Time for a final visit to Kunz’s “Curious Lore of Precious Stones”.
Initially I’d cut this into two episodes, because I thought sapphires would have so much material attached to them that they could stand alone. I’d expected them to be everywhere, because they are common in fantasy stories. Also, I come from central Queensland, which has the largest sapphire fields in the southern hemisphere, so they are cheap and popular here. It turns out there are no good sources of sapphire in Mythic Europe. It’s a mysterious stone which comes from the East.
Mythic Europeans don’t know that rubies and sapphires are colour variation of the same basic stone, corundum, and do not really have a term for what we call fancies, which are corundums in other colours. The name is vaguely related to the planet Saturn, through a string of etymology that Mythic Europeans would not understand, and to the blue colour of the stone. The Romans used to call modern lapis lazuli sapphirus as noted in an earlier episode in this series.
Corundum is exceptionally hard, and it is difficult to wear away. This is why it is used in things like the movements in watches. Presumably House Verditus knows this, and uses artificial stones. Non-gemstone quality corundum is used to grind less durable gemstones down, so they may also use it as an abrasive in their machines.
A puzzle can be referred to as a corundum, but the word itself is post-game period latecomer to English, from Tamil, so the desire to embrace the pun and have Guernicus magi using it for Intelligo spells, or Tytalus magi using it for disguises, has to be resisted.
Sapphire
The sapphire is noted as a regal gem by Damigeron, who asserts that kings wore it about their necks as a powerful defence from harm. The stone preserved the wearer from envy and attracted divine favor. For royal use, sapphires were set in bracelets and necklaces, and the sacred character of the stone was attested by the tradition that the Law given to Moses on the Mount was engraved on tablets of sapphire. While we should probably translate here “lapis-lazuli” instead of “sapphire,” all such passages were later understood as referring to the true sapphire, which is not found in pieces of the requisite size.
In the twelfth century, the Bishop of Rennes lavishes encomiums upon this beautiful stone. It is quite natural that this writer should lay especial stress upon the use of the sapphire for the adornment of rings, for it was in his time that it was beginning to be regarded as the stone most appropriate for ecclesiastical rings. The sapphire was like the pure sky, and mighty Nature had endowed it with so great a power that it might be called sacred and the gem of gems. Fraud was banished from its presence and necromancers honored it more than any other stone, for it enabled them to hear and to understand the obscurest oracles.
To step away from Kunz for a moment, the pope who declared all bishop’s rings should be of gold and unengraved sapphire was Innocent III, who died three and a half years before the usual start date for the game.
The traditional virtue of the sapphire as an antidote against poison is noted by Bartolomæus Anglicus, who claims to have seen a test of its power, somewhat similar to that recorded by Ahmed Teifashi of the emerald.
Voicing the general belief that the sapphire was endowed with power to influence spirits, Bartolomæus says that this stone was a great favorite with those who practised necromancy, and he adds: “Also wytches love well this stone, for they wene that they may werke certen wondres by vertue of this stone.”
The asteria, or star sapphire, might be called a “Stone of Destiny,” as the three cross-bars which traverse it are believed to represent Faith, Hope, and Destiny. As the stone is moved, or the light changes, a living star appears….One of the most unique of talismanic stones, it is said to be so potent that it continues to exercise its good influence over the first wearer even when it has passed into other hands.
Among the rich gifts offered at the shrine of St. Erkinwald, in Old Saint Paul’s, was a sapphire given in 1391 by Richard Preston, “a citizen and grocer of London.” He stipulated that the stone should be kept at the shrine for the cure of diseases of the eyes, and that proclamation should be made of its remedial virtues.
The usefulness of the sapphire as an eyestone for the removal of all impurities or foreign bodies from the eye is noted by Albertus Magnus, who writes that he had seen it employed for this purpose. He adds that when a sapphire was used in this way it should be dipped in cold water both before and after the operation. This was probably not so much to make the stone colder to the touch as to cleanse it, certainly a very necessary proceeding when the same stone was used by many persons suffering from contagious diseases of the eyes.
Richard Preston’s sapphire appears to have been only one of a class regarded as having special virtue to cure diseased eyes, as is shown by the existence of various other similar sapphires in different parts of Europe. It is not very easy to determine the precise reason—if there be one—which rendered any single sapphire more useful than another in this respect. An entry in the inventory of Charles V notes “an oval Oriental sapphire for touching the eyes, set in a band of gold.” Possibly the fact that a particular gem of this kind was used remedially, and was not set for wear as an ornament, may have been the only cause for a belief in its special virtue.
