How do you make "skilled magic" something rare, notable and suspicious in a world as steeped in supernatural trappings as Creation? You make it into a luxury good and applied art skill, and let the harsh realities of Creation life take things from there.
Folk Magic and Superstitions of Creation: Part 2 - The Miracle-Working Class
Despite, or perhaps because of the pervasiveness of mundane magics, the needs of a community to grapple with mysterious creatures and curses have often looked for guidance towards learned spiritual teachers, leaders or elders. In troubled times, the most reasonable thing is to petition the wisdom of the local sages, conjurers and faith healers who practice something more professional than the simple home-remedies or handicraft available to a homesteader's lot. Outside the lands under the influence of the Scarlet Empire, with temples to the Immaculate Order upholding the local harmony of all things by force through a well-practiced exorcism or spirit-striking kata from an itinerant monk, the majority of Creation finds welcome aid from a collection of idiosyncratic savants who have nonetheless made notable careers and livelihoods out of the magical detritus which smooths or impedes everyday people's lives.
Through typically seen as more unusual or eccentric than her peers in more customary professions by her association with spirits, visits to well-regarded magical practitioners are treated as not very much different than seeking out a properly-trained shipwright to patch a leaky skiff, simply a matter of the right person for the right job. No mortal willingly delves into the unseen world and its laws for longer than necessary, when the risks of failure and price of supernatural dealings indelibly leave a lasting mark on the incompetent, but for many miracle-workers this is one of the few means to create a safe and stable life for both herself and the surrounding communities. There are always those who fall into the practice for various reasons unprepared, be it accident or happenstance, some means of spiritual calling, exploiting a curiosity of birth or even the simple reckless need for regularly-paid employment at all costs.
Most common of all is the last of these, the practices of cunning folk, collectively a group of wise-women and hedge-magicians sharing little more alike than practicing her skills and arts for a small fee and the increased status of a thankless job well-done. Rarely is this title the name she takes for herself, usually something more illustrative of her methods, like enchanter, soothsayer, witch, oracle or augur-reader, or grandiose to match her own pride, like "the Virtuous," "the Magnificent" or "the Incredible." Often one fills an absent role in the community with her ritual work, such as preparing elixirs and talismans for the sick and injured where the village lacks a resident physician, or invoking supernatural readings of the stars or winds to locate criminals, missing persons and stolen objects or livestock where the land is lawless to all save the strong. Cursing with aches or beguiling a foe with a love draught or incantation is not beyond her power, should the price be right, but most cunning folk pursue the craft in an effort to release tensions and conflict within her community, not pit neighbors against one another.
Knowledge of the necessary magical traditions are passed down within family customs, apprenticeships and self-taught through hand-copied tomes of mystic lore, if not simply picked up by watching or stealing the rituals and craft of other cunning folk operating nearby. Because like any business, the sense of competition between practices is quite real, and often folk practitioners must seek to dazzle would-be clients through a sprawling variety of practical remedies and services learned from a multitude of prestigious and fictitious foreign schools, an impressive sense of costuming or performance skill belying membership to an elite society or partnership with a powerful spirit. Something as mundane as a far-reaching reputation for guaranteed success can work perfectly fine, but its considered wiser to hedge the bet where one can. Displaying a measure of showmanship carries with it an equal sense of skepticism from her petitioners, however, when the transitory nature of a palm-reading or cure-all herbal tea requires a significant amount of faith that there is even genuine magic present in the working being performed.
Accusations of deceit and quackery tend to follow the cunning folk, either from displeased former clients or religious authorities looking to undermine support in local folk arts and bring attention back into the more organized cult services or regional priesthood which these low magics either eschew or outright ignore. Entire cities may regard the occupation as one filled with con-artists and cranks taking advantage of passing rubes using parlor tricks and silver-tongued suppositions of magical power. While not exactly wrong, this is still a simplification of the truth, when a cunning man or woman will often use a primary skill like divining horoscopes to justify alleged expertise in other related fields, like omen-readings or astrological cursing. Knowledge from one is often just enough to fake the other, within a reasonable degree of accuracy. Presenting this as a little-known technique of secret Lookshyan blood magi, regardless of the true origin or whether such a thing really exists or not, is seen as no worse than a frugal chef spicing up old meat for new customers.
