The Syphon of Stars

Description

The Syphon of Stars is a very powerful ritual tool attuned to the raw power of magic itself. While some are crafted in the shape of a metal or glass orb they most often take the form of a chunk of irregular crystal shot through with strands of the magical materials, bound in tempest jade and dragonbone. Very occasionally, they are crafted in the form of great tomes bound in rare hides with their covers intricately decorated; twisted ceremonial staves or rods; or small portable monoliths of dark stone engraved with depictions of various constellations and runes, especially The Phoenix - the latter are sometimes called Phoenix Stones and are popular with Urizen and Freeborn magicians of an experimental nature.

The Syphon of Stars has three main purposes. First, it can be invaluable to a coven that wishes to perform a 'formulaic' ritual that some of its members have not mastered, allowing them to reach the threshold of lore required. This is often a costly endeavour, as those coven-members still perform the ritual without the benefit of mastery, meaning that it requires more crystal mana, but without the Syphon the ritual would often be impossible to perform.

In a similar vein, it allows a coven to spontaneously invoke a ritual that none of them have mastered, again with a commensurate cost in mana crystals, In emergencies, however, this extra flexibility can prove absolutely invaluable.