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>>80661561
They act as a focal point to channel spells through. The mage collects the spell unto themselves, charging it until it reaches a critical potential, and then since the magic field is greatest at sharp points it discharges from the tip of the wand.
Archmages are capable of channeling far greater power and a wand would discharge before they could meet their full potential, so they opt for larger staves.

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>>80661561
What are some other potential focus items a mage can use in your setting besides wands? There’s staffs, obviously, rings are also a classic, as are pendants, but what about lamps? Gauntlets? What are the pros and cons of each kind of item? Can someone in your setting use more than one at once?

>>80661561
who started this shitty cliche
seriously

Casting a spell is complex because you need to keep the whole thaumic weavestructure in your mind at the same time, so it's convenient to staple such a structure permanently to a piece of physical matter. Then you can at any time simply shunt your power into it without having to concentrate.

A skilled enough practitioner may imprint a weave at a microscopic scale, allowing for a small object to have a plethora of available spells. You naturally need to be careful exactly which spot you activate in that case.

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>>80663679
It's older than writing. Since the first time a caveman grabbed a stick and used it to point to things and to direct people, the wand has been a symbol of power.

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>>80661561
What about spellbooks? Are spells in your setting actually written down?

>>80661561
They are used as a distraction as the other hand casts the real spell.

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>>80661561
How fancy do you prefer magic wands to be in your setting? Should they be just plain wood, or have more decorations?

>>80663594
Fun ideas for not-wands:
>Fake teeth, you channel magic through your teeth and it results in the spells being shot from your mouth
>tip of a wizards hat
>an animal such as a pet rat

>>80671400
An animal sounds impractical. Couldn’t it run away, die, or something else?

>>80661561
Its a tool to focus their willpower through which their spells are powered by.

>>80674375
Magic is supposed to be impractical, Anon.

>>80661561
Post your wands, their materials, cores/foci, and even personal customizations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wand

There's quite a bit of history behind the wand IRL.
An alternative in magic that you don't see much in fiction is the knife.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athame

>>80675129
Material- Red and black stabilized wood
Core- A pickled Reaper's Arm centipede
Custom- Flame motif

Glory to the douchewizard.

Wands are for mages with small dicks, staffs are for mages with big dicks, but the mages with the biggest dicks don't use any casting implement at all, just pulling spells out of the aether with their bare hands

This means that the mages with the biggest dicks are the demiliches without hands.

Mages use staves
Magelets use wands

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>>80676467
>when a mage with a wand meets a mage with a staff, the mage with a wand is a dead man

>>80666872
Used to be, but now mags keep their spells digitized like any other sane person.

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>>80661561
Related to what >>80663594 is saying, what if pointy hats are worn by mages because they actually help focus magic to them, or can even act as a way to cast spells all on their lonesome?

I remembered some more anime-styled images of witches with arms and stuff coming out of there hats on this board a while back, but I couldn't find them, so have this instead.

>>80676258
Oh jeez. Uh...

Stabilized wood has similar nullification properties to lead, but lacks the metal's mystagogic quality and its connection to certain gods. This would normally a baffling choice, but the... whole centipede you jammed inside there is such an ulcer of fire and poison that its aura would likely have eaten through finer materials. I'm not even going to ask what was in the pickling fluid. Your Hot Wheels-esque flamejob could probably hold some rote lesser pyromancies for snap use, but I suspect its real purpose is to broadcast the owner's lovely personality.

This piece will be atrociously difficult to wield, requiring great power to form spells at all and careful control to keep them from laying waste to one's environs. Its core ensures that all but the most circumspect magic made with it will include a corrosive edge. May the Chamberlains have mercy on your soul, douchebag.

>>80676412
The magical community realized long ago that 6-foot staves suffer from diminishing returns when compared to 10-inch wands of similar craftsmanship. They are also woefully unfashionable in a modern context. That being said, a lot of magical academies and institutions still have an "ancestral" staff that their leaders get to use on special occasions.

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>>80683400
Forgot my pic.

>>80671400
I like rings, watches, and bracelets. They're inconspicuous and you don't have to reach for them.

>>80663679
Wouldn't be surprised if it's Oden, atleast when it comes to staves, which I guess could qualify as a type of wand. The Gandalf-type of 'wandering wise man' is based on stories of Oden travelling the world in disguise. The stereotypical wizard staff is basically just a more or less pimped out walking stick.

>>80675320
>Kill a Hippo
>Gaze into its mouth, see a tusk
>LMAO, that would be perfect for when my wife goes into labour.
Humans are fucking retarded.

>>80684185
>Kill a bald man
>Get gold from their head

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>>80676780

>>80683400
>Engraved Silver casing
>Hyssop Sprig core
>fuck accessories

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>>80685043
Finally, a respectable wand. I'm sure you already know that plant-in-metal is a rare, but classic setup. You almost have the opposite problem of the douchewizard, because while hyssop is undoubtedly magical, it isn't extremely potent. Many rituals make use of hyssop since it promotes lawfulness and fruitful communication in humans, and more importantly because it absorbs malicious energies like a sponge. These qualities are amplified in wand form. Silver, likewise, is also heavily associated with goodness and the mind; You either know your magic sources pretty well or else got really lucky. One side benefit this brings is that the surface of this piece will "heal" itself of any deformation over time.

>fuck accessories
Oh please. What do you think these engravings are? I see you at least got someone skilled to do them... This looks like a multivalent arresting pattern, which means you're going to be able to pre-cast a spell and then hold it while you cast another.

This wand would benefit greatly from a skilled user. It leans towards the good, but is perhaps a little frail to face evil head on. I suspect it may come to favor ritual magic even despite its metallic construction.

>>80661561
I like having a caster's focus tool affect their magic, something like a staff can handle more raw power, but a wand can weave more intricate spells. Spells cast with a ring are crude, but nearly impossible to disarm the mage. Enchanted gloves can do the most complex spells, but are the most fragile focus tools.

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>>80661561
Why don't more mages use wands for guns?

>>80661561
>wand = six shooter
>rod = shotgun
>staff = rifle
Use whichever feels right.

>>80675129
>Materials
Brazillian rosewood with an ivory grip
>cores/foci
Thunderbird plume
>Personal customizations
Embedded silver bands spaced evenly from end of the grip to shortly before the tip

A gentleman's tool, worthy of being an heirloom.

>>80676258
>>80689396
Alright let's see Paul Allens wand then.

>>80689396
What kind of ivory?

>>80691108
Gotta be elephant.
Or maybe walrus.

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>>80689396
Alright, I'm actually going to start with these rings here. I've seen this construction method used a few times before by specialist builders making one-off wands. The silver bands are meant to corral malevolence into pre-selected metaphysical spaces. Basically, some buyers wanted to try stuffing demons and rogue curses into their wands. I sincerely hope these are just meant to be aesthetic, for your sake...

Anyway, true rosewood is a bitch and a half to source and as such denotes a wielder of means. The Brazilian varietal does not appear particularly magical next to other members of its genus, but oh baby does it look good. Understand that these trees are ideal for sustained high-capacity casting on account of their hardness and internal resonance capacity. You can literally get this piece to sing if you perform, say, Donovan's Ninth Wave smoothly enough. It also looks like you've had the natural oils removed. Good; it would have likely melted those nice handle scales you've got there. They're decorative, but you can probably still manage the trick of shunting energy into them in order to remember something forgotten.

The thunderbird is a smaller, non-migratory cousin of the roc. Its passage charges the atmosphere with moisture, electricity, and magic, and many cultures thus choose to revere it totemically. Only a few of their feathers are actually operative in this process, but it seems your men were smart enough to pluck from the tail, rather than the wings. This core will give your wand a big masculine energy (not as big as if you had used roc feathers, but excess is no virtue) and it is furthermore safe to assume that any weather magic made with it is going to pack a hell of a wallop. As with all strong animal-based cores, please be aware that prolonged use may have minor effects on one's personality. Specifically, the thunderbird's spirit will make you aloof and detached.

>Professional wand review services
Shit, this thread just picked up.

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>>80675129
>material
Burr oak
>core
Piasa feather
>personalization
Hand-carved with layered patterns

>>80695137
>Piasa feather
Why, I haven’t heard of that before.

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>>80697335
https://mythicmississippi.illinois.edu/native-illinois/piasa-bird/

The original was destroyed in the 1870s so they made a new one in the 90s.

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>>80695137
Finally, a good old oak wand. Infinitely better than some of the freakshit pieces I've been seeing lately. Just kidding. But not really. That centipede abomination made me think of changing careers.

It hardly bears saying that oak is the wand material we associate most with healers and nature weavers. It is also famously reactive to the biome within which it lives. You too will live, therefore, with slightly warped magic whenever you travel. The burr oak is a particularly life-effusive species which cloaks itself in defensive measures to ward away the threats of the world. This protective attitude will extend to you as the years go by. Now onto these little geometric channels carved into the wood... they seem quite ethnically inspired, so my reading may be a little off here. But, I would guess this to be a primitive form of anti-disarmament charm, very useful in combat or any other hectic situation.

Scholars speculate that the piasa is a far, far removed cousin of the lamassu. I say speculate because the former is non-intelligent and the latter have neither record nor memory of crossing seas in the past. Its dark and light feathers are diametrically charged against one another so that the animal's wing is under constant tension. Use the negative charge of this inner feather to your advantage by crafting enchantments which need more to break them than the standard counterspells. No need to worry about personality effects either.

>>80675129
material - oxidized copper
core - bald eagle talon
customization - a star carved into the bottom of the wands base

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>>80701604
Copper is great for lightning magic and is also produces extremely versatile (but not really adaptable) wands. However, its powers are noticeably reduced by heavy oxidization. I can offer you a reasonably-priced polish; gods know I've spent my entire adult life polishing other men's wands.

Unfortunately the bald eagle you harvested from seems to be neither a spirit nor a genius. It also was clearly not enchanted in any way. As such, this piece is mystically neutral. Maybe you mean to carry it as a dummy or hang it up on your wall or something.

I appreciate the big star endpiece as well. Some might call the aesthetic gauche, but it reminds me of a Wild West sheriff. Just make sure the cops don't get triggered by your stolen valor.

>>80701604
Ah yes, the American Special

>>80701927
>It also was clearly not enchanted in any way.
Don't you know that every bald eagle in MERICA is enchanted with FREEDOM POWERS?

>>80661561
Used to help novitiates focus their power. Some wizards keep it for sentimental reasons.

A wand is the magic equivalent of a gun.

>>80675129
material: black bronze
core: meteoric iron
custom: screw-threaded tip to reduce topweight

>>80701308
Thank you for your appraisal, Wandmaster Anon.

>>80692734
Is that memory trick a reference to how elephants never forget?

>>80675129
Material - Rimu heartwood
Core - fire opal
Customization - Spiraled brass banding

>>80675129
Wenge shaft
Core is a big, clear cinnabar crystal
Accessories are two blue nails I bought from the Canyon Mystics. I decided to tie them on rather than nailing.

I wanted a wand originally but had to upgrade to rod size because of the crystal.

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>>80663594
Witch Hat Atelier has a really fun system where all magic is effectively focused through the use of runes and glyphs, whether they be magic tools, spells, or rituals.
Most runes consist of circles with various changes and patterns added to it - the more complex or accurately drawn, the more powerful or advanced the magic. Adding or changing symbols within the rune will change a specific aspect of the magic effect accordingly - for instance, having one arrow in the rune longer than the rest will give the magic a directional effect.

The setting has a bunch of fun applications for this. Spellbooks and tomes, for instance, are simply concealable notebooks full of slightly-incomplete runes that the caster can finish with a single stroke to immediately activate its effect.
Magic / enchanted tools are designed such that usage of the tool completes the circuit, such as the example shown here where two halves of the rune are brought together to allow flight on command.

It's a really fun system and I'd like to incorporate something in my setting, though I'm not sure if it fits thematically since it's more of a technologically advanced scenario (1930s-50s).

>>80675129
>>80676258
>>80689396
>>80695137
>>80701604
>>80703993
>>80706064
>>80707678


All of you sound like massive faggots. I can't believe how ridiculous you are. I imagine you're walking around with a 'edc' wand like a schizophrenic wiccan or 'modern day warlock' autist.
Anyway, I hope you all get massive wedgies that make you walk funny.

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>>80703993
Specialist alloys like black bronze always hold something of their original formulators no matter how many times they are synthesized. This material takes all the light-bearing properties of bronze and turns them on their head; take the time to learn the sympathetic spells, and you will be able to dim or even destroy light. This is not a directly malicious use of magic, but the negative connotations are there nonetheless. That being said, the aid given by bronze in defensive applications is somewhat diluted-- I'm sure there's some story from the original smith's life that explains why.

