Conjuration

"It was a stunning display truly, that Magician Lemmywinx put on quite a show! Great explosive lights and smokes of all colors bursting from his sleeves! And from his hat? Wouldn't you believe it, when he pulled it off his head to extended it towards the crowd, a massive Griffon sprang fourth from within and soared over the audience! Truly an astounding performance, well, until I suppose the Griffon grew hungry and plucked off that poor little boy's head in the front row, ghastly thing that was." -Eyewitness interview, Woodsend Fair Massacre, 66 CA.

Conjuration is the school of summoning, displacement, and space-bending, the art of calling something into existence, or moving it from one place to another through manipulation of the Arcane’s fold. It is the raw magick of gateways, of reach without movement, and of inviting power from realms that are not this one. Where Abjurers repel the world, Conjurers reshape it, threading the needle between domains to beckon aid, object, or threat. It is a school revered for its versatility, feared for its risk, and studied with equal parts awe and paranoia. While most mortals understand conjuration as “summoning,” the reality is more complex. True Conjurers don’t just call things, they negotiate with the unseen. Everything they summon, from a sword to a sentient storm, is stolen from elsewhere, whether another plane, a storage-bound echo, or an Arcane conceptual space. When you conjure a flame, that fire has a history, perhaps it once razed a barn or warmed a dying man. Conjurers never summon nothing. They only borrow, often without asking.
The Unseen Thread:
Conjuration bends space to tether one point to another. Its practice is founded on understanding the Arcane lattice, an invisible, ever-shifting web of pressure where dimensional forces strain against each other like tides beneath the crust of the world. Conjurers are trained to feel these tensions and slice them just wide enough to slip something through. This slice, this thread, can be as delicate as plucking an apple from another room or as wild as ripping a crater in the air to drag forth a lightning drake. But the Arcane does not appreciate shortcuts. Overuse or mistimed summoning can result in spatial trauma, wherein the boundaries between places erode. Advanced cases result in Echo-Drift, a state where the caster begins to unconsciously swap locations with distant versions of themselves or others. Some have returned from such states with new scars, and memories not their own. A distinct flavor of Magebane also afflicts Conjurers. Called Portal Fever, it begins with nosebleeds and muscle twitching, progressing into disorientation and eventual dissociation, as the mind can no longer reconcile which body it inhabits. Some suffer spontaneous mini-teleports in moments of stress. Others blink out during sleep and never return.
Applications and Manifestations:

• Summoning – Creatures, weapons, food, furniture, anything the caster has previously studied or bound to a focus may be called. Higher-level conjuration allows for sentient summons, often bound by symbolic contracts or glyphic containment.
• Teleportation – Folding space to walk between distant locations. Requires exceptional precision and is the number one cause of partial dismemberment among fledgling mages. Used widely by Coalition operatives for rapid deployment.
• Dimensional Storage – A mundane but practical sub-discipline, used to store objects in isolated Arcane pockets. Often used by merchants, nobles, or assassins. Many a coin purse or heirloom blade has vanished into one of these side-realms.
• Tethering & Binding – The act of holding something summoned. Without a proper anchor, be it a spell circle, physical brand, or blood-oath, the summoned entity may resist or flee. Certain Conjurers craft fetters from ichor, soulglass, or celestial bone to bind unwilling creatures.
• Gateways & Portals – Used to transport groups or masses. Building a portal is a ritualistic effort requiring glyphs, reagents, and focus. Portals are sensitive to terrain, emotional states, and sometimes lunar alignment.

Folk Beliefs – The Phantom’s Toll:
In smaller townships, there’s an old belief that every time you summon something, something unseen follows. Known as the Phantom’s Toll, the superstition claims the world not summoned from resents the violation and sends a watcher, a flicker in the window, a shadow in the barn, a name that wasn’t on the guest list. Conjurers scoff at the idea. But a great many of them live alone, and keep their doors barred at night.
Historical Legacy:
Conjuration was one of the first forms of structured magick codified by the Scholar’s Guild during the post-Schism reconstruction. Its practical use in hauling lumber, ferrying supplies, and shielding refugees with conjured walls made it indispensable. However, it also attracted dangerous experimentation. The infamous Sarnath Collapse was caused by a failed attempt to summon an entire fortress from blueprints alone, a theory-based spell that instead resulted in a thousand tons of molten stone raining down from a misaligned realm. In warfare, Conjurers changed the game of siege. Summoned beasts tore through battlements, while short-hop teleports allowed assassins to reach commanders in locked rooms. The Quiet Uprising of 294 CA was made possible by the sudden arrival of twenty armed rebels inside the Coalition’s eastern barracks, none of whom remembered how they got there. Despite its lethality, Conjuration found everyday uses in healing and trade. Waypoints were erected in major cities to support long-distance porting, though their cost ensures only the wealthy or desperate use them. Coalition-led regulation has since restricted such usage, citing risks to planar stability.
Controversy and Restrictions:
Conjuration faces heavy scrutiny from the Arcane Coalition due to its ability to breach containment. Some entities summoned from the Arcane’s folds are not classified, some are not even named. These Unnamed Visitors, once called forth, resist banishment and may linger even after the caster’s death. Coalition law mandates immediate reporting of any summon that speaks in unknown tongues, bleeds light, or causes weather changes upon arrival. The Scholar’s Guild once attempted to create permanent summoning glyphs, reusable spellwork that could automate conjuration. After the Stonering Incident, where a warbeast repeatedly spawned into a public bathhouse until the glyph was drowned in acid, this research was suspended. Layfolk also fear conjuration as the art of cheating. In courts, conjured evidence is inadmissible. In sporting events, Conjurers are outright banned. Even among nobles, rumors abound of rivals replaced by summoned doppelgangers. True or not, the fear lingers.
Cultural Perception:
In Everwealth, Conjurers hold a strange social standing. Farmers may welcome them to summon rain, but won’t let them stay in the barn. Towns might hire a Conjurer to teleport an urgent letter, then burn the doorknob they touched. Their usefulness is undeniable, but so is the discomfort they create. Among thieves and hedgefolk, Conjurers are often admired. The ability to hide a stolen relic in a pocket realm or escape into thin air is invaluable. Certain rogue traditions even blend Conjuration with Illusion, creating faux-summons to distract or intimidate. Many nobles now employ Court Callers, licensed Conjurers who retrieve lost heirlooms, recall assassinated ancestors (via tethered memories), or summon rare delicacies from foreign lands. These Callers are lavishly paid but closely watched, often required to tattoo their left hand with a sealing rune.
Signature Effect – The Echo-Thread Sickness:
A rare affliction among Conjurers, Echo-Thread Sickness occurs when a spellcaster’s Arcane tether becomes frayed from too many transplanar reaches in a short span. Symptoms begin with spatial slippage, items vanish from one pocket and appear in another, speech becomes disjointed, and mirrors show delayed reflections. In advanced stages, the caster may hear themselves whispering things they haven’t said yet, or see their own death through summoned eyes. The Coalition classifies this condition as a “Reality Drift Event,” and casters are to be quarantined in lead-lined sanctuaries until the tether either heals or snaps entirely. A few rare Conjurers survive the experience changed, with eyes that glow briefly before each teleport. Some say they never returned, only their echo did.