Goods marked with an asterisk (*) are referred to as “kindled,” which was originally a Maker term for an item that has been made to be “more like itself than itself.” Kindled items typically do exactly what you think they will do, but they do it better. A kindled lockpick picks locks better than a lockpick. A kindled shirt is more appealing than a shirt. The vast majority of the time, this is because they are made from extraordinary materials.
A few kindled items go beyond this concept, such as the eyestalk hat—it grants even greater perception, which is beyond what you might expect a hat to do. In any event, two traits distinguish kindled items:
1. They add bene and vex to stat pools (and sometimes provide Armor) rather than conveying other, less conventional abilities.
2. They are relatively low-powered and are produced in sufficient quantities that they can be purchased with more conventional currencies than the difficult-to-obtain magecoins, which are required to purchase ephemera and objects of power.
The term “kindle” implies a small awakening of a sort, and that’s an accurate assessment. Kindled objects—while not enchanted in the strictest of senses, in that they have not had a magical ability conferred upon them—have an awakened spirit within them that encapsulates the ideal of that object. As such, there is a sort of intelligence there, or at least there are emotions and will. This is seen most dramatically in the jealous, selfish nature of such objects. Kindled items, given time, mysteriously devour lesser, similar items. The owner of two kindled jackets will open their closet one day and discover only one jacket. A perceptive owner might describe the remaining jacket as having an aura of greater satisfaction.
Attempting to use two similar kindled items—two kindled dresses, one atop the other, for example—results in no benefit, and a literal battle right there on the character’s body, with only one item surviving.
Kindled items normally—but not always—seem to ignore non-kindled items.
The intelligence awoken in a kindled item is specialized and slight. Emotional rather than intellectual. You cannot communicate with kindled items unless using a spell or ability that grants the ability to speak to inanimate objects. You can, however, develop an empathic rapport with a kindled item you have owned for a while, gaining and perhaps conveying a sense of general well-being.
As previously stated, kindled items are common enough in most places (particularly Satyrine) that you don’t need to purchase them with magecoins, despite their somewhat magical nature. This, ultimately, is the most practical distinction between a kindled item and an object of power.
Kindled items do not count toward the total number of ephemera or objects of power that a character can safely handle at once.
Kindled items add bene or vex (and often both) to stat pools. The item must be actively used in the obvious way to get the benefit—a hat must be worn on the head, a sortir must be held in the hand, and so on. You gain the benefits (and drawbacks) immediately upon using the item in this fashion. And when you stop using it, the benefits (and drawbacks) immediately disappear. Taking off your blood boots removes 3 bene from your Accuracy pool. The only exception is if your stat pool is empty. You can’t have negative pool values.
Conversely, vex don’t go away so easily. If you take off your blood boots, the vex in your Interaction pool remains until it takes effect. However, a kindled item can never give you more vex than its normal maximum. So putting on the blood boots, taking them off, and putting them back on still results in you having 1 vex, whether you’ve spent that vex or not.
If you are no longer using the item, refreshing the pool will rid you of the vex.
Some items on the following lists, like radios and telephones, will seem familiar to readers in Shadow, but they are marked with two asterisks (**) to indicate that they are “aethyric.” Aethyr is a spiritual medium woven throughout the Actuality, and aethyric devices tap into this medium and use it. Aethyric devices, even more than kindled items, straddle the line between objects of power and mundane items.
All items that would be called electric in Shadow are aethyric. That’s because they draw their power from the aethyr, not from batteries, wired connections to outlets, or any such thing. An aethyric icebox just works. Aethyric phones don’t require phone lines to be connected.
This means, however, that spiritual creatures using the aethyr can gain easy access to such devices and affect them even when in the possession of someone else.
It would be wrong to label these items as “magic becoming technology” or even “magic masked as technology.” Far more accurate is the statement that radios, powered lights, and similar devices in Shadow are an illusory distortion of the true devices found in the Actuality (and on the lists in this chapter).
The ephemeral nature of emotions and concepts is captured through processes unique to the emotion mills. There, they are made into semi-solid but pliable “objects” about an inch across. The only way to store an emotion or concept, however, is to turn it into an emotion leaf by pressing it between the pages of a book of poetry (or similar tome) of a nature in opposition to the emotion or concept. Thus, hate is pressed in a book of love poems, while fulfillment is stored in a book filled with longing verses.
Emotion leaves are used as components in Maker creations, they are used in rituals and other longform magic, and they are used directly, even by non-vislae. If you want to feel respected, you can buy a leaf of respect and just sort of absorb it. The feeling is intense for a few hours, and it lingers until the sun next rises. Beyond the people who desire or need a particular feeling, there seem to be a lot of people in Satyrine (or perhaps the Actuality) who are losing the ability to feel emotions naturally, so they use emotion leaves to feel something. Some people consider this loss of emotions a malady that is slowly spreading like a disease.
Item Cost
Emotion or concept “leaf” 25 crystal orbs