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Binding is the art of tying down or restricting more dangerous things. Practitioners who focus on binding are called Binders.[1] There is some overlap between Binders and Sealers[2] as well as Enchanters.[3] Most practitioners had at least some facility with binding.[4] Binding of humans is called Spellbinding and also overlaps with Enchanting.[3][5]

Methodology[]

Manipulators of connections, focusing on deals and lore, and on using connections to tie people down. Much like the magicians of myth, can make contracts with Others and then draw on that Other later. Binders excel at tracking and redirecting people through connections; the most powerful binders can outright control people.[1]

One of the most basic dichotomies of binding is that like can cancel out like, but opposite can cancel out opposite even more strongly (and unpleasantly for the Other.) More powerful Others will of course require more powerful bindings.[6] If an other has been bound by the practitioner enough times, even as simple an incantation as reciting their name and "I bind you" could be effective.[7]

Binding an Other too strictly and permanently can weaken it severely.[5][8]

Negative Bindings[]

Also known as hostile bindings, an Other can be bound using elements that oppose their nature. This type of binding weakens and angers the Other, but is more powerful with less effort compared to a positive or neutral binding.[6][5] Immaterial others may be difficult to trap with this unless first bound in a Hallow (see below).[9]

  • Ordered, geometric, artificial barriers are effective against the most common types of Other, which are natural and chaotic.[6]
  • Malignant Others can be bound with purifying forces like salt, clean running water,[10] bright light, silver, and cleansing smoke.[11]
  • Iron is useful against things born from nature.[10][9]
  • Fresh wood is useful against dead things.[10]
  • Water can be used to bind things associated with fire, such as a fire elemental or other fire-based beings.[9]
  • Faeries are vulnerable to crude, unworked, unrefined things.[12] Cold-forged iron, burning hair, tainted and corrupted things are good go-tos.[13]
  • Bogeymen were often bound using antiques with a durability and history to them.[14] They may need to be defeated before they can be bound into an antique.[9]
  • Bogeymen were also frequently averse to natural things, with the specifics based on the area of the Abyss the Bogey hailed from. Elements used might include a moat, a burning circle, or even a simple closed door, depending on the bogeyman.[14]
  • A Tortoise Spirit might be bound with broken shells or teeth.[15]
  • Blessed Silver may be helpful against a broad selection of Other kinds.[16]
  • High Summer Fae are weak to poisons, tarnished or rusty metal, and heartbreak.[11]
  • Dark Fall Fae are weak to fine chain (especially if silver or cold-forged), "virgin flesh" and "secret names".[11]
  • Goblins can be bound with pure or natural things, which they struggle to spoil. Baths of pure still water, salt, and holly can be used for this.[11] The Hyena was vulnerable to holly.[17][18] Lesser goblins can be bound with circles of flowers.[19]

Positive Bindings[]

Also known as binding like with like, a positive binding is made using elements that are in tune with to the Other's essential nature. Such a binding is weaker than a negative binding, but does not weaken the Other and so is less likely to offend it.[6][5][20][21] Positive bindings feed the Other within with any power put into them, discouraging them from leaving even if they're strong enough to do so.[22]

  • An elemental could be bound using energy.[23]
  • Filth could be used to bind goblins.[23]
  • Pauz had his powers blocked with circles of gore on several occasions.
  • A fire elemental could be bound with a circle of fire.[5]
  • A Tortoise Spirit might be bound with a circle of sea shells, snail shells, eggshell. If associated with water, rainwater; if earth, smooth and equal-sized stones; if treasure, gold.[15]
  • Night Hag positive bindings might use soot, oil, old fat, dirty water, tangled string, moon and star motifs.[11]
  • High Summer Fae have affinity for Yew, wine, and honey.[11]
  • Dark Fall Fae have affinity for bone, charms, and curses.[11]
  • High Spring Fae have affinity for gold, delicate art, fine blades, jewelry, the trappings of aristocracy. An umbroken, balanced circle of rapiers or jewelry can bind them.[24]
  • A spirit might be bound with spice, crystal, myrrh, or oil, representing their element as in the Awakening ritual.[21]

Neutral Bindings[]

Based around trying to symbolically sever outside connections, without anything particularly tied to the entity being bound. Similar to positive bindings, but possibly even less effective. Generally only used to try and hold an Other long enough to talk, but with more elaborate circles or an infusion of power it can be strengthened.[23]