Sky-iron, on the other hand, is a different beast entirely. For some reason, it's behavior is utterly unrelated to examples of the element found on this planet. It does not just radiate magic, it breaks down metaphysical barriers and inserts magic where it should not be. No worries though, for if you keep the raw material safely contained within the wand's body, then it will remain nothing more than a potent channeling focus...

Except you seem to have modified this piece specifically to allow quick exposure of the core.

>>80708569
Ok, who let the plebilexus in? You know what, it doesn't matter. Someone just perform the memory hex already and get him out of here before he hurts himself.

>>80708756
What about
>>80706064
and
>>80707678

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>>80706064
Fire opals are the most like other gems out of all the opal types. The rainbow within this stone is very weak, but it burns with intention and pure examples can match the “voice” of any other variety of gem. It's interesting that you made a core of it rather than an external focus. This will result in all the opal's activities being mediated through the wooden body, which may ultimately be for the best. Fire opals affect emotion and will very strongly. Don't be fooled by the name, either: They will not give you spontaneous bodily pyromancies like a drake-cut ruby.

Rimu are often referred to as, “changeling pines,” because of how their leaf crowns go through several configurations throughout their lives. Their lumber is also of exceedingly high-quality, and they are usually the most noble trees of whichever forests they grow in. Just remember that, “the door of pine opens up to far and future.” I'm not saying everyone with a pine wand needs to practice seeing, but if you chose to do so, you've got a very fine tool for it.

This sort of single-spiral decoration actually has a very long history. It was traditionally made with copper, but brass isn't too incongruous with the purpose. It is meant to evoke a mountain or finger pointing towards Heaven. You can therefore draw power from the plane of Heaven, or more typically an Elysian being, into your spells. That is, if you are worthy of the attention.

I'm not going to lie, sir, if it weren't for the slightly modern styling, I would almost mistake this piece for the property of a medieval wizard-king. The sheer regality of this combination is quite serendipitous, if I do say so myself. Good luck.

>>80709295
Hey wandmaster just wanted to say you're a cool dude and your breakdowns are interesting

>>80709295
Wand master! Tell us, what makes a perfect wand?

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>>80680909
>me in the left

>>80710831
Oh, if only you knew how many books I had to read on that exact topic. You'd think that all the famous channeling scholars would have settled on an answer by now, but we are nothing if not a fractious bunch.

I don't think that's the answer you want, though, so let me say this: The "perfect" wand is the one which elevates its user the most. A channeling object is more than a tool, status symbol, or fashion statement. It is your partner. Your use shapes it, and it's tendencies affect your use, not to mention your mind and body. What's more, it integrates itself into your perception over time, which is why some very old mages can find their wands from miles away.

Kallien once said power and ability are the last things we [as wand-crafters] should be seeking. This is clear hyperbole, but there's truth in the notion that a fully optimized casting capacity is not what every user needs, nor even that what fits you best now will serve you in the future. Aspiration is what's needed. Self-knowledge is so crucial...

I do these wand reviews because the subjects interest me, but I should hope that after hearing my spiel, you reflect on how that piece may interact with your spirit in the future. These are all new devices, after all. You can still donate them (don't fucking throw wands away carelessly) or even re-use the materials. That's all I have to say.

Bumping

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>>80707678
Are you trying out for entrance into the Dark Magisters? I'm joking, of course, but this combination cannot be described as anything but aggressive to the point of malice. Seriously, this be some angry synergy you got here. But... whatever, first thing's first: We don't call them “Canyon Mystics” anymore. That is a very charged and old-fashioned term. They are members of the Uathailli mystical tradition, and that is how we refer to them in the current year.

Anyway, it's good that you didn't nail these in, sir, because the first summoning spell you'd have tried to cast would blow your hand off. I'm sure you are already aware that Uathailli nails are made of tigersteel and tempered in the fires of several infernal planes and demi-planes. The recipe for blue involves... I want to say... 72 different enportalling rituals. These things function as limit breakers and reformers. If a given spell is too powerful for you to perform properly, they will pump you full of residual “tiger-striped” energy until your limit becomes large enough. Then the sharp end of the nail will quickly pull your metaphysical skin back together so that your soul doesn't dissolve in the void. I don't know why you'd have two though, unless you're planning on becoming drastically more powerful in the near future.

You surely also know that cinnabar and wenge wood are both poisonous materials, bent willfully on human destruction. The former infiltrates the skeleton and coats the bone matter in itself like a parody of white jade. The latter rots the lungs and makes it so that every breath reverses the goodly order of the world, promoting baneful tendencies in people. They both have useful qualities as well, but I cannot help but get the feeling that this was a match made in Anakharita.

>>80717402
cont.

You can expect this piece to be a zealous enemy of whomever it opposes. It's not even particularly brash, just... ready. The rod setup is appropriate for such large components-- it will grant you a bit of extra power at the cost of being a bit more cumbersome. And who can resist the allure of a big ol' rod with a shining red gem at the top? Our in-office leatherworker can fashion you a custom holster at a reasonable rate.

The centipede guy should take note. This is how you make an "evil" piece without losing all sense of gravitas.

I've always thought little dinky wands look stupid but a good wizardy staff or scepter either with a nice crystal or knarled at the end looks dope.
I think the staff look is tied with just using your hands in cool factor. Both lose to using a big crystal sword.

>>80717423
Hey wandmaster speaking of "hostile" materials, how bad an idea would it be to try and make a wand that incorporates uranium glass?

>>80718249
Uranium and plutonium become highly sensitive, earth-aligned physicalizers when charged with magic. Your wand will basically cause rocks to grow out of random surfaces, including your skin. Strong dilution is required.

>>80718430
I am very glad I asked this question before experimenting

>>80675129
Material - A single whole amber shaft about 6" long
Core - An ancient gecko perfectly preserved
Customization - Crocodile hide grip

>>80661561
It's actually a sci-fi setting masquerading as fantasy, so artifact magic is the only magic. Except for the very rare few who have nanomachines in their blood and thus can cast spells on their own.

>>80717700
>but a good wizardy staff or scepter either with a nice crystal or knarled at the end looks dope.
Paging Doctor Freud.

>>80717700
Sure those options all have aesthetic value, and there are certainly there can be some practical spellcasting benefits, but honestly a good wand is effective and very practical

>>80715396
Whats your wand, oh wise guy?

>>80675129
black locust wood, same as the staff. shard of obsidian, used in a hunt as an arrow or spearhead.
KISS

>>80721408
What direction does the arrow face?

>>80661561
A wizard could easily shoot fire or ice or lightning or babies or pure psychic energy out of their fingers, but then they'd have to feel the effects of firing fire or ice or lightning or babies or pure psychic energy out of their fingers.
Pro-tip, big cheat, focus on a stick or anything else and have the magic come out of that instead. Save yourself a lot of pain and trouble.

>>80722737
Alternatively magically alter your nervous system so you like the sensations

>>80703863
What the fuck is "MERICA", you hoity-toity, monocle-wearing, polo-playing, stock-portfolio-having, received-pronunciation-using, wine-list-ordering, pipe-smoking, Le-Monde-reading, mint-julep-sipping, Bentley-driving, Fiji-vacationing, family-geneology-tracing, missive-writing effete fuck of a gentleman? 'Round here, us salt-of-the-earth types call it 'Murica.

>>80722670
no, i meant that the foci on the tip of the wand is a piece that was formerly used to kill a creature. symbolism is very important

>>80723264
>i meant that the foci on the tip of the wand
Focus, anon. I need you to focus.

>>80722874
Oh yeah Im gonna magically touch my nerves with my nerves and thats gonna work out just fine. At least it will when I wake up from the shock induced coma.

>>80723489
Just astrally project yourself out of your body into a preprepared homonculous/focus to temporarily work magic external to your nervous system, simple as mate

>>80671400
a lens/monocle that the target must be viewed through

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>>80718620
Well this is certainly a bold choice. I'd heard they were experimenting with pocket-sized wands at La Triesco College, but I assumed the control group would be exclusively wooden. It's not that an all-resin wands haven't been tried before, but the material's vulnerability to stress means that the device may not outlive its owner. Amber is one of the tragedy stones, of course, being the spilt blood of the glade. It attempts to immortalize the dead, which when mediating a core results in traces of old magic being retained within the wand, at times for years or decades. Part of your maintenance schedule will be to purge your piece without breaking it, at least if you want to retain that nice luster.

This gecko seems to have been a juvenile when it died, so it was very wise of you to augment its power with an additional reptilian source. Like most lizards, it will aid in both stealth and water-aligned magic. The fact that his tail is coiled three times means you will unironically have good luck, but only in schemes which you actively take part in. A very cute specimen all around.

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>>80721408
Is this a home-carved piece? If so, I must complement you on your work; most homemade wands are frankly unfit for use. There's also credit to be given for the choice of black locust. Alongside being generally tough, it is a vastly underrated wood for channeling. You see, residing within the thorn-tree is an independent well of magic which, when turned into a wand, remains independent of the core. Most trees either lack this or merge what power they do have entirely with the focus component. It's not much, but with the proper training it can become something of a trump card for you.

The black locust is also a hard-minded mediator, which will help with the core you've chosen. No surprise that obsidian loves to cut. The tendency is so strong that an unwary user will be surprised to find some of his spells drawing blood regardless of his intentions. Because of the ritual significance placed upon this particular fragment, expect the obsidian to thrive in similar jobs as to when it was a tool of violence.

>>80724981
Speaking of obsidian what are your thoughts on converting an authentic macuahuitl into a casting focus?

>>80725343
Oak, Obsidian and leather for the materials

>>80725343
Be mindful of exactly which ancient empire the macuahuitl was claimed by. Incorporating antiques into your channeling tools always runs the risk of drudging up the past, even at a state level.

I would suggest teak for the body. It will blunt the inadvertent cutting and strengthen your own heart against anything unwelcome.

Bumpo.

If this keeps up long enough I'd say this is worth in the suptg archive.

Material - Cedar Wood
Core - A twisted pair of gut strings from my great grandfathers harp
Customization - stained a lovely warm color with a spiral of red gold reinforcement bands rising up from the base

>>80675129
Material - Plastic tube
Core- Steel rod
Customization - Rubber grip

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>>80661561

>>80730192
Sorry m8, don't have time to review today.

But to all of you who have had your wands reviewed, please discuss how they relate to your lifestyle and the work you intend to do. Did something I wrote surprise or disappoint you?

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>>80661561
Do the materials that a wand is made out of actually meaningfully affect its abilities/performance? Or is it all just aesthetic window dressing?

>>80730192
Why harp strings for a core, are you a bard-type wizard?

>>80675129
Material - stainless steel
Core - harpy feather
Customisation - the end is split down the middle halfway down somewhat like a tuning fork

>>80735771
>>80708756
An unstable wand that bleeds entropy and devours light? The amount of raw phlogiston released by such a tool could power an empire without ever leaving its lead-lined containment chamber.

The dungeon in which the chamber lies (at the very bottom, of course) would naturally become warped by the wand. The divine law of mathematics and geometry corrupts in the presence of such power; as the dungeon itself grows, so too will its population, as ever more dark and unspeakable denizens colonise its lightless, unending passageways. This febrile ecology shall feed the wand: the living, beating heart of my domain, powering every lamp and every levitator, every shield-generator and every disruptor. Slowly, it shall fill the great phlogiston batteries of our brass star-vessels, to one day send our people boldly into the last frontier.

>>80740637
sorry, meant to reply to >>80733593 instead of >>80735771

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>>80740435
Let's begin with the body, shall we? Steel and diamond are two of the most order-associated materials when it comes to magic; diamond embodies, steel enforces, and steel wands with diamond cores are beloved of tyrants. Stainless steel trades carbon steel's toughness and versatility for sheer permanence, thus bringing it even closer to the diamond paradigm. Few things will cleanse and align and define quite like this metal, although it prefers direct work to team efforts. The fork at the end will slow down your magic while concentrating it into the space between the teeth. They are also resonant with one another, which will amplify many sound-based spells. If anyone makes comments about it looking like a utensil, you can just blast them.

Harpy feathers are one of the stereotypical tools of senior witches. They are entirely given over to the wind and air, rejoicing in the license of power. For the wielder, this translates to buttery smooth casting in favor of many spells thrown out consecutively over a short period of time. Unfortunately, this runs directly counter to rigid metal encasement. I won't mince words: This kind of core really benefits from the flexibility of wood and horn. That is also to say nothing of the highly conflicted “personality” this wand is going to have based on its materials alone... if you fail to cultivate it carefully, of course. Also, do not imagine your will to be so strong that it cannot be ambushed by a harpy's cruelty.

I wonder at the future use of this piece. It was certainly interesting to look over.

