Hexkeeping

Hexkeeping is one of the magical arts which involves the use of Living Hexes, which are semi-sentient spells with intents and persuasions of their own. They are magical potential given a sort of half-soul. Hexkeepers allow these hexes to take up parasitic residence in their minds as ideas until they are ready to be used, at which point the hexkeeper must coax and convince the hex to do what the mage intends.

Living Hexes are typically summoned by keepers, who are then capable of storing them in special books for later reabsorption. Sometimes however, keepers may encounter free roaming, wild hexes, which they are able to capture.

Having a hex lodged inside one's mind can be somewhat unsettling, and each one destabilizes the keeper's mind. Very few master keepers can hold more than 4 spells at once. Trying to remember more hexes than one reasonably should cause serious strain on the mind, with possibly permanent consequences.

Hexes usually refer to malicious spells, especially curses, but not in the case of living hexes. Poor hexkeeping often leads to unintended effects, as evil thoughts being much harder to control, and hexes aren't particularly good at judging morality. As such it has come to be regarded as an art much darker than it truly is.