Bright Eyes Gleam in the Depths

Rules

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 10 minutes of roleplaying. Unlike many rituals, it is not possible to use the power of the Imperial regio to reduce the casting time of this enchantment.

This ritual targets the entire Empire. It must be performed at the Imperial regio at Anvil. The ritual requires a map of the entire Empire which is used to harness and focus its power.

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

Effects

The ritual enchants the entire Empire flooding every Imperial territory with energy drawn from the Day Realm. The precise effects of this flood of magic are unpredictable, but will always create certain effects.

Firstly, every mine in the Empire will produce two additional ingots of special material over the next season which match the base production chosen when the mine was created.

In addition, many inhabitants of the Empire experience odd incidents of deja vu and find themselves remembering things they had thought were forgotten, especially the location of lost items and things they have read or witnessed, often many years in the past.

Finally, while the enchantment persists encounters with the Day realm will become more common. People are more likely to encounter Day regio or find that existing Day regio have increased in potency; heralds of Day eternals and indeed the eternals of Day themselves will become more active following the performance of this ritual, and become more interested in the activities of Imperial citizens.

In addition to these expected effects the enchantment may create any number of effects in keeping with the resonance and dissonance of Day magic.

The effect lasts until the start of the next Profound Decisions Empire event.

Description

This potent ritual enchants the entire Empire for a short time, causing energy drawn from the Day realm to spread throughout every Imperial territory. It affects every mine in every region within the Empire, increasing the amount of magical metal that is mined while the enchantment persists. Much like Revelation of the Jewel's Sparkling Heart , the ritual is about helping miners to locate deposits of raw materials rather than creating substances out of nothing. It also causes the inhabitants of the Day realm to become more active and more interested in the Empire, and adds potency to regio aligned with Day. it may also have any number of other effects - although they will always be in keeping with the resonance and dissonance of Day magic.

There is a superstitious belief that more of the children conceived or born during this period will express the merrow lineage, but the ritual has been performed so infrequently (and it is so difficult to be certain about anything to do with the lineaged) that this belief has not been confirmed or denied by any evidence. Some merrow - especially those of notable high lineage - experience a heightened influence of the Day magic in their blood - making them more focussed, cerebral, and so forth.

Bright Eyes Gleam in the Depths is an Imperial enchantment similar to Hallow of the Green World and Wondrous Forests of the Night, and very nearly failed to be codified. The initial enthusiasm for Imperial-scale enchantments that followed the formulation of Wondrous Forests of the Night had almost entirely faded by the time Hallow of the Green World was completed and performed for the first time. When the stargazers of Urizen attempted to convince the Imperial Conclave of the wisdom of continuing exploration of the omnihedron their requests fell on deaf ears. Successive Deans refused to commit to the arduous task of formulating such a ritual. The time-scale involved in formulating an Imperial enchantment; the challenges of performing such a ritual once it was complete; and the serious questions about the wisdom of doing so all served to make Imperial magicians hostile to the idea of creating one more never mind the four more rituals the stargazers envisioned. Not everyone agreed; many Urizen magicians and members of the Unfettered Mind Conclave order vociferously campaigned for the creation of Imperial enchantments in each of the six realms with an eye towards deeper understanding of resonance and the interplay between magic and the mortal world.

In 166YE, more than a decade after Hallow of the Green World had entered Imperial lore, the Urizen took matters into their own hands. Penthela of Delving fought a tightly-contested campaign to become Provost of the only recently completed Halls of Knowledge specifically so that she could begin work on a Day magic Imperial enchantment ritual. Her work was very nearly left incomplete; after Penthela died fighting the Grendel in 168YE she was replaced as Provost by Aurelia of Endsmeet who set aside the partially complete ritual to work on "more pressing projects". Historians speculate that her decision was partly influenced by the newly-enthroned Emperor Frederick who is believed to have been deeply sceptical about the use of enchantments that exerted undue influence over Imperial citizens. Two years after Frederick's death Aurelia was herself replaced by the mage Antigonis of Ankarien who revived the project and oversaw completion of the ritual text in early 183YE.

By this time, interest in Imperial enchantments outside of Urizen had almost entirely faded. It was another three years before Bright Eyes Gleam in the Depths was actually performed - in response to an Empire-wide shortage of Green Iron - and only after its effectiveness had been demonstrated was it entered into Imperial lore. Since then it has been cast on one other occasion - during the reign of Empress Giselle when it was used as a way to mitigate the effects of a curse that arose following a grand conjunction of the Wanderer and the Lock that resulted in Imperial citizens of the naga lineage finding it increasingly difficult to communicate clearly with others.

Following the Autumn Equinox 384YE, the magnitude of this ritual was discovered to have shifted upwards from 160 to 200. Magical theoreticians believe that this is a result of the growth of the Empire, and may have been heralded to some degree by a subtle conjunction of the esoteric constellations of the Key and the Lock during the Equinox. Shortly before the Autumn Equinox 385YE, the magnitude had again shifted, to 210. Scholars suggest this may have been a result of the Barrens becoming part of the Empire.

Common Elements

This is a powerful ritual, and few covens can perform it by themselves. When this ritual has been performed in the past, it has often been achieved with the use of at least one Web of Celestial Attunement and with supplies of crystal mana from the Imperial Conclave. A coven that plans to perform it often spends several days in preparation, knowing that the eyes of the Empire are likely to be on them.

Symbols of divination and discovery are used throughout. The ritual is almost always performed under the open sky, in front of an audience - there is rarely any room for secrecy in a Day ritual of this magnitude. The map that is a central focus of the ritual is often carefully marked with ink or painted or inscribed with the runes of Day. it is usual for one or more of the ritualists to recite the names of the Imperial territories or even regions throughout the casting as a counterpoint to the ritual invocation.

Music is common, often gentle and carefully scored, to further counterpoint the invocation. The names of Day eternals may be used, but this is less common than invocations of popular historical characters from around the Empire, especially those whose stories are concerned with prosperity, wealth, engineering and planning.