General Interest

## General Interest by Anaideios

A Little Sympathy Goes a Long Way

In your time at Salvatore, you may in your studies have come across the phrase “sympathy”. In the mundane vocabulary Sympathy most often refers to either feelings of pity or understanding between people. Sympathy, in regards to magical practices, could also be called “connection,” or “correspondence.” Not a school, or field of magic, like Herbology, Transmutation, Astronomy, Sympathetic magic is instead a principle of magic employed by several practitioners, of all magical traditions. A caster, by forming a Sympathetic connection between themselves and their target, can affect their target over any distance, or craft spells that only affect the specific target. If that notion doesn't disturb you, honey, you're just not thinking big enough.

Now that I've got your attention, let's properly define how Sympathy works. All spells have a sympathetic element to them. Simply by looking at their target, the caster achieves Sympathy. If the caster cannot visualize their target, they cannot affect them with magic. There is no connection. Casters can work around this by having something of the target in their possession. This could either be a piece of the target's body - a lock of hair, fingernail clippings, a drop of blood or other bodily fluid (any will do), or a scrap of flesh – or it could be a most cherished possession of the target's. Especially potent possessions are of course a magician's focus, or their familiar, but a treasured family relic, or a personal diary, could be enough to establish the sympathetic bond. With the connection established, distance no longer becomes a hindrance for the caster. Caster and target could be on opposite sides of the world, and that single lock of hair is enough to bridge the gap to call down a lightning bolt, or to place a hex.

A classical example of sympathetic magic use is of course the voodoo doll. By creating an effigy of the target, and then adding pieces of the target's body to the doll, the caster could inflict pain or send powerful curses on the subject, regardless of distance. Another example is the scrying pool. By sprinkling a belonging of the target’s into the waters of the pool (tears being a favorite component), the target and their surroundings would become visualized in the reflective waters. Don't make the mistake, however, in thinking that sympathetic magic can only be used to antagonize you. Beneficial spells, wards, and charms are just as legitimate as sympathetic castings. The Sacred Prostitutes of Ishtar used to instill their favor on those who paid them by harvesting the results of of their satisfied customers, and the number of stories of magicians who shared parts of themselves, or traded enchanted items, with their lovers in order to better protect one another are too numerous to mention here.

So how does one protect themself from Sympathetic magic? The sad answer is one can never fully protect themself from sympathetic magic. If a will worker is determined enough to snatch something of yours to establish a sympathetic bond with you, eventually they will. That said, there are several means of hiding from view, or occultation available to the paranoid magus. First off, mind your belongings. Better: if you've learned a few protective wards, ward your belongings. Fingernail clippings and cut hair can be burned. In fact, some more eccentric will workers shave all the hair from their bodies, down to their eye lashes.

Before you despair at the profound paranoia necessary to achieve occultation let us reiterate: Sympathy is not a school of magic. It is a principle. Ultimately, all it does is increase the caster's reach. The manner of spells they use can still be protected against by the charms, wards and counter-spells that you might learn in class, or from a tutor.