I have a villain in a game which I would like to be old enougth to require life extension magic. I cannot find a hedge or rival magic tradition which can extend the lives of another person, my NPC can probably lay their hands at least briefly on pretty much anything except a hermetic mage. Can anyone suggest one I have missed?
Unfortunately one of the players of my Saga reads this forum so I am reluctant to provide details of the NPC , but I can find no life extension magics for their tradition.
From the top of my head at least 2 hedgie traditions so far can extend the life of third parties.
- Natural Magicians (and cunning folk, readily available): Amulets enchanted with Season duration (and 4 charges). Sucurro Salutem guidelines
- Mythic Herbalism: can solve aging crises. I really like this option.
- Probably the folk witches as well, but unsure here.
Anyone that can solve an aging crisis or provide a bonus to the aging roll can help here. I am sure elementalists can help as well, for example.
And of course demons can also do that, and maleficia. And God, if you ask nicely, but that does not fit well with the villain concept unless your characters are demon worshipers (my players could well be that for sure after all)
I also asumed that, but... HMRE, page 42:
So... one less option! On the other hand...
Indeed! With Medicinal Refining. Again from HMRE, page 26:
Meh. Just have an Order of Hermes Mage make him a longevity ritual. It's not against the Code, save in a minor sense. Not like teaching Parma Magica, for sure.
Vitki, dagaz rune, HMRE p. 129
The Folk Witches can extend his own life only.
The better options to me are both, Learned Magicians (and near traditions) and Elemental Medicinal Refinement. The Mythic Herbalism near to both, and they are compatible.
But... ther are other option, related to the Learned Magicians and the Gruagachan (and related Tradition) - some Sucurro Fortunam or Give Blessing enchantment to give the character the Unaging Virtue. Bad things, it can be stolen or destroyed (if it is one Amulet) or dispelled (to some Limit spell or Enchanted Tatoo)
(Nobles Parma) Don't the Goetic Arts let you bind spirits into people giving the person all sorts of benefits.
For that matter granting longevity is certainly a power that a magical creature could have on it's own. So anyone who can command or just find and make deals with such creatures could provide or benefit from life extending magic.
Yup, Binding makes you gain Warping points instead of making Aging rolls... Also, Ablation gives you a bonus to our Aging rolls.
Interesting how these methods intereact.
The Dagaz rune is largely identical to the hermetic Longevity Ritual in effect, while the Succurro Salutem charm gives a potentially huge boost in living conditions.
Very nice.
If the villain tends to stay in one place, regimens from Art & Academe will give a bonus from +1 to +3. This is why mighty nobles in my sagas have a very good court physician.
If we're going for ludicrous magic, there's the Hyperborean songs in Ancient Magic to add to the list of non-Hermetic magics.
Thank you to everyone for their suggestions. I am embarrassed about how many I missed.
The only impossible one is using a hermetic longevity potion as that is right out from a story point of view.
I think I will go with the Rune magic possibly with some help from a cunning folk as it is appropriate thematically.
Gilarius or anyone else from my live game DO NOT Read
[spoiler]The villain in question is a powerful muspelli so having bullied a Vitkir into cooperation seems to make sense, an Elementalist also makes sense but I want to use one of them elsewhere in the game .
I would have put this in the first post but only noticed the spoiler tags now[/spoiler]