What magic would this fall under

Thee_Cheshire_Cat · February 2023

i'm new-ish to ESO, been here a year. So i'm a little unfamiliar entirely with the different magical genres and such that exist in the world.

Say we have this magical piece of paper, maybe it's not paper, maybe it's flesh of something, imbued with magic, and bound to a specific person.

When others sign this scroll, in their blood, they become bound to the scroll holder.

That's the premise/idea.

Is there anyone with knowledge of the ins and outs of magic in game that might be able to explain how this might be plausible? Like, where it would come from, how it may work etc. The more details the better please!

i was thinking something daedra-esqe since they seem to dwell in dark and twisted stuff... but i dunno.

Soarora · February 2023

In terms of school, I think the best bet is Illusion. I don’t know of any existing contracts regular mages can do like that though (people just cast charm directly on their target), so a Daedric Artifact would make sense. Maybe a fanmade artifact of Molag Bal due to the Domination factor.

Thee_Cheshire_Cat · February 2023

Ah, yes, something related to Molag Bal would fall in line perfectly.

But what NPC type would have access to such an item, any that we deal with? Or would one have to be made up. Oooor, spose it could be something obtained on the black market or something... that would be easier...

Also, all magic comes with a price, correct? What might the price be to own/use such an artifact. To suffer the nightmares during sleep, perhaps of the ones bound to it? What curse perhaps may be a better word...

Soarora · February 2023

Thee_Cheshire_Cat wrote: »

Ah, yes, something related to Molag Bal would fall in line perfectly.

But what NPC type would have access to such an item, any that we deal with? Or would one have to be made up. Oooor, spose it could be something obtained on the black market or something... that would be easier...

Also, all magic comes with a price, correct? What might the price be to own/use such an artifact. To suffer the nightmares during sleep, perhaps of the ones bound to it? What curse perhaps may be a better word...

Artifacts can be obtained in any number of ways: from the Prince directly, stolen, bought, bartered, etc. from someone else, random finding...

Honestly, I don't find there to be much curse associated with holding an Artifact. People use Mehrunes Razor with no issues, for instance. Though, there are cursed Artifacts as well, such as the Fork of Horripilation. So, it's up to you if you want it to be cursed or not.

DTLight · February 2023

A daedric artifact that isn't cursed normally can *become* cursed easily, as well, especially if certain conditions are met. A good example of this is The Ring of Hircine, https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Ring_of_Hircine

As for the magic school question, it would depend on the mechanisms behind it. You could make it conjuration, and have it so it's an otherworldly (usually daedra, but not always) force be controlling the magic and reasoning with it. Alteration changes the properties of items, so it could perhaps go under that. Illusion is as the name suggests, and mostly a mental thing, but a command spell (illusion school) tied into the contract could be a part of it.

And finally, there's mysticism, which is the big "We Don't Know What This Is" school of magic, usually wacky stuff like portals and unexplained things go here.

Hope that helps, and happy to expand on anything