Open Call to Thaumaturgists

[Sheppard]

Greeting Expeditioners!
At this point I hope I have met all of you, but in case some have slipped through the cracks I am Julian Verdan of the Fifth Order of the Thaumaturgical Tower.  I have been assigned to assist your small town in the creation of a Chapter House of the Tower (what many of you would call a Mages Guild).  I have had the good fortune to meet several town Thaumaturgists , but we are always on the look out for those that wish to pursue the art.

So, for any of you who I may have missed please consider this an open invitation to become and Initiate of the Tower, I'm sure you will have questions and minutia about what this entails and in the coming days I will make sure to post the details of what the tower can offer, and expect of you.


For those that I have already met:

I am curious of your conclusions as to where you would like to travel for our planned trip this coming Spring.

Hopefully I will hear from new and old soon,
Julian Verdan
Of the Fifth Order of the Thaumaturgical Tower


 

[Ahri]

Greetings Julian,

I hope all is well with you! I had intended to seek you out over the coming months with regards to some research I am investigating and planned to discuss my thoughts on this proposition with you then. But for the sake of spurring discussion, I would be happy to provide my input on this now. I admittedly did not discuss this topic with my fellow Thaumaturgists during the expedition, as we were primarily focused on the creation of the ritual to aid in our investigation, and am unsure of and curious to hear their input.

If we discount the Cosmological Planes as was mentioned when this trip was first proposed, the Plane I feel that would be best for a first-time trip is the Light Plane. My reasoning for this is two-fold:

1. Light was the first Element I had learned during my Thaumaturgical studies. While this logic is more sentimental than concrete reasoning, I consider the Elements I am attuned to as more interesting and relevant to my area of studies than the Elements I am not currently attuned to.

2. Other Thaumaturgists who have participated in the expedition also have an attunement to Light. I feel that since this will be, for myself at least, our first departure from the Material Plane to an Elemental Plane, venturing to one that multiple casters have an affinity for may be in our best interest.

Regarding the second point, I will be upfront in saying I am unsure of the benefits or consequences (if any) of an individual venturing to a Plane that they are, or are not, attuned to. If you could potentially shed some light (no pun intended) on this idea, as it may strengthen or dismiss this type of thinking, I believe it may aid in our decision-making process.

I look forward to hearing the suggestions from the other Thaumaturgists in town.


Sincerely,

Ahri Suvaerna

[rashaad]

Hello fellow Thaumaturgists,

Ahri had mentioned to me his idea to go to the Light Plane, and although my first thought was Fire or Air, as the two Symbols I am most comfortable with, I defer to his sound judgement.

Regarding the Identification Ritual,

Ahri can you remind me what we finally came up with? I know that it was simple but my head is escaping me at the moment.

Julian I look forward to meeting your friend from the Circle of Blood, as I'm sure his theory and insight into summoning will be most interesting!

- Rashaad

[Ahri]

Rashaad,

Here is what we came up with for the Identification Ritual.

Lumos Acris Aetherus Lineus - Target the tear
Lumos Excanto Aetherus Lineus - Learn the tear
Aetherus Exsul Aetherus Lineus - Know the tear

First, important to note, we were not entirely sure of what to do in order to target the tear. Based on what Julian had said about it, we believed Portallis was not only overkill, but also incorrect. We made an assumption that Aether was the dominate Element involved in the tear. Because of that, we hoped to use Aetherus as the target.

There was also some discussion as to how the ritual should be delivered. In order to reduce the chances of successfully casting the ritual but then missing the tear when attempting delivery, we believed using Illis may be ill-advised (feasible to do if necessary, but limiting our potential points of failure increases the likelihood of success). Instead, Lineus would be ideal. Notably, this would have required either Julian to participate, or require the use of scrolls. Contago could also be used, but since we do not fully understand the tear, touching it may prove to be detrimental. So while Lineus would be ideal, if Julian could not participate for some reason, Illis would likely be the best option, so long as we cast the ritual very close to the tear (which is something we will likely want to do anyways).

We were also still in discussion as to what Elements should be invoked for the ritual. Using Lumos paired with Acris made sense based on its effectiveness in the Blight Removal ritual we have created and performed. I believe using Lumos paired with Excanto also makes sense, since it essentially invokes Light in order to help us Reveal information. From a symbolic point of view, this is valid. Using Aetherus paired with Exsul was decided based on the assumption that the tear is Aetheric-based, and invoking the Element that best represents the tear might divulge the most pertinent information.

Though I will admit to not being fully satisfied with using Excanto followed by Exsul. It seems quite redundant. I would recommend removing Exsul and adding in Exarmo paired with Aetherus.

Lumos Acris Aetherus Lineus - Target the tear
Aeris Exarmo Aetherus Lineus - Make tear vulnerable to our information extraction
Aetherus Excanto Aetherus Lineus - Learn the tear

Using Exarmo may allow us to garner more information due to making the tear vulnerable to our ritual. Theoretical uses for Exarmo include "to lay bare; to make vulnerable," both of which are relevant to the intention behind this ritual. The only part I am unsure of is which Element to pair with Exarmo. I have chosen Aeris here because of its proven usefulness in the Remove Blight ritual, as well as it being a generally good idea to pair a Physical Element with a Physical symbol, but do not have much justification for the pairing other than that.

Any input from the other Thaumaturgists in Aldgate would be highly appreciated!


Sincerely,

Ahri Suvaerna

[fadri]

First of all I am also attuned to the element of Light, and would agree that staying where have multiple attunements may be best for a first outing. Second of all I like the changes you have made Ahri and I think pairing Aeris and Exarmo are good, as the sympathetic link holds and Aeris is an element of freedom and we want the information to flow freely as we Exarmo, as we lay it bare - But may I suggest

Aetherus Orato Aetherus Lineus
Aeris Exarmo Aetherus Lineus
Lumos Excanto Aetherus Lineus


to call it forth, open it up and learn from it -this keeping the sympathetic symbols more in line, and has a gentler feel to it that may make the forces behind it more cooperative.

[Ahri]

Fadri,

I very much like this idea of using Orato. Similar to Acris, it allows us to specifically target the tear, but I feel like using Orato is more appropriate of an approach considering how we not only wish to target the tear, but wish to call upon it to provide information. As you mention, it seems to be more of a passive way to obtain this information, whereas the methodology I mentioned is more brute-force. Using a gentler of an approach may result in less resistance to our divining, and therefore more information gained. I also agree with using Aetherus for Orato.


~ Ahri