  • A circle of salt is a common go-to.[23]
  • Rose Jr bound Pauz with a simple chalk circle, but admitted that it would probably break free after a short while, and binding it with like (guts and gore) would be more effective.
  • Tortoise Spirits can be bound with a chalk or salt circle.[15]
  • Humans are generally difficult to bind using diagrams, but they can serve to sever a Practitioner's powers and connections as long as they're prevented from leaving it.[25]

Voluntary Bindings[]

A restrictive contract made with an Other, usually a defeated Other, is also considered a type of binding.[1][7][26]

  • Mags was able to bind defeated goblins who she had bound numerous times before simply by declaring "I bind you. You know the drill, standard rules" and having them assent.[7]
  • Blake voluntarily bound Pauz into a copy of Black Lamb's Blood.
  • Goblins can agree to be bound by transforming into weapons, allowing the defeated goblin to continue shedding blood and gaining reputation.[27]
  • A basic practice for Valkyries is to summon a ghost and have them agree to be bound into a thematically-appropriate object (see Hallows, below.)

Mundane Bindings[]

Some mundane actions can be considered a type of binding.

  • Binding something or someone in physical restraints, chains, ropes etc is a type of binding. Even humans, of course, can be bound in this way.[28] Goblins are especially vulnerable to being bound with physical restraints, since they often lack the patience to work their way free.[11]
  • Having a summon nail an Other's feet to the floor is technically considered a form of binding, limiting their movements.[28]
  • Marie Durocher taught that even social pressure could be considered an abstract form of binding.[28] This can be an analogy for a positive binding; not violent or likely to cause offence.[20]

Hallows[]

A hallow or vessel refers to an object, person, area etc. which is prepared for an Other, usually an immaterial Other, to inhabit.[5][15] Often involves symbolically cleansing the hallow of other influences first,[29] and "hollowing out" the vessel.[30][31] From an Other's perspective, the benefit of a Hallow is that they don't need their usual sustenance (food, sleep, energy etc) while inside one.[30]

  • A ghost can be bound into an object connected with their nature, such as a bottle for an alcoholic.
  • A Tortoise Spirit can be bound into something ritually washed with rainwater and marked with tortoise sigils. A vessel containing a Tortoise Spirit will be made tougher and heavier, possibly larger or slower as well.[15]
  • A familiar's animal form is a type of vessel for the transformed Other. If the normal familiar bond is damaged they may "leak" spirits and energy, but they can also accept spirits as a power source.[32]
  • Blake speculated that a ghost's body serves as a vessel helping them stay anchored, which is why destroying it weakens them.[33]
  • Many material Others, such as Bogeymen, can be trapped inside a vessel after their body has been slain. A possible vessel for a Bogeyman would be a rusty box.[30]
  • An unborn child is a naturally defenseless hallow that could become a vessel for many things, but normally the mother's body serves as a barrier to protect it.[34]

Some Practitioners will create humanoid vessels to act as servants, such as Feorgbold and Terracotta Soldiers.

A hallow may be additionally surrounded with a negative binding (see above) once occupied to trap the target inside.[30]

Human Vessels[]

A human can be hollowed out, creating a Hallow inside them usable for a variety of Others. This might be done deliberately or accidentally. If too much is removed they may be left a vestige able to do little but serve as a vessel. Edith James is a natural example of such a vessel,[31][35] as was Blake Thorburn.[36] If done deliberately, care must be taken that something unwanted doesn't claim the vessel.[37] Host Magic Practitioners deliberately hollow out parts of themselves to serve as Hallows.[38][5]

A hole in a person's skull is a natural hallow. Ancient Practitioners would deliberately create them using trepanation.[39] Practitioners will generally anchor the hallow to one or more of seven standard points on the human body when creating a vessel: crown (top of head), mind’s eye (forehead), throat, heart, solar plexus, stomach, groin.[38][40]

Even an un-hollowed-out human can potentially serve as a vessel, such as a Practitioner who has willingly allowed themself to temporarily host an Other.[41] Some Others are better able to occupy the vessel of a normal human body than the human soul is, allowing them to take possession of a person and squeeze the soul out.[42]

Occupied human vessels are vulnerable to simple diagrams; since the immaterial Other within is more affected by them than the material human, they are jarred out of alignment somewhat, possibly damaging the vessel.[43] However, they are infamously difficult to properly bind, since they can lean into their human or Other half to defeat a binding aimed at one or the other. A complex binding that targets both is required.[11]