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>>80730192
Before we start, I have to warn you that a lot of people (especially in my field) look down on those who heavily finish or paint their wands. They see it as akin to putting makeup on the soul, which honestly isn't the most inaccurate of takes. So if they give you any guff, just remind them that mages from only a few centuries ago would have had no such compunctions. You've literally wound your wand in gold as well, so gaudiness is a foregone conclusion.

We wand-folk also have a lot of cedars to keep track of, but this just looks like your classic old world red. Said wood has ancient provenance; the first pantheon walked amongst trees just like this one. Truth and enigma mix within it just as they do among the multifaceted gods. Unlike most perfumes, its fragrance wakes a man's senses and thus opens him up to the world. All this flowery language is to say that red cedar is the wood of communion. Wands made of it will interact more trenchantly with people, things, energies, etc. that are external to the user. Now, onto the core.

There are typically two ways to ensorcell a mundane creation sufficiently for material from it to be used as a magical focus. The first is to place so many powerful enchantments upon it that the very nature of its form-instance existence becomes charged with energy. The second –and that which applies to this object– is for its user to have been ineffably invested in its ideal use. The interaction between ideality and a textured human will constitutes a type of sorcery to which even the plebes have access. I'm not saying your grandfather was a non-mage, but the way he played his harp was magical, despite not being taught in our institutions. Any sonic effects you produce will contain a calming effect which you can strengthen. But more than that, the wand may end up calming you, and teaching you grace.

>>80741606
Cont.
I've spoken before about the single-spiral metal wrap and how it symbolizes a mountain pointing to heaven. However, the choice of red gold is unusual because that is the alloy of shared honor. You are (symbolically) taking some of the glory of the Elysians and claiming it for yourself. I can only imagine the interactions this might cause because at this point your channeling tool is aligned to 1. its wielder, 2. the wielder of another magical item, 3. the external world, and 4. the godly heavens. It's also been stained for... for some reason!

At this point, all I can do is wish you good luck. This was a joy to review.

>>80740637
I mean, unless you've got a trove of meteoric iron you're not telling anyone about, the quantity of it in your wand isn't going to warp a whole castle on its own. A wand grows more powerful with and through its user, which means your vision would only come true after a long, active career where you yourself became proficient in the use of warping magics. Frankly, you would probably need some successors using the same wand as well, which would be difficult because by that time it would have already bonded strongly to you. But I mean, reach for the stars, even literally.

>>80731240
Ah, this must be one of those "pleasure wands" the plebes make. Was this one manufactured by the Evil Dragon Company I've heard so much about?

>>80676412
Vecna-pill taken.

>>80675129
Material: Aged Mountain Ash shaft with Orichalcum wire wrap grip & sapphire pommell stone
Core: Crystalized Lightning
Custom: runic script on shaft & Orichalcum "ironsights" to assist aiming

>>80741575
not him, but what materials would you advise for the Wand/Staff of a Hemomancer?

>>80742837
The most directly useful combination would be a mangrove wood body for strong water alignment and magnetized iron filings as a core.

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>>80742837
That's blood magic right? Well, what about bloodstone? XD But more seriously, >>80745539 beat me to the iron suggestion. I'd suggest bones, since they produce blood in the first place, but that gives a necromancer vibe more than a blood magic vibe, unless they use both or something?

>>80745592
A dried bone of the type which produces lots of marrow would also find connections with blood and the dead. Jasper's bloodstone is, unfortunately, just a creative name in relation to actual blood.

I got a wand for you right here ehhh
(IT'S MY PENIS)

>>80742494
By mountain ash, do you mean rowan or just the types of ash that grow at altitude?

Is the runic script engraved, raised, inlaid? Does it involve a secondary material?

>>80749193
Rowan (I just prefer saying mountain ash)
Engraved, no secondary material

Material: East Indian Rosewood
Core: Petrified wood with azurite and malachite
Custom: Stainless Steel chain lanyard

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>>80661561
Do you prefer mages in your settings to use magic wands or magic staffs?

>>80753767
I prefer magic implements to be treated like weapons & for the same variety. Wands are quick & close, staves are broad range & powerful, etc. A proper mage going to war looks much like a soldier

>>80754257
I do the same

>>80688437
there were a few wands in the harry potter movies with grips like that
always thought that was pretty cool

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>>80751773
Alright, this should be a quick one. I have already spoken of rosewood, its beauty and resonance, its penchant for extravagant spellwork. However, this piece will gain yet another benefit from the interaction between its body and core. You see, petrified wood, though now a stone, still remembers its time as living matter. This will cause the wand's properties to mimic a wood-in-wood construction, granting unmatched complex evolution over its working life at the expense of being more open to influences other than your own. However, I think the true source of power here is the double inclusion you've managed to isolate. I must also take a moment to compliment the find; such minerals forming within a petrified tree is as close to a natural impossibility as you're going to get in the crafting business.

Malachite and azurite are natural brothers with a... less than smooth relationship. Your magic will necessarily pass back and forth between them. While both stones course with fire and lightning, malachite synthesizes these with earth, thus promoting the building of permanent charged structures. Perfect, in other words, for advanced matter generation spells. On the other hand, azurite holds the powerful release of the elements in a degenerating suspension. This allows it to create a net increase in destruction by steadily releasing the momentary lightning and flameburst over extended time. Thus, when you allocate energy within this piece to cast a spell, it will become more destructive the longer you hold it.

As for the chain, please allow me to take it off. While it will help prevent most forms of disarmament, it will also dislocate your wrist (or worse) if someone hits the wand with too much force.

>>80755068
I don't remember those, been a while. Who did they belong to again?

>>80689935
Off white bone, raised black runes and a subtle seal set into the material.

>>80675129
Driftwood
Monarch Butterfly (liquefied) Core
Uncomfortable Grip

So I've recently acquired the ashes of an elder vampire and I was wondering if there's any way to incorporate them into a wand without him getting too much influence over the resulting piece

>>80756000
Would you like to do mine?>>80742494

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>>80661561
I would argue it is a matter of choice.
Some choose wands because it condenses and focuses magic into a concentrated point, which can be easier for novice magic users more often than not.
While others use focuses that condense it into small items that the user can then mold into a spell they desire.

>>80756009
I think Voldemort had one like that. I may be wrong though.

>>80758447
If he's truly dead now, then his mind's influence will not remain in ashes. There are also better necromantic catalysts out there than vampiric ash, which is mostly used as a flexing trophy by hunters.

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>>80749193
Jeez, I guess someone really wanted to show off their scribework. This is some intricate stuff you've got here... but I suppose we should begin with the medium. Rowan is one of the classics from back when we didn't have the crazy selection of woods we do today. Medievals called it the “crown of tranquility” and would make calming scents from its essence. That will certainly carry over. Now, on the subject of these runes, we can identify no less than six distinct sequences, ranging from personal luck to deflection of witches and the evil eye. Normal practice today would be to give the wand a hexagonal profile and inscribe each sequence vertically, but this maker has densely coiled his text around the conical shaft of the piece, separating each constituent with a rudimentary seal.

The process for “capturing” lightning so that it holds a solid, workable form is a risky business which involves storms and glass rods and thin sheets of malachite– I should actually like to try it one day. The result is a gristly, oily clump which must be treated at length with powerful base agents ere it crumbles to worthless dust. This in turn produces a luminous pseudo-gem which resembles the original lightning, frozen in the moment of its flash. Its power to mass ratio surpasses nearly all other materials we use as magical foci, but it is an erratic strength, without character. Some collectors claim that the form and color of the stone affects conductivity, but I have seen no studied evidence for this phenomenon. Such a core is therefore appropriate for this wand, because its might will be channeled into the runes as much as anywhere.

>>80764362
Finally, I must say that I find these grip components to be quite attractive. Not subtle, really, but hardly gaudy. Orichalcum is considered the most noble and natural of bronze alloys, and while it has magical properties of its own, its work in this piece will be to segregate your core from this beautiful asterised sapphire. Normally, putting such a gemstone this close to your wand's core would be extremely detrimental to its function, but your maker seems to have done his work well. Mastery of the medium is also shown by the subtle aiming line he's inlaid down the shaft. Do you intend to practice long-range casting with this?

Well, in any case, I would say this work is masterful, if a little incongruous. There is a rustic quality to this piece that many craftsmen try and fail to replicate.

>>80764394
>>80764362
I love your conversational writing style in all of these anon. Bravo

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>>80675129
Material: White oak
Core: pixie dust
Custom: a small golden star at the tip

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>>80661561
In the setting of The Owl House, wands are training tools for young witches, and I find that I quite like the idea.

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Lightning round, baby!

>>80757917
A high fashion wand, polished to a sheen so that its texture comes solely from excellent calligraphic scribework. This seal leads to one of the legally-accessible realms, so you will have no trouble using it as a summoning tool.

>>80757994
Another neutral wand. Driftwood channels many spell types competently except, notably, for healing. I don't even know how you would liquify an animal without obliterating any unique magic it might have. The knobs on the handle, while striking, will inevitably tear into most people's hands during use. Callouses are recommended.

>>80768526
White oak is like the protagonist of wand woods. Along with the natural world, it is also connected to the spiritual world. Magical beings will flock to the bearer of this piece more frequently and aggressively than to others, and he shall have to parse whether his wand is reacting to the physical or metaphysical biome. It pairs perfectly with foci derived from the fae and spirits, such as pixie dust. No, it will not make you fly. What it will do is impart a slightly eldritch air to even your physical magic. Eldritch things scare even mages, but just remember that it is nothing more than the other world's gentle pull upon this one. Unless you were harvesting from noble pixies, personality effects should be negligible.

Yellow gold stands for purity and reverence, its virtue matched only by diamond. Tablets faced in gold are how the gods bestow rights unto their servants, such as kings. Thus a five-pointed star of gold symbolizes a voice reaching up to heaven and out towards the four corners of earth, so that all may hear. I honestly don't know why a non-cleric would attach such a symbol to their wand– since it's placed on the tip, everything you cast will have to pass through it and thus be affected. Strengthen this piece by cultivating personal piety, I guess.

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>>80675129
>Material
Rock
>Core
Rock
>Personal customization
Big Rock

Grug wizard now

>>80683400
Teach me your ways wand anon, I wish to have an unnecessarily deep magical system in my setting

>>80772294
Seconding. But I don’t think that the deepness is necessarily unnecessary, though.

>>80772828
If nothing else and the thread dies before he comes back, I'm gonna save all his posts and cobble together and refine something.

And in case he DOES come back:
>material:
Wood from the branch of a pepper tree, carved to distinguish shaft from hilt
>core:
Feather of a mourning dove
>Personal customization:
A small star sapphire embedded into the hilt, close to the shaft

>>80772294
Not him but IRL folklore and mystical traditions are full of these sorts of ascribed meanings and beliefs

>>80772294
I'm just making this up as I go along. The "setting" I've got going in my head is a lot like Harry Potter but more grounded.

>>80772978
Just put the rock inside the goddamn wand already. You can have a clear glass core chamber if you want to see it so badly. High-level gems are unspeakably jealous and will fuck with your wand if given half a chance.

>>80773772
Or better yet, just make it an external focus. Just because it's a wand doesn't mean it has to have a hidden core. You can put the sapphire near the hilt just like you said, and have it power your wand from there.

>>80769868
Owl House is based. Combining staffs and familiars was a pretty cool idea.

>>80773788
I agree. In fact, not having it be hollow with a hidden core would probably make the whole thing a lot stronger.

>>80757994
>>80771515
I must find myself disappointed in you, my colleague, for not seeing this subtle but masterfully reasonant piece for what it is. Individually all these components are rather mundane, but it is in their unification that they shine!
Driftwood does channel competently but unexceptionally (save for healing as you mentioned, owing to it's origin as a 'dead' wood) but carries with it a minor reasonance factor with water and travel (in addition to a necromantic component so minor it is barely worth mentioning). More specifically, with long journeys over water.
Normally you'd be absolutely correct in saying liquifying an animal would destroy any magic therein, but this was a butterfly, and the process used to liquify ii has more in common with the corpse restoration rituals than any mundane blending. You are familiar with the process, yes? A form of time-reversal that only works to restore corpses to a previous, usually fresh state, first pioneered by the Egyptian Sorcerer-Kings and made popular by the Catholic priests.
Normally only useful to make a corpse more presentable for funeral rites, but keep in mind it is a form of time reversal in truth, and that this subject is a butterfly specifically.
During the fascinating process of a butterfly's lifespan, just before it reaches maturity, it contracts a silk cocoon and then dissolves itself to reconstruct as an adult specimen.
The Egyptian corpse restoration ritual used here brought the adult specimen back to a previous state, one of which is as entirely liquid, thus losing nothing of the inherent magics of the component in it's liquification process.
I must say this is the first time I've seen such effects used in combination in this way, while not revolutionary it is certainly ingenious.

