Sam used the matches to light the candles, which burned with a purple flame. He was caught by just how pretty the lit candles where, how the gentle flames danced and – he shook himself and placed the small eggshell between them. He opened the dictionary to a random page, his eyes landing on the first unfamiliar entry: ‘Brackish – Adj – Slightly salty, as in river estuaries.’
“Got it!” Sam said.
The Reaper muttered to itself: “Two lit Mergenic candles, one enkiran eggshell, something learnt – OK now you just need the incantation.”
“The what?”
“Magic words, this is a Ritual, try to keep up. Simdow Glekendow Netaha.”
- Chapter 6, Spirit Rider: The Royal Problem
~~~
Incantation: Simdow Glekendow Netaha
Magical Art: Solomurgy / Sancturgy
Ingredients:
Directions:
Appearance: The Mergenic candles will flare higher than natural, then bend inwards, catching the enkiran eggshell, which will be engulfed in silver light. After a few moments the Magistruct Athena will form
Magistruct Details:
Taking the form of a blue owl, Athena is the guardian Magistruct of Alec-Cassem. She is extremely humble and wise, able to offer sage advice to any magician who summons her. She will also protect any magician from harm, should they summon her within Alec-Cassem itself. Athena possesses the unique ability to transport a magician to Alec-Cassem from anywhere in the world. This is distinctly different from a normal Teleportation Spell and appears to be an extension of Athena's own abilities.
Sam dropped to his stomach and crawled behind the nearest wine-barrel, where Grim was crouched as well. Sam looked back and the shadow retreated from the window. As it pulled back he thought he could see something in the distance. A vast winged serpent weaving through the sky.
“What is that?” Sam whispered.
“Diacot – a Magistruct like me,” Grim said. “Magicians summon it to hunt down stolen items.”
- Chapter 18, Spirit Rider: The Royal Problem
~~~
Incantation: Vertiree Vorcree Iquarcree Octida
Magical Art: Solomurgy / Artemurgy
Ingredients:
Directions:
Appearance: The powdered cernunite circle will spiral upwards into a miniature cyclone. Orange light will illuminate each line of myxacoag feathers / orionisus petals, with each line glowing brighter in sequence. After a moment one line will glow brighter than the others - indicating the approximate direction the stolen item has been taken. The central spiral plus the other three lines, will merge with the indicated line, and in a flash of orange light Diacot will appear. Diacot will take a moment to observe the area where the stolen item once was, then set off to recover it.
Magistruct Details
(((IMPORTANT: Due to the potentially destructive and lethal danger Diacot poses to the public, this Ritual may only be undertaken by a magician bearing expressed written confirmation countersigned by the Altruistically Accountable Artemurgic Activities Association and the Committee For the Reduction of Magically Liable Deaths. To do so otherwise can lead to criminal prosecution.)))
A mighty winged serpent, Diacot is summoned to retrieve stolen items. Diacot primarily seeks the stolen item via an extremely acute sense of smell as well as via magical detection. Of course a master thief may find a way to conceal both, but how competently they do so could mean the difference between escape and death. Whilst Diacot's main concern is the recovery of the stolen item, it reacts extremely violently once it has found said item, being perfectly willing to destroy property and / or kill anyone who stands between it and the stolen item. Once Diacot has returned the stolen item to the magician who summoned it, Diacot will unform.
“The Grim Reaper is a Magistruct who exists solely to take a person’s soul. Not to just to kill them, but to deny them an afterlife altogether. To see them trapped, formless, in the dark cold silence of the Underworld, until the end of time. Does that sound like ‘good’ magic to you?”
- Chapter 7, Spirit Rider: The Royal Problem
~~~
Incantation: Hadet Olus Ikrell Stalsheer Eddeard Sansassi Lorruddewn Meregripar
Magical Art: Solomurgy / Luceurgy
Ingredients:
Directions:
Appearance: A golden light will illuminate the magician as they begin the incantation. The daena-wax candles will levitate into the air, circle the ankou shade, then set it alight. A wave of golden lights will form a figure, who takes the Tribute from the magician. The figure will merge with the flaming shade and the Grim Reaper will appear in its place. It will confirm it accepts the Tribute and leave on its hunt.
Magistruct Details
(((IMPORTANT: As the Grim Reaper is a Luceurgic Magistruct, summoning it without a Theoretical Luceurgic Examination permit, carries a sentence of life imprisonment.)))
(((IMPORTANT: As the Grim Reaper is one of the Seven Forbidden Forms, it must NEVER be allowed to meet with any of the other Forbidden Forms: the Sandman, Father Time, Mother Nature, Lady Luck, the Bogeyman, or Jack Frost.)))
One of the oldest of all Magistructs, the Grim Reaper has been contracted by magicians to reap the souls of their enemies since Before History. In its original form, the Reaper took the appearance of a cloaked skeleton, with Hellfire streaming from its eyes. Legends state this original Reaper was a wicked and malicious killer unlike any other, who revelled in its work. So notorious is this image, that even now in the more-remote less magically-educated parts of Paralex, some people still hold this as being the Reaper's modern form.
But the ancient magicians from Before History were still armed with the Lost Arts and so had limitless magical potential. Out of fear, they used their power to alter the very nature of the Reaper and its magic. From that day forth, whenever the Reaper took a soul, it would also take on the appearance of said person, until it reaped its next victim. At the same time, the Reaper would take some shadow aspect of the victim's mind - useful information for example. But this too would grant them a mirrored fragment of the victim's personality, which the Reaper would carry forever more. Over the intervening centuries, this has 'tempered' the cruel and cold core of the Reaper, giving rise to the opinion that it may have since developed something approaching empathy, with a distinction between its darker impulses and amalgamated souls of all it has ever reaped. Whatever the case, it continues to leave a trail of destruction wherever it goes hunting for its contracted soul, often with very little care to anyone who dares stand in its way.
When it is initially summoned the Reaper will identify its victim via the Tribute presented to it as part of the Summoning Ritual. The Reaper will recognise, in that moment, the name and natural appearance of its target, however besides that, the Reaper cannot magically detect them. If the person altered their appearance, the Reaper could easily pass them in the street and not know. The Reaper must track and find its victim just as much as any common bounty-hunter - yet this is a hunter who never sleeps, never even stops, who is willing to go to the very ends of the world to find its contracted soul.
Its scythe-blade is, naturally, constructed from Azrael Silver, the only matter in Paralex that can touch souls. With that weapon it reaps its victim and stores the stolen soul in a glass jar, itself laced with Azrael Silver. Once this action is complete, the Reaper and taken soul both unform - the soul to be trapped evermore in the Underworld and the Reaper to await a summoning for its next victim.