Help with spell

One of my players wants to create a spell so that if something is written on a sheet of vellum or parchment, it will also show on another piece of parchment or vellum located elsewhere.

I'm assuming this would be a ReAn effect, perhaps something like this..

I am not too sure on anything here...

Use Creo Aquam to create ink on the other page. The paper itself isn't doing anything or changing in any way.
If you want the parchment to simply darken where the otherone is written on, in leiu of ink, then use MuAn, because the coloration is an unnatural change.

Or CrIm, which avoids all those other questions.*

(* "Ink" can be made from metals/minerals, plants, squid ink, so once it's dried, it's a real crapshot what will/won't effect it. Good example of "free requisites" being appropriate, imo.)

But the difficulty here is not to create the image on the page, but to communicate the information. How does the copying page know what's on the first?

Sounds like an In(Cr)Im would be your best bet.

Base 1: Use one Sense at a distance/Create an Image the affects 1 sense.

So, if you're just making a copy at a desk...

In(Cr)Im 20 Pen the Pair of Pages
(Base 1, +1 Sun, +2 Voice, +2 Group (of images), +2 intricate images)

As defined, a "page" of text is not a single image, but a collection of precise, intricate images - we all know that the slip of a pen, an "l vs a "t" can be the difference between one word and another. And, with quill and inkwell, it would take well more than Diameter to pen a page - "Concentration" might work, but Sun might be better still.

"Touch" would be awkward, since you're not "touching" the images, nor the page as their being copied - that would be too complex while scribing, imo. (Tho' could work to copy a page once it's already been written).

Otoh, if you're talking about trying to scribe a message in one location, and have it be copied to another, that would require an AC, I believe, and be higher magnitude still.

I would draw attention to the fact that this subject was dealt with at length last summer in this thread:

https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/copying-books-magically/2045/1

YR7 did a great deal of legwork compiling the process from the RAW.

Cheers :slight_smile:

Thanks everyone for the imput, so let's see..

Seems like my idea was similar to YR7's, and although it could be done with Im, that is not the goal on this one.

Using CrAq would add an An requisite anyway, and I think the major effect is based off An rather than Aq on this case.

As for ink, it is a liquid, so I would say it is governed by Aquam, regardless of it's components.

I'm still not too happy with the end result being a mere level 10 (too easy perhaps?) but it does require the vellum to be prepared as arcane connections...

Would vellum created from the same original calf be automatically connected, lasting weeks or months perhaps?

The Mercere chapter of True Lineages has a couple of special rituals that might be useful to you, as well. One version creates a copy of a book from scratch, and the other sets up a link between two books so that changes to one are reflected in the other. This isn't quite as elegant as the Finesse-based stuff in Covenants to be sure, but it's also in the RAW.

I'm surprised that neither thread mentioned the 3rd Edition version from The Wizard's Grimoire (page 67).

Twinning the Tome: Lv 35 MuAn (In, Im), Ritual
R: Touch, D: Perm
"This ritual links a pair of books or scrolls through sympathetic magic, causing any writing in one to appear in the other; the two books must be very close to identical in style, design, & form. This spell can be used to scribe multiple copies of a book, or as a means of communication between distant places, as well as keeping a safe copy of a journal while traveling; both books need not be on hand, just one.... The spell itself is Permanent... but changes made in the books are Instantaneous."

Apparently this spell could either copy an already scribed work, creating instant duplicates (a task better done by mundane means unless time is a critical factor), or it could (more importantly) allow anything writing in one to instantly appear in the other.

This was 3rd Edition of course. I'm not going offer a 5th Edition translation, since I am just now learning 5th Ed. The above posters seem completely capable of it though.

~ Meddo