Now as for the resonant efficiency I mentioned previously, this entire price sings of overlapping purpose.

(1/2)

>>80780027
Keep in mind this a monarch butterfly specifically, known best for their incredibly reqular and exactingly precise migrations.

This is a wand of a traveler and wanderer, always leading to a destination known to his body but not his mind. It is the wand of one aligned to the seas and perhaps a little bit to death (containing both a 'dead' wood and using a corpse-core).

There are wands vastly more potent in efficacy, but the sheer performance brought out but such nearly-mundane components must be applauded.

As for the thorny grip, I have seen similar on the wands of many modern practioners, usually those that believe that supernatural powers should never feel easy to utilize, I do not ascribe to such notions myself, but it is hardly the worst outlook to have on the noble art.

>>80780226
Are you telling me that whoever made this performed a time and resource-intensive, pseudonecromantic ritual... on an insect, so that he could take advantage of a liminal stage in said insect's development? All this, of course, in service of creating a minor synergy with an even more minor aspect of the wand's body material.

And then he put fucking thorns on it?!

I know what this is. This is a Gasgallione piece, or else one of his disciples'. Your theory of it having been made for a traveler seems quite plausible, because this is precisely his idea of "customizing a tool for its owner." Thank you for catching my mistake.

And thank you for contributing something to the thread.

>>80781092
I'm thinking about turning this into a system actually, although I only have the barebones down right now. Probably dicepool, because that's what I'm most familiar with, but I understand dice pool systems have their share of issues.

For example, the driftwood wand:

Magical Focuses grant a bonus to certain forms of magical casting (based on resonance levels) and may have additional unique traits that may be outside the bounds of a dicepool bonus. All Focuses have a limit on their potential bonus dice to the pool, and a limit on unique traits, based on what type of Focus it is. The resonance levels are determined by the materials and processes that were used to construct the Focus. The number of Materials that can be used is equal to the Unique Traits Limit. Each special process applies to one material, and takes up one traits slot.

The resonances of a particular spell are listed with the spells description, under [Tags]

Trinkets, +3 Bonus, 2 Unique Trait
Wands, +5 Bonus, 3 Unique Traits
Rods, +6 Bonus, 4 Unique Traits
Staves, +7 Bonus, 5 Unique Traits

Materials have a cost and rarity, determining such is outside the bounds of this guide for now.

Traits
[Tag] Dissonance - The material is exceptionally dissonant with such magics, and the Focus cannot be used to channel spells with the listed tag.
Corpse Component - The material is the once-living remains of some creature. +1 resonance with Death.

Processes
Liquified - The material has been rendered down into a liquid through means that preserve it's inherent magics. +1 resonance with Water.
Liminal State - The material was used to create the Focus while it was in the process of changing from one state to another. +1 resonance with Transfiguration

Driftwood
+2 Travel
+2 Water
+1 Death
Trait : Healing Dissonance

Monarch Butterfly
+2 Travel
+1 Life
Trait : Corpse Component


Granted I need to type all this out, but I need a project anyway. I'll do as much as i can in my free time from work.

>>80782256
so the end result would be something like:

Driftwood Wand With Liquified Monarch Butterfly Core
Driftwood (Healing Dissonance)
Monarch Butterfly (Liquified) (Liminal State)
+4 Travel
+2 Water
+2 Death
+1 Life
+1 Transfiguration
Healing Dissonance (Cannot be used to channel Healing)
Corpse Component (+1 Death Resonance)
Liminal State (+1 Transfiguration Resonance)

>>80675129
Material: Rowan wood
Core: Fox hair
Accessory: Iron inlay on the handle in a spiral motif

>>80782256
This is excellent. Don't forget to tie the wand's function and evolution to its wielder's traits and life (this should give direction to players' rp).

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Now, let's move on to everyone's favorite subject: Accreditation!

The reason I do not object to some of you calling me “wandmaster” is because I actually was created a Master of the Channels in 2019. That's what the A.M.C. on my door stands for. It was the first new master-level position our office has earned in a while... but anyway; in order to get there, a prospective journeyman must first submit a scholarly opus of necessary relevance and quality to one of the twelve libraries and seven archives. The book I contributed to the Marquesal was about antediluvian agate, and how it is likely a planar substance rather than one of the so-called lost stones of the ancients.

After this has been recorded, the now fully-fledged journeyman has ten years to acquire all the necessary government certifications which will qualify him for the title. If he fails to achieve this, he shall be forced to wait three years before submitting another opus. There are four such certifications that the Board of Channels concerns itself with:

Crafting- The physical construction of channeling devices

Categories- The knowledge of materials used in the construction of channeling devices

Casting- The ability to produce complex, powerful, and consistent magic

Casquery- The study of the relationship between human and non-human metaphysical states

>>80783563
In short, a master ought to be able to build, describe, test, and match to a person any given wand, rod, staff, or other magic channeling tool. If this seems a tad excessive, I suspect it comes from a mixture of the desire to ensure employment and good, old-fashioned gatekeeping. Nevertheless, our community would still be greatly served by adding a fifth skill, Sourcing, to these requirements– but enough of my opinions. You need at least 3rd Degree certification in three of the four categories, and 1st Degree in the remaining one, to qualify for creation. Getting 1st Degree involves a particularly grueling process which must be overseen by other masters, featuring such joys as the mock trial and the Quivering. The Categories are my specialization, which is why I like to open my office and elaborate on the wands of strangers, although I have also achieved the 2nd Degree in Casting. I'd like to think that puts me on even footing with the Sergeants of the Left Ministry, but they practice much, much, much harder than I do.

However! Do not take from this the idea that the love and practice of wandcraft is straddled by the academocracy. Of 631 mages currently employed by the McTarbein Trade Hub, nearly a quarter work solely under the Wand Office. Their every working day is spent lovingly and expertly tending to people's channeling needs, but do you know how many of them are Masters of the Channels? If we include myself, then eight. Do you know how many are seriously trying to become masters? Maybe four or five. Just now, I suffered through examining a wand made by Shimone Gasgallione; he is better renowned in the community than I will ever be, but he also wouldn't touch government certification with a Zendite macrostave!

Ah... there's another self-righteous rant from me. My apologies, gentlemen.

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Hey, does the guy who evaluates magic wands do staffs as well?

>>80782404
>Fox hair
Why use fox hair?

>>80782872
alright, I got as much work done as I could before I need to sleep. I'll keep working on it for a couple days still, and I'll definitely appreciate input from anyone willing to give it.

for now, here's a link to the google doc, commenting should be enabled, I need to sleep.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XAjfiJumyERNz7upREOUCxdsE8EgGUxIvZOwx1YJATU/edit?usp=sharing

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>>80661561
Wands are fucking gay. Look at this guy. He's supposed to be some big bad lord of darkness. He looks like a goddamn snake man or something. He should be scary as hell. But look at how he points that twee little fag stick. He looks like a complete pussy.

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And then on the other spectrum we have Gandalf. A crusty old man who by all accounts looks like he might need his staff to help him keep pace. But he's a total badass. The sword is certainly doing him favors, I will admit, but you swing that big dick staff around and you look like you mean business. You slam the thing done on the ground with the fury of a mother fucking thunder bolt and you're a goddamn Arch Mage. People respect this guy.

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And of course I'd be remiss to not mention people who use their bare hands. Also cool as hell. You're grabbing the very forces of nature and the universe in your palms. Try not to look rad as hell. Makes you feel like you are the magical energy. So yeah. Staffs? Cool as fuck. Magic fists? Rad as shit. Magic Wand? Go back to birthday parties you bitch.

>>80788244
Foxes are usually associated with trickery and hiding in most cultures as well as being intelligent/cunning. So I was going for something to do with illusions or charms, if the threads still up when I get back from work I'll try and come up with something if wandmaster anon doesn't get to it first

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>>80772978
This should come as no surprise, but the pepper tree is a favorite wand wood for culinary mages. It has slight fire and oil affinities, and it sharpens the sense of taste when magically charged. I once carved a rod out of this which could also serve as a baking peel. However, our community has found a hidden dark side to this faithful kitchen companion. There is, you see, a small subset of hexes that deals with the discomfiting of the body. These irritation spells seem to gain substantially when cast with a pepper wood implement. A hex that would make your eyes itch with any other wand will now effectively blind you for several minutes. Something meant to create a spicy taste in your mouth will now pose a choking hazard. Don't even get me started on the sneezing “curse.”

Sapphires are held as some of the most premium gem cores in traditional wand-craft. Asterized (or star) sapphires are even rarer still. Whilst the former calls to mind the inpenetrable depths of the sea, the latter is a symbol of the eye which stares out, at you, through the sea. It is the armor-piercing shell of foci, blasting through your barrier spells and your sanity with equal contempt. Its sheer watery nature will of course douse any fire that the pepper tree provides, but that is an afterthought at this point. The owner of this piece had better watch himself –maybe pick up a silver amulet or something– because as an external focus, the mediation between him and the stone is reduced by just that much more.

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>>80782404
Let's go a little deeper into our discussion of rowan as used in wand-craft. I've already proclaimed its calming effects, but did you know that it is also vampiric? Rowan stands produce their best fruit in years where several large animals die close unto them. This is why the shamans of old would sacrifice in their shade. Thus a rowan wand can be trained over time to sap the vitality from those bodies whom its spells touch.

Thank you for not going to the far east and molesting one of their sacred multi-tailed foxes, as so many young magi are wont to do these days. There are perfectly magical “genius” specimens to be found domestically, albeit with just one tail. There is also no cleverer or more guileful material to be reached for than fox's whiskers (technically distinct from the fur), and I'm sure you don't mind that particular animal quality bleeding into your personality. However, there actually are more efficient materials for casters of illusion magic, but this will still give you a leg up.

Now, this little semi-spiral here calls to mind the old druidic spirals, which were specifically constructed to hold power and keep the insufficiently-initiated from accessing it. However, the inlay here was done in iron, which promotes physical strength and burns away the eldritch. Thus, I suppose, it is meant to symbolize a deep well of strength. Perhaps the trickster means to cover one of his archetypal weak points.

>>80786124
Staves can afford to have physically larger foci, but otherwise have the same setup as any other channeling device. I would be glad to review yours.

>>80789487
I've only skimmed this so far, but it seems truly extraordinary. I'm honored.

But I do notice a distinct lack of centipede and stabilized wood.

>>80661561
He, he, magic stick goes whoosh

>>80688437
Reminds me of them old school sith ligthsabers where the activation button was hidden and had to be force pressed.

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>>80756009
Bellatrix had one.
>>80761339
Ha had a hook at the end (assuming we aren't talking about the elder wand) but it wasn't really bent like that.

>>80675129
A blackthorn wand with a raven plume as a focus and decorated with kanpped flint along its length

>>80791080
My good friend you seem to have forgotten something. Yes iron is powerful at disrupting magical energies especially those of more malicious intent. However rowan wood also possess a mild ability to disrupt dark magic. These properties combined with the foxes natural affinity for tricks and hiding would create a wand mediocore at best in creating charms and illusions but unparralled in finding and destroying hexes and illusions both obvious and subtle especially those made with ill intent.

>>80791176
I hope the wands we're getting here look better than those.

>>80795076
They better fucking be. For all Harry Potter fellates its wands they look like shit

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>>80791328
Blackthorn is the first wood people reach for when they want to go into curse studies. They also say that it works harder for sullen and morbid characters, thus creating a downward spiral in defiance of diamond's upward one. More subtly, though, blackthorn is the wood that magical escaped prisoners used to make houses and weapons for themselves, because it grew so abundantly in remote wastelands. The species has not forgotten this, such that it is now in their nature to sustain those who have broken law and good faith. One could therefore say that this wand will work in defiance of the Elysian will if given the chance.

This feather seems to have come from a spirit raven, which is just a bigger and more ominous raven that doesn't have to eat, cannot be killed by normal means, and sometimes talks to you. The widespread belief that ravens herald death is only coincidentally true; what they are actually doing when they gather atop a sick man's house is reminding him of the inevitability of his larger fate. You see, while not quite as intelligent, ravens have a much better sense of the unity of time than humans do. This awareness causes them to become willing (albeit minor) agents of destiny. That is why they say these birds may act strangely, but never randomly. To empower this core further, fix your eyes upon the future and drive mercilessly towards it. Do not stop or let petty things block your way. The fact that it derives from a spirit animal also means this piece has a slightly eldritch quality to it.

>>80796214


Not everybody can pull off black-on-black, but I think this maker's got it down. Black-on-black construction has a distinct effect upon humans, making half of them think you're some kind of badass while the other half roll their eyes. These flint chevrons are well done, adding a new texture to an already highly-textured wand body. Your wand will gain a random chance to impart either a fire or a cutting effect to an offensive spell. You may still draw a blank, though, so don't rely on it too much.

