- For the book, see Demesnes.
A Demesne is a place of power, and one of the three core tools for a western Practitioner to have alongside a Familiar and Implement.[1][2][3]
Gaining a Demesne[]
The ritual itself is simple, and involves staking your claim and then defeating all those who would challenge you over it. Any method of contest can be agreed upon by the combatants. By defeating all those who challenge them, or holding out for a set length of time, the domain is the practitioners to do with as they please.[4][5] The uncooperative Spirits and Others are ejected, leaving only cooperative ones.[6][7]
You can not prevent someone from coming to anwser a demesne claim[8] but if someone is already imprisoned prior to the start of a demesne claim theirs no obligation to release them.[9]
Most demesnes rituals require legal or de-facto ownership of the location.[10]
An area that is already a demesnes cannot be claimed by someone else, even if the person who claimed it is deceased.[11][12][13][14] (But see Variant Demesnes, below.)
Every so often someone will again challenge your claim and you are required to leave the demesne to defend it.[15][16]
Size[]
The bigger the location the more challengers, from five to ten objections for a closet to fifty for a house.[5] Generally the size of a demesne would be measured in rooms, a building at maximum.[17][18] A larger Demesne is generally better, with a larger one supplying more power,[5] but this is dependent on the presence of useful Others; a large area that is desolate, with few challengers, is less useful.[7]
Uses[]
Others who enjoy a demesne and visit or live there, paying tribute to the owner, is one way to gain power using a demesne.[7]
As a practitioner uses their demesne, it will improve as it draws likeminded spirits to it, eventually strengthening the practitioner's magic while they are inside it.[7] This could also allow them to order the spirits around like a powerful cosmic being.[19]
Owning and maintaining a demesne naturally improves one's karma.[7]
A demesne, even one whose owner is deceased, retains powerful protections against magic.[20][11] Such an abandoned demesne is said to have been "turned inward".[21]
Some powerful practitioners find that they can draw on their continual connection to their place of power to access it from remote locations, using e.g. a certain key to turn any door into an entrance, an outline in chalk, or using the blood of an enemy.[22]
Reality Warping[]
Inside of a demesne the practitioner is 'a step below a god' as the domain is a reflection and an extension of the self, a safe place that they can do nearly anything in. They can alter or break the laws of physics, magic, potentially even logic.[23] The practitioner can alter the it's appearance and materials, internal dimensions,[6][18] prevent weapons or explosives from working, repair what is damaged, move around at superhuman speeds,[10] unlock locks,[24] reshape the landscape,[25][4] alter the flow of time,[26] conjure items[27] etc.
The air, ground, even the passage of time automatically, subtly accommodate them.[6][26]
All this means that fighting a practitioner within their demesne is immensely difficult.[10][24] It can also serve as a secure stronghold where one can store power with the certainty that it will remain untouched.[28][18]
As one can determine the rules within their realm, they can use the place as a form of esoteric moneychanger, changing one kind of power for another, including that of positive Karma.[28] However, the exchange rate will be inefficient unless they have specialized in that somewhat.[18]
There are other potential applications of this reality warping. Some Practitioners use their demesne as a sort of 3D display where something abstract, such as stock prices or software, is made physical and can be observed and interacted with.[18] If one suffers from a curse, a demesne can halt it's effects while you are inside.[18]
Limits[]
A demesne's flexibility can also be a drawback. Unwanted influences can creep in from the practitioner's mood,[6] familiar, or sources of power. The usual solution is to focus and restrain these influences to just one part of the demesne.[29]
Items conjured using your authority over your demesne won't function outside it.[27]
Familiars have a claim to the demesne as they are a part of the practitioner.[29]
A practitioner in their demesne still requires outside connections and Others for power. Without them, they will find their magic and self weakening and potentially fade into nothing.[30][7]
Manipulating time in the demesne, even subconsciously, causes lost time on returning to the outside world in order to balance it out.[31]
A god is capable of shattering the protections of demesnes.[32][33]
Destruction[]
