During layout of a book there are occasional bits where you need an extra page, or an extra column, to make things sit correctly. Here are the pieces that were added since the first draft went live.
Vitrum flexile : The lost secret of unbreaking glass
It is recorded that in the reign of Tiberius an artisan approached the Emperor and demonstrated that it was possible to make glass as durable and flexible as metal. If this secret could be recovered by the Venetians it would revolutionise their industries and military. Armour as light as glass, that does not need daily oiling to keep rust at bay, is a great boon to the logistics of seagoing nation. Hulls made of poured glass would be immune to shipworm, rot, and fire. Coloured glass could be used like concrete to adorn the city.
Magi might have a clue already hidden in some of their libraries providing guaranteed Original Research. In 1126 a magus of House Bonisagus discovered how to clarify Hermetic books (as per Covenants p. 88). In addition to making books easier to understand this makes them into a sort of glass, so that if taken out of a Magical Aura they decay into sand. Might his research notes have useful insights?
The Borosilicate Alternative
Troupes wanting to make a rapid advancement in glass technology without something as high fantasy as flexible glass could instead invent borosilicate glass. In the real world this was a 19th Century German invention. Glasses of this type are clearer, stronger, more chemically inert, and more resistant to thermal shock than soda-lime glass. English speakers may be familiar with this glass by its first English trademark name: Pyrex. Its properties make it particularly suited for use in Hermetic laboratories or alchemical offices.
The new ingredient, borax, is known to Venetian alchemists, although it is somewhat scarce. It is mined in Anatolia and used as a, relatively expensive, cleaning agent, insecticide and flux for metallurgy. Once it is known to be valuable it, like other minerals, can be created using Creo Terram magic. Rego Terram craft magic creates intermediate ingredients temporarily. It can be used to make borosilicate glass without a supply of borax, once the appropriate techniques have been devised.
“But there was an artisan, once upon a time, who made a glass vial that couldn’t be broken. On that account he was admitted to Caesar with his gift; then he dashed it upon the floor, when Caesar handed it back to him. The Emperor was greatly startled, but the artisan picked the vial up off the pavement, and it was dented, just like a brass bowl would have been! He took a little hammer out of his tunic and beat out the dent without any trouble. When he had done that, he thought he would soon be in Jupiter’s heaven, and more especially when Caesar said to him, ‘Is there anyone else who knows how to make this malleable glass? Think now!’ And when he denied that anyone else knew the secret, Caesar ordered his head chopped off, because if this should get out, we would think no more of gold than we would of dirt.”
– A quotation about indestructible glass from Petronius’s Satyricon.
Glass for covenant income
Magi may make great profits with simple magic in the glass trades. The greatest cost to workers is fuel for the kilns, which is imported for the mainland or scavenged from the waste of the city. Retired gondolas for example, are incinerated in the kilns. Simple Ignem magic gives free heat, and therefore cheap glass.
Diabolists also have a source of limitless free heat but are, for now, more interested in the metal trades.
Size and Material Discount
Flexible glass magic items would fascinate magi because enchanted items could be made far more cheaply. The base cost for glass items is 20% of the cost of base metal items. For example a suit of glass armour costs 20 pawns of vis less than one of steel. For Hermetic Architecture the difference is immense.
***
Notes on Theriac
Theriac is a sovereign remedy compounded in Venice. It is believed to have originally been developed by the priests of Asclepius, then further developed in the court of Mithridates of Pontus, as a panacea and daily prophylaxis. The recipe has been adjusted many times: for example the Venetian version contains fresh snake meat, first added by the physician to the Emperor Nero. It is a dark, sweet, thick liquid. In English it is the source of the word “treacle”
Most apothecaries make theriac only once per year. This is usually in the spring, when fresh snakes can be captured. The best serpents for making medicine come from the hills near Padua. Theriac is so important as an export that it names the profession. Apothecaries are literally people who make theriac.
The ritual of making theriac takes up to two days, and is performed publicly. Some claim that this permits quality control by the State, but it also adds to the mystique and value of the product. The ingredients which the apothecaries display include live snakes kept in small wicker cages. Venetian stories contain the same sort of destruction of vendor’s stalls you see in modern movies, except that this lets loose creatures that can kill bystanders.
Galen, the most prized writer on medicine in 1220, suggests detecting adulterated theriac by feeding it to roosters and then releasing them snakes into their pen. Selling adulterated or counterfeit theriac is illegal, but few forgers are caught by the authorities. By tarnishing the reputation for quality that Venetian theriac has, a person is undermining the income of the city’s most skilled chemists. It is illegal for most of them to sell poison, but they are allowed to brew it for personal use.
A surprising effect of these pressures is that the vast majority of counterfeit theriac comes from monasteries. They are outside the legal limitation for a single batch per year, cannot be forced to make their batches in public, and their members are difficult to poison because of their enclosed lifestyle.
Theriac, once made, is left to mature in sealed ceramic containers. It increases its potency over time, reaching its peak effectiveness after six years, then retaining it for forty more. Apothecaries therefore have cellars of theriac, even if they are able to sell every drop once it matures. This can be stolen, or kept safe, by magi.
Properly-made theriac is a remedy for poisoning and most diseases. It is believed to be the most efficacious medicine available to cure plague. This is particularly the case when plague is caused by dragons spilling their poison into rivers. Serpent flesh contains an antivenin that prevents each snake from poisoning itself. The protective power of this essence is magnified by the compounding and maturation processes. It does not miraculously cure wounds but the substantial dose of opium it contains is analgesic.
