Brands are one method of allowing non-magical creatures access to the arcane arts. First created sometime in the mid 1st Millenium ATD, the technique involves heating metal in the shape of a rune associated with a particular branch of magic. It is then branded onto an individual, allowing them to learn the magic associated with the appropriate rune.
It is an incredibly dangerous and volatile method of creating magic and is illegal in most of
Tembra as well as being unusual to find due to the small number of those capable of creating the necessary runic branding rods.
Method
The rods are forged from an ancient metal found largely in eastern Tembra. Very few individuals are capable of smelting the rods accurately enough to be used and they are thus highly prized items.
The rods alone are not sufficient to imbue an individual with magic, however. They must be heated in fire fed by death. Should the fire burn on inorganic fuel, no magic shall be imbued. But with the right fuel, such as the bones or carcass of a creature, great power could be unlocked. The extent to this power is broadly dependent on the type of carcass. Simple animal bones create low magic, but human flesh is highly potent. Greater still are the bodies of
dragons, with the last of the species present in Tembra hunted for this purpose.
History
The first usage of a brand is unknown, though it is likely to have been in the 1st or 2nd century ATD, after magic began to fade from much of Blivera but before the last dragon died. It emerged as a poor substitute for the genuine magic present before Daybreak, and dragonbone was known to have fed the flames that heated one of the first branding rods.
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