Sygaldry
Essay written by a former student of The Varenite School of Progress:
Sygaldry, and artificery as a whole, is often equated with the more esoteric branches of magic: sorcery, wizardry, gifted magic, and even wild magic. In this essay I will attempt to show that it is far simpler and easier to quantify than some of these less precise methods of controlling the Weave. I will outline the basic types of sygaldry, and go over their strengths and weaknesses.
At its most basic level, sygaldry is the practice of using sigils (sometimes called runes or inscriptions) to connect or amplify certain Aspects. Aspects are properties of creatures and objects, and come in two main groups: physical and elemental. The physical Aspects correlate loosely with the five senses: touch, sound, sight, smell, and taste. The elemental Aspects similarly correlate with the elemental forces of nature and magic: Fire, air, water, and earth, and can be subdivided into steam, ash, ice, etc. It is apparent that there exists an elemental plane for each element, though several of these are too extreme to have verifiable descriptions.
Sygaldry is the process of identifying Aspects, amplifying them, and connecting them to other objects or creatures. This is achieved through the use of sigils: physical, inscribed workings of magical energy. These are infused with energy by the practitioner, and are linked to the Weave to allow for sustained use. Often, they are linked to another plane or to another sigil in a Sympathetic Binding, a process also used in other disciplines of magic.
For example, if an artificer wanted to create some Stones of Far Speech, they would inscribe a sigil using the physical Aspect of sound, and sympathetically bind this with another sigil on a similar stone. This is made easier and more efficient if both stones came from the same piece of rock, because it creates a stronger sympathetic link. This is an example of sustained sygaldry.
More spontaneous workings can also be achieved, although these are typically weaker connections. An artificer can, for example, trace a sigil with fire (usually done with a magnesium sparkler) and create a sympathetic binding with the plane of fire on a metallic object, which can be done at a considerable distance. The object will then convectively absorb heat from the plane of fire, often reaching very high temperatures over the short duration of the binding. Since the sigil is broken almost as soon as the binding is made, the connection is usually a few minutes or less. These workings are useful because they allow for some of the more spontaneous spellwork that other practitioners such as wizards and sorcerers have easy access to, but often artificers choose not to rely too much on these more fleeting workings.
Discovery
Sygaldry in its most basic form is timeless. The use of aspects as amplification channel is one of the core basics of magic. The modern interpretation of sylgaldry was discovered by the legendary (and perhaps first) Artificer , Giovan Picone.
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