Scrying Mirror
While in Milan, in 1496, Leonardo da Vinci, the grandmaster of Gray Shroud, invented the first manufacturable Scrying Mirror, using a series of specially enchanted woodblocks and charmed inks to set the sigils and seals onto the backing and new form of lamination to apply the reflective coating. Prior to these discoveries, each Scrying Mirror took months of painstaking enchantment to work. By sealing that magic into the wood blocks and into the ink, the once the operation of enchantment was done, several mirrors could be produced a day.
At first, da Vinci kept the mirrors to himself and only shared the finished mirrors with the other members of the Gray Shrouds. In 1499, at the beginning of the Second Italian War, da Vinci started producing mirror for other Drymenn.
In the 1520s, John Dee purchased his infamous Black Speculum and several da Vinci Scrying mIrrors while in Europe. When Edward Kelly discovered that John Dee possessed some of da Vinci's mirrors, he sought him out, and in 1582 they began a partnership. The two went into business with John Blokley, who, in exchange for an alchemical manuscript called The Book of Dunstan and a quantity of "red powder" would take the mirrors and reverse engineer the process of their construction.
John Blokley was in reality the drymann Arthur Fox. The Book of Dunstan contained little more than elementary alchemical knowledge and the "red powder" was a concentrate of Lethe formulated to ensure they forgot all about owning the mirrors in the first place. Fox took the mirrors and founded Sunscín foxa, now known as The MirrorFox Company.
Utility
Scrying Mirrors are one of the most common methods of communicating in Aernadael and the other Arcane nations. Modern life would be very different without them.
Manufacturing
Mass produced mirrors require a series of enchanted inks, screens, and other implement that lose their potency through repeated use. The various crafts needed to produce them are carefully guarded secrets, and are difficult to produce in and of themselves.
Access & Availability
Starting with the mass manufacture of Scrying Mirrors by Sunscín foxa in 1583, they became a common communication device in Aernadael.
Complexity
The standard scrying mirror is a complex talisman to make, and some continue to make them by hand. Each set of sigils requires a special ink and to have all the intricate details precisely marked and enchanted.
Discovery
The first known scrying mirrors were made by Imhotep in Kemet in 2622 BCE
Comments