I believe there was once a belief that gems reproduced, something to do with precious stones often come in seams, that according to the non-geologist eye probably looks like family groupings.
If it is believed that precious stones can reproduce and/or grow, would various Fertility magics influence this?
Terram fertility magic probably would, an area likely unplumbed.
Some years ago I posited a magus who actively bred gems as a hobby. (I think all characters need a few interests, to avoid minimaxed dullness.)
This should work akin to Herbam. The problem is not creating a lot of gems - it’s inflation.
This assumes you’re creating them for their direct economic value rather than their intrinsic properties. Maybe you want diamond as a structural material for its hardness, say. In that case you don’t care about inflation.
This belief is at least referenced in the Herisson section of Legend of Hermes.
You’ll want to read what Pliny says about gems… he’s got a lot of ideas, and they’re fairly weird, but he tends to be a primary source for how Mythic Europe works. He identifies several gems as being male and female respectively, and from what I recall clear crystals (quartz, probably) are engendered from extremely cold/hard ice. Breeding gems probably isn’t going to be as easy as putting a male & female gem together. (… particularly dangerous to try with terrobolem, of course.)
The problem is their natural habitat appears to be under the earth. How will you find a suitable breeding ground for them, and are these breeding grounds under certain places for a reason?
Also, how long is the life-cycle of the precious stone? Do they breed incredibly slowly or rapidly? Your magus could die of a failed longevity ritual waiting for his baby rubies to mature.
One breeds gems because they’re just so cute, and to provide useful magical and practical items, including decor and gifting, not for (sneer, shudder, condescend) money.
Well, there are various spells to determine if someone/something is pregnant, so presumably one would simply have to invent that (at a wide enough range to get through all that pesky “mountain” in the way) and then invent something like the “Bring a plant to full maturity” spell. Definitely needs a specialist, and probably a breakthrough or three, to make that happen, but it’s just applying things that already exist to another form.
This thread is wild for me, I was just working on some homebrew Supernatural Abilities along these lines like, a week ago:
Stumbled across something pertinent to this discussion while reading about Aetites on wikipedia. It mentions Aetites giving birth to other stones, and the belief that some minerals have male & female forms. Theophrastus is given as the source of this belief, and it turns out that Pliny based his info on gems on the former’s On Stones. (also, apparently the source of “Lyngurium”.)
So, if you want to breed gems in Mythic Europe maybe start with an Aetite of Virtue.
I wonder if stones reproduce similarly to plants, as in moss or lichen.
(I was thinking division reproduction for a short while, but no, gems are said to be gendered and to breed.)