>>80795076
Those wands are comparatively slender and unadorned, which... I mean... that's certainly a look you can go for if you want. Especially if you're more into fancy dress parties than creating magic.

>>80791080
Tentative Spell Tags list, open to suggestions:
Air
Earth
Water
Fire
Chthonic
Celestial
Transfiguration
Divination
Creation
Destruction
Dark
Curse
Unholy
Travel
Light
Illusion
Law
Chaos
Body
Mind
Spirit
Cut
Crush
Pierce
Holy
Fate
Charm
Lightning
Poison
Death
Life
Healing
Harming
Dream
Communion
Communication
Sonic
Warding
Weather
Time

>>80797354
Thank you for separating communion, dream, and mind. They're all close, but not the same.

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>>80721127
Ooh, I missed this one. My wand is made of ibex horn and tamarisk wood grafted together in overlapping strips. An ornamental gold and tortoiseshell collar demarcates the end of the "handle" portion. Its core is a small platinum rune-plate bearing a single phrase, which is also an acronym. It's the piece I made to earn my 3rd Degree in Crafting.

My two former wands are up there in the display case. Though not as fine, they still hold a place in my heart.

>>80799353
We're you inspired by Saka bows perhaps? That's the only connection I can immediately make here.

>>80799629
That is exactly correct, although there are also benefits to a dual animal-wood body when it comes to the more advanced aspects of mediation.

>>80675129
Out of purely academic interest of course, has anyone ever tried to make a wand from still living components? Such as the northern whispering grass that can be plucked without fear and replanted a year later. Or the eternia grub which so long as it is not wholly incinerated can regrow it's entire (albeit small) body in an instant?

>>80799868
Yes, but
1. You still have to combine the organism with a body or core.
2. Even shrubs and grubs have will, and unless you somehow bend that will to your own, you shall have to fight it every time you wish to do magic.
3. The organism must be robust enough to withstand the pressures of casting. If I can incinerate whisper grass with a fire spell, how do you think its spirit will fare when I channel fire-aspected magic through it?

So let me first say that I don't know the first thing about magic or wands, however I recently had a relative die and found myself inheriting a great deal of magical paraphernalia.

One item is some kind of insulated box which according to the label contains a "Bloodiron and Realgar wand"
Is it safe to open the box?

>>80801341
Have someone cast a transparency on it. If the wand is broken or otherwise opened, keep the box sealed. If not, open it up and enjoy your hereditary piece. Blood-quenched iron promotes strength and good health. Realgar drives away hostile life forms.

Be careful, though. Taking up a previously owned wand is always an unpredictable endeavor.

>>80791176
I always Fan wanked the Elder Wand as a wand that defies most of the typical rules of wand crafting. I gave it the stats of having a dual material core of a basilisk's optic nerve rapped in thestral hair, and most wand experts could not explain why the thing doesn't explode. Dual core wands are temperamental at the best of times, basilisk optic nerve on its own tends to result in powerful wands that teeter on the edge of blowing up their wizard/witch if a single sliver of the wand is out of place, and thestral hair doesn't tend to make a good wand core on its own. No one has any Idea how the Elder Wand is as stable as it is, and the few times a wand maker tried to copy it has ended in disaster.

>>80661561
>Why do mages carry wands in their setting?
Who's setting?

>Is it ceremonial?
Maybe.

>mandatory?
Possibly.

>does it give any bonus to their magics or is it a tool that allows them to cast correctly?
why are you using "or" as if these would be mutually exclusive?

>Why do some magic user human and entities use wands and others dont?
I'm sure there's a variety of reasons.

>>80663594
>What are some other potential focus items a mage can use in your setting besides wands?
Focusing on what?

>There’s staffs, obviously, rings are also a classic, as are pendants, but what about lamps?
Like genie lamps or lantern lamps?

>Gauntlets?
Why gauntlets specifically?

>What are the pros and cons of each kind of item?
In what ways?

>Can someone in your setting use more than one at once?
Don't people usually have two hands?

>>80666872
>What about spellbooks?
What about them?

>Are spells in your setting actually written down?
Wouldn't the existence of spellbooks mean spells are written down?

>>80671386
>How fancy do you prefer magic wands to be in your setting?
Going to depend on the caster's preferences, not mine.

>Should they be just plain wood, or have more decorations?
Ask the casters.

>>80688437
>Why don't more mages use wands for guns?
Maybe they don't a license to carry?

>>80735771
>Do the materials that a wand is made out of actually meaningfully affect its abilities/performance?
How would they?

>Or is it all just aesthetic window dressing?
Well, a wand isn't a window, so how is this a question?

>>80753767
>Do you prefer mages in your settings to use magic wands or magic staffs?
That's up to the mages, right?

>>80802806
>How would they?
You’re familiar with Harry Potter, I presume?

>>80805107
>You’re familiar with Harry Potter, I presume?
Can't say I know the character very well, no.

>>80807805
The setting. In Harry Potter wands have cores of magical substances, usually derived from magical creatures, like Phoenix feathers, unicorn tail-hair, etc.

>>80808509
>The setting. In Harry Potter wands have cores of magical substances, usually derived from magical creatures, like Phoenix feathers, unicorn tail-hair, etc.
How would they derive it from these creatures?

Wands are okay I guess, but you can't go wrong with the classic staff plus magical sword combo.

>>80808533
>How would they derive it from these creatures?
Depends on the creature, maybe?

>>80808680
>Depends on the creature, maybe?
What sort of dependence would it have?

>>80661561
>Why do mages carry wands in their setting?
It’s a phallic symbol. It represents the masculinity of their magic.

Guess why witches have brooms.

>>80808736
>What sort of dependence would it have?
Probably something to do with the creature used.

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>>80808673
>classic staff plus magical sword combo.
How exactly is it "classic"?

>>80812350
Gandalf, possibly Merlin

>>80812350
Because read a fucking book

>>80675129
Stainless steel all the way through, with a small ridge separating the hilt from the shaft.
Core is hollow, snapdust is an unparralleled focus, but it degrades after two or three spells. An empty interior allows the user the refresh the core.

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>>80666872
If magic as programming wasn't played out yet you could have spelltomes that function as libraries. Packages you reference in your own code to make use of their interiors.

>>80661561
Wand size is measure of power, so instead of comparing dicks wizards compare wands or staffs. This also explains why there so few "woman" wizards.

>>80772294
>>80773772
I think trying to turn something like this into a system would be folly.
If there's any persistent theme here it's how unique every material is. And that's also what gives it its charm.
You can't make rules around that. You'd need twelve encyclopedias of rules.

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>>80802806
> Oi cheeky wanker, do ya have loicence for that wand?

>>80802615
>I always Fan wanked the Elder Wand as a wand that defies most of the typical rules of wand crafting.
Basically has to be canon. I mean you couldn't just recreate the elder wand, right? It's the elder wand! It comes from death himself.

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>>80797354
That's too many.
Create some more primitive tags and have these be combinations of them.

fire = nature + unbinding
earth = nature + binding
chaos = energy + unbinding
lightning = nature + energy

Something like that.
Then you can assign effects based on what their primitives are. Anything that has unbinding can destroy the subject directly. Anything that has energy can be captured and put into a battery. Anything that has nature can be sourced from your surroundings.
Something like that.
I'm thinking maybe twelve elements at most.

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>>80813869
This might be presumptious of me, but here's a proof of concept on how you could make a system around something like this.

So there's an important distinction between the 'elements' and what I guess we're calling the 'primitives'.
In-setting the elements are the absolute fundamentals of magic. It's what you get when you break down spell components to their most basic parts.

However, out of universe, each element comes with a handy set of primitives that inform us of its properties. Body allows you to target living things, and unbinding allows you to harm things, so the poison element is an element that allows you to harm living things. We can simply combine the rules for Body and Unbinding to rule on Poison spells, without needing a dedicated errata just for the poison effects.

>>80813680
It would be worth it.

>>80813680
I'm going to try my best regardless

>>80814693
No no, by all means, I accept any help anyone's willing to offer.
I'll try to buckle down and do a serious amount of work more tonight, once I'm free.

>>80815553
The most major aspect that would have to be considered is how to write the new resonances for the materials list. I'm not quite sure on how to yet translate elemental resonances to primitive resonances.

Maybe materials have resonances with either, depending on it's specifics? Aggressive wands gaining a resonance with unbinding and whatnot.
This could even form a rudimentary spell ranking system. The less primitives in the spell, the less complex the spell is overall, with more sophisticated spells requiring three or more primitives in unison to operate as opposed to merely two

>>80815658
I think looking to Ars Magic for inspiration would be a good idea. It's spell system is somewhat basic in idea but allows for really neat and complex spells.

>>80815658
http://opend6project.org/?page_id=266
How about stealing a page from d6 metaphysics powers and use channel, sense, and transform as the foundation.

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What do you think of picture related?

>>80817718
ribbed for pleasure?

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>>80817718

>>80817841
I recognize that smug loli.

>>80783563
>the academocracy

Do wizards in this world live under some kind of college government?

>>80815658
There is no resonating to primitives. In-universe primitives don't exist. They're just references to what kind of effect each element can have for a game design perspective.

>>80661561
Firstly as a ceremonial phallus; magic is rude.
Secondly to direct and conduct occult forces.
It is a particularly appropriate ritual implement for fertility rites, Imbuing life into inanimate objects, Divining the object of one's desire, or fighting, which makes it a sort of universal tool.
What exactly separates a wand from a common twig or swagger-stick is a matter of great consternation among the wisest sages.

>>80819541
I don't think I've even gotten to that stage, to be honest. The spell tag system itself doesn't really mean anything from a game design perspective except as a way to "sort" through the spell list to find certain spells.

I like the idea of the primitives, but having thought about it more I'm not quite sure how i would go about deciding what the primitives should even be.

Less than elements that describe the general effects of a given element? That's fine but there are ways to use nearly any type of element for any type of spell if enough creativity is applied.

Really the primitives would be terrifically useful for a spell creation system, but i haven't gotten to that point yet. I should probably work out the system now rather than have to rework it later though.

>>80819742
It might be best to double down on the autism and create an even more comprehensive list of spell descriptors, so that I have maximum flexibility in determining what type of material effects what type of spell.

It'll be long-winded, and stupidly complex, but it's not like anyone is going to end up playing this, so it should be fine for having a terribly complex and detailed wand creation system.

>>80814693
>>80819795
Yeah, having trying working on this for a while, i think i won't be able to use primitives, at least, not in order to generate my spell tags/elements. It's simply too restrictive of a system to use in this way.

for example, Fire. you listed fire as a combination of Nature + Unbinding. Something that draws in power from it's surroundings and does damage. that's all fine and dandy for most systems, its rare that a system will go into depth with fire anything more than that.

But if I want to make this system to my detailed enough specifications, i can't use it.

Fire is an element well suited to the destruction of things for certain, but that's ignoring a huge portion of what fire is/does. Fire is the element that is closet to life itself, Fire is born, it feeds and grows, it spreads and sires offspring, and it eventually dies. Fire is representative of cycles of life in microcosm, Fire is the element that warms the earth after long winters, fire is the element that allows things to grow, casted by the light of the sun. Fire is the element that warms us and keeps us from freezing to death, it is the element that allows us to bend and shape the strongest of earth into even stronger metal, it is the element of power and passion.

Fire is illumination, and through illumination, fire is knowledge. Fire is our ability to drive back the shadows we call ignorance and see the world for what it truly is. Fire is also the element that causes such shadows, deceiving us with the flickers of half-truths and shadows that dance in the corners of out eyes. Fire is the element of purification, through fire all things that emerge afterwards are cleansed. Grasslands are burned away but grow back stronger, and more fit to choke out the weeds that dare attempt to grow there. Fire is the element that burns away infections and closes wounds, preventing harm and even partially healing us.

So defining Fire as just Nature + Damage isn't enough I find.

>>80819795
>>80820177
Why not use fudge system as a base to build off of? Fudge was designed for easy conversion after all.

>>80820204
I'm never looked at the Fudge system before, so I would have to learn it to a level I feel comfortable with first and then proceed to attempt to build the system, Which would be a couples weeks at minimum. I don't think that would really be worth it when I could instead spend that time working with a system I'm already familiar with, that is to say a dicepool system.

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>>80820177
In my mind unbinding is also related to softening things up so they can be reshapen. Like a forge with metal.
The little blurb next to the primitive is not yet comprehensive.

But the sheer amount of things you associate fire with makes it very much unlike an indivisible element. If you do that for every element they'll end up indistinct, all connected to basically everything with no strong identity.
Perhaps fire shouldn't be a basic element at all. You could call the burning aspect the 'flame element', which is very strongly present in fire, but not the only thing. You need to combine it with some other element to make it a visible phenomenon. That also allows for different kinds of fires to exist, such as hellfire, or fairy fire. Depending on the elements used to create it.