In the event that a practitioner becomes too attached to their demesne and ignores the outside world they may become a part of it and die when it fades away, resulting in a ghost, and/or a location saturated with power. Otherwise they fade into Limbo.[30][34]
Physically destroying a demesne is generally nigh impossible, since the owner has so much control. However it might be possible if they were foolish enough to claim one in a property they don't control (such as an apartment in a building they don't own.)[10]
If a person was legally evicted from their demesnes it would disintegrate,[10] losing power and consistency as other people lay claim to the space.[35]
Becoming Forsworn causes your Demesne to collapse.[36]
Once lost, a demesne can never be replaced.[35] Attempting to claim multiple demesnes, or expand an existing demesne, is likely to risk losing the demesne and becoming Forsworn.[37]
Variant Demesnes[]
Mobile, underwater, or flying demesnes are all possible; but rare, and generally foolhardy. They are likely to be severely weakened or flawed as a result of violating tradition, and may not technically be considered "demesnes" by some.[38][39] Similarly, a sapient demesnes/familiar hybrid is possible, but the result is significantly weaker, flouts tradition, and prevents one from ever gaining either a true demesnes or familiar by occupying both "slots".[40]
Crooked Hat had a Demesne that overlapped with the Abyss.[41]
Some families are able to pass on a demesne to their descendants. Such a demesne is much less flexible, with a very limited ability to change it, and tends to mark the owner as a representative of their family rather than an individual.[13]
Certain beings, such as Conquest, Advanced Bugges, The Hyena, or Nex Machinae, can form Depressions; exerting such influence over an area and its spirits that it resembles a demesne in effect if not in the method of gaining that influence.[42][43][44] Some can reach the point that they are effectively crafting whole new realms with god-like authority, these are typically called Demiurges.
Notable Demesnses[]
- Johannes' Demesne
- Jeremy Meath's Demesne
- Sisters of the Torch Demesne
- Hillsglade House
- Alexander Belanger's demesne
- The House on Half Street
References[]
- ↑ The three rituals noted here are fundamental in determining how you access, hoard and focus power. - Excerpt from Bonds 1.3
- ↑ The largest group that might be said to make regular use of the scepter would be the Anglo-influenced Japanese families of practitioners, who have taken on the Western traditions of choosing implement, familiar, and demesnes for their personal power. - Excerpt from Implementum, quoted in Gathered Pages: 2
- ↑ One tidbit I was able to pick up these past few months was about Eastern styles. India, some of Japan. See, they aren’t big on familiars and implements and demesnes. Well, the Western-influenced ones are. - Excerpt from Damages 2.7
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 “When you do the ritual, you invite locals to challenge your claim. You’re talking about talking between individual challenges.”
[...]
The floor tiles rotated, opening a hole. A table rose from the floor, and Johannes picked up the book. - Excerpt from Signature 8.7 - ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 “Making your own sanctuary, while we have enemies gathering at the gates. It seems like a pretty simple ritual.”
“Deceptively simple,” Rose said.
“Yeah, deceptively simple,” I agreed. “You stake out the area, the magical equivalent of drawing out your borders and planting a flag, you say a few words, and you invite anyone, everyone and everything that objects to come and challenge you. Trial by combat, riddles, placating them with deals, whatever you agree on. The bigger the area you try to claim, the bigger the invitation you broadcast. They each get to confront you the once, and the ritual ends when there are no challengers left, or when a set amount of time passes. Claim a space the size of a closet, maybe get five to ten objections. Claim a house, get fifty.”
“I’m thinking that’s one of the last things we want to do,” Rose said. “When we have a familiar, and when we have an implement, so we have some ability to fight.”
“Except,” I said, “It’s a bit of a catch-22, isn’t it? The demesne gives us a steady supply of power, with bigger spaces giving us more power. It’s a sanctuary, and a place where we can bend the rules in our favor. Right? So we need a tool or a familiar to lay claim to as big a space as we can pull off.” - Excerpt from Bonds 1.6 - ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 When Fionna does return to her place of power, she finds herself disappointed. There is little doubt this is her place of power, but the effect is minor at best. The spirits and entities that have not been driven away by the challenge are few in number, and she finds herself less powerful in her domain than she is elsewhere.
