All articles filed in Ars Magica

The Seventeenth Object has the form of a granite ball, exactly nine inches across, with a single word chiseled about the surface. It was discovered in the hands of a priest in Normandy, who claimed it had been given to the keepers of his Church by an angel in 1237. The angel, which did not give its name, commanded that the…

The Sixteenth Object is the only one to regularly be named in discussion with something other than its place in the Revised Clementine Sequence, so for the convenience of the reader, I will call it by its imprecise but popular name: the Toscaria Codex. The Toscaria Codex is famous, of course, for the shadowy intrigues eventually won by…

The Fifteenth Object appears to be a wooden sphere, but this is deceptive. Careful pressure allows a small segment of the sphere to fall away, and then another, and so on, until the entire Object is disassembled. The sphere is constructed of three hundred and sixty-five pieces. Other Criamon magi have noted that the signs on the pieces make the process…

The Fourteenth Object is a small brass box, six inches long, four wide, and two deep. It has a lock on its front surface, but fortunately is not locked. It may be opened by lifting an ornamental latch which covers the keyhole. As the lid is lifted, a cunning mechanical device is activated, and music is…

The Twelfth and Thirteenth Objects were recovered together. Their enumeration is not entirely random: it is a historic artefact. The Twelfth Object, under our present enumeration, caused a sensation when first described, while its companion has relatively subtle powers and was, initially, considered to be a part of the Twelfth. One was wrapped within the other. The Twelfth and…

The Eleventh Object is an ancient Greek theatrical mask, or a facsimile thereof. The character portrayed is Miles Gloriosus, the braggart soldier. The inside of the Mask contains the Verditius runes for transforming minds, but these are, of course, not functional. When a magus wears the Mask, the usual suspicion mortals feel toward Gifted people is entirely suppressed.…

The Tenth Object is a small drawing of a serpent with the feet of a chicken. It is, presumably an illumination from a book, although the backing material, whatever it was, has been completely destroyed by the mystical properties of the object. This left only a thin layer of metallic paint or leaf, which was mounted on a cerulean…

The Ninth Object is sometimes called the Maghribi Pen. There is no  evidence that the Object comes from North Africa, but the only pen of similar structure found by early Academicans belonged to a noble from that region. It is unusual in that it has a reservoir for ink within the stem of the pen. The…

The Eighth Object is of a type familiar to any Hermetic magus: it is a mirrored bowl made of pure silver, three feet across. Many magi use a similar container to study vis in a laboratory.   Inscribed on the bottom of the outside of the dish are a series of simple pictures, using a mixture of doodles, Criamon symbolism,…

The Seventh Object is a portrait, of remarkable clarity, drawn magically on paper with colours as from life. It shows a young woman with dark hair and eyes. She has undergone skullbinding, and so her head is markedly elongated. The depicted woman has the Mark of the Inevitable on a visible wrist, and so many assume she is a Criamon…