This involves a ritual attaching an oath to the magic in a person’s blood. It is a binding that produces a strong aversion to breaking the oath, but it can be broken if the person has a stronger obligation. (p104)

This ward, formed of blood, produces a wall of flame in a protective circle of magic. Only the blood of a relative or overwhelming magic can penetrate it. (p162)

A very primitive ward from the Neolithic period. (p195)

Primitive hunters would lay out the bones of their prey around their settlements. The idea is to form a chain of Rock, Bone, and Wood. You use Rock and Wood to obtain the Bone, binding all three, so if you return to the Bone to the Rock and Wood after you’re done with it, it will afford you protection. (p195)

The spell can’t be detected, but if you find it, all you do to break it is remove the bones. (p195)

When someone eats the flesh off the bones, it creates a bond between the bones and the person. If the bones are then put into this kind of ward, the person cannot break through because they are essentially fighting against themselves. It’s nearly impossible to break then. (p217)

This ward is an environmental ward: it draws power from the magic itself. The bones just define it. (p217)

This ritual is used to see the image of the last navigator of a vampire. To perform the ritual one must have the head of a vampire who was killed within the last few hours. The head is placed on a platform with herbs, and a shallow pan is filled with glycerin and placed in front and slightly under the platform. Touch a drop of blood to the herbs; the bloodmagic will flood them, shaping and molding their natural forces. Then the magic will spread to the head and wake it. The caster commands it to show its master. Blood drains into the pan of glycerin and the image appears in it. (p144-145)

The pledge doesn’t just go away even when the subject is released. Aftereffects linger. (p20)

The following is a direct quote from Kate:

…magic had the potential to give thought and will substance. Faith was both will and thought, and prayer served as the mechanism to merge them and to catalyze the magic, defining it much like a spoken incantation defined the will of the incantor. Practically, it meant if many people has a specific enough image of their deity and prayed hard to it, the magic might oblige and deliver the deity into existence. The Christian God or the neo-Wiccan “goddess” would probably never gain an actual form, because the beliefs of their faithful were too varied and their power was too nebulous, too encompassing. But something specific like Thos or Pan could theoretically come to life. (p201-202)

Manifesting on Earth would require independent will on the part of the deity, which is a large hurdle. Also, when the magic leaves, their connection to the faith of their followers, which they use as power, is cut off. Magic isn’t strong enough nor does it last long enough for a deity to safely manifest during a wave, unless there is a flare. During the flare a deity could possibly manifest for a few hours. (p202)

The following is a direct quote from Kate:

If normal shifts were magic waves, a flare was a magic tsunami. It started as a series of shallow magic fluctuations, quickly falling and rising, but never leaving the world. During those short waves, the magic didn’t completely fall, coming back stronger and stronger until it finally drowned us in an enormous surge. …

The current Shift officially dawned almost thirty years ago. It began with a flare, and with each subsequent flare, more of our world succumbed to magic.

Weird shit happened during the flares. The magic surge only lasted two to three days, but those days were killer. (p16)

This ritual, performed during sex and cast by the woman, uses the magic in a male’s sperm to mimic the man’s powers. She can do so for as long as the sperm lives, up to around five days. It is also often cast in conjunction with a spell to make the male more tired and unable to feel his magic, thus giving the appearance that the woman actually stole his magic. It is a dangerous spell. (p100-101)

The following is a direct quote from Kate:

Theory said that magic and tech used to coexist in a balance. Like the pendulum on a grandfather clock that barely moved, if at all. But then came the Age of Man, and men are made of progress. They overdeveloped magic, pushing the pendulum farther and farther to one side until it came crashing down and started swinging back and forth, bringing with it tech waves. And then in turn, technology oversaturated the world, helped once again by pesky Man, and the pendulum swung again, to the side of magic this time. The previous Shift from magic to tech took place somewhere around the start of the Iron Age. The current Shift officially dawned almost thirty years ago. (p16)

Magic Strikes

Gem Lore

For some magically capable individuals death comes slowly; after clinical death, magic keeps the mind functioning. Some of them may project an image of themselves, which can be aided by a trained necromancer or a medium. (p237)

Five poisonous creatures are used to hold disease at bay. The ritual puts the disease to sleep. The caster chants and circles the disease, placing the creatures around the circle. Then a paper with a Chinese symbol in red is placed on the disease and a mixture of wine and cinnabar is poured on it. The five creatures are a snake, a scorpion, a toad, a millipede, and a spider. Once the disease is out of reach of the ritual, it will wake up. (p57-58)

It lefts the imprint of the navigator’s mind from the undead’s mind. The words commanding the undead head to show its master are not strictly necessary, but they aid concentration. The blood in which the image appears isn’t necessary either, just a dark surface to make the image stand out. All the ritual requires is raw power and knowledge. It would fail only if too much time had passed or the navigator’s will was stronger than the caster. The navigator can sense the immanent demise of the undead and shock the brain in a process called searing which makes the brain difficult to read. (p81-82 and p95-96)

Human elemental magic use is directly tied to cognitive ability. In other words, if a creature does not have complex mental abilities, it cannot use elemental magic. Elemental magic users can use fire, wind, water, earth. Fire users are called firebugs. Wind users are called whistlers. (p44-45)

The test involves placing an object on a sheet of white paper, exposing it to intense magic, and m-scanning it. If the object has no magic of its own, it will absorb the magic it was exposed to long enough for the scan to pick up. If the scan comes back blank, then the object is magical in its own right. (p102)

Rabbis use magic through writing. Best way to disarm one is to take his or her pen away. (p192)

Faith has power during magic. If people think you are a god, you start to get urges that aren’t your own. (p226)

A magic circle that uses a person’s magic to replenish a magical object. The magic must be up, and it can potentially drain the person dry. It is actually two circles, six and seven feet wide respectively. There are twelve stone pillars, five feet high with a sefroit (scroll) on top of each. (p148 and p196-200)

They can keep things in and out of an area. If one has a high magic threshold, then thing with a lot of magic will not be able to pass, but things with less magic can. (p20)

Also called a Magic Square. Three by three, the sum of each row, column and diagonal is equal. It has been used by many peoples across the ages. The following is from Jewish mysticism. (p147)

The Jews employed Hebrew letters as numerals. The center number, five, corresponds to the Hebrew letter heh, which is a symbol for Tetragrammaton, YHWH, the holiest of the names of God. The sum, fifteen, is the Hebrew yah, which in itself is a name of God.

Amehe is the power word for “obey,” but it is limited in what it can compelled someone to do. If the caster can’t picture it, the magic can’t compel the action. The performance of basic physical tasks is typically possible, but the caster can’t use it to compel the target to reveal his knowledge. (p228)

Regular wards have uniform thickness and are colored. Transparent wards take more effort. If the color is thicker near the base, the magic is concentrated there, which usually indicates a bouncer ward. Regular wards can be open and closed, but if broken they take several magic waves to regenerate. A bouncer will break and then surge right back up, which can be used to trap whoever crossed it. (p286)

Runes are associated with neo-pagan cults and are often employed in shamanistic rituals. They predate the Latin alphabet. (p73)

The rune Algiz, shaped like an inverted crow’s foot, is one of the oldest and has different meanings depending on who you ask and which alphabet you use. However, it also has a universal meaning: protection. As a ward it is reactive, which means it won’t attack first, ever. Among the Slavic neo-pagans, the rune is associated with Chernobog, the Black God. (p73 and p91)