After the monumental investment in time and effort, and the debts incurred, initial reactions can be devastating.
This, in itself, can be damaging, because one’s mood and ideas can influence the demesne, and the demesne at this point in time is in a fledgling state.
Fionna is more or less at ease, thanks in large part to the time she took to herself. She focuses on the details. She sees how the very air in her demesne cooperates. It tastes cleaner, it does not bar her movement, but buoys her. The ground accommodates her footfalls. She tries to manipulate the environment, by combinations of touch, word, and will, and finds it easy. The aesthetics are the easiest part of it to change, and she takes her time altering her surroundings.
Fionna makes wall and floor into flesh, the place of power becoming a womb of sorts. All things in her place of power are moist, and the ticking of a clock becomes the dull, distant thud of a heart. Veins on every surface throb in time with the sound. - Excerpt from Demesnes Chapter Nine, quoted in Interlude 4 - ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 As she’s made her place her own, Fionna finds that she can use power more readily in the area. She notes, in a matter of fact way, that simply holding a demesne generates good karma, bettering her position in the world so long as she tends to the space. The problem, however, remains, she isn’t stronger there than she is in the outside world.
Having driven away spirits in the course of the challenge, our example case finds that the spirits and beings that remain are conciliatory. How, then, does the practitioner build up a power base?
Fionna finds that as she draws and manipulates power in and around the demesne, its power extends into the real world and vice versa. Spirits in alignment with her draw like spirits with them, and on a more complicated level, intelligent beings who visit her demesne and find it to their liking may contact others. Word of mouth spreads, for lack of a better term.
Herein lies the heart of the demesne dilemma. The greater the claim, the greater the power that is reaped. But an area where there are no beings to challenge the practitioner will have few beings of any import occupying or neighboring it, almost strictly by definition. It proves useless to the practitioner. Worse, it is stagnant, refusing to grow, for one needs power to gain power, and such spaces have no inherent power to start with.
It is a canvas to be painted, but nothing more.
She settles into her new role as ruler of this demesne. As she forms contacts with Others, the demesne becomes a meeting place and even a home to some beings, who give her tribute in turn, by way of power, gifts, or service. - Excerpt from Demesnes Chapter Nine, quoted in Interlude 2 - ↑ - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.7
- ↑ What happens for someone like Marlen, who is being held captive?”
“There’s no obligation to free someone from possession, captivity, or other circumstances if they were unable to answer the claim before it started,” Cyn said.
“But if she’s freed, she has the right to go there?”- Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.b - ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 What if it is in a high rise which gets demolished? Would fate prevent the demolishment of the building?
If you have a demesnes you generally want to actually have a claim to the territory. You don't claim a demesnes in an apartment high rise you don't own, because that leaves you without protections and generally fucks you when you get evicted and the spirits go, "Whelp, yeah, sucks, but poof, demesnes disintegrates, bye." Most rituals are just going to require ownership of the place (or for the place to be sufficiently neutral) as a matter of how they're enacted.
Outside of the mundane world, if you own the space, have claim to it, and everything else, it's generally pretty darn hard to actually demolish. It's an extension of the practitioner and it's a rare, rare case where you'll actually be able to do substantial damage to the demesnes without also defeating the practitioner who lays claim to it... and once you pick that fight you're fighting a practitioner on their home turf. Explosives aren't liable to work right, fire doesn't kindle, flooding does minimal damage, holes in walls self-repair, yadda yadda, and while you're trying to knock down a building that's resisting the effort, the practitioner gets a heads up and then suddenly appears behind you, having arrived faster than they should've. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit - ↑ 11.0 11.1 Study and enact the ritual found in Demesnes. Baba Yaga had her hut, I have my room. Unfortunately, the rest of the house has been claimed by our predecessors, and while it is a haven, you will need to find your own place to make your own, where the rules bend as you need them to, and where your power is greatest. - Excerpt from Bonds 1.3
- ↑ Once it’s taken, it’s taken, right? You can’t have something for your demesnes if someone else has already claimed that ground. - excerpt from Breach 3.2
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Can you not have a demesne where a dead person had one?
