Dawn hearth magic

The wearing of favours

A favour is an effective talisman that can ward off enchantments but only if worn openly. The greater the affection that the donor feels for the recipient, the more effective the Hearth Magic becomes. Favours are also sometimes used to deliver curses, and there are plenty of tales of a stolen favour bringing ruin to the one who loses it.

Love

Love is a powerful force in Dawn, and its inclusion in magic can make effects more potent but also more unpredictable. Romantic love is the most powerful and most unpredictible, but filial love and even platonic love between friends have a power of their own. Dawnish tales talk of lovers or friends who return from death for a few moments to offer comfort or protect their loved ones, or to encourage them to seek vengeance on their betrayers. Love that is betrayed is said to give rise to curses of its own accord. Finally, love is said to be the one force that can bind souls together in the Labyrinth, and bonds of love may mean that two souls are reborn and driven to seek one another out through multiple incarnations.

Girding

Armour and shields are a hearth magic conencted with identity in Dawn. Donning ones' armour and girding oneself with weapons and armour before a battle, particularly with the assistance of friends and trusted companions, is seen as a way of "donning" a glorious persona. A knight becomes larger than life by girding themselves in armour, and in a similar way a Senator may "gird" themselves with fine robes, documents and a short dagger before addressing the Senate to create a powerful persona so that others can see their glory.

There are stories of people who put on another's armour - again engaging in the ritual of girding themselves - and who either gain the strength of the person whose armour they are wearing, or perform some other great deed in their name, or who are mistaken for the person whose armour they don despite the unlikelihood of that actually happening. Most of these stories are romantic in nature, although several are tragedies in which someone dies in the place of their lover. A rare few are cautionary tales in which a villain masquerades as the hero to bring ruin down on her head after she has carelessly left her panoply where it may be stolen by her foe.

Heraldry

Heraldry has a hearth magic which goes further than simple custom. Using the heraldric devices of another house, or to using those that one is not permitted to use, is to court disaster. Again stories and tragedies told by troubadours often tell of terrible errors and the misfortunes that emerge from them and it is considered inappropriate to do so knowingly.

Heraldry actively defines the identity of the bearer. It is believed that they take on the characteristics of the creatures or devices that are presented on their arms and through this achieve even greater feats of glory. Dawn has a very different approach to the Marches as to what is suitable for such heraldry. Whereas the Marches focus on mundane creatures and objects, Dawnish preference instead is for the fantastical and legendary. If a Marches blazon were to be a Snake then the Dawnish equivalent might be a Dragon or similar.

Burselac

The Dawn Egregore is called Burselac. It is a mysterious soul that shares Dawn's close ties with the Eternals, and is the only Egregore known to travel to the Hall of Worlds. Burselac often challenges the nobility of the nation, setting challenges and quests to test individuals. Not all the tests are heroic; challenges of hospitality, of cultural understanding and of virtue are present as Burselac moves through the Dawn camp, ensuring that ever greater stories are created and re-told. Burselac also encourages romance between individuals, regardless of its appropriateness, and encourages yeomen to strive to become nobles and to aspire to the Tests of Mettle. Unlike many other Egregores, Burselac can be quite vocally critical if it believes the tradition of the Test of Mettle is being misused - although what it considers "misuse" is anyone's guess. On at least one occasion Burselac and Jack-of-the-Marches have nearly come to blows when they have encountered one another, embodying the tensions between the two Nations.