Blessing of New Spring

Rules

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 2 minutes of roleplaying. This ritual targets a farm. The character who controls the target personal resource must be present throughout.

This ritual is an enchantment. A target may only be under one enchantment effect at a time.

Effects

The farm earns an additional 10 rings at the Spring Equinox (event 2), the Summer Solstice (event 3) and the Autumn Equinox (event 4). The ritual ends at the start of winter.

This spell is intended to be cast at the Winter Solstice. If the spell is cast later in the year, then money that would have been gained in earlier seasons is lost. It is useless if performed after the Summer Solstice.

If the owner of the resource does not attend the next event, then the additional production provided by the resource is still added to that character's inventory.

Additional Targets

This ritual can affect additional farms in the same territory. Each additional farm increases the magnitude by 1. The character who controls each farm must be present throughout the ritual.

Description

This spell is intended to be cast at the Winter Solstice. It is less efficient and productive if cast later in the year and is useless if performed after the Summer Solstice. If the spell is cast later in the year, then money that would have been provided during any missed seasons is lost. Performed at the optimal time, and left to run its full course, the ritual provides a total of 30 rings of additional profit to the owner of the target farm.

A farm affected by the ritual will provide more and better crops, increasing the amount of money at the spring, summer and autumn equinoxes. Once it is in place, it also allows for more powerful rituals to be cast. It serves as an anchor for the Strong Ox, Golden Sun ritual, permitting even more wealth to be reaped from the soil.

The blessing of new spring is a very old ritual indeed, practiced in various forms throughout the world. The power of this ritual infuses animals and plants with vigour and fertility. Crops grow quickly, and in great abundance; they are naturally healthy and resistant to threats such as harsh weather, frost, disease and parasites. Animals are fruitful, with large litters, and young creatures grow quickly and enjoy great health. If there is a downside to the ritual it is that it increases the amount of work that must be done - crops must constantly be tended for weeds, and animals become a little more restive as they become more fruitful.

In the long term, however, the benefits of this ritual should not be underestimated. It is understandably popular in The Marches, and there are covens of landskeepers who work hard to ensure that they can perform this ritual on many farms simultaneously. Such covens also work to master Strong Ox, Golden Sun and Gathering the Harvest if they can, so they can offer even greater prosperity to the households and monasteries. With tension growing between householders and the market towns, many landskeepers refuse to perform the blessing of new spring and similar rituals to benefit the alders; the townsfolk have begun to look outside the Marches for magical support for the few farms they do own.

Common Elements

The ritual creates fertility and encourages hardy growth of plants and animals. Ritual performances often include the evocation of the rune Bravash or the constellation of The Fountain. Hearth magics and symbols associated with health and Prosperity are also commonly evoked, such as shedding small amounts of blood or offering a cup or bowl of wine, ale, milk or mead to the targets.

In the Marches, a portion of the produce that the farm produced the previous year might be used in the ritual; a similar element might be used in a Freeborn ritual intended to bless the produce of an orchard or vineyard.

Artificers can construct a ritual focus that enhances the performance of this ritual, and its associated rituals. The Straw Mask can be used any number of times a day, and it will allow even a novice spring ritualist to perform Blessing of New Spring without having mastered it and without the assistance of a coven; it will allow a more skilled ritualist to add an additional farm or two to the performance depending on the mastery of the wearer; and when combined with the Imperial Regio it will allow a magician with even a basic grounding in Spring lore to enchant several farms by themselves.