Other Types of Binding[]

  • Ainsley Behaim knew an elaborate Chronomancy binding that wore down the target's vigor by connecting them with weaker past and future versions of themselves, focused by sticking pins into a candle, she had to do the ritual methodically and in sequence with any errors affecting the binding distractions got in the way but rhyming helped.[44] However, it could only affect a single target.[7]
  • A lawyer for Mann, Levinn, and Lewis Firm employed a binding that caused each step to be less effective than the last. Ainsley Behaim was able to reveal it's underpinning with her pins and link it to her candle flame, then snuff it out.[7]
  • Several students at the Blue Heron Institute were taught to spellbind human Practitioners by Lawrence Bristow, with the basics of repetition and word, repeating claims of binding and details about the target. However, this required the target to be severely weakened through combat or wasting their own power to be effective, making it not very useful unless the battle was already over.[45]
  • A "life-binder" can alter connections using ritual diagrams with enough information about the targets. For the right price, this can ensure an arranged marriage goes smoothly, or at the highest end even turn a stranger into a close family member.[46]

Notable Binders[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lore x Deals
    Binding
    If connections are like threads, tying people to one another, then binders tie people up with threads. They manipulate threads and follow them to sources. Very strong at finding people, turning them elsewhere, etc. At high puissance, can outright control others. Binders lean heavily on the ‘make a contract with an Other, use that Other’. - Pact Dice: The Practices - Wbow Version
  2. Protection x Deals
    Sealing
    Sealing magic uses ofuda or the like, but can do what they do with simple words and orders spoken as short rituals. The emphasis is on imposing restrictions that activate effects when broken. With greater puissance, the restriction is mandated (ie. can’t move from the spot) for a short time, with the affected party gaining the ability to break it at a cost later. Sealers are a middle ground between Wardens and Binders, but frequently play out their power as a defensive, chess-like game of frustrating and stymying opponents. - Pact Dice: The Practices - Wbow Version
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Landon Michaelsson, Spellbinder
    [...]
    “Spellbinder,” Joyce said. When I looked a bit confused, she added, “An enchanter, but specialized in control. He keeps three or four Others with him at all times. I named him because he broke the rules. He’s paranoid, and doesn’t really associate with people. Only Others. We’d hoped to use her as a way to bring him back to society, to get him involved. But we underestimated his paranoia.”

    “What happened?”

    “He bound his wife. To keep her from passing information on to us. Bound her mind and bound her bodies, so she only does what he says.”

    “Hypnosis?” I asked.

    “The binding is as solid as hypnosis is soft and vague. He’s… scary. In a lot of ways. I don’t think the family would miss him if he was gone, but we invested in him, we lost a family member to connect to him, and I guess Sandra decided that if we’d paid the price, we might as well…” - Excerpt from Execution 13.5
  4. Dozens of practitioners, each and every one capable of binding me, or calling in help. - Duress 12.8
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Running contrary to how a practitioner can speak declaratively, with enthusiasm, and with theatrics and convey more, to greater effect with practice, an Other who gets the shit beat out of it and then gets bound into service is less. They can do less, they have less power, they're weaker and they're more vulnerable on more fronts. Most others only have a finite amount of power, and on being compelled to servitude, they will simultaneously have a very finite amount for a short time, while also resenting the practitioner and having an inclination to fight the practitioner every step of the way, to the extent that getting them to use power will require arm-twisting and they'll probably avoid giving you 100% anyway. Beyond that, depending on the type of binding you're referring to, you could have anything from the seal of solomon (which may well redefine the Other and make it so they aren't only less, but they're also having to adjust to their new Self) to hostile bindings and other bindings that can be slipped.

    So given the choice, it's that you can...

    • Shoot for a long-term binding. The longer the term, the weaker the Other may be, especially at the outset.
    • Go for something fairer and lesser. A gift, a deed, or a shorter term of service. The Other gets to go free, there's more goodwill, and the power or service you do get is immediate and better.
    It can actually be better for raw effectiveness and the long-term, especially if you're confident and powerful, to just bind short-term or get single actions or favors every time, than to slowly and steadily accumulate Others that will serve you for the rest of your life.