>>80820430
Again I really like the idea of primitives, but I'm not sure enough to go about implementing such a thing.

Another issue with combination systems like that is that I'll end up with a bunch of wasted space and irrelevant elements. Some combinations are just not worth creating because they don't cover the things I'll need to, while some other combinations will be forced to be entirely too broad, covering aspects that would normally be outside of its bounds but has to be covered by the element for lack of better categories. The alternative would be to have combinations that simply don't create anything and other combinations that create multiple things, which is an ugly solution.

It'd be symmetry for the sake of symmetry, the same reason that CofD has 3 entirely superfluous social skills because it wanted to have 5 skills for each attribute category. Thus the wasted space.

Unless I can figure out a way to solve these problems, I'll have to simply use spell tags like it's a library directory, each 'book' having a specific list of 'descriptors' that a prospective reader uses to locate relevant information. Fuck I'm angry. I really like that idea of primitives but I can't for the life of me figure out how to actually use them for this.

I'm sorry anon but I don't know how to use your suggestion.

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>>80820526
You can ditch the grid and just have the primitives listed by each element, any number of them too, from 1 to 5, with the more powerful elements having more primitives.

Then a lot of the description of the element can be fluff. It's history, role in nature, the feeling you get when wielding it. But the possible end result of the spells can be derived from the primitives.

In fact, forget the fanciful descriptors for the primitives. Make them verbs.
FIRE is an element that:
-corrodes
-illuminates
-lives

And at the end of your spellbook is an appendix for each separate verb with how elements that have it can be used.

>>80820630
Hmm, I could probably do that yeah. I would have to come up with a list of verb-primitives but this is already a massive project so a single extra list isn't too much to add.

In fact that solves the majority of the problems I had with the system, and provides an excellent framework for future spell creation when i get around to doing that. This would also allow me to cut down on the list of elements by turning them into primitives instead.

Thanks for bearing with me anon, I can definitely incorporate this now.

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>>80665548
Post cool old sticks&sceptres that could make great alternative to wands

>>80820630
Could you elaborate a bit more?

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>>80822935
So the idea behind the primitives was to reduce the list of unique mechanics to a more reasonable level while still keeping the long list of unique magical elements.
We do this by giving elements capabilities that are possible due to the interactions of their unique combination of primitives. For example poison being related to body and harming, spells with the poison element can have effects that you only get by combining rules from the body section and the harm section.
Perhaps the body primitive allows you to target living matter directly and the harm primitive allows you to disrupt the normal function of any targeted subject. So a paralizing touch would be a poison spell. But other combinations would be possible.
The world of wandmaking then gets even more complex by having magical materials be associated with more than one element. Your uranium glass is attuned to both light and poison, so it's easier to use light spells and poison spells.

At first the idea was to have each element be the combination of two primitives. But that would restrict the design space.
Also. Instead of spinning it as even more fundamental elements, the 'elements of the elements' if you will, it's more in flavor to spin them as behaviours. Fire doesn't contain the primitive of destruction, it's one of the elements that can destroy.

Someone really should archive this thread, it has been one of the few good ones in quite a while.

>>80825132
Do it yourself.

>>80661561
An archmage used a walking stick cause he was old, so everyone started copying him

>>80825438
Too lazy.

>>80825132
Tried to submit a request but my browser crashed.
I'll try again later. Can't let the wand appraisers work be in vain

>>80661561

the wand is to focus magical energy

>>80825757
How does it do that?

alright, system update. Animal material may now influence the character's personality if the material is used as the base or the core and has the [Adjective]-Demeanor trait.

"Foci that utilize animal components as either a base or core often have the [Adjective]-Demeanor Trait. If a character could reasonably be described as roleplaying in a way that aligns with the listed demeanor, they gain an additional beat for the session. A character can only gain this bonus beat once per session.

For example : Heather has a harpy-feather core wand. Harpy feathers have the trait of Cruel Demeanour. Heather decides to needlessly mock an inferior opponent, aligning with the cruelty of the wand and earning her an additional beat for the session."

>>80827319
Elegantly done.

>>80683400
Alright, updated example Wand for system

Douchewand
Stabilized Wood Wand with Reaper's Arm Centipede Core
Unknown Maker
Stabilized Wood
Reaper's Arm Centipede
(Fire Pattern Decoration)
+4 Fire
+4 Poison
+1 Death
Insulate (-3 penalty to all magical effects, can contain hazardous materials)
Aura - Fire, Poison (-1 to all magical effects or all magical effects gain Fire and Poison tags)
Hazardous (requires insulate core, damages environment if exposed)
Corpse Component (+1 death resonance)
Fire Pattern Decoration (-1 difficulty to multicast fire spells)

All glory to the douchewizard I suppose.

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Finally, it looks like nobody needs their wand reviewed anymore... and yet a small crowd seems to have coagulated in and around my office. I do hope Msr. Augerdie doesn't come back too soon. Oh well, let's have ourselves an introductory discourse pertaining to my chosen field, the categories.

As a rule, there are four typological kingdoms under which a channeling material may be grouped. This facilitates further classification and study, as well as allows us scholars to discuss the broadest of their tendencies and interactions. These are the Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, and Aetherical.

Animal components are more commonly used as foci than as case bodies, but rare is the rule that lacks exceptions. I once saw a man casting the Portent of Z'iyound with a boiled-leather wand. These have, of course, to be drawn from metaphysically magical beings– you cannot just pluck a camel's eyelashes, stuff them in your wand, and expect to get results. In this way, animal materials are significantly divergent from those in the other categories.

>>80829294
These are wonderful. I'm glad you are progressing apace.

>>80829469
This kingdom can be split into two sub-realms, bestial and human. Earlier I examined a wand which uses old harpstrings as its focus. These are made of catgut, which is animal intestine, so they must constitute a bestial component, right? Wrong. The magic which suffused the original instrument was brought about through its use by a person (the owner's grandfather). The harp itself did not weigh upon its own magical nature so much as the act of playing it did. We are thus far better-served by naming it a human core.

Animal material is the most lively of them all. Moving, feeling, hurting, loving; these raw experiences texture the components just as much (and in so far) as they forge the nature of a being's life. This is why some unethical mages create artificially perilous wildlife preserves to raise magical beasts in. It's common knowledge that very many animal materials will begin to affect the psyche of their users if the latter are not careful in training their devices. But even if this does not occur, those who decide to give their wands a true, beating heart will rarely feel alone with it by their side.

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>>80821504
I think this was a mace of some sort.

>>80829483
Aren't tools that gain a magical presence by human use technically a kind of lesser god?
I remember reading about Tsukumogami.
So perhaps they're more at home in the aetherical kingdom.

>>80685043

Silver Wand with Hyssop Core
Unknown Maker
Silver (Multivalent Arresting Pattern Engraving)
Hyssop
+4 Holy
+3 Law
+2 Communion
+2 Earth
+2 Mind
+1 Healing
+1 Light
Dark, Curse, Unholy Bane (+1 bonus die vs magical effects with the listed tags, does not apply when using benefical magic)
Dark, Curse, Unholy Drain (+2 magic resistance vs spells with the listed tags)
Noble-Metal (+1 automatic success for oppposed magics vs non-noble metals)
Multivalent Arresting Pattern Engraving (Once per scene, multicast without penalty)

>>80829643
Object ghosts are indeed, ghosts. Research from those countries shows that only objects which have been infiltrated by an ectoplasmic seed undergo transformation after the predetermined use time. Notice how an object ghost does not try particularly hard to mimic the actions performed with it by humans, but rather parodies those actions in various noisome ways.

>>80829828
>Noble-Metal (+1 automatic success for oppposed magics vs non-noble metals)
Don't you think noble metals should have some sort of resistence against interference?
Since their primary trait that earns them the moniker is how they're unchanged by the environment and other chemicals.

>>80829909
Noble in the sense of being associated with royalty rather than the real-world sense
Although now that you mention that, yeah I should probably add something like that for "chemically noble" materials

>>80829909
>>80829940
how about this:
Dauntless
The material is highly resistant to outside influence. Counterspelling attempts aimed at the wielder’s magical effects suffer a -2 dice penalty.

Mostly skimmed this thread so far, neat stuff. Makes me wish I played magic characters more.

Years ago made a sorcerer who got his magic spontaneously, he used to be a tinkerer. He used one of his tools as a focus, something like a wand. For me that was kind of important since my grandpa left me some tools he used in Korea. Can't ever remember what they are and I don't have a picture offhand, but I think it's neat if the magic is personal to have the tool to use it be personal.

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>>80829483
Next comes the vegetable kingdom. I don't have to tell you that the lion's share of wands are made from some kind of wood. This is well-advised, for trees are hardy and long enough lived to brook great changes over time, which in turn grants them unmatched flexibility in the application of magic. Furthermore, just as wood thrives when acting as a body, so too do lesser plants function best in a device's core. You usually don't want a green shoot or flower focus swinging around outside of your wand, but remember what I said about exceptions. Those who work in wand-craft normally refer to these latter simply as, “plants,” and they constitute a sub-realm alongside wood. A strong plant core will never fail to surprise as it pulls in aspects of your life, personality, surroundings, or friends and grafts them onto your metaphysical potential. Not nearly as many people recognize this tendency as know about the self-bending properties of animal cores.

All but the densest of plebilexii can sense there is magic flowing through the forests. If I were to say anything of the vegetable category on its own, I'd say that the materials it provides are highly receptive to their wielders' input. They tend to either accommodate or build upon it, so that you always have room and energy to grow as a mage. Note that fungi are also considered part the vegetable kingdom, although they do not quite form their own sub-realm. Ever more to the complex, and all that.

>>80827280
Not that anon, but you pull magic toward yourself, this is called Channeling. A Wand acts like a lightning rod, grounding it so it doesn't course unchecked through your body.

>>80833364
That actually sounds pretty cool. I presume that skilled mages can do if without a wand in a pinch?

So how do you guys imagine magic working?

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My setting is inspired by guilty gear and thus magic works sort of like programming
Their wands are basically compilers. Mages CAN cast magic through their minds but they basically have to compire the "magic code" on their head which isnt ideal during combat.
Most people still cant cast magic even with wands because you still need to have trained your body to flow magic consciously
the thing is, magic can, by nature when its not being used by living beings, just fuck up space around it, so living beings have to somehow warp the magic around them and inside them to make spells and shit, and magical creatures are just born arealdy doing crazy magic shit

I was going to post the image from >>80688437 but he arealdy posted it

Hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana).
Skinwalker sinew core.
Amber pommel.
Minutely carved runes for texture.

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>>80839887
Ah, Ostrya. One of the ironwoods.
It's a plant with dubious alignment, it courts the unkempt wilds as much as it does the sphere of harmonious nature.
Sure, it's most used by southern witches, but that does not mean it's only suitable for witchcraft. With its heavy and inflexible material, which makes it suitable for large and slow magic more than swift spells. You can do much good with a Hophornbeam wand.
Now the skinwalker sinew. That does bring out the dark forest qualities of the wood. We know skinwalkers as deceivers, but they do not align with any demonic sphere, their nature derives from the first darkness. They are better described as feral than manipulative.
Such a core doesn't take kindly to complicated spellcraft. It wants to spew energy.
If you've used this wand a lot it's probably for great acts of destruction. Hophornbeam and skinwalker sinew will let you manipulate the darker elements of the forest with the smallest effort of any other material combination.
The amber pommel... Well it won't be in the way at the back. Amber preserves traces of magic that go through it. It's not incorporated in the main body so it won't interfere much with the regular spellslinging, but it won't accumulate much of a character in the first place. I suppose it could be used to read the recent history of the wand. What spells it has been used for and whatnot. A touch creative and out-of-the-box.
Funnily enough I think the runes serve more to increase the grip than in their capacity as runes. Hophornbeam being so stark and chaos aligned is not conducive to any complicated runework and that lessens their effect. In, for instance white ironwood runes like these would let you slice a coconut without disturbing the flight of a butterfly in front of it, in this wand they could maybe possibly keep you from slicing it up alongside it.

Manchineel wood shaft
Cadmium core
Cone snail shell inlay

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>>80830716
Now, the minerals are actually quite easy to discuss. They would be insistent to a fault, if not for the fact that we do not consider it a fault at all. The metallic denizens of this kingdom desire most of all to be used in a specific way by humans. After all, are refined metals not the tools of our use? There are, as ever, the odd exceptions such as quicksilver and meteoric iron, but generally speaking a wand of metal will be very competent at what it was designed to do. In every other area, it shall merely work. This is the ancient contrast between so-called, “natural,” and, “artificial,” channeling bodies, which stretches across cultures and back into the mists of time.

