Pacts & Binding

## **Pacts**

A spirit is always bound to its word. This is how it was and always will be. Due to this, Magicians can make pacts with spirits, where both sides agree on an ultimately binding contract, most often an exchange of power.

When making a pact, both Magician and Spirit will lay out their demands and their offers. In most cases, the Spirit will offer a form of magical assistance whereas the Magician will offer a sacrifice in the form of something the spirit craves. Examples could be:

* A Magician asks a Fire Jinn for his aid in fighting. In return, the Jinn expects a litre of Gasoline a day.
* A Mare approaches you in your dreams. It promises the ability to make your dreams manifest in exchange for access to your body while you sleep.
* You dare to approach a Hellborn, seeking their power. In your hubris, you overlook a loophole and the Hellborn ends up killing you after you fulfil your side of the contract.
* You captured the Sprite in a binding circle and watch as its energy slowly drains out. Death or servitude, those are your terms.

As you can see, some pacts are more favourable to you, some to the spirit and some are just straight up one-sided. It is up to you and your cunning what your pacts will look like, but be aware that karma rewards fair play.

Magicians making a pact need to remember 3 crucial things:

* One, **make your words and bonds deliberate**. Make sure to set out the desired conditions and guidelines before all involved parties in the exact way you want them expressed.
* Two, **close up any open ends and loopholes**. Do not set yourself up for exploitation, or allowing the other party to take advantage of any loose wording.
* Three, **make it actually official**. It’s too easy to go in and think a deal has been reached, when in reality no “contract” was signed and no one is bound to any actual obligations. Make sure to have all involved parties verbally acknowledge their duties and responsibilities in the pact.

As we need to have some semblance of Ballance and accountability on our server, we require every pact you make to be submitted in the form of this template:

Name of pact: [Just something we can refer to when discussing Ballance]

Spirit: [The name of the Spirit]

Magician: [The name of the Magician]

Spirit concessions: [What does the spirit have to do]

Magician concessions: [What does the Magician have to do]

### Calling on power

Be aware, that a spirit can not grant you magic, as in allow you to wield their magic. You will have to summon or bring the spirit along with you so they can do their work.
Only once you have an Implement, have bound the spirit to an object or when you host a spirit this does this not apply.

## **Bindings**

All spirits are abstract creatures to a greater or lesser extent. As such, concepts have power over them. Magicians can use these abstract connections to restrict spirits, erect barriers against them or pull them along certain lines.

There are three ways of going about a binding.

* **Like bindings** employ the same elements as the spirit you want to bind. Fire for Fire Jinn, Light for Sprites or ice for a hypothermic Ghost. It might be of interest to note that depictions or symbols of an element have a similar, though weaker effect. Weaker spirits are susceptible to this, but you shouldn't expect it to work on most stronger ones.
* **Unlike bindings** function like Like bindings, just utilizing the opposite element. It is also more effective. Water for a Fire Jinn, Darkness for a Sprite or Fire for a hypothermic Ghost.
* **Symbolic Bindings** are often used in combination with one of the others and are arguably the most complex. They utilize symbols of binding things, like chains or a simple chalk-circle on the ground. On their own, they are very weak but when infused with a power source or combined with a like or unlike element it can create very effective bindings. There are many shapes or symbols one could use for a binding, many more than I could list here, but I will provide some basics for you that you can then build upon.
	+ Circles are a stable shape without any real weak points. These are your basics for containing something or keeping it out.
	+ A line is relatively weak, but can be drawn quickly. It can be used to ward off simple effects or pull them along in a given direction.
	+ Regular Polygons are stable but their corners are weak to spiritual pressure. They can be very effectively used to reinforce other shapes and give a binding more layers if one of them fails. Furthermore, certain spirits might be associated with numbers, thus making a polygon with as many points an effective approach for a like binding.
	+ Triangles are the stablest of polygons and can indicate direction. They can be used to enforce or modify other shapes. You could make a circle with triangles pointing inside, so things can get in but not out.
	+ Chains are one of the oldest symbols of restraint. A binding incorporating chains will be stronger, on average, though there might be spirits this does not apply to.

All of these practices can also be used to protect yourself or certain locations from Spirits.

### Sealing

Sealing is the practice of binding a Spirit to a certain object or location. This can be done through either pacts, bindings or a combination of the two. Sealing them into an Object will be easier if the object has an actual space to hold things, like a bottle, a locket or a box, and/or is thematically related to the nature of the spirit. The latter will also strengthen the seal, as will strong and lasting materials.

Like binding, this can be done through like, unlike or neutral means, with the same drawbacks and positives. Be aware, though, that over time, an unlike Sealing will sap energy out of the spirit and kill them, resulting in an explosion of arcane energy. The more powerful the spirit, the greater the resulting force.

### Infusing

Alternatively you can kill a spirit and use its material remains to infuse an object with their power. This is more dangerous than making a pact, but the resulting artefact will be easier to handle and last until it is destroyed.