Not generally. Certain families have different rules & whatnot, so they break from tradition/normal rules, but just for the sake of argument & expansion, having the little convenience comes at a cost. If you're laying claim to the space that's been in your family for a while, then, well, it goes back to the identity thing I brought up above (third bullet point). You're identifying as someone who follows the path & place set forth by family. It might make it harder to be flexible with practice, and it'd impact how Others look at you. You're less a person and more a bloodline with a power & position that's currently resting in a different body than it was 30 years ago. The demesnes itself might be more powerful but less customizable, with each person to take it on being able to make only a few changes to make their mark on it (and less so with each subsequent generation). - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit - ↑ “We could take something smack dab in the middle of it. Once it’s taken, it’s taken, right? You can’t have something for your demesnes if someone else has already claimed that ground.” - Excerpt from Breach 3.2
- ↑ “Demesnes are like trademarks. Periodically, people are going to test them. You need to respond, but you have the home court advantage. The law’s on your side. But if you claim something that broad, and if you can’t or don’t defend it when someone else puts one foot over the line, that weakens your stance. But he’s defending it.” - Excerpt from Bonds 1.6
- ↑ He spends almost all of his time within his demesne, stepping outside only to defend his claim and attend occasional meetings. - excerpt from Bonds 1.6
- ↑ The book talks about it in the context of rooms, of houses at the most. - Excerpt from Bonds 1.6
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 “The Demesne. A place of power. It can be a room, a building. It’s rarely more than that. The Demesne is a tough clay to mold, but the advantage is that you can be a small god in its domain, while you’re there. Everything and anything can be altered. You can choose, with some restrictions, where the doors take you when you leave. It can be a place where a curse does not progress and you are safe from its ravages. A place where the abstract becomes real, and you can monitor, say, the value of stocks, as physical things.”
[...]
“My Demesne. I created it as a tool. It became a place with twice the surface area of Earth. Less populated, but all the same. Every website, tool, and device has its analogue here. Locations both mundane and, for example, like the Abyss, have loose analogues here. Here, if I wish to do my programming, I can do it in five different ways, shaping the corresponding buildings and machinery, using consoles, among other things.”
He raised a hand, and a pillar rose up. It had something that looked like a laser-traced engine block encased within it. He rotated segments and moved parts.
“The Demesne can be a place to store power, to invest in it, to translate, for example, power from the Faerie into something analogous, like Visceral power. It wouldn’t be an efficient translation, but I could do it. Others, with preparation, could do it efficiently. Others can be bound and brought to stay. Whether they thrive will depend on how you’ve shaped your space, if you choose to have a Demesne.”
He looked around.
Avery did too. It might have been twice the surface area as Earth, but there weren’t any details. Many objects were simple polygons, with only the edges and outlines traced in bright colors.
“I’ve spent more time on my demesne than most,” Ray observed. “As big as it is in here, it’s only a large room in a building elsewhere. The scale and versatility of this building are a product of time and power invested.” - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.7 - ↑ Mann turned, saw a long rug in the hallway, and stepped aside, gesturing. It moved, sliding into the kitchen. A bridge over blood and maggots.