    Reputation does factor in as well. As you suggest, if you always kill all but one goblin and bind the one, goblins will just start acting defensively, planning, pulling in favors, attacking first, etc. There's also the side of it where you're facing reputation from other corners. To fight and take something from the defeated is an old, old way of doing things. To fight and take everything from the defeated? Their freedom for the next seventy years or longer? That's just a dick-ass move, and may impact your karma. - Comment on Binding by Wildbow
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Collateral 4.1
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Judgment 16.6
  8. What a good question.

    So... I think there's an aspect here where terminology applies to too many things at once. Binding can, at various points, refer to...

    • The act of getting an Other to accept the compact of the Seal of Solomon. This does a lot to codify them and the process of getting to this point often involves figuring out the terms of summoning & further steps, and delineating what the Other can and will do. This is especially important when powerful things are bound, and they may have very short lists of what they're willing & able to do.
    • The act of containing or trapping an Other
    • Hostile bindings where you use opposed forces. Doesn't make you friends and there are often heavy price dynamics at play (Other is weakened, can only do so much, practitioner has to invest more to get the desired power or results out of the Other). Hostile bindings tend to be scure.
    • Neutral or 'positive' bindings where you use stuff in the Other's own nature to trap them. Fire for a fire elemental. More chance they can walk out of it, but sets better terms, doesn't necessarily weaken them.
    • Hallows are where a vessel or area is especially well suited to an Other, often cleansed and given markings or other cues that make it suit an Other, or having some relevance to that Other. Tends to be limited to immaterial Others - ghosts, spirits, incarnations, etc. Many, many things can be hallows, including parts of your own body (if you're a Host).
    • The act of compelling an Other. Tends to conflate a bit with the above points because if you're summoning an Other that someone has previously bound, you do need to exert some power or mechanism to get it to start doing what you need it to do. The chain and leash. If the Other is dangerous, you may well be summoning it into a binding (so it can't leave: see the above three sub-bullet points) and then binding it from there.
    • Can refer to some forms of non-Other compulsions and influences, like spellbinding a human.

    So to go to your example, if you beat up 5 goblins, corner the sixth, and manage to get an elementally charged chain around them, you've technically bound them, but that's probably not what you meant. The question you're asking is why wouldn't you just enforce long-term servitude every time? - Comment on Binding by Wildbow
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Negative binding is the practice of using opposites to bind an Other. Using clear water to bind fire, salt to bind the unclean, civilization (elements running through manufactured metal) to bind goblins. Bogeymen are often bound by antiques - things of value that have gained value over time, often decorated ('more' as opposed to the bogeyman's lack). Works on just about every kind of Other, but immaterial Others are often hard to pin down, since they aren't necessarily locked to a particular place or shape, and they often have to be convinced to enter a hallow or trap first, taking a form before they can be explicitly pinned down. [...] Bogeymen must often be defeated before their essence is up for containment within the antique. - Comment by Wildbow
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 Like in Essentials, malignant Others are going to react to purifying substances and patterns, like salt and running water. Fresh wood against dead things.”
    “Iron against things that are born from nature,” I said. - excerpt from Bonds 1.7
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 11.8 Bonus Material: Binding and Countermeasures
  12. “Tell me, can you identify the Other we just saw?”

    “Name it? No. Stick a label on it? I could maybe say it’s a Faerie, but that’s only a guess.”

    “Very true. In this case, I think it’s a safe assumption. You’ve read Essentials, I assume? Standard reading for most new practitioners.”

    “I have,” I said.

    “Then you know what Faerie are weak against?”

    I thought, but I couldn’t connect it. “Something about raw iron, but…”

    “Crude elements,” Rose cut in. “Things that have been worked, refined, or crafted are less effective against them.” - [Excerpt] from Damages 2.5
  13. If you know it’s from the Faerie, and I do love this lovely term for a made-up realm, by the by, to refer to it by the plurality of those Others that make it up… if you know, you know you have some basic options, such as iron forged without heat, burning hair or something suitably tainted. They cannot abide by corruption. If you know your courts, then you can know what specific items have particular power, for or against. - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.1
  14. 14.0 14.1 Binding a bogeyman typically involved using some form of the natural elements, and things with permanence. In the former case, it depended based on the type of bogeyman and the place beyond the cracks in reality that they had come from. Some were particularly vulnerable to running water, others struggled to move solid objects and could easily be trapped or stopped by a simple closed door. Yet others didn’t like fire.

    Moat, box, or burning circle could serve, depending on the type.

    The other option was old items that had a history and durability to them, antiques. - Excerpt from Malfeasance 11.2
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 Bestiary: Tortoise Spirits
  16. I recognized it. Blessed silver chain or something. A one-stop measure for most kinds of Other or something of the sort. - Excerpt from Malfeasance 11.9
  17. I investigated the fence. Sure enough, it was plastic. Faux picket fencing, waist height, churned out by machine, with interlocking panels.

    No reason it should stop the monster.
    The bush… I had to push off the snow that layered over the top, to get a better view.

    Holly.
    [...]
    The hedge served two purposes. It hid the shotgun, for one thing, which let me pull the trigger, with less than ten feet between me and the monster.

    It also meant that when the shotgun did fire, there were shreds of holly mixed in with the shot.

    The monster reacted, rearing up, flinching, shaking his head as if to get the offending materials loose. - excerpt from Collateral 4.11
  18. Hyena fight: Collateral 4.11 - Collateral 4.12
  19. Lesser goblins can be bound in circles of flowers, as amusing as the thought is, but most often we use tropes of civilization and refinement. - excerpt from Cutting Class 6.1
  20. 20.0 20.1 Positive bindings will not be an affront to the Other. They are, if you’ll remember my earlier hypothetical, much like a case where you’re invited to my office and you cannot find a moment to leave, nor can you easily leave without asking, because of my station. - excerpt from Cutting Class 6.1
  21. 21.0 21.1 Positive bindings do not make effective prisons. They can be battered down if you are not much stronger than the Other, and if the Other is much stronger than you, the slightest flaw or imperfection may be enough for them to shatter your circle. They do, however, make good starting points for negotiation. In essence, we make the Other feel at home. We surround the Bogeyman with entropy, the Ruins dweller with sentiment, the God with appropriate iconography, the goblin with aggression and damage, the spirit with representative spice, crystal, myrrh, oil, or the tropes of whatever it is that spirit represents. - excerpt from Cutting Class 6.1
  22. They will often stay until given cause to leave. Should you put power into the positive binding, it feeds the Other. Akin to inviting them to dinner, sparing them from having to find a meal. - excerpt from Cutting Class 6.1
  23. 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 Positive/neutral bindings are those which appeal to the Other's nature. This is the 'like works on like' form of binding something. This is using energy to bind elementals, filth to bind goblins, etc. The aforementioned method of blocking off all outside connections can work too, so stuff like a circle of salt makes for a good standby. These don't tend to hold up well to attacks and are more about getting an Other to stay put long enough to have a conversation. Though they don't hold up very well, exerting power or using other methods in conjunction with it (such as the right language or glyphs) can work. - Comment by Wildbow
  24. Positive binding. Surround the Other with something it has an affinity for. To return to our Fae courts, the Fae of High Spring have an affinity for gold and delicate pieces of art. They like fine blades and the trappings of aristocracy. Lay the blade of rapier over the handle of another until you have a circle and you may have something that will keep them in place. Or gather up jewelry and arrange it so there are no gaps between them. But be mindful, for the basic principles of diagrams and circles hold. A lopsided arrangement to your blades or one piece of overvalued jewelry in the set and your circle may fail. - excerpt from Cutting Class 6.1
  25. His attention fell on the chalk circle around him. Three concentric circles, the first about five feet across, the third about nine feet across. Each had been elaborated on with an intricate, almost lace-like border that ran along the perimeter, pointed outward.

    “What’s this?” he finally asked, while pinching the bridge of his nose, his eyes screwed shut.

    “That’s pizza. Pepperoni and onion. The coke might have gotten a little flat since we poured it. You took a few hours to wake up. I was almost worried.”

    “That’s not what I was asking,” he said. “The circle.”

    “It’s a problem if any of your friends, family, or allies find you,” I said. “That circle means they shouldn’t be able to.”

    “And if I ask for help or simply walk out?” he asked.

    “Fell here has his revolver loaded with shot shells. It’s like a small shotgun, painful, debilitating, but it probably won’t kill-.”
    [...]
    “It’s an odd circle. Humans don’t lend themselves to being bound inside diagrams, for the most part. The details… who drew this?”
    [...]
    The circle will break up incoming connections, and should serve as a barrier to anything going out. You’ll have trouble practicing,” I said. I indicated Rose. “Rose’s work.”

    “I’ve seen similar,” Laird said. “But there’s a little too much detail and not quite enough substance, if I may say so myself. The outer circle may be stronger, but you passed it easily enough.”

    “That’s intentional,” I said. - excerpt from Void 7.1
  26. “I have bound an Other to a certain course of action. Many, in fact,” Mrs. Durocher addressed the room, with a slightly different tone of voice. “Bound them to servitude. Bound them to hunt and kill a threat. Bound them to refrain from hurting people. The Seal of Solomon was already in place. All I had to do was make them promise. Karma guaranteed that promise.” - excerpt from Cutting Class 6.1
  27. “I do. Goblin sects have traditions,” Maggie said. “Taking the form of a weapon started off, if I remember right, when goblin warlords dueled the toughest bastards on the battlefield, and offered a choice between servitude or death. But even bound goblins wanted a chance at shedding some blood and furthering their reputation, especially when the binding was short-term. Becoming a weapon became a way to achieve that, while the conquering goblin got a symbol of victory, something he could hold in the air to convince the defeated goblin’s followers to follow him.”

    I’d already read something on the subject when I’d been considering the sword as an implement. I waited while my friends quizzed her.

    “Why the spikes on the handle?”

    “That’s kind of a fudge-you,” Maggie said. “Except with more colorful language. A grudging sort of surrender, where using your power and reputation costs the victor something. Failing to acknowledge the grudging surrender means bleeding yourself, the goblin drinks the blood, and can, given a few decades, drink up enough to buck the bondage and get free.” - excerpt from Void 7.11
  28. 28.0 28.1 28.2 [Durocher] paced all the way from the far right corner of the stage to the far left, looking as though she were lost in thought. She was halfway back before she paused. “I’ve bound an Other in rope and tongue. Mundane, physical bonds, and less mundane, physical bonds. I’ve had a summoning I controlled nail an Other’s feet to the floor. That is in fact another sort of binding. Limiting their movements.” [..] I’ve bound humans in many of these same ways.  To their word.  In chains.  So, let me ask you… what is binding?  What is it to be bound?  Are you bound if I invite you to my office here in the school, other people arrive, and you can’t find a polite moment to leave?  What if you find yourself staying five, fifteen, or thirty minutes longer than expected?  Is it me and my status that binds you?  Social pressure?  Convention?  Is it yourself?” - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.1
  29. To make a hallow, one makes a space for an Other. To make a hallow for a spirit, one would create a vessel, container, or designate an item (circles, glyphs, markers all help) and cleanse that item, emptying it of all other influences, spirits, echoes, everything else. Then you do what you can to encourage spirits of the right type to find the hallow. Again, having the right signifiers and spiritual signposts really help. If you've got a carved katana with red wrapping around the handles and a flame etched on the blade, you can guess what sort of spirits are going to move fastest toward the open spot. Regular cleansing keeps the 'pollution' out, and spirits or echoes in general will follow the path of least resistance. Then you just keep them there, locking the door behind it after it arrives. This 'locking' can be naming and clarifying the spirit, making a deal, exerting power, or drawing out a barrier or circle to close off any lures or awareness of the world beyond the hallow (if it's very dull or lacks much will of its own, this can work nicely). Or whatever else. The hallow can be a place or a person (including oneself), in addition to an item. Hallows tend to work better on immaterial Others and don't work on material Others (those with actual bodies, forms). - Comment by Wildbow
  30. 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 “Hallows. Making a place for an Other. They can occur in nature and may have been the foundation for the very first practitioners to learn how to deal with Others. Others, like us, need sustenance. The nature of that sustenance varies wildly, ranging from food, sleep, and drink for the most visceral Others, to specific sentiment or faith for the immaterial. The Hallow is a shelter that is intended for the long term, and spares most Others the need for sustenance, as the Hallow supplies. It is, if one dwells on the positive bindings, a place made into a long term home for the Other, within a person, place, or thing. The place must be hollowed out, treated, and the correct signposts must be set, to guide the right inhabitant to that space. [...] Immaterial Others are most inclined to inhabit a hallow. Spirits, echoes, and incarnations are diffuse enough that they could inhabit anything. For many visceral others, such as your common goblin or bogeyman, they may require that you break the body first. The goblin becomes its own hallow. The bogeyman can be slain, then trapped in an appropriate vessel. The negative binding, using opposites, then applies to seal the hallow, should you want to trap the Other within. Put the Bogeyman or echo into a container that suits them and their nature, then seal that container appropriately with something anathema to them, so emerging is harder. A rusty box surrounded by fine silver chain, an old fashioned syringe of emotional significance, buried in salt.” - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.1
  31. 31.0 31.1 These three were vessels. Like Edith was, but these ones were too neat, when he looked at them with the Doom’s eyes. Closer to the space he’d carved out for his Doom, but… a much, much bigger hole. There were practices that asked for high prices. Practices like the Heartless practice his father had conducted. Blood magic, host magic, cultists… and many preyed on innocents, or counted innocents among the collateral damage. When too much was taken out, there could be vestiges. Just enough of a person that it could stand, walk, and breathe, but something integral was gone and wouldn’t come back. A house with an exterior and little in the way of rooms or furniture, if it had anything at all. A practitioner could put anything in that space, really. Someone had probably done that to these four. - Excerpt from Back Away 5.d
  32. I’m a container for spirits. I’m supposed to be a vessel for an Evan-spirit, but stuff got broke. Spiritstuff is leaking out like a slow drip, so we’ve been giving me more spirits to keep me going. So what I’m saying is, we stuff something inside me. Something like a megahuge fire spirit, and we let me blaze a trail. Literally. - Excerpt from Judgement 16.4
  33. “Tear me up… I’m tired.”

    “I know,” I said. Your body is less intact, and your body is… some kind of vessel that’s keeping you anchored here. - Excerpt from Conviction 5.2
  34. I talked about Hallows, before. A child that is yet to be born has no defenses and forms a vessel that… many things could inhabit, let’s say. The body of a mother protects the child within, but it doesn’t readily protect the child from what’s already within the mother, or that which is part of the child. - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.5
  35. A jockey that my family warned me about- an Other that takes over bodies. Like the Girl by Candlelight did with Edith, but hostile. They prey on those who take Others into their bodies, or innocents with vulnerabilities. [...] It stayed with its host too long. Became too intermingled. It died It was a relief when it did, especially considering how Edith James is the kind of vessel it would have loved. It was the kind of thing that we had to constantly keep in the backs of our minds. I made triply sure it was dead and gone. - Excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.7
  36. I was a vessel, and the spirits would fill in the gaps in the way that made the most sense. If I was damaged, they’d shore me up, but I’d become less me. Already, some of the branches were raised, the skin rougher. - Excerpt from Null 9.6
  37. A vessel, but the edges weren’t so neat. Some were, but it was like a space of a certain size had been measured out, and this figure had forced her way in, breaking and straining some parts of the container. [...] When a hallow or vessel was prepared, care was usually taken to guide the right things to the space created. Here, something had failed and an elemental Other with an affinity for mirrors or reflections had crawled inside. - Excerpt from Back Away 5.d
  38. 38.0 38.1 He knew from his studies and work with the Doom that Hosts liked to bind things to key points in the body. It made sense that a Vessel would have their space carved out starting at one of those. He slammed his forehead into hers. The reaction wasn’t anything special. Which others? The Crown was one space, very top of the head, but he was pretty sure she’d manifest differently if the Other were housed there.

    He punched her in the solar plexus.

    She didn’t carry the mirror woman there. He hit her again, dead center of the stomach.

    There. He could see the Other within her react. It looked like it was housed in two of the seven points. Stomach and groin.
    [...]
    When it slammed her into the tree, the branches of that tree and the branches it had put into place slammed through the seven ‘host’ windows of her body. Crown, mind’s eye, throat, heart, solar plexus, stomach, and groin. - Excerpt from Back Away 5.d
  39. Alexander would later compare the incident to trepanation. An old custom of drilling holes into the skull, with skin replaced over the hole after, done as a spiritual thing. It was still conducted as a medical practice in some areas, to alleviate building pressure within the skull. [Nicolette] had a hole in her skull too, though not at the forehead, and it had and did let spirits and other immaterial things in. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z
  40. When putting stuff into the Self, there are a few windows or key points of the body that have been formalized. A lot of the more intense schools of practice will dig into these, either to harvest from others or remove from themselves. Hosts, for example, dig out a hallow in one of these areas, usually.

    Crown – Spiritual [top of head]
    The Crown is said to be where the Self extends out to the worlds/realms. Connection to greater world, practice.

    Brow – Awareness [forehead]
    The Brow holds sight and Sight, third eye and regular eyes, nose, and primary senses.

    THROAT – Connections [throat]
    The throat is where many common social connections are rooted. Word, breath, communication, society.

    HEART – Health, healing [upper chest]
    Physicality, health, healing. Mr. Palaisy went on a tangent about how a connection to someone can be rooted in any of these parts; the heart may be where someone good for you is rooted. Wellness.

    SOLAR PLEXUS – Absorption [base of ribcage, top of stomach]
    Processing & digestion of outside influences, deeper knowledge, spirits. ‘Wisdom’

    SACRUM – Wantings [stomach]
    Rude stuff, food, entertainment, and our own creativity. The fuel that drives us. This may be where Power in general sits, when we’re done digesting it.

    THE WOOHOO – Legacy [groin]
    Opposite to Crown. If the Crown is the tree extending its branches, the Woohoo (not the official term) is the roots. What we leave behind, family, deepest connections (deep, hee hee), fundamental power, and the nature of the work we do. (you better do some work while you’re there, boyo)

    We can apply some of these core principles to Others and objects. Ghouls, for example, are pretty hungry guys and gals, and have weird vitality. And not a coincidence? Hearts & gut are weak points! - 8.2 Bonus: Soul & Self
  41. “May I come in? Only a bit?”

    “What happens if you ‘come in’?”

    “I can reach through you, and you can draw on my power. Many practitioners act as vessels to hold spiritual power. You’d have a bit of me in every bit of you. You’d do it for a minute or so.” - Excerpt from Back Away 5.2
  42. Or facing possession by something like Mr. Rudbeck, a snake slithering into you, nestling into a part of you deeper than biology goes, and squeezing you out, because he can occupy the vessel of your body more easily than your Self and Soul can, just as his flowers and grasses will grow through every place and everything nearby, making it his. - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.1
  43. She hit the line and staggered. A line could be considered the simplest of diagrams, and that thing that occupied her was more vulnerable to it than she was, and the momentary lack of synchronicity hurt her. – then do as you will, but-

    He closed the distance, stepping into a puddle, and he knew full well what that puddle was. He grabbed her wrist, pushing her back across the line. Same effect, but this time, he was rattling the bars of the cage his own Other was within. Testing the metaphorical screws, bolts, and welding. - Excerpt from Back Away 5.d
  44. Ainsley drew a striped candle from her purse with one hand, and it lit itself. She already had needles in her other hand.

    I couldn’t imagine many situations where one of my enemies using needles was a good thing.
    [...]
    Ansley slid a needle into the candle, right at the base.

    “Zero hour,” she murmured, “Let us begin.”
    [...]
    “Hour one,” Ainsley said, sliding a needle in at the first stripe. “I bind your legs, Blake Thorburn. I bind the pigeontoed that first held you up. I bind the legs you wear as a man, now, and the crooked weary hips that will be yours when you’re old.”
    [...]
    “I reject your binding,” I spat the words, “Because I have sources telling me I won’t fucking make it to old age. Your third point doesn’t stick.”

    “Doesn’t matter,” Sunglasses said.

    Ainsley nodded, grave.
    [...]
    She found another needle. “Hour two. I bind your legs with the folly of childhood, the trials of adulthood, and the frailty of age.”
    [...]
    “Hour three,” Ainsley said, “I bind you in place, the cradle with its bars. The career with its trappings. The cage of the body, the deathbed, the coffin.”

    “I reject your binding,” I gasped, as I slumped down. “I rejected it once, I reject it again. I was never going to be able to hold a career, I can’t now, as a diabolist and a target for just about fucking everyone. I’m probably not going to die an old man, either. I reject it, I reject it, I reject it!”

    “This isn’t about you,” Sunglasses said. “It’s about saying things that other forces understand. But by all means, please keep going.” - Excerpt from Subordination 6.12
  45. Cutting Class 6.7
  46. Jie practices as a Binder, using information and secrets gathered about individuals to tie them up in connections or alter those connections. He works as a life-binder, using his everyday profession to get detailed information about families, family histories, businesses, and delves into the wealth of social media of everyone still alive to decipher a family, codify it into a ritual space, and then weaves customers into that space. For the very highest price, a man may be a stranger one day and a familiar and loved natural born son the next. Most of his contracts ensure and compel arranged marriages. He creates his Demesne as a system to visually map out the relationships and webs of any given project that he is working on. - excerpt from Demesnes, quoted in Bonus Material: Demesnes Text
  47. Subordination 6.11
  48. Interlude 5
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