Of course, a stone does not always have to be refined in this way. It can be taken as-is into a wand or, even more commonly, cut down into a gem. These beauties of nature have had all their best qualities amplified by our efforts; their fineness is linked to both their rarity and how well they have been worked. No other place in wand-craft is so harshly stratified as in gemology, which is why the level of power to be achieved with stone cores is seen to vary so drastically.

I would be remiss if I failed to address the topic of the high gemstones. These are ruby, sapphire, amethyst, emerald, and diamond. By adding the concentration of human work to their natural power, we mages have created superbly insistent channeling materials. So focused are they upon their own natures that those wands which incorporate them seem almost to have agendas wholly separate from their owners'. A good owner will stay in control, of course, but by the Chamberlains, his will shall be pulled, and pulled, and pulled yet more towards the crystallized perfection lying at its core.

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>>80841981
So we end up finally at the rarest and most mysterious of all categories, the Aetherical. I say this, but there is actually a very simple principle (it's really more like a saying) which distinguishes members of this kingdom from all others used in channels work. Are you ready?

“Physical matter does not matter.”

Let us imagine that you took as your wand's core the body of a planar being, such as a cacodemon's finger, for example. It would naturally have had to have been summoned into this world by a ritual in the Goritic style. What is the function of this spell? It is to provide a field of alteration, shifting the local metaphysical resonance of our world so that it resembles those of the being's home plane, thus allowing its body to exist here in the first place. This is why summoned beings have a warping aura around them. However, such magics cannot last forever, even when isolated inside of a well-used wand. The device with a cacodemon finger core will, if broken open after a sufficient period of time, appear empty for all the world save to those with eyes to see, and anybody using an aetherometer at the time.

How, then, did the wand still work without anything inside? Because physical matter does not matter. Though the energy within the wand was still metaphysically connected to the demon's identity, it could not retain any material form in a foreign plane. Likewise, those mages who trap fire and wind within their wands are also relying on magic to preserve their identities. My own aetherical core does not suffer from this, “emptiness,” because the rune-plate is continually casting its little bundle of pseudo-spells. We might say that this is basically magic powering magic, which is only made possible by the empowered nature of our channeling tools. You've probably guessed this already, but “materials” from this kingdom are hardly ever made into wand bodies or external foci. The isolation of an internal core ensures stability.

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>>80841406
Machineel is completely opposed to animal life. There are some ways to inhibit its inherent malice, but it never becomes completely harmless to touch, and it never becomes friendly with a human caster.
Only an unseelie or a sufficiently warped hag can use a wand like this to its full potential.
Which is why the cadmium core is such an odd choice. Cadmium is the eternal ally of the whitesmiths. One of the metals most supremely aligned to humanity itself. It binds, it melds, it finds the harmony in the affairs of men.
See how the two materials fight each other? The wood wants to flex, but the metal is stark.
This isn't like a totemic core either, you can not bring out cooperation between the conflicting elements with generations of use. Wood and metal stubbornly cling on to their alignments until they're corroded.

I can't help but feel there must be some trick to it.
Some secret pathway to finding the overlap between poison wood and servile metal.
Even for an unseelie machineel isn't strictly better than ordinary acacia. The benefit being mostly that their enemies can not use them.
Perhaps the shell inlay has something to do with it. Cone snails themselves are hostile to humans, but that shouldn't transfer too strongly through the shell. Shell is a neutral material that allows one to decorate without disturbing magical flows.
If the core had been aligned to some sea aspect then the shells could have been used to amplify that, had their inlay been properly patterned. But that doesn't seem to be the case here, the decoration just gives it a more menacing look.

>>80842108
Some notes.

The demon-binding process I described here >>80692734 is not meant to provide its wand with a core, but rather to simply hold the being long enough for it to dematerialize naturally. Still a bad idea, though.

The crystallized lightning used in this wand >>80764362 constitutes a mineral-type material. One can actually capture live lightning aetherically and use it as a wand core, but it won't be as powerful.

It is important to remember that eldritch, fey, and spiritual entities are not planar beings. They actually do have physical bodies, which is why we can harvest consistently from them like >>80768526 has.

>>80841406
Sorry, won't be able to get to it today.

>>80840704
Luckily, we seem to have somebody else skilled in the categories here.

>>80812902
This... is not a wand.
I mean it LOOKS like a wand. It's used kinda like a wand.
But none of the founding principles of wandcraft are present. You're not channeling anything. You're not using the resonic properties of the material. And you're definitely not cultivating a magical history.
I daresay the only consideration that went into the material choice is what could best resist snapdust explosions. Like a muggle tool.

What you have here is a wand-shaped wonderbox.
Remember wonderboxes? Those container thingies that you could open to release the magical effect.
Yeah. There's a reason nobody uses those anymore.
Use an actual wand. You'll attune to it over time, unlike with this thing, and you won't look ridicilous using it.

>>80842214
Conflict is the point, the wand hates itself and that hatred will come out in the spellwork. Every casting will be a struggle to get the conflicting elements to do anything other than fight each other but any hexes and banes you can produce will be so full of rancor as to eat their way through almost any defence of almost any being. The snail shell is to give the wielder some insulation (shell is neutral after all) without interfering with the wands inner conflict. It still remains almost as dangerous to the user as its targets

>>80842214
I had cadmium mixed up with another metal here. Cadmium is actually famously toxic and not a jewelry thing at all. Oops. Oh well.

>>80720534
Here is another example of an aetherical focus. That blue disc is a continuous spell, and all the other protruding metal is what the plebes call "greebles."

>>80675129
My great grandfather recently passed away and left me his wand in his will. It's supposedly made of platnium with a strand of angel hair as an internal focus, under normal conditions it looks like a sooth rod of metal but when I hold it in the darkness of a new moon it's covered in faint glowing letters.
My family is convinved I should sell it off to a mages guild but I'm not sure that would be a good idea, considering it's supposedly angelic nature?

>>80844806
You may have a particularly rare foci there. The magical panoply of the Argentum Acolytes were said to possess such properties.

Wood and Plant inherent properties have been completed.
"Wood material foci grant an automatic +2 resonance with [Wood] magic if used as a base or material, and an automatic +1 resonance with [Wood] magic if used as an accessory. If used as both the base and the core, the foci grants an automatic +4 to [Wood] spells instead.
Foci that utilize wood material as either a base or core often have the Living Tag. The Living trait increases the attunement level cap of the wand by 1, and allows the wielder to re-allocate purchased advancements with a long period of self-reflection and meditation (mechanically this is a difficulty 3, cost 0, month duration ritual with the time wasted consequence).
Plant is a subcategory of wood. Foci that utilize plant material as either a base or core often have the Metasynthesis trait. The Metasynthesis trait lowers the experience cost of increasing a given resonance value with foci advancements to 2 (instead of 3)."

This trait (Metasynthesis) originally had a long and complex subsystem dedicated to temporary resonances values provided you recently interacted with a source of such a resonance within a given time, but I realized that was pointless bloat when I already had a system for increasing resonances that I could simply modify.

Of course, this becomes even more powerful when a plant core is combined with a wood wand. 6 attunement levels, discounted experience cost, relocatable levels. An effective +9 resonance levels that can be reallocated to suit different purposes.

No wonder most Magi use wood and -plants for this stuff, it's disgustingly broken. Then again, balance is not something I'm particularly concerned with for this system (any system with enough variables will inevitably have a most effective strategy arise) as the real challenge is finding a combination with a 'personality' matches it's wielder.

Tungsten wand
Osmium core
Gold inlay

What sort of spells would this be good for if I could actually lift it?

>>80850806
Every wood is attuned to all wood magic?
I don't know if I support that. I feel like the most generic wand would be would, and the most generic wand shouldn't have a specific alignment.
Maybe reserve that for the special types that are made out of Living Wood. You know, the ones that sprout blossoms and leaves if you don't clip 'em.

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>>80851552
It wouldn't be enough to be able to lift it. You need to cast with a nimble flick.
Wolfram is incredibly stubborn. It does not like change. Put too much zest into a spell and the wand won't want to stop casting. Combine that with the slow buildup of large momentum that deep earth minerals like osmium exhibit you end up with an effect one might compare to a loose garden hose.
So... practice your short and pointed casting.

Now wolfram is usually used as a core, not a shaft material. That's because it channels really well. It's mildly lightning related, but the vision of he caster takes precedence over any inherent nature. It's popular with craftsmen.
For a wand body, those aren't properties you're looking for. In fact the body of this want may try to intrude on the desmaine of the core and slurp up your spell directly. That could result in loose magic flying all over the place if you're not careful. It has that gold inlay though, that should prevent wayward magic from shooting backwards at the caster at least.
On the other hand, marbeling the strands of your magic between different mediums might be exactly what you want. It makes the magic basically unreadable for any snooping spies trying to find out what you're casting.

Anyway, a heavy earth core with an eager hard body will be very receptive to force and destruction spells. You'll be able to burst through walls with this, but I don't think you can ever get it to carefully carve a hole. It's unwieldy.

Please people, use sensible materials for your wand bodies. Not every part needs to be a font of power.

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>>80844806
Did you know that wands made in a well-developed style can be just as distinctive and recognizable as those turned out by a famous craftsman? For instance, I can tell from the symmetrical four-armed cap and tip pieces that this came from the hand of a late Minewsky School adherent. These “non-inclusionaries” hardly ever worked in metal, as it supposedly suggested an over-demanding loyalty to the ideals of the ailing state, but I've seen a platinum piece or two out of them before. Their craft was honed in towards political statements, and they built tools to command both the flash and intellect required for such. It all seems very quaint nowadays.

Therefore, I imagine that the maker of your wand was trying to send two messages with his moon letter trick. The first can be found in the way the text is revealed: New moon nights are the darkest of all, laying at the end of a downward spiral and preceding an upward one. He or she probably created the message (and the wand) for someone at their lowest point. Next comes the text itself; Is it meant to be encouragement? Mockery? Both? I honestly have no idea, because these are angelic letters which surpass human comprehension entirely. They are not runes in the sense that they are not producing any magical effect that we know of. What they are is a sure sign of Elysian influence. Maybe that is a mockery in and of itself...

>>80852352
So what we've got on our hands is the collaboration between a dissident and a high planar being. Let us then inspect the materials. This metal is associated both with physical and temporal cleanliness. You use powdered platinum to purge a filthy lake, and platinum thread to sever aberrant timelines. I use platinum in my wand to ensure the runes never generate unwanted... ah, but let's not reveal all my secrets yet, shall we? Angel's hair (which I can confirm is what's inside this piece) provides a wonderful accompaniment. You know how a gemstone core might push one or two virtuous traits onto its wielder? Well, the core of this wand sings harmoniously with all the virtues. Love takes its expected place as top note, of course, but you can pick out every single one, even those we lack words for. However, unlike a stone, it does not think to try and make your self agree with it. One may simply enjoy (or resent) the song at their leisure. On a more practical level, angelic materials gel with the really strong luminous and sonic magics.

Sir, I am going to give your great-grandfather's wand a name: the Moonlit Sonata. Without any chest thumping, it manages to shine light in the dark and brings simplicity to the over-complicated. I generally find the Minewsky and especially their allies' activities to be distasteful in the extreme, and yet the elegance of this statement cracks me on the foundations. I don't know which guild is offering to buy, or for how much, but I must beg you to consider turning them down.

>>80850806
I am impressed by but slightly doubtful of the bigness of those numbers. It should be fine, so long make the other material types as strong and situational as this one.

I personally magic "wand" a very self limiting concept. Everything could be a magical tool to weave magic from music instruments, to implements of war, to the hammers of the forge, even humble brushes and pens.
To allow our bias of wands (as useful as they are) blind us to this reality is foolish

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Cold iron anti-wand.

Sepiolite
Lavender stem
Beozar
Carved with flowing patterns, the beozar partitions the wand just below it´s middle, separating shaft from hilt.

>>80851673
Hmm, you may be right here.

How about this: Foci with bases or cores made from wood material often have the living trait. Wands with the living trait gain +2 resonance with wood magic, +1 attunement level cap, and grants access to the attunement reallocation ritual.

>>80857095
actually i think i might remove the increase resonance level cap trait from wood foci, leaving that for the most powerful materials and whatnot.

>>80666872
Spellbooks are collections of very complex but contradictory metaphysical statements. Spells are spiritual creatures who become fascinated with the contents and are thus lured and trapped by wizards. This is why wizards dramatically close and open their books all the time. Its like trying to slap a fly.

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>>80857209
forgot the pic

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>>80857095
>>80857151
That sounds sensible.
This project is really coming along. Good work.

Metal material traits are done.

