minor or major focus: glass, mirrors

Is glass a minto or a major focus?

Are mirrors a minor or a major focus?

Does a glass focus include mirrors?

I would note that mirrors in the period were made of polished metal, not glass.

3 Likes

they still are, depending on how you look at it

The point is, they had no glass component in the period. :wink:

1 Like

I count glass as a minor focus.

While we’re at it, for Terram I tend to think Minor Foci: Glass, dirt (clay/sand/loam), precious metals, gemstones. The core rules give “destroying earth” as an example, so perhaps one technique + subclass of terram is a valid minor.

Major foci: Stone, metals

1 Like

i had been hoping for a more robust list of example foci from de, ah, so it goes

As a Terram minor focus, I'm thinking that copper alloys might qualify as well (copper, brass, bronze).

3 Likes

Thanks for the answers.

My glassmaker magus (a Verditius) has Minor Potent Magic and I found “glass” to be overly restrictive for the equivalent to a Minor Focus. I expanded it to “glass and clear crystals (gems)” with the idea that it’s Terram-things-that-are-naturally-translucent. It’s useful to my character because he’s spec’d to make use of it… but as a Focus it’d be underwhelming, I think.

I would include glass mirrors in a “glass” focus. “Mirrors” would include glass or metal (or obsidian, etc.) mirrors – but you might want to consider whether you want to affect the mirror or the reflection as those would be distinctly different Foci.

As a word of warning: glass is a terrible material for enchantment.

1 Like

It was my understanding that if the Magical Focus was restricted to a subset of a single Technique/Form combo then the the focus is Minor. So since “Destroying Earth” fits within PeTe, it is a Minor Magical Focus.

If your focus is a subset of a Form and all 5 Techniques are included then it is a Major Magical Focus.
This would include “Earth”, “Stone”, “Metals”, “Precious Stones”, and “Glass”. They are even listed under the Terram section as being sunsets of Terram that require different magnitudes.

If I recall correctly, you can’t make glass mirrors until after you can reliably create flat planes of clear glass with no imperfections. Which is (mundanely) developed later than the Ars period.
Possibly a mage might have a magical means of creating flat planes of clear glass (remember Casting Sigil imperfections), and might experiment with coating one side in reflective metal (eg silver)
But they would be breaking new ground (so to speak), they would be extremely unlikely to have any foreknowledge clues.

It isn't. ArM5 p.46 (emphasis mine): In general, the field should be slightly narrower than a single
Technique and Form combination, although it may include restricted areas of several such combinations.

In the Sample Minor Magical Foci boxed insert from the same page, there are many more examples that don't fit the "restricted to a subset of a single Technique/Form combo" than examples that do.

2 Likes

Healing being the big one.
I don’t have the book in front of me, but it is Creo technique + 3 Forms (Corpus, Animal and either Herbem or Mentem).

Self Transformation is Creo Corpus, often with requisites.

EDIT change Creo to Muto.

Weren’t some of the others extremely tiny subsets of a Form spread over multiple Techniques? “Dogs” and “Birds of Prey” come to mind.
”Dogs” being a small subset of land-going carnivorous Animal, while “Birds” probably count as a Major MF of Animal, and “Birds of Prey” are a much smaller subset of “Birds”.

Muto :wink:

Birds of prey, canines, mustelidae, stagnant water, small streams, wind, rain, lightning, aging, disease, wood, a particular color or sound, anger, lust, healing, self-Transformation (applies to both Corpus and Mentem)

1 Like

Self-Transformation could also be those rituals: CrMe makes me intelligenter

it may be splitting hairs, but I am under the impression that Ars Magica makes a distinction between Transformation and Refining.

Self-Transformation is allowed to cover several techforms because it is limited to the self. That obviously covers pretty much everything that’s MuCo and MuMe, but it also canonically covers things like transformation rituals in TMRE, the Daimonic one uses any techform with helpers doing CreoVim, and The Living Ghost uses Cr(Pe/Re)Me(Co). I’ve seen the interpretation that the focus applies to CreoCorpus/Mentem that permanently boosts stats, and while I don’t recall if it’s canonical, I see nothing wrong with it in principle.

1 Like

Scope creep IMHO. I would personally not allow a focus in self-transformation to apply to anything but Muto. YMMV.

I think I’d do that too (though it's obviously inexact where the line goes). But I’d also allow a “Self-Improvement” minor focus that did include CrCo and CrMe rituals, and Muto spells like Gift of the Bear’s Fortitude, but not transforming into a beast.

1 Like