Eating Around Lesser Hermetic Limits

Sometimes I notice I’ve missed an idea that’s obvious in hindsight. Given that the book this idea is from was published over a decade ago, I can only suggest that I’ve had a lot on…

There’s a limit of knowledge in the act of Hermetic creation. Although, as some genius said on the forum, you don’t need to know how many wrinkles there are on the back of the ears of an elephant because magic just fills in the details for you, you do need to know that there is a thing called an elephant. You also, I’d argue, have to have some sort of concept of what an elephant is, because Hermetic magic is practiced in at least three languages, and spells are copiable by literate mundanes, so Hermetic Latin is not a sacred language transcending the mortal sphere and designating specific things in the Realm of Forms. A name is just a signifier: it’s not a barcode for a vast spiritual Ikea. So, this creates a practical limit in Hermetic magic. You need to know of a thing, and be able to concieve of it, in discret, if not specific, terms.

Is it enough to have read the Bodlean Besitary to make an elephant? Your saga may vary, but I think it’s more fun to say that if all you know about elephants is unicorns like to gut them and they have an end on their trunks like a shower rose, you deserve to not be able to make one. Get a bit of tooth or hide, and use a minor InAn spell, and you are fine, though.

A long time ago I suggested that magi got around this by having a Gastronomic Society, run by House Jerbiton. Originally the people who could make animals would get together and demonstrate animals for each other, so that they could each go away with new discrete knowledges. It became a gastronomers’ club when the magi discovered their consortis were eating the animals.

The first trick I missed was this: if a magus was to spend vis to make the animal, its pelt and bones could be distributed to the group. This allows the group to send out little subscruiption boxes to the people who could not make it, perhaps for a fee. The meetings might only make one animal permanent or instant per feast, and all participants put in a little vis to make this possible. The pelts can also be used to overcome another little failure of Hermetic magic: some shapeshifting spells are far simpler if you have an item of clothing made from the animal you are turning into. Girdles of wolfskin and cloaks of raven feathers are the prime examples. Regardless, once you’ve recieved your subscription box, and cast InAn on the contents, you can then use a minor Cr(Re)An to make the shapeshifting item.

The second trick is that if you have no idea what an animal looks like, there’s not a lot to stop someone putting anything in your mouth, beyond the usual precautions magi take against poinson. What if an infernalist puts some human flesh in the ragout? What if the subscription boxes contain infernally tainted teeth?

Finally, the collected contents of the subscription boxes become realia collections. Might the magi seek the lost cabinet of the President of this Society? With dozens of the samples, it would aid the studies of some magi markedly.

Two creaturess in Realms of Power: Infernal might make suitable foes for the Gastronomic Society. Gourmand the Sweet Toothed is weaker, and is on pages 70-71 and Baal-peor , the lord of ceaseless consumption and defecation, is on pages 50-51.