magicians cultivated spells to communicate with the magically sentient trees. In a mutually beneficial exchange, the trees shed magic-rich bark and leaves. The ten mages then followed the trees’ instructions and transformed this enchanted tree detritus into chewy sticks sweetened with wood sap. They called it magical essence, and the ten could eat the concoction without falling ill.

Old Forest’s Influence on the Enclave Magicians Forever Transformed Their Magical Abilities

The Old Forest’s impact on the ten magicians’ magical abilities was profound. Sye’s magic would never again be scattered and weak.

After twenty and five days of eating tree essence, the ten enclave magicians became Sye’s first Enchanters. The Old Forest gave them vast magical power, but unexpected weaknesses threatened to destroy their hard-won enchantments.

Next Time: Enchanters’ Magical Discipline

Find out more about the books in the Enchanters of Sye world: