Arcane Connections and You

It's established (by Image of the Beast) that a wound caused by someone acts as an AC to that person for a couple hours, though I suspect it needs to be by their hand to count, because otherwise it's just an AC to the grog's sword. The question is whether a magus's spell and its aftereffects count as an Arcane Connection back to them.

I vote no. If spells are arcane connections to you, wizards will be enormously paranoid about casting spells. That's not fine for a game about wizards.... I may allow someone to use Mysteries to do this kind of thing, though.

So - a mundane item you create is an arcane connection to you, wounds you cause are arcane connections to you, but spells you cast - aren't.

I'm trying to establish what the rules actually are for such a thing before I and my group take it to vote for changing.

The magi are already having to make sure they're bald, only poop in 'safe zones', require all letters be taken by dictation, any enchantments made have a multi-year 'decontamination' period before sale, avoid scratching themselves outside of their sancta, possibly never have children/parents (not sure how how bloodline ArCs work), and escalate any violence you commit to death w/disposal of the body; all to ensure nobody finds an ArC. If they're not already doing this, I'm not sure if said spell-casting paranoia is justified.

On a related note, can the original act as an Arcane Connection to their ArCs, such as grabbing a smith and using him to track down that sword he just made/sold? What kind of multiplier do they get if you can? Another question, can an Arcane Connection be used as a bridge to another Arcane Connection, such as using the feather from the raven familiar to get to the magus; or do you need to do it indirectly, such as using the ArC to the familiar to capture it and then use it as the ArC to its owner?

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I don't believe there are rules.

:slight_smile: Magi's spells and items are often in effect for very long time, or their traces can easily be found once the magus is on someone's sights. Getting most of the arcane connections you mentioned is more difficult. Sure, a sneaky or determined rival could collect them, but he'd have to expand the effort - rather than just strolling to the last place the magus is known to have cast spells on, or picking up some enchantment he once made. Using ACs from spells is more problematic, in my opinion.

Consider the combat ramifications. Magus A casts a spell, magus B then uses that spell or its residue as a (temporary) arcane connection to magus A. Yuck.

You can play this way, if you want. I prefer to let ACs be harder to catch. Wounds by spells aren't an AC. And enchantments aren't an AC either (that's a house rule, yes). And I allow paranoid magi to cast spells to destroy AC-forming stuff like shed skin or hair, poo, and so on. With your rule, the very magic that destroys this AC will also be an AC....

I don't think you can target ACs to yourself; the direction matters. You can target the AC normally (the PeVi guidelines or spells discuss this), but you aren't an AC to the AC. By this same logic, I'd assume the feather would be an AC to the raven which would be an AC to the magus. Not sure about a Talisman, though, which appears to be really a part of you, magically speaking. Perhaps a chip off a talisman may be used to target the magus? Not sure.

Only most. Enchanted items are an explicit ArC. Since writing a letter or even punching a dude leaves an ArC, one could easily infer that footprints are also an ArC of at least Hours (if not Days).

It's not my rule, but my attempt to understand the rules as presented. If you used PeVi to destroy the ArC, there's no physical remains of said spell to act as an ArC, unlike other actions such as letter writing; at least from what I can understand. If spells are sufficiently part of the magus, then ashes from a BoAF would be sufficient for an ArC unless followed up with a PeVi 'scrubber'.

Fettered Magic (HoH:TL p. 108) makes clear, that it is a Flaw, to have spells or effects of enchanted devices you activated be arcane connections to you. This Flaw also comes with the Virtue Tethered Magic (HoH:TL p. 107), but certainly not with vanilla Hermetic Magic.

Cheers

A repeat of my earlier question: things crafted by you (letters, swords, etc) are all made by tools rather than directly by your hands, and those hold arcane connections to you rather than your quill or your forge. By this logic is a sword-wound an ArC to the sword-wielder, and if not, why so? What of a wound caused by a spell?

The spell itself isn't an arcane connection to the magus who cast it.

Their sigil is. And their sigil exists as a part of the spell as long as the spell does so.

Can you provide an argument, why your Casting Sigil - the one the Quaesitor detects in the spells you have cast, clearly distinguished from the Voting Sigil you use at a Tribunal - should be an AC to you?

Cheers

A repeat of my earlier question: things crafted by you (letters, swords, etc) are all made by tools rather than directly by your hands, and those hold arcane connections to you rather than your quill or your forge. By this logic is a sword-wound an ArC to the sword-wielder, and if not, why so? What of a wound caused by a spell?

Just because you used a tool to do something does not mean you crafted that something. Writing a letter or forging an axe is metaphysically different from delivering the letter or swinging the axe. You do not "craft" a wound on a person with an axe any more than you would craft the electricity in a light bulb by flipping the light switch. The product is already complete, and you aren't crafting anything by using it unless its use is, of course, more crafting, which makes another AC independently of the state of the first item.

Spells are neither crafted, nor a part of you. You invoke existing power/knowledge with a spell; you don't craft new power/knowledge. If somebody used a Mystery to take a physical version of a spell you invented from your mind, I could see that having a plausible "I crafted it" argument, but evoking the spell itself involves no crafting.

Beasts aren't people, the wounds that they cause are direct. Much as a sword is a tool used by a grog, so too is a spell used by a magus. The wound is an AC to the tool, but the tool, in the case of spell, has already expired/acted so nothing remains. That's about the best I think you're going to get...

And if one is concerned about ACs of the things they make, might I suggest:

Erode the Eldritch Connection PeVi 10
Base 5, R:Touch, D:Momentary, T:Ind
Lowers the duration of the AC to the next level. If the duration of the AC is measured in hours, then the item no longer acts as an AC to its target. If something is a permanent AC to another item this spell does not work on that, but it can cause fixed Arcane Connections to expire.

Almost anyone should be able to invent/learn this spell, and in an Order/saga paranoid about ACs falling into wrong hands, I'd say it's easily available.

If I craft an item I spend a measurable portion of a season working on it, focusing on it, putting in effort, attention, and consideration into it's creation.
If I swing a sword and wound someone I am not putting anywhere near as much of myself into the project. Maybe if I am torturing them for days on end then the combined injuries might be considered an arcane connection, but not a single wound.

Also, it's a Flaw (or negative part of a Virtue/Flaw) to have your spells be AC's to you, so this should not be the default.

That part I saw, and understood. I was asking about things you made with your spells, be it a cart or a wound or what-have-you.

Oops. I missed One Shot's answer to that part of the OP.

As for what's done with a spell, the grog's sword vs. the animal's claws argument must have some clarification made to be consistent. After all, a book need not be written by finger painting and a carving need not be made with fingernails and teeth. I would suggest such creation adds and element via intellect or something. The results of Creo or Rego craft magic would then be AC's.

For what it's worth, my feeling is that ACs to people must be acquired through some effort to be valid. A hair shed outside of the sanctum would not be an AC. Hair on the brush that was acquired by stealing the brush just might (the brush might well be one, if it's a favors tool). It's not perfect, but the alternative is that magi are constantly shedding ACs and would be super paranoid about this. We aren't playing Ars Paranoia.
This negates the idea of someone making a magic item for sale as being an AC, a letter written being an AC to the writer and a book an AC to the author. With regards to the book, even under RAW if you involve skilled professionals I'd say it's not an AC to the author.

Blame it on the threadmancy.

Finding hair and shed skin certainly takes effort, as it would require magic to find and isolate. Magic items being given quarantine seems perfectly acceptable, letters frequently take weeks to travel to their destination, and they aren't even an ArC to the author if it's physically written by another by the RaW. One thing the book mentions that Arcane Connections need to be stored carefully lest they become links to something else, implying that one can mundanely hasten their disassociation without the use of PeVi magic.

Or just accept it as a simple mistake.

I generally have a minor reinterpretation of the whole "Arcane Connections must be stored carefully" thing wherein the vulnerability of the AC is based on its duration. If you can get your hands on an enchanted item crafted by the person, it'll probably last its entire duration unless affected by moderately powerful magic, while if you want a hair you'll basically have to pluck it yourself because it'll become an AC to something else it touches for a few minutes, including, like, the ground.