Archival Powder and Paper

Shiobe sprinkled the whitish-yellow powder upon the wrinkled parchment. Grabbing a thin, soft brush, she winced and dusted the powder across the brittle document; she needed a delicate touch to make certain the original was not damaged. Trin would have her head, if more than a few edge flakes went missing.
Satisfied with the thickness and coat, she retrieved a sheet of the spelled archival paper her father sent her. He did not want Trin to know she made copies of the documents she translated for him, because that might affect their value. As long as she did not leave evidence, he would avoid a stern lecture from his broker about making unauthorized copies.
She never left evidence.
Careful to arrange the sheet so it overlapped the original, she snagged another, fatter brush and gently pressed it down. She fought the sleepiness that came with staring at the top sheet; she could not miss the flash. After what seemed like half-a-day, a faint flash of light, there and gone, erupted from the surface. She carefully drew the sheet away and compared what the powder copied to the original.
Perfect duplicate, no powder left on the original.
Humming, she set the sheet aside to cure.

The Iovan Palace Archival Powder
and Paper recipe

Genophyte Hevaris qua Demacaral and
Genophyte Melchris qua Seterid

All artwork by Shade Melodique unless otherwise stated

Overview

While there are as many preservation recipes as there are institutions of scholarship, we believe the ones best suited for ancient documents are the Iovan Palace School Archival Powder and Paper recipes.
First developed by Genophyte Anthris qua Evarandis after the withdrawal of Jonna from Soline, they have withstood the test of time and the multiple changes uninformed others wished to bring to them. The originals are near-perfect alchemical and spell concoctions, but advances in paper preservation have added some additional spell components to the process.
Below are the current, Palace School-accepted recipes.

Some powders far outshine their brethren. These have an alchemical spell wielded on them that enhances their transfer abilities.
Scholars at our school have studied the transfer of images, and have created a unique spell that adds a double layer of protection for the copy. You will find this wielding in Wieldings for Alchemists and Healers V.4: Non-edible, Non-toxic Enchantments

The Powder

The listed measurements are for a single, Archive-long document. Upscale as required.

• 10 butterpetal petals
• 4 deepspoons of starsands granular spell mix
• 1 deepspoon of ground mekel crystals
• 3 shallowspoons of soft whiterock powder
• 1 pufferberry pit
• 3 deepspoons of lipseed oil

Use a ceramic mortar and pestle and mash the butterpetal petals into a thin paste. Mash the starsands mix until the mixture has the consistency of watery clay. Add the mekel crystals and grind until the mixture has the consistency of sandy soil. Add the whiterock powder; the result should look like dry bread dough.
Pour in the lipseed oil. The dough will get wetter, but still hold together. Take it from the mortar and set it on reedseed parchment paper. Use a fine grater and grate the pufferberry pit onto the dough and knead it until you see no hint of the rosy color.
At this point, place all wieldings on the dough. They will seep into it during the drying process. Duration, Toughness, Absorbtion, and Replant are found in The Powder Process by Genophyte Cradgel. Use other wieldings at your discretion and for your specific needs.
Set aside in an alchemy cabinet's drying shelf. Allow three days for drying, or until the mixture cracks and begins to falll apart. Take out and return to a ceramic mortar and grind to a very fine powder. Put in a brown glass container and store in an alchemy cabinet.

• Use domestic butterpetal petals. Healers maintaining healing gardens add spells to make the magickal energy the petals retain more potent


• Starsands keeps the final powder dry and free of mold


• Mekel crystals are known for their image transfer properties. This substance triggers the reaction to the archival paper


• Whiterock powder adds consistency to the mixture


• Pufferberry for smoothness


• Lipseed oil as a medium

The Paper

Most wielders don't have the machines to make their own paper. You may pay a craftsman to make it, but you must be present to wield the spells onto the pulp and paper at certain intervals. You cannot do it after it is made; the paper will not absorb the wieldings and become simply another bleached sheet for scribal use.
If you are at the Iovan Palace School, we have a paper-making room outside the archival wing. The papermakers know how to create the paper and when to wield the appropriate spells.
Briefly, when the grousereed pulp is put into the cookers with the bitterpaper and reyarn concoction, you need to wield Absorption and Placement. The magick these spells impart will get cooked into the pulp. Make certain you create a ball of power to release the spells through the entirety of the cooking process. Weak absorption is the result, if you don't.
After the pulp is cooked, the result is placed in compressors while still hot. You must be there to wield Reform, Inkstain, Graphitestain, Paintdouble and Glasscoat before they squeeze the liquid out of the pulp. The spells are designed to be squeezed into the pulp by the compressors. If there are other spells you need, wield them at this time.
Once squeezed and set aside to dry, you must wield Second Absorption and Finalize on the sheets. Without the Second Absorption, the sheets will not bind with the archival powder, and without Finalize, the powder will fall from the sheet and no image will transfer.

To Use

Lay the document you wish to copy onto a flat, dry surface. Sprinkle archival powder on the document, then use a size 2 soft brush to spread the powder onto the document. Cover to the edge; besides being good practice, if the document has a spell embedded, the spell will not transfer unless the entire surface is coated.
A thin layer will suffice; thick layers are a waste of powder and add no benefit to the process.
Once the document is coated, take an archival paper and cover it. The paper should overlap the original document; if not, use two sheets and use set glue to attach them together. Take a size 8 soft brush and press the paper into the document. The powder needs to coat the paper to trigger its spells, so press firmly.
Then wait. A faint flash will signal the transfer has completed, and it's easy to miss. If you guess you missed it and you guessed wrong, the process will fail and you'll have to retry. No one wishes to tax delicate documents in this way.
Look at the original and the copy. Make certain all the powder transfered to the archival paper and that the text, images and whatnot were correctly copied. Set aside to cure. When the paper turns a corn husk yellow, you've completed the transfer.

The combination of alchemical ingredients and spell components ensures the preservation of the copy. There are books and scrolls in the Iovan Palace School Library that are copies of long-gone originals that look as if they were copied yesterday.
The archival powder and paper process is invaluable to scholars who need to study ancient works, but who can't due to the delicate nature of the original. Yes, some damage occurs when the copy is made, but it is better to make one to hand to scholars than have them destroy the original.
It is also an invaluable tool for copying spells attached to paper. The powder is made to copy everything--text, images, and magick.

Yes, you can make copies from copies. Once cured, the transfer powder and archival spells become inert, so they won't interfere with another copy.

Yes, the archival powder can copy anything that lays flat and has a smooth, written surface--a sheet of paper, a book, etc. It does not work well on round or rough objects.

Yes, there are special powders for documents so ancient, touching them might destroy them. It is a specialized art to extract the information and place on archival paper.