Worldbuilding Wednesday – the Aunt Family

Last week I was taking questions on the Aunt Family and magic!  I got two.

Eseme asked: Much of their magic seems to be craft based, and involves imbuing magic in items. Does this only work on handmade objects?

I imagine if you were sitting at a mechanical knitting loom or fabric loom and putting all of your magic and will into it, you could probably imbue magic into its creation as well, but I think that’s not as easy — it takes more concentration & attention to the magic – than doing it the “old-fashioned” way. 

Imbuing an object that you haven’t made at all with magic – a trinket from the store – would require a lot more power, and thus would usually be part of some sort of ritual, generally involving several casters at once.

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@SamTTC on Twitter asked:  Is there any relationship between calorie cost to the caster relative to the energy output of a spell?

That’s a good question.  I’ve definitely done that in other settings – Fae Apoc, Tír na Cali for sure.

In Aunt Family, I’d say that there IS a relationship, but the ratio depends on the strength of the caster and the strength of the connections she has to pull on.

That is, the same spell and effect would take much more physical energy for a weak caster with no family (or family land) to draw on, than for one of the Aunts of a Family, especially if she was on family land – running a marathon vs. walking a mile, for a bit of an exaggeration. 

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One thought on “Worldbuilding Wednesday – the Aunt Family

  1. At what point does the use of tools make something sufficiently not “the old-fashioned way” to make magic harder? Is thread spun with a drop spindle easier to spell than thread spun with a wheel? Does a distaff make it worse? A spinning jenny, water frame, or spinning mule? How mechanical is too mechanical?

    And then there’s the weaving; are heddles too much separation for the best magic? A flying shuttle? Various early powered looms?

    And for sewing, of course, there’s sewing machines at the very least.

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