"Metal material foci grant an automatic +2 resonance with [Metal] magic if used as a base or material, and an automatic +1 resonance with [Metal] magic if used as an accessory. If used as both the base and the core, the foci grants an automatic +3 to [Metal] spells instead. This resonance bonus only applies if the subject of the attempted magic is the same type as the foci material.

Foci that utilize metal material as either a base or core often have the Purpose tag. At the time of creation, the focus-maker chooses a purpose for the focus. This purpose functions similarly to a character’s Root or Alignment, granting a bonus to certain uses and a penalty to all others. The bonus and penalty of the Purpose is determined by how narrow in scope it is, according to the following chart.

These bonuses and penalties apply only to valid uses of the Focus, most often this is channeling magic, but some foci might be able to leverage this bonus in unique ways, such as a bladed implement with the purpose of cutting granting a bonus to physical attacks while using the focus as a weapon."

+1 / -1 (As broad as a spell tag, Cutting, Fire, Healing, etc.)
+3 / -2 (Somewhat limited, "Protecting others", "Dark rituals", etc.)
+5 / -3 (Incredibly narrow, "Casting down the temples of pagan gods", "To be wielded by the rightful king of Britain")

>>80857777
Nice quads and nice stats.

>>80661561
Originally in real world Occult stuff wands where long ass pieces of wood used to draw the details of a magic circle without having to step outside of it. Like a 6ft Oak Wand or whatever in stuff like The Key of Solomon. Older texts seem to use it for similar things.

So the wand is the emergency item or the object that helps them do ritual magic without burning a spell slot. Gives them advantage or Ritual Checks or Proficiency since it makes it easier to not break the ritual circle to do stuff.

Gem material traits are done

"Foci that utilize gem material almost always have the [Low-Average-High] Quality trait. This trait always modifies a particular material used in the foci’s creation (thus allowing the foci-maker to mix low quality materials with high-quality materials) and modifies both the cost and the resonance levels of the relevant gem according to the following chart.

Foci that utilize gem material may rarely have the [Insistent] trait. This trait is always attached to a particular material in the focus. Insistent materials raise the resonance levels from other materials that share the same types of resonances that they do by 1 and lower all other types of resonances by 1.

For example : Steven has a Sapphire core and Willow base Staff. Sapphires have the Insistent trait and a resonance with water magic. Willow wood has a resonance with both Water and Healing, Sapphires do not have a resonance with healing. The insistence of the sapphire increases the willow’s water resonance value by 1 and lowers it’s healing resonance value by 1."

Low - Decrease cost of material by one stage. -1 on all resonance values granted by the material.
Average - No modifier
High - Increase cost of material by one stage. +1 on all resonance values granted by the material.

Aetherical material traits are done.

"Aetherical material foci always have the [Aetherial] trait. Aetherial materials cannot be made into bases or accessories (except by wand-makers with traits that allow them to ignore this rule) and must form the cores of foci. In addition, in order to create a focus with an aetherial material, the wand-maker must perform an additional difficulty 5, cost 3, day long duration ritual with the time wasted and materials wasted consequences. In addition to this, aetherial material-using foci must also have the [Conceptual Reinforcement] process applied, otherwise they break down into unusability after a period of 1 year.

In exchange for these restrictions, aetherial materials form some of the most potent foci materials outside of homebrew materials, and rarely make for foci that are anything less than ‘extraordinarily powerful’.

Aetherial materials may ignore the focus-resonance level cap when counting their overall resonance levels. The resonance levels of all other materials are still limited by the cap, but the resonance levels from the Aetherial material are counted afterwards and may go beyond the normal limits.

For example : Harry has a wand of Elder wood and a Death’s Fingerbones core. Elder Wood has a resonance with death of +3 and Death’s Fingerbones has a resonance level with death of +7. The normal die bonus limit from resonance levels for wands is +5, The wand goes to +3 from the Elder wood first, and is then increased to 10 from the Death’s Fingerbones core, beyond the normal limit"

Material: A femur from something I found in the sewer. Don't worry about it. Probably a pig femur. Yeah. Pig femur.
Core: Rat tails. Not just one tail. A whole lot of them. There's a whole lot of Rat's where I live.
Accessory: There's some strange crusted substance on the tip of it. There's a strong scent of iron emanating from it.
There's also some bite marks on the wand.

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>>80675129
>materials
galvorn-cursed gold composite alloy
>core
entropy crystallised in a stasis field
>customs
nice javelin shape with elven skin grips

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>>80708185
ever try this one out anon?

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>>80661561
I once had a vague idea for a magic system where mages cast spells using swords. So, how would you combine a wand and a sword?

>>80861560
Apply the "Sword" Shape template to a wand or rod sized magical focus.
...I'm working on it.

In universe it would probably be a matter of making a sword with it's core (or handle) prepared to accept and seal a magical material and then engraving with pattern-runes to one's liking. Making sure to build the rune foundation out of material-reinforcement magics so that the now-hollow blade isn't tremendously weakened by the process.

Why not make it so intent shapes a spell?

>>80861728
I plan on doing something like that when i get past the wand creation system and into the spell/spell creation system

Hello Wand-Master anon. You were kind enough to review my personal wand earlier - the one with harpstrings for a core? I have another I've come into possession of recently, if you'd be willing to take a look at it I'd be grateful. It only came to me by chance - in fact I'd refused to take ownership of it previously so the fact that it's even here is...odd.

Material: Walnut wood, interlocked with banded patterns of what I believe to be sandalwood
Core: A lodestone, embedded in dolerite
Customization: a script-like electrum pattern running almost the full length of the wand. Frankly I have no idea what language, if any, it is.

>>80862006
Please elaborate on this. What exactly are you planning?

>>80864714
Well, it's only the barebones of an idea thus far so bear with me. I'm planning on most (if not all) spells having 2 main factors for customization of casting. One of which would be on the fly, and would probably be the shape of the spells effect (such as a 'fireball' spell granting 2-3 presets of casting such as line, ball, scatter). The other would be the spell tag system, which modify the base 'generic' spell underneath the given tags. Each spell would have an attached list of what spell tags may be used with them, and the character would choose 1 or more of the attached spell tags. To return to the 'fireball' spell, the base spell would probably be something like "medium ranged spell damage" with the tags of fire + 1 or 2 others.

Each tag could be used for slight changes to the basic spell. Fire would have something like:
Burning : Affected area is now lit on fire (if area is flammable)
Purifying : Curse tagged magic in the area suffers an immediate counterspelling attempt.
Illuminating : increase illumination level in affected area by one step.

The player would have one of these lists for each attached spell tag, and they could pick 2-3 of these effects from any of the lists, which would form psuedo-new spells based on the combinations.

This is basically the 'primitives' idea suggested by Witchposter anon, slightly modified to fit my personal brand of autism. (big thanks to you, witchposter).

>>80661561
Wizards in my setting cast magic by attuning their vessel (their mind) to the magical energy that suffuses the world, channeling in what they want and filtering out what they dont. Wands (and other arcane focuses) are not required to cast spells, but they certainly help, and most fledgling wizards cant do it without them. Wands themselves are made of magically infused materials and runes, which help focus the mind on particular magics, are carved on their surface, allowing the tactile tracing of the runes to better focus their magic through association

>>80864988
The whole magically infused materials is also why some spells (at least for lesser mages) require a physical component to be sacrificed.

Anyway, really good wizards do not need any sort of wand or materials, they often neednt even chant incantations or set runes in their minds. They are so practiced in casting that they can do it as though it were second nature. If you see an old wizard with a staff, its usually just his walking stick

>>80862156
I'm on it.

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>>80862156
You have no idea how enthusiastic I am about true mixed-material wand bodies. There is not but great joy to be found both in crafting and seeing them worn. Beautiful though it may be, this pattern is more than simply aesthetic.

Let us begin with the outer part: In recognition of its ubiquity, many cultivators refer to walnut as the townsman of the forest. It is both hardy and fecund without crossing into servility like some other fruits do; its pride is the yeoman's pride. Our office has even produced a few military-pattern wands made from walnut. Sandalwood, on the other hand, is the quintessential tree of fire. As incense it is burned all over the world, more or less, and they say it's the memory of such burnings that has imparted such a vivid redness to the lumber. The extensive use of incense is linked to far eastern ideas of aligning an area parallel to certain elemental planes (their metaphysical practices are based on spacial alignment, whereas ours generally focus on resonance), and so the fires made from sandalwood are meant to be those of rebirth rather than dumb immolation.

The purpose of this red-and-white admixture in your new wand is unmistakable: Good health. In the west, if we want a channeling tool to promote bodily strength, we just make it out of iron, perhaps with a platinum overlay if the customer can afford it. This, however, will work much more holistically. Your constitution will be emboldened and renewed rather than augmented; your magic will feel clean and warm. The runic language at play here is an old southeastern dialect which, though I cannot read, I can tell is meant to empower the body's qualities to an even greater degree. The chosen method was to embed silver lettering into carved channels within the wood, and over time, the nature of the wand combined with the applied power of the spellcaster has added an auric component, creating electrum. Perhaps one day these characters will be wholly golden.

>>80872595
Moving inward, we find a medium-strength lodestone embedded in very dark rock. Lodestones have always been used to orient men (as compasses) and draw forth iron (as magnets), but the fact that this one is presented within its natural encasement suggests that the maker wanted to keep its telekinetic properties in check and instead emphasize something else. Suppose it is a metaphor, describing how the powerful should not forget their origins. I cannot be certain, but remember, we of magic can give stature to even the subtlest riddles.

>>80872614
I'd like to thank everyone for making this a great thread. I've had a pleasure writing and seeing what you all have written. I am especially appreciative of the anon making a literal game subsystem based on this... that's truly amazing.

Yours in Spirit and Knowledge,

Gerard V. Sillon, A.M.C.

I guess I'll dump some of my magical knowledge here.
Staff is representative of Dignity, Authority, Guidance, Rulership, Leadership, Masculinity, Pilgrimage, Magic (wand), High class or rank. They are much closer to the spiritual which why magical and priestly figures wield them. It's guidance aspect often extends to teaching which is why mentor figures often wield them. As the older are expected to guide their younger counterparts it is also assoicated with Elders.
Chalices/Cups are assoicated with Water (and all that entails), Emotion, Dreams, Intuition, Luck, Femininity, Love. While Cups are certainly defined by Water, it is important to remember that Water is mutable and shapeless thus has many deeper properties.

>>80661561
Any tool that a wizard/mage/sorcerer chooses can be his foci, but his perception of it will shift how his magic works. A wand will gradually shift the wizard to quicker, more utilitarian spells. A staff will demand it be the center of titanic castings. Armor will create defensive-enchantments, weapons will create offensive enchantments, pendants will demand ritualistic endeavors, tomes want research, etc. its all about how the wizard wants their magic used.

bump?

>>80873688
Thanks for the input, added to the doc.
Chalice
That which contains and stores liquid, chalices have strong feminine and religious importance. Associated with waters and all things that derive from such, but also maidens, purity, holiness in general. Chalice-shaped foci have the following properties :
+1 on on maximum resonance levels when wielded by a woman
+1 resonance with the following tags : Dream, Fate, Healing, Holy, Life, Soul, Water.
+increase the maximum willpower of the character by one

Staff
A symbol strongly associated with the Wandering Hermit, the staff is representative of the tower that links worlds to one another. Nature to civilization, spiritual to material, heaven to earth, and old to new find themselves linked by the tower between. It is a masculine and mentoring symbol, and bears the following properties.
+Apprentices gain an additional free beat per session
+1 on maximum resonance levels when wielded by a man
+1 resonance with the following tags : Communion, Divination, Fate, Mind, Spirit, Time, Travel.

>>80661561
they don't actually use them for anything, it's a trick so people attack the wands and think they've won.

anyone who finds it out doesn't live long enough to tell anyone.

>>80877256
Water can take on many forms anon. It can be frigid, scathing, calm, deceptive, nurturing, flexible, etc. Cups can be assoicated with many concepts but strangely purity/holiness isn't one (water can be dirty after all). Also Water is universally considered a feminine element so cups being a assoicated with is a forgone conclusion considering their purpose. Water also heavily assoicated with chaos making it difficult to perfectly control making CONTEXT vital to determining its magical properties.
Staff is on point though except for the fact it is assoicated with leaders and shepherding.

>>80877844
Ah, I was making a connection to the Holy Grail
Also running water is especially associated with purity/holiness, being one of the safest sources of life-required water and "washing away" the impurity of evil. This connection is strong enough for unholy creatures to be unable to touch it (vampires most of all).

Although stagnant water is especially negative, being associated with the miasmas which cause sicknesses in humans and deep water forming a bulwark against unwholesome things that lurk in the deep, and thus carrying an element of mystery.

So I should probably go back and revamp it anyways.