Imprinting

Imprinting is the thaumaturgical discipline of capturing the attention of an elemental, and giving it set of formal instructions. Magicians with the ability to summon and imprint an elemental are magisters.

The most basic method of imprinting is verbal, reciting sequents aloud to a bound elemental in the human equivalent of the Erida languageplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigLanguages

List of human languages and dialects, contemporary and extinct.

Language

language

This is in a series of articles about Languages and Communication.

topics sidebar cult1, the simple natural language of elementals.

Without further action, an imprinted elemental will drift away once it has fulfilled the required set of instructions.

a series of actions that can be carried out at will. (2) When a student of Eridai becomes a Master, the student must Call a silf to become his Prime Source. In the process of the Call, the Master’s voice, physical appearance, magnetic signature and a host of other identifying features are committed to the silf’s core memory, which can never be erased. The Master’s features are imprinted upon the silf, so that for ever after, it will only ever obey his commands, to the exclusion of all others. Over time, the rapport between Master and Source becomes highly attuned, so that eventually the primus can even develop a close mental contact with the Master, depending on his innate abilities. When the master dies, the bond is broken and his primus instantly divides into two (or more) new beings. In a sense, Master and Source die together (see mitosis).