Theriac is not dependably a source of vis, although it has been reported as such by some magi. Characters investigating this may discover that some of the serpents imported from Padua are Animals of Virtue and contain Creo vis. Tracking snake shipments back to the Paduan Hills may reveal the lair of a Mother of Serpents (see Realms of Power: Faerie.)
Many apothecaries are limited to a single batch each year. This is due to a mixture of the cost of ingredients, the risk of a ruined batch due to the uncertainties of working in the street, and the physical processes of compounding. A character with a high Leadership score, Verditius machinery, or enchanted laboratory equipment might make a truly enormous batch. A failure in the equipment containing such a large batch could flood the campo and pollute the canals with magical liquid.
The Devil’s Bridge
One of the bridges on Torcello is said to be haunted by a demon in the form of a black cat.
“Just the one bridge?” ask wits from Venice. “Just the one demon? Why, on a warm night during Carnival…” Yes., yes. Settle down and let me tell you about a Faustian bargain.
A girl falls in love with a man forbidden to her by her family. In the original story he’s part of the Austrian army holding the city after the Napoleonic Wars, but you can swap that out. for political rivals within the city.
They agree to elope but he is murdered and his killer goes undiscovered. The girl enters so deep a depression she refuses to eat and begins to waste away. Her family, fearing this is a sort of slow suicide, go to a witch for aid.
The witch agrees to help, and takes a fee from the family. What that was is not detailed in the story, which gives an entry point for the player characters into the story. She makes arrangements with a demon, then takes the girl to a haunted bridge at midnight. The girl walks the bridge toward the demon, who approaches from the far side. A candle in her right hand is the only illumination. In her left she holds a gold coin. She gives the coin to the demon and it regurgitates a key that allows her to unlock Time. Her beloved walks up the bridge from the demon’s side and takes her hand. The candle goes out, some say blown by a gust of wind, others with its wick pinched between the girl’s fingers. In the darkness, the girl and her lover vanish from the world, together forever.
The witch then flees. She had agreed to give the demon one soul every Christmas but has no intention of paying, or ever visiting this island again. The demon, cheated of its price, still appears on the bridge each Christmas in the shape of a black cat. It is waiting for the witch to return and give it the souls it is owed. What happens to those it meets is disputed. Some say it claims their souls in lieu of its promised payment, others that it is happy to make deals, preferably for human sacrifices.
It is important to remember that some demons deliberately allow mortals to appear to trick them. It encourages others to make agreements. Humans, being prone to Pride, think they are of above average cunning, so if someone else can fool a demon, so, clearly, can they. In this case, to talk to the demon requires a person to deliberately miss the ceremonies of Christmas.
A sequel?
The story as told says the witch got her prize, and that the lovers were happy, Hermetic magi might be sceptical. Demons can’t grant life, so the corpse is, at best, a revenant and perhaps simply a malefic illusion. A pious member of her family, believing that a a woman vanishing from an infernally-tainted bridge is unlikely to be in a paradise with her lover, asks the magi if she can be rescued. This is perhaps possible, but how can they know that a demon has not taken the woman’s shape? How can they be assured that the woman has not become an infernalist during her captivity?
Venetian Magistracies
One of the lovely things about using Google Translate is that sometimes it gives truly bizarre responses, particularly if you are telling it Venetian is Italian. In a Faerie-inclined city you can just take those at face value and use them.
Magistrate for the Merceria
One of the most difficult jobs in the Venetian public service is the magistracy responsible for good order and fair dealing in the faerie market. The random way that magistrates are selected in Venice leaves young men with no mystical experience thoroughly overwhelmed. They are dependant on the permanent staff, some of whom no longer even pretend to be human, and some of whom may be moonlighting Merinita magi or Tytalus personae. At least one agent is a magical cat who enjoys puzzles. They always need help. They always have money. They only pay after success has been proven. If you have a useful set of skills the Magistracy is more than willing to let you try to fix one of their problems. They do not mount rescue missions.
Magistracies the make very little sense
Some of the magistracies with offices on this floor are incoherent. A young patrician made magistrate of a particular shade of pale blue, for example, could take the sinecure and do nothing. They could also charge about the city claiming jurisdiction over everyone wearing this colour, which happens to be the most popular shade for clothing outside the patrician class. Dereliction of duty is almost treason, but claiming authority that is not yours is immodest. Which path ends in a prison sentence? Other questions occur: why is the person in charge of forest maintenance also ceremonial overseer of the annual bull decapitation? What exactly does a magistrate for the revision of scripture do? Are they and the magistrates for blasphemy allies or locked in a constant cycle of reprisal? Does a magistrate of feuds try to settle them, or is it his job to pick fights with the other magistrates of feuds until their term expires? Venetian law is changed to suit custom, so the perception of what a magistrate should be doing is more important than what the law says he must do.
The Magistracy of Foreigners
All visitors to Venice should be aware of the Magistracy of Foreigners. This group of judges hear the pleas of outsiders who attempt to use the Venetian court system. They are pernickety lawyers: they deal with disputed contracts between the citizens of Venice and the denizens of Torcello. Being aware of the operations of the Magistracy of Foreigners is simple self-defence. Every so often one of the ruling bodies of Venice says that this magistracy’s members should be randomly selected from the foreigners in the City. The first a player character may hear about it is when a clerk arrives with a chain of office and a full court docket.
I’ve declared a hard cut-off, although I do have space, without adding pages, for one more practitioner of magic. Irritatingly I’ve also found a reuse for one of the monsters I’ve previously published in the Venetian setting, and a small trove of folk tales I’ve not checked out, despite my notes reminding me to. There’s a decent chance another Venetian article is coming, even though I’ve sworn it is done.
Games From Folktales 