Stone of Unbinding

[Amber Brightwing]

Stone of Unbinding

Can we imbue techniques? I didn't think it to be possible and I have no idea how it could be done either. If so, would there be imbued/enchanted Stones of Promoting as well? And if yes, wouldn't this be a way around the needed masters limit for promotions?

Also, wasn't there a Stone of Unbinding used by the first PF mages to become unbound? Or am I remembering wrongly?

[Gnaia]

There was according to the history that I read... A Stone of Unbinding for the first PF mages. Ended up breaking thanks to something Julos the Mad did and unbound everyone that had the slightest inkling towards the arcane IIRC.

As for the other questions... no idea.

[Marwin Luminarias]

Yes, the Stone of Unbinding broke. I believe it was a tailisman that cannot be replicated by 'normal' mages. The technique to enchant Arcana techniques is probably only available to Ancient Aelyrians and other 'immortals'

But that doesn't mean that mages can't try it

After all, Unbinding / Promotion works just like any other spell. Nothing stops a journeyman/master from imbuing or enchanting an object with that 'spell'.

IE: Unbind requires abjuration, alteration, evocation (3 mana shaping techniques because it is a Journeyman level 'technique'; Promotion requires abjuration, alteration, divination, evocation (4 mana shaping techniques because it is a Master level 'technique).

The only real hindrance I can see with making imbuements / enchantments for Unbind and Promote is that every mage is different, so their mental 'blocks' would be unique, I imagine. This means that there is no 'universal pattern' that would 'unlock' the minds for Unbinding and Promotion. That's why a Master is physically required for Promotions and a Journeyman or greater is required to be there for Unbinding. They'd have to shape the spell according to the person they are casting it on.

[Amalthea]

It would appear that I've kicked a little dust into the air. I created that blurb on the Stone of Unbinding based on my reading of the trestie on Ikos.

http://www.playbypost.com/forums/arcana...#content_start

In retrospect, I could probably better deifine a 'Stone's' creation a bit by saying something like "Stone of Unbinding is not a 'universal' item and its ability to unbind is in direct relation to the mage that originally imbued the object with the Unbinding spell. From object to object, no Stone of Unbinding is the same." I think I will revise the entry with this if it sounds reasonable

[Serion D'Rinishad]

TBH, promotion is far more complicated than Unbinding, and Juan has mentioned that there are ways of getting promoted besides the generic "gather the masters, it's time for a party" sort of method. In the history that you're quoting the item used should be referred to as THE Stone of Unbinding, as it's mechanics were a bit different than what would be used by mages now-a-days.

***Edit***
Also, now that I was thinking about, techniques are nothing more than spells without essences. Using Imbue, you could create items containing techniques, however with Promotion, it would still require X-Masters/Archmages to get together and create the Promotion Stone...and I highly doubt any mage would try and create items with so many other mages, as the chance of failure (or mishaps) would be high.

[Marwin Luminarias]

*nods*

And I doubt that a bunch of masters would gather and say,

"Hey! We should make imbuements so anyone can get promoted!"

[Amalthea]

Sounds good to me! I'll just leave well enough alone.

[Amber Brightwing]

And I doubt that a bunch of masters would gather and say,

"Hey! We should make imbuements so anyone can get promoted!"

It should be the same for unbinding. And the latest rules of registering teachers and such wouldn't help opening up magic either.

[Serion D'Rinishad]

It only takes a single mage to create an Unbinding...so there's nothing preventing them from doing so. If the creation of the stone is illegal, than so be it, take it up with the mage in game.

If I wanna make a hula-hoop of Circle of Magic, then I will

[Amber Brightwing]

What I wanted to say is that even if it was possible to create a 'universal' unbinding stone very few mages would actually want to create one... *ponders* Well, just thought that it should be 'very few Masters...', but since imbuing and unbinding are Journeyman level it might be a bit easier to come by (though still difficult).

That said, going by the current imbuing write up the only way to do it would be to make it into some kind of spell. I do believe they should run into this problem though:

The only real hindrance I can see with making imbuements / enchantments for Unbind and Promote is that every mage is different, so their mental 'blocks' would be unique, I imagine.

[Serion D'Rinishad]

Perhaps, but something that should also be noted is that it takes a JMan mage to bind you to an Astral Plane. Without the mage it's not of much use I would guess...which is why it would be used mainly for Ikos, as it's special.

[Amber Brightwing]

I never really thought of the unbinding being the thing that bound you to a specific plane (since any Journeyman mage can do so without binding you to a certain sphere), but instead the Imparting and casting a first spell to finalize it. Ikos is indeed special because you only need a Journeyman mage (from another sphere) to unbind and someone capable of teaching, for I imagine a Journeyman Ikonomancer is probably sufficient as well.

[Serion D'Rinishad]

Well either way, you require the mage to do the imparting (which is what I meant by binding). If you need the mage to bind you, what does it matter if you're unbound, b/c said mage can unbind you as well.

[Marwin Luminarias]

Plus, a mage is not really 'tied' to a plane. He's just trained to find his way back there each and every time. That's the cool / dangerous part about Arcana in this 'freeform style' post-aethergem: there are no more real 'safeties'. Having said that, the person who unbinds a mage essentially needs to do two things:

1) teach them how to get to the Plane they need to (IE Nature, Life, Death, Thought, etc)

2) Impart the 'logic' behind their current spell list.

Impart is important because spellcasting is like making random shapes that doesn't make sense -- but each shape has a purpose. So an initiate cannot connect (at first) how abjuration gives movement without getting the 'theory' behind it via Imparting. That doesn't mean that initiates can't try though but I'd imagine that it would be like explaining non-linear calculus to someone who doesn't even understand numbers.

Now, with the Unbinding and Promotion by themselves, I'm sure that someone could create a 'Stone of Unbinding' that could get 'most' of the unique blocks -- BUT it would be a very crude and traumatic way of unlocking someone. It would be like inserting the correct key into the door to unlock it (having a J-man or Master unbind / promote) VS. having a wrecking ball break down your door ('universal' stone of unbinding)

[Serion D'Rinishad]

I'd also like to think that if a person uses the Stone of Unbinding and attempts to cast a spell on their own, without guidance (perhaps they read some manuals or scrolls) the chance of them frying themselves would be pretty high.