It's for advancing our realm, mainly, since it's one of the requirements. The mundane plants would also allow us to feed ourselves, too, since we can bring the plants outside of our Soulscape via our fylgja, I'm pretty sure. We can also farm magical crops, which have unique and esoteric effects. There could be more, but those are the benefits I can think of off the top of my head. Don't think we know of anything else farming does.
[X] Go to the Seeress and begin learning seidr
[X] He goes to Vestfold with his father
-[X] Tell him we're coming to visit Vestfold in the next few years (though he should keep it quiet as we do have enemies about in those parts), and will see him then and would welcome him joining us at that time if he wants to.
0~0~0
The thick, sickly sweet scent of smoldering plants and herbs burns your nostrils as you enter the Seeress' abode. The Seeress humming to herself as she hunches over a cooking fire, upon which is a boiling, bubbling cauldron. Every once in a while she throws a handful of something or another — which disappears under the frothing water too quickly for you to get a good look.
"Have you mastered Recall?" The Seeress doesn't bother looking up from her brew, the only bit of attention she pulls from it is to make sure her teacup doesn't spill as she places it onto a small table.
You crack a grin as you flex your will. With a flick of the wrist, the teacup leaps from the table and gently lands in your hands. The Seeress' eye swivels your way as the sloshing liquid fails to spill from the cup. "Does that answer your question?"
Her eyes narrow as her fingers flick out. Invisible orthstirr snaps into place and the teacup flies free of your grasp. She raises it to her lips, the subtle trail of rising steam flowing around her face.
"You've done well, you should be proud." The Seeress sends a nod your way, an eye staying fixed to the mixture as it bubbles like the pride swelling in your chest. "Take a seat and we'll get started with the basics."
"Thank you, Seeress." The tips of your fingers are a bit numb as you take a seat. A lightheaded feeling slips its way through your body, like you can't really believe that this is actually happening. You cough, forcing your lungs to work properly, "I-if you don't mind me asking, what are you working on?"
"If you'd asked me that five minutes ago, I would've been very cross. Now, however, you are my apprentice." She snorts, the corners of her lips curling into a wry grin, "so, to answer your question, this is a the beginnings of a fertility spell that a young couple asked me to prepare for their upcoming wedding in the coming months. I believe you may know the couple in question, Asva and Jordan?"
"Asva's my sister..." A shudder of revulsion travels up your spine as a deep frown carves itself into your face. "Oh Gods, I did not need to think about that."
The Seeress cackles as she stirs the cauldron. "Ah, but now you have some potent ammunition against her!" That wry grin of hers spreads to a snickering smile as Blackhand adds his piece.
'About as potent as that boy is going to be, after this spell is done cooking.'
You turn your face towards the cloth-obscured heavens. "Why oh why did I have to get stuck with this?"
"All joking aside," the Seeress says as she settles down, "this is a lot of what I do. Casting spells of fertility, good health, and catching glimpses of the future. Those are the three things that are most often asked of me and of seeresses in general."
"So, how does that all work?" You wave a hand at your general surroundings. "Seidr and stuff?"
"A good question." The Seeress smiles as she taps her spoon against the cauldron rim. "Have you ever seen seidr in action before?"
"Uh," you scratch at your neck, a light furrow to your brow. Technically, you didn't see anything that time with the Witch... "I think that Blackhand did something that imprinted a spell of seidr onto me."
She arches a brow and folds her fingers in her lap. "Oh? Do tell."
"Well, I can place my hand on someone's chest and use my orthstirr to stabilize the dying." You raise your palm and push crimson power into forming the Stabilizing Palm.
The Seeress nods, pursing her lips. "Ah, a bit of low seidr."
"Low seidr? What's wrong with it?"
"'Low' does not mean 'lesser', dear child. It merely means that it is closer to the earth, more grounded, if you will, than high seidr is. Low seidr is immediate effect while something like this," she waves a hand at the cauldron, "is high seidr."
You frown as something occurs to you, something slightly confusing. "Then what's the difference between a low seidr trick like Stabilizing Palm and, say, a hamr trick like Sharpen or Shatter-Wrist? They're both kinda similar, in that you're shoving orthstirr into something, right?"
"Another fine question," she smiles, clearly happy with the quality of her apprentice, "In concept, there is not all that much of a difference between Stabilizing Palm and Sharpen, but in truth they couldn't be farther apart." The Seeress pauses as she taps her spoon to her chin. "How much do you know of how Stabilizing Palm functions?"
