Enchantment is the means by which the most powerful magics are wrought. Sometimes these are a single act (such as destroying the Sylphim isle of Parabai) though more often a permanent item is created.
Their creation, however, is no easy feat: they require relics worked by master artisans, components bursting with magical power and enchanters of sufficient skill.
Creating an enchantment is a complex process, but it offers three principal advantages over ordinary magic use:
Most enchantments will be created in the form of items which can be used time and again. It is, however, possible to give up this aspect of enchanting to create more powerful effects.
Calling up volcanoes is something that a Sylphim can't normally do. Although their magic may be able to channel Fire or Earth, these must be used separately. With enchantment, however, any elemental effect is accessible to the Sylphim: they could meld these branches of Channelling to get what they want.
Enchantment can allow you to achieve effects that are outside the range of normal magic use. So long as it makes thematic sense for the power then it is probably achievable.
More exciting still the magics of different races could potentially be combined. If you combine the healing magic of the Becquerel with the beast summoning of the Kirlsa, you can gain a life-giving companion that can be summoned.
There are three things required to create an Enchantment: a Relic, a magical Component and an Enchanter to bind everything together. Normally, there will be a fourth step: Relics must be worked by a Craftsman before they can hold powerful magics.
The most important steps here are the Component and the Enchanter; the form of the Relic will restrict the types of item that can be created with it (for example a Relic sword cannot be enchanted into an everflowing water cup), but forms can potentially be changed by a Craftsman. Any Craftsman with sufficient skill can aid with Enchanting; they need not be of the same Race as the Enchanter.
An Enchanter can create any effect which is within the style of their Race's magic. For the Aquienos, this means that it will use the power of the stars; Becquerel enchantments will use Skira; Kirlsa enchantments relate to beasts; the Sylphim use the elements and the Teklo use words.
The Component, however, must be relevant to the specific effect you desire - volcanic magma might be useful for creating a flaming sword but could not imbue other elemental effects such as an everflowing water cup. Also note that components are usually useful only by Enchanters from a particular Race, as explained below.
The easiest way to create an Enchantment is to come up with an idea for what you want it to do and find an Enchanter prepared to make it. They will then email the GMs and we'll let them know whether your intentions are achievable and if so what the skill requirements will be, as well as what components you'll need. For particularly ambitious or complicated ideas it's possible that the Enchanter will need to invest an Action into researching his Design.
Generally speaking, the more precise an effect an enchantment bestows the greater the potency of that effect. So a magical banner that keeps an army disciplined would have greater effect if it were designed to only work on Teklo armies, and still greater effect if it only targeted a single Legion.
Some complicated Enchantments might require magic from multiple different races.
For example: a Kirlsa enchanter wishes to create an artifact that will let him speak the tongue of any beast he he has bested. The Beast-Form path would allow his body to change to make the right noises, but communication isn't really a Kirlsa gift. However the ability to understand others is very much in theme for a Becquerel Shaper of Stories, so by combining the two magics would make the Enchantment possible.
A Relic is an item that has been given special significance by an individual which opens it up to being Enchanted. Relics are relatively common, most notably as family heirlooms passed down through the generations, however it is much harder to “make” relics. Most relics come to exist because of the emotional and historical connections held by the object. It is the fact they have been passed down through the generations that makes them significant. It is much harder to attach such significance to a brand new sword, than to one that has been in your family for years.
A relic on its own however, is no better than the same object without any special significance. A relic sword cuts down foes no better than a regular sword, whilst a particularly finely crafted sword will certainly prove more deadly than a relic sword of humble origins.
Nonetheless, once a Relic has been identified, it can be improved upon. An untreated relic has only limited magical capacity; that is it can only carry the weakest of enchantments. However a relic worked by a Craftsman to increase its strength will find new channels opened up for it. The skill of the Craftsmen is directly proportional to the potency of the effect that can be imbued. A true master can fashion a relic capable of containing even the most powerful of magics, or can allow an item to hold several distinct enchantments.
Any Craftsman can also take materials of emotional significance and forge them into a new relic, although you should check with the GMs before hand that the materials you are planning to use are significant enough to yield a relic.
Examples:
The sword of a random Arkhivian is not relic material - the sword of the Arkhivian who killed your father probably is.
A crown from a Wyrm's treasure horde won't cut it. If somebody later identified it as the crown of the legendary King Regal the Benevolent, then it would.
A Relic bought with the Relic Trait is a basic, untreated Relic capable of holding only a simple Enchantment.
To enchant an item you must find components related to the magics that will be used. Different components will have have different magical potential, for example magma collected from a volcano has some significance, while fire somehow plucked from the sun would be vastly more potent.
Components are tied to a specific type of magic, for example:
Depending upon the desired enchantment effect, the components required may be more specific. For example a simple flaming sword could use any sort of fire-related component, however if the Enchanter wanted to produce a flame that would be capable of burning the Great Wyrm Hrundag then the component might need to be the beast's own flame.
These requirements mean that if you are seeking a specific effect, it's easiest for you to have an Enchanter design your item and suggest what component to acquire rather than speculatively acquiring components then seeking to turn them into an Enchantment.
Once a suitable relic and component have been found, an Enchanter must bind the two together. The prerequisite for the task is the Enchanter Trait, however the amount an Enchanter can get out of a component is restricted by their skill with magic. An Enchanter can only work with components associated with their Race's magic, however there is no distinction between the different branches of the magic in enchantment, so a Rank 3 Fire Channeller (Sylphim) is just as able to work with components you'd associate with water, as a Rank 3 Water Channeller.
Where an Enchantment is utilising multiple Race Magics then an Enchanter from each race is needed to perform the Binding.
Rushing
Normally Crafting the Relic and Binding the magic are two separate Actions, however an Enchanter who is also a Craftsman can choose to perform both steps at once: this is Rushing. There is a serious downside to this: relics crafted and bound within the same action are not mundanely improved. A rusty sword bound with fire will now be a rusty, flaming sword. An ancient ship's wheel that steers itself may break apart in the first storm it meets. As a result, Rushing an item's creation is only advisable when time is of the essence.