A simple trick, but not an easy one. To simply order spirits about required a longstanding relationship with those spirits, or something similar. One could do it readily in a demesne they owned, building a familiarity with the spirits there, but to do it anywhere meant that one had to be recognizable anywhere. The equivalent of being a household name or brand among humans. - excerpt from Interlude 15 - ↑ They can’t target the house, as it was once a demesne, so they target the space around it. - Excerpt from Breach 3.5
- ↑ “No. We’re not targeting him,” Sandra said. “He’s not even in our sights. He spends much of his time ensconced within the house, where every demesnes has been turned inward.” - Excerpt from Breach 3.3
- ↑ Some find that they can draw on their continual connection to their place of power to access it from remote locations. This typically requires a fair amount of power, and may be rooted in certain rules or restrictions. One might use a key in any appropriate lock to access their demesne, for example. Others might draw a door in chalk, or step through a pool of blood left around a slain enemy. - Excerpt from Demesnes Chapter Nine, quoted in Interlude 4
- ↑ The draoidh briefly laments the mess caused by the blood in her demesne, pools of sanguine humor and warm trickles from the roof. As she cleans, she discovers that she can remove the mess while retaining the blood. A small contradiction, but possible nonetheless. With testing, she finds she can alter the other rules of her surroundings. Even a small demesne can be larger inside than it was on the outside. Laws of gravity, physics, rules of magic and more can be bent or broken entirely.
Any rule can theoretically be broken within the demesne. Should every rule be broken? No. Everything in moderation.
Stories abound of practitioners who never left their demesnes. A place that is entirely theirs, where they are a step below a god, and a place where they are safe. - Excerpt from Demesnes Chapter Nine, quoted in Interlude 4 - ↑ 24.0 24.1 Laird turned the knob, and found it locked.
He raised a hand, and gestured.
The click of the locks shifting was audible.
“It seems my demesne recognizes me,” Laird said.
[...]
They couldn’t get to Laird and defeat him in time, especially within his own demesne. - Excerpt from Judgement 16.2 - ↑ The Barber’s dark gaze didn’t break, as he faced me down, the energy crackling and spitting out to fill the ‘v’ shaped gap between the two halves of the dragon’s head.
A pillar rose out of the middle of the rooftop, just behind him.
Control over his demesne.
[...]
The railing rose, the space between the top of the railing and the floor of the roof grew thicker, with curls of metal and stone filling in to become a wall.
Ringing the tower, sealing everything in.
Turning this into an oven.
Four enemies to fight. Demon, gatekeeper, dragon, and the tower itself. - Excerpt from Judgement 16.10 - ↑ 26.0 26.1 When Fionna leaves her domain, she finds more time than expected has passed.
>
This is a typical thing. Intentionally or instinctively, a practitioner often manipulates time within their realm. When they leave, however, time hurries to catch up with them. The end result is often not intuitive, and can lead to some confusion. Adapting to this eventuality is a part of learning to use one’s place of power. - Excerpt from Demesnes Chapter Nine, quoted in Interlude 4 - ↑ 27.0 27.1 “And… do you have a phone I can borrow?”
He touched the paper she’d drawn on, and sketched a rough drawing of a cell phone. He reached into the paper and pulled it free.
It was a flip phone, ancient, worn around the edges, the sort that would survive practically anything.
“Something that will work outside of here?”
“Ah,” he said. He reached into a pocket and handed her a smart phone. “I’ll need that back.” - Excerpt from Signature 8.6 - ↑ 28.0 28.1 Whilst outside of her place of power, Fionna finds the connection to the location remains strong, wherever she is. She can deposit power there and rest assured it is untouched. She can also use the location to transmute power, turning personal power into karmic assets, draw from one kind of power to better influence a connection.
As one can determine the rules within their realm, they can use the place as a form of esoteric moneychanger, changing one kind of power for another. - Excerpt from Demesnes Chapter Nine, quoted in Interlude 4 - ↑ 29.0 29.1 The area is very easy to influence, and this can prove problematic, if one has other power sources in play. The biggest and most obvious issue is when the familiar enters the picture. As an extension of the practitioner, they have a claim to some of the place of power. If the practitioner and familiar are in accord, the issue is a minor one. If they are not, it can be a source of friction that compromises the demesne. In any event, the familiar’s nature, background, mentality and power will affect the demesne.
In other cases, the practitioner may be drawing personal power from another source. To use a metaphor, this may add a dollop of color to the paintbrush, leaving streaks on the demesne as the practitioner paints. If they draw power from death and decay, they might find these elements alter the surroundings.