You open your mouth to respond, only to pause as nothing comes to mind. "Not... all that much, unfortunately." Dammit, if only you ha-
"That is only to be expected," her words cut your thoughts off at the head, "after all, if you did know, then I would be very surprised. The very basics behind the inner workings of Stabilizing Palm is that it, very briefly, unlatches a sort of 'gate' inside the recipient." Your eyes snap wide as she continues, "The gate is open for only a fraction of a single heartbeat, but it serves as enough of a shock to a dying man's body that it oftentimes restarts the heart all on its own. After that, the user's orthstirr guides the power released by the gate towards fixing any mortal injuries. There's a lot more to it than that, like with establishing a connection to the Dark Forest and solidifying the pathways and making sure that the soul doesn't get obliterated by the power beyond the gate, but that is the utter basics of Stabilizing Palm — and seidr as a whole, for that matter."
Your jaw hangs open as you stare at your hand — the conjured glow of Stabilizing Palm swiftly fading away before your eyes.
That, as the Christians say, is one hell of a revelation.
"Now then, have you any further questions or shall we move on to your first lessons?"
The Seeress waits patiently for you to gather yourself.
What questions do you have?
[ ] Write in
And after that, what do you do next?
[ ] Go to the markets
-[ ] Write in what you're after
[ ] Speak to the Headsman
-[ ] Write in what you want to speak to him about
[ ] Hey, Gary Tuskpuncher is selling these weird, cheese-covered sticks of bread, maybe you should go buy one?
[ ] The raiding trials are about to start, go observe them!
[ ] You have a lot to think about, it's time to go home
0~0~0
AN: I hope this seidr lore was worth going to the lengths you did for it.
[X] Hey, Gary Tuskpuncher is selling these weird, cheese-covered sticks of bread, maybe you should go buy one?
Cheesy bread is love. Cheesy bread is life.
edit: As for questions
[X] How much do you know about this... gate?
[X] Is there a way to destabilize someone's gate if you prefer their soul be obliterated?
edit 2: lmao
[X][Questions] Do you realize what you did to yourself by inviting my questions?
Well, seidr can apparently also fortify the pathway so it doesn't kill people. Another missing piece of "how to initiate people safely".
Also, fairly clear now that odr cultivation requires a lot of womanly arts - weaving, nalbinding, possibly brewing, and now seidr. Can see why the female start was said to have better long-term rewards.
I don't see why it would be. As long as we don't bring up odr, or allude to it, the Enemy shouldn't do anything overt. Unless the Enemy is going to jump us when we step out of the tent, or something, but like... that wouldn't have anything to do with what we've said.
Seidr doesn't seem to be an actual requirement. More like something that could potentially help smoothen someone's initiation into odr, but I still feel that one has a pretty decent chance of initiating successfully if they do so inside of a house and without too much orthstirr. Yeah, that seems possible if you take the part of Stabilising Palm that fortifies someone's pathways, so there's less chance of them dying.
I wonder if we could weaponise it, too? Something that'd forcibly open someone's gate, but also weaken their pathways or something so that they end up dying or falling unconscious due to the influx.
Come to think of it, since Shapecrafting is also seidr, I think that confirms that Berserkers are likely users of true odr-born Frenzy, just that the connection is initiated by someone else.
Come to think of it, since Shapecrafting is also seidr, I think that confirms that Berserkers are likely users of true odr-born Frenzy, just that the connection is initiated by someone else.
Yeah, that seems about right - it probably does involve manipulation of someone's gate and the odr that flows into their soul as a result. It doesn't actually seem like seidr can initiate someone, though. Only that it can open the Gate. Otherwise, Abjorn would've became a true cultivator when we used Stabilising Palm on him, but he didn't.
[X] How would you go about reinforcing the gate and the pathways, specifically? Or guiding the energy to heal?
[X] Is there any seidr for gathering information, or does that all fall under seersight?
[X] How do curses work then? Defending against them seems like we'd need to know more about their mechanism. Ditto evil spirits.
I have no real preference for what we do next as long as we go shopping for new livestock before we go home. Bread sticks are fine if that's the consensus.
Come to think of it, since Shapecrafting is also seidr, I think that confirms that Berserkers are likely users of true odr-born Frenzy, just that the connection is initiated by someone else.
Yeah, that seems about right - it probably does involve manipulation of someone's gate and the odr that flows into their soul as a result. It doesn't actually seem like seidr can initiate someone, though. Only that it can open the Gate. Otherwise, Abjorn would've became a true cultivator when we used Stabilising Palm on him, but he didn't.
I mean, I don't see how so? Unless you could create a seidr spell that'd forcibly weave all three of someone's Aspects together, I don't see what you could do differently beyond opening the Gate.
Wait, if seidr can open the Gate, it can probably close it as well. It sort of has to for a spell to work. We could do for others what Blackhand did for us the first time.
I mean, I don't see how so? Unless you could create a seidr spell that'd forcibly weave all three of someone's Aspects together, I don't see what you could do differently beyond opening the Gate.
It seems able to manipulate the Odr as well to at least some degree...what initiated us wasn't weaving or frami, virthing, and saemd, but opening our gate and getting Odr (the weaving was how we did that, but the Odr coming in was the result). Someone who was never taught to do that might not be able to cultivate on their own, but they'd technically be initated. That's probably really bad, upon reflection, but it's an interesting thought exercise.