The proper method of applying a sapphire to cure plague boils is given at some length by Van Helmont. A gem of a fine, deep color was to be selected and rubbed gently and slowly around the pestilential tumor. During and immediately after this operation, the patient would feel but little alleviation; but a good while after the removal of the stone, favorable symptoms would appear, provided the malady were not too far advanced. This Van Helmont attributes to a magnetic force in the sapphire by means of which the absent gem continued to extract “the pestilential virulency and contagious poyson from the infected part.”
Previously published material bonuses include: knowledge 2, perdo vim against spirits 2, versus malign corpus 2, healing 3, reducing anger 3. I’d like to add healing eyes or sight +5, and I think the whole necromancy angle should be stronger than +2, perhaps +5.
Serpentine
The serpentines are a family of minerals which have a sort of scaly appearance, hence the name, refering to the skin of a snake. They aren’t precious, but can be polished into stones which display this surface decoration.
The Italian peasants of to-day believe that pebbles of green serpentine afford protection from the bites of venomous creatures. These stones are usually green with streaks or veins of white, and the name was derived from their fancied resemblance to a serpent’s skin. In addition to their prophylactic powers, if any one has been bitten by such a creature, the stone, when applied to the wound, is supposed to draw out the poison. Here, as in the case of coral, the hand of man must not have shaped the amulet; it should be in its natural state. As a general rule, however, the belief that the touch of any iron instrument, such as the tool of the gem-cutter, destroys the magic efficacy of the substance, is less firmly held in regard to stones than in reference to coral.
Serpentine has previously been published with a material bonus versus infection and animal poison of +3. I think we might also give the stone a little fire resistance, because some serpentines naturally contain asbestos, which ties into the whole salamander mythology. +2, perhaps?
Turquoise
With turquoise we have an odd plot hook, for characters interested in the Magica Lithica. This stone, much as we know it now, and have seen it in all kinds of roleplaying games, has no real role in Medieval European jewelry prior to the game period. There are small; sources of it in Europe, in Cornwall and Saxony, but it only really comes to Europe in volume after the Crusades begin. It’s name comes from French, and literally means the “Turkish stone”, although the Turks were actually just shipping stones from Persia.
It is also mined in Egypt, and was used for thousands of years there, but the artisans of Khemet found several ways to make cheap, artificial turquoise, which is more durable than the real stone. This means that if you find turquoise-like treasures from Egypt, they are more likely to be a durable, ceramic impostor than a real stone.
While there was a tendency to attribute the virtues originally ascribed to one particular stone to others of the same or similar color and appearance, certain stones were regarded as possessing special virtues not commonly attributed to others. A notable instance of this is the quality supposed to inhere in the turquoise. This stone was known in Egypt from a very early period and is later described by Pliny under the name of callais. For Pliny, and for all those who derived their information from him or from the sources he used, the turquoise only participated in the virtues assigned to all blue or greenish-blue stones; but from the thirteenth century, when the name turquoise was first employed, we read that the stone possessed the power to protect the wearer from injury by falling, more especially from horseback; later, this was extended to cover falls from a building or over a precipice. A fourteenth century authority, the “Lapidaire” of Sir John Mandeville, states that the turquoise protected horses from the ill-effects resulting from drinking cold water when overheated by exertion, and it is said that the Turks often attached these stones to the bridles and frontlets of their horses as amulets.
Probably the earliest notice of the peculiar superstition in regard to the turquoise—namely, that it preserves the wearer from injury in case of falling—is contained in Volmar’s thirteenth century “Steinbuch,” where we read: whoever owns the true turquoise set in gold will not injure any of his limbs when he falls, whether he be riding or walking, so long as he has the stone with him.
A singular virtue ascribed to the turquoise was that of striking the hour correctly, if the stone were suspended from a thread held between the thumb and index-finger in such a way that a slight vibration would make the stone strike against the side of a glass.
The shape and material bonus tables grant turquoise, or at least green turquoise, necromancy +4. I’d really like to give it an undiscovered, but very high, score for protecting from falling. +7 or so.
As a stone that prevents you being hurt from an involuntary dismount, and stops you colicking horses by giving them cold water after exercise, it seems the cavalier’s friend. I’d note that colic thing is effectively just folklore, by the way. To extend this, it might also serve to stop Bjornaer magi injuring an ankle when trotting in horse form, and be of similar assistance to Merinitas mimicking centaurs.
And that brings us to the end of these collected bits of folklore from Kunz.
Games From Folktales 