A typical solution is to focus this power.
If the familiar cannot be reconciled with, the practitioner can focus this other power into an area. The familiar can be given a dedicated space, so that their power does not bleed throughout the remainder of the demesne. These hypothetical powers of death and decay could be focused into a single ornament or object decorating the area. - Excerpt from Demesnes Chapter Nine, quoted in Interlude 4 - ↑ 30.0 30.1 Stories abound of practitioners who never left their demesnes. A place that is entirely theirs, where they are a step below a god, and a place where they are safe. The issue arises when the practitioner loses their connection to the outside world. With nothing tying them to people or things, they stagnate, growing weaker, and as they grow weaker, so does the place of power.
The effect is a cyclical one, prompting some desperate practitioners to devote more time and attention to rescuing their domain, failing to see the problem at the root of the issue. In other cases, the practitioner is so attached to their demesne that they become a part of it. When it fades from the world, so do they. When the practitioner’s demise coincides with that of their place of power, the end result is typically a ghost, and/or a location saturated with power. - Excerpt from Demesnes Chapter Nine, quoted in Interlude 4 - ↑ When Fionna leaves her domain, she finds more time than expected has passed.
This is a typical thing. Intentionally or instinctively, a practitioner often manipulates time within their realm. When they leave, however, time hurries to catch up with them. The end result is often not intuitive, and can lead to some confusion. Adapting to this eventuality is a part of learning to use one’s place of power. - Excerpt from Demesnes Chapter Nine, quoted in Interlude 4 - ↑ Mala Fide 10.6
- ↑ “We’re crashing a party,” Jeremy said. “Barriers or no, when you ask a god to open a door, that door gets opened.”
The direction they were traveling. Hillsglade House. - Excerpt from Mala Fide 10.5 - ↑ People aren’t the only things that come to this place to be worn away. Many a Demesne or forgotten god have fallen through the cracks, nothing to tie them to the world above. [...] A demesnes with no tie to the world may fall through the cracks just as any person might. Some say this is how this place learns and adapts to the times. [...] I would venture a guess, fellow practitioner, that it was a demesne once, and it was attached to some vital process of our reality. Through this vital process, it came to devour other demesnes and objects, and it swelled in size. It connected to other such areas, and formed the backbone for what might otherwise have been the original void. - Excerpt from Null 9.3
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 Generally speaking, people can't/won't repo a house because you'd face a steep & uphill battle to claim a house you don't technically and wholly own. The difficulty is frontloaded, rather than an issue that crops up later.
Once you get that far, though, it's... not going to get taken from you. It might lose power or consistency as a demesnes if other people start trying to lay claim to it, but it won't get stolen out form under you.
[...]
Once lost, though, you don't tend to get the ability to get stuff back. If demesnes/familiar/implement are allegories for where you're at, your life partner, and your career, then it'd make sense you'd have the ability to pick a new one, much as it's common nowadays for people to have two marriages, or make a massive career change mid-life, or (not so common, but possible to) pick up and move halfway across the world. But the practitioner world tends to lag behind the real world in these things. Perhaps in a few decades, with some precedent. - Comment by Wildbow - ↑ I immediately took steps to mitigate the damage. Protections and practices I’d set in place were coming undone. My demesnes was collapsing in on itself and I had things within to rescue. - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.3
- ↑ Not generally. Not given what demesnes are, what they represent about a practitioner. You could ~try~, but on top of the refrain in this post about how costs would likely outpace the benefits (even more so than trying to have an airplane demesnes) I'd say that if I were GMing it or writing the story, I'd include a very real chance that attempts to add multiple demesnes or expand the existing one just see you lose the demesnes & end up forsworn on your original statement of claim, with a corresponding, permanent loss in overall power, extending well beyond the initial 'forsworn' penalties.
<brIt's just not what a demesnes is. - Comment by Wildbow - ↑ They are, but keep in mind the power of tradition and culture, especially with the big things & the personally defining things.
