Purification of Vis

House rules dictate that all vis is Art-specific and bound irrevocably with the form in which it is embodied. Hence, the 3rd edition spell Change the Nature of Vis is not allowed. Further, 2nd Edition vis extraction is not permitted. To alleviate the problems caused by an insufficient source of raw Vim vis (often necessary to power the annual Aegis of the Hearth), the Saga adopts the following exception to Art-specificity:

Vis Purification

Using a Ritual spell (detailed below), a Magus may distill the magical essence of an object, effectively separating its magical moiety from its mundane shell. In the process, the original Art-specific vis source is reduced to pure magic (raw Vim), while its earthly form is denatured from its magical taint. The process is called 'purification', and can reduce Art-specific vis into raw Vim vis (but not the other way around).

Lustration of the Necromantic Sinews: ReVi Gen

R: Touch, D: Inst, T: Ind, Ritual

Requisite: Form of the vis source

This Ritual was invented by Bonisagus during his winters with Carpandus in Burgundy (founder of House Carpandus and inventor of Aegis of the Hearth). By placing her hands on a vis source, the caster distills the magical essence of the object containing vis, extracting one pawn of pure Vim vis for every two pawns of Art-specific vis that initially exist in the object (4 pawns of Herbam vis, for example, may be reduced to 2 pawns of raw Vim vis). The mundane form of the original object is not destroyed, but having been separated from its magical moiety by the Ritual, often withers or similarly transforms to reflect this denaturing. The form of the Vim vis varies according to the form of the original source (the above example might have been an oak leaf, in which case it might have been reduced to a silver oak-leaf-stalk containing Vim vis, and a mundane brown, withered oak leaf missing its stalk).

Although its efficiency is rather poor, the Ritual has proven useful insupplying the Vim vis necessary to power a Covenant's Aegis. The spell is rarely learned by Magi (other than followers of Bonisagus or Carpandus), but rather cast from text. It can be found in the Hermetic libraries of many Covenants. Unlike other Ritual spells, the vis used to power the spell derives from the object being purified (in the previous example, the 4 pawns of Herbam vis are used in this manner: 2 pawns expent to power the spell, 2 pawns of purified Vim vis recovered). Casting requisite of the form of the object being purified is necessary.

The level at which this Ritual is known limits the maximum amount of vis that can possibly be recovered. One pawn of vis may be purified for each magnitude at which the spell is cast (the above example would be 2nd magnitude/Level 10). Note that an object containing only 1 pawn of vis may not be purified with this Ritual.


This page last modified 4/2/97.

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