Wait, if seidr can open the Gate, it can probably close it as well. It sort of has to for a spell to work. We could do for others what Blackhand did for us the first time.
[X] How would you go about reinforcing the gate and the pathways, specifically? Or guiding the energy to heal?
[X] Is there any seidr for gathering information, or does that all fall under seersight?
[X] How do curses work then? Defending against them seems like we'd need to know more about their mechanism. Ditto evil spirits.
[X] Would it be possible to manipulate another person's Aspects with seidr?
[X] What would happen if you let some of the energy that came in through the gate remain?
[X] Hey, Gary Tuskpuncher is selling these weird, cheese-covered sticks of bread, maybe you should go buy one?
So huh, Seidr taps into Odr, but does it through a specific mechanism that keeps it from sticking around, and doesn't hold it open enough to get any significant condensation in place? But in doing so, it doesn't trigger the Enemy to make a move I guess?
Which means that Seidr should be able to do some Wild fucking shit when we have significant quantities of Odr to fuel it with.
So huh, Seidr taps into Odr, but does it through a specific mechanism that keeps it from sticking around I guess and doesn't hold it open enough to get any significant condensation in place? But in doing so, it doesn't trigger the Enemy to make a move I guess?
[X][Questions] Do you realize what you did to yourself by inviting my questions?
[X][Questions] You said that Stabilizing Palm opens a gate which the body closes. Is there Seidr to force close the gate?
[X][Questions] You said that Stabilizing Palm opens a gate which the body closes. Is there Seidr to enter the gate, like with your Fylgja?
[X][Questions] How long would it take to learn the fertility spell? would it make someone who is very good at it even better? Would be something good to train Seidr at home, i could judge its effectiveness, and thereby how well I made it, based on my husbands.... *cough cough*
[X][Questions] You and Blackhand had this trick where you looked each other in the eye to talk, can you teach me that? Could i use that with my Fylgja to send messages?
[X][Questions] How does the "need to earn learning Seidr" work? What would I have to have my kids do so i can teach them basics when they are old enough?
[X][Questions] How does the spirit work, like finding a Nisse for your farm, work?
[X][Questions] What kind of blessings are there?
[X][Questions] Do Seeresses use runes like weapon smith do?
[X][Questions] Do Seeresses use items to enhance their capabilities? Like fighters use high quality weapons.
[X][Questions] Is there a use for ones Fylgja in Seidr?
edit 1:
[X][Questions] Do you know anything about shapecrafting?
So huh, Seidr taps into Odr, but does it through a specific mechanism that keeps it from sticking around I guess and doesn't hold it open enough to get any significant condensation in place? But in doing so, it doesn't trigger the Enemy to make a move I guess?
I suspect seidr deals in very small amounts of Odr (and expends them immediately for effects) and thus slides under the radar. IIRC, we didn't draw real attention until we hit 9 in our Well and got to the First Realm.
It seems able to manipulate the Odr as well to at least some degree...what initiated us wasn't weaving or frami, virthing, and saemd, but opening our gate and getting Odr (the weaving was how we did that, but the Odr coming in was the result). Someone who was never taught to do that might not be able to cultivate on their own, but they'd technically be initated. That's probably really bad, upon reflection, but it's an interesting thought exercise.
Yes, but the Gate was 'locked and barred' until we weaved our frami, virthing and saemd. Seidr can open the Gate, but doesn't actually seem to permanently unlock/unbar it, otherwise people should be able to open it and cultivate odr and become true cultivators. Not to mention that to actually cultivate, you need to own land, too. Which might actually be the requirement now that I think about it, although I'm not really convinced on that.
Actually, if I think about it, you might be right. Stabilising Palm uses all the odr that enters the Gate, but I wonder what would happen if you left some odr in a person's body?
[X][Questions] You and Blackhand had this trick where you looked each other in the eye to talk, can you teach me that? Could i use that with my Fylgja to send messages?
I think we were actually told about this. I don't recall the name, but I remember it being brought up that there was seidr that'd let us speak to people telepathically and hear spirits in other people iirc?
Yeah, this is revelatory. It means that any Seidkhona who taps into Odr though is going to be operating with a firehose when most are scraping up dew condensation.
[X] How would you go about reinforcing the gate and the pathways, specifically? Or guiding the energy to heal?
[X] Is there any seidr for gathering information, or does that all fall under seersight?
[X] How do curses work then? Defending against them seems like we'd need to know more about their mechanism. Ditto evil spirits.
[X] You said a connection to the Dark Forest, I've heard it a time or two from Blackhand, how does that interact with Seidr and what are the big things I need to worry about with it?
[X] Hey, Gary Tuskpuncher is selling these weird, cheese-covered sticks of bread, maybe you should go buy one?
