Genius loci are an idea which turned up in Ars Magica with several of us finding them all of a sudden. I used one in a fiction competition, and I believe the authors of The Mysteries First Edition had already written others up. In my case I saw an odd bit of Latin in a story title by Clark Ashton Smith and it gave me a name for a type of spirit I’d already been using in my home game. In it a mist would come off the sea into the covenant and it would leave books only if offered other books in exchange. Essentially it was a living library made of special effects. In this poem, Herrick conjures his genius to provide wealth, health and an aura. Speaking in Ars Magica terms, this is magical architecture. His request that his roof continue to age cosmetically is slightly outside of the usual limitations of magic which tends to make created things new, and maintained things age less quickly.
This little episode keeps getting caught in the gears of my production flow, so I’m sending it out now. This isn’t your episode for the week: effectively it’s last week late. See you Thursday my time for a vampire variant by Edith Nesbit.
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Command the roof, great Genius, and from thence
Into this house pour down thy influence,
That through each room a golden pipe may run
Of living water by thy benizon;
Fulfil the larders, and with strength’ning bread
Be ever-more these bins replenished.
Next, like a bishop consecrate my ground,
That lucky fairies here may dance their round;
And, after that, lay down some silver pence,
The master’s charge and care to recompence.
Charm then the chambers; make the beds for ease,
More than for peevish pining sicknesses;
Fix the foundation fast, and let the roof
Grow old with time, but yet keep weather-proof.
Games From Folktales 