You can get a face tattoo and you know, you ~could~ get virtually any job or position, you could date people just fine, meet the parents, start your own business, whatever... But it's going to be a lot harder than if you didn't have a giant rooster on one side of your face.
...That is, unless you live in a country & place where face tattoos are commonplace.
Ditto if you live out of a car & are known to be that guy who has no plans of ever getting a house, to just paint a picture demesnes-wise. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit - ↑
- Can you have an underwater demesne? What about one floating in the air, with no structure?
As to other options, well, ~yeah~ you could. But if you've noticed the trend outlined above, very often the cost is going to outpace the benefits.
And I gotta ask - why would you even want to? You want a place that's convenient to get into. Even if you have practice that lets you swim or fly up to some door in the sky... that's basically you setting yourself up to pay a toll every time you want to go home.- Comment by Wildbow on Reddit - Can you have an underwater demesne? What about one floating in the air, with no structure?
- ↑ You can blend as a more permanent thing (not what Laird does). You can have a familiar plus demesnes for a more intelligent demesnes. A familiar plus implement for an object with a personality. An implement plus demesnes for a demesnes you could bring with you. Generally you take a pretty significant hit to power in exchange for some degree of utility. You also lose standing with practitioners and Others. I think I've posted on this before. If you have a talking motorcycle you're giving up 90% of the power of a proper implement and 90% of the power of a proper demesnes, but you're getting an implement that's more weighty and a comfortable seat that isn't limited to one place. And because you're a practitioner that's flouting convention then convention helps you less, so your practice in general isn't going to be all that. - Wildbow on Reddit
- ↑ “I can barely read your handwriting. Crooked Hat… he deals with your kind.”
“Yeah.”
“His Demesne overlaps with a section of the Abyss. He’s trying to learn to manipulate the Abyss to his own ends. The elder Duchamps thought it was enough of a prospect that we could, how to phrase it, metaphorically buy stock in the venture?” - Excerpt from Execution 13.5 - ↑ “To be in Conquest’s domain is to be in a constant state of transition. Emotions rise and fall, there is fire and rebellion at first, then we make peace with the state of things. Broken things erode away, and then there is only defeat. But to be the Conqueror is not a simple thing either. They either take on a different role, which my lord cannot do, or they find new territory to seize, people to subjugate. The territory changes as he finds new ground.”
“I didn’t know a demesne could be this… out there. I mean, I read about apartments covered in flesh, but…”
“This isn’t a demesne, as you understand the term,” he said. “Some beings are strong enough to influence their surroundings simply by residing there.” - Excerpt from Collateral 4.2 - ↑ As things reach the point where an enveloping is complete or nearly complete, the Nex Machina will begin to distort reality and appear ‘in person’, manifesting its avatar. The area becomes something akin to a demesnes, but entirely hostile. Corridors may loop back on one another, traps may be in evidence, or the area may simply be a stalking ground for the avatar itself. The Avatar will close the deal, a seemingly unstoppable madman or monster that can disappear whenever it is out of sight, only to reappear and attack from another angle. It will enact and develop the urban legend that gave it existence, then close the deal, the enveloping effect closing around the target as they are then killed or pulled into the inner workings of the Nex Machina. - Beastiary: Nex Machina
- ↑ Raquel’s eyebrows went up. “Oh, you missed that one. Uhhh, so like, the biggest, most serious Others, including Incarnations, gods, great spirits, and whatever. They have a weight to them. He had this visual demonstration. Put something heavy down on a sheet of fabric, and it creates this dip. I might be explaining this badly.”
“Finish explaining and we can tell you if it’s a bad explanation,” Lucy said.
Yadira jumped in. “Big things, metaphysically, can create their own realms, just by being.”
“Like gravity?” Avery asked.
“More like the world’s a plastic bed,” Raquel said, “and you sit on it and it makes a dip, and if you pour water onto the bed it’ll settle in around your butt where the dip is.” - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.3