That no magic lies in these other, for-show rites is less of a hurdle than it appears, when frequently these will still be shown alongside proven magic and legitimate appeals to benevolent spirits on the client's behalf. It all comes together as parts of a comprehensive "package of services" to explore several plausible angles against a task, and soothe both the kinds of psychological and spiritual worries which had required a magical solution to start with. Belief in the work is a critical element of the client accepting "solve it by magic" as something valid when faced with life's problems, and only the most droll occultists do not practice a bit of flair to help encourage wonder and relief, rather than leave clients skeptically brooding about wasted money on wishful-thinking and a handful of dubiously inscribed lodestones. Oftentimes this faith in wonder is all her client may have to rely on, and the resultant take-away when the subtle influence of her craft may only be recognizable as meaningful in retrospect.
Some enterprising folk extend this further to physical acts of treatment or execution, like parceling off part of the ritual to the client as a "final step" to be completed by hand alone or in secret to affirm the realness of the magic she has worked. Blunt physicality can also be used as part of conducting the rites, such as giving the client several specially-brewed poultices during negotiations for blessings, to be applied in a specific order, or shocking the petitioner by slicing her own palm open to draw the ritual blood, among many similar ways of tangibly grounding her methods as something more than just airy notions of ill-defined change and overblown significance. It is this kind of appreciable weight which allows the common townsfolk to believe, truly, that power to change one's fate and circumstances lies not purely in the domain of gods and the chosen heralds thereof.
Skittish local attitudes and overbearing institutions like the Immaculate Order mean not all cunning folk stay rooted to a particular people or town, and many freely associate with the expedition teams of prominent scavenger lords, helping plot out region-spanning campaigns of lost treasures and gilded mausoleums by divination or investigation and guesswork. Caravans and shipping voyages regularly hire on errant folk magicians seeking other lands, as guides or simply a useful hand in preparation for supernatural inconveniences. Sometimes several families may gather together and form a traveling collection of wagons or riverboats constantly on the move between major cities or landmarks, with the most nomadic of these peoples taken to peddling wares and services from atop horse or camel-back. In the Threshold fringes the protections garnered by a roaming band of cunning folk can be the safest method of travel there is, and families will make regular stops to take on odd jobs and resupply, ferrying a farmer's plentiful herd to market or acting as an escort to pilgrims leery of the roads when news of roaming outlaws abound.
Get Rich or Try Lying:
The cunning craft is not an especially challenging skill to practice, being simply a more performative and formalized administration of home remedies and petty conjurings, and many independent folk magicians start initially with no exceptional background or training beyond a handful of rustic truisms and high hopes. All that is required of a would-be practitioner is a nigh-obsessive willingness to experiment with known supernatural resonances or ritual sympathies, and a penchant for survival and improvisation when something doubtlessly goes wrong. This is where the true price and difficulty of the cunning craft lies, carving out each inch of her understanding with meticulous time and effort, or resort to mischief and filch the insight from those more knowledgeable at what she seeks. Trial, error and no small degree of underhandedness or personal risk is necessary to spin an entire professional career from merely a book of ancient hymns and an amulet talisman containing dried fruit peels, incense and the sharpened old tooth of a truthful man.
Though by all accounts ritualism is more about the craft than the user, and thus available to all peoples in every walk of life willing to take the chance, small sparks of incidental magic are typically not a panacea for all the ills plaguing a budding practitioner's life. Yet many an amateur caught up in the mystique of her accomplishments might see it as the breakthrough finally needed to help achieve her dreams. To leave her backwater town behind, to cure her love's wasting disease, to escape an exploitative job or crushing poverty to gain the money and fame she truly deserves. But oftentimes even someone who possesses "the knack" for clever combinations of ritual and the discovery of new formulas may nevertheless find her progress stymied, by her costs outstripping the ability of her market to pay, or even the simple obligations of life and demands on her time. The forge still needs tending at the smithy, the years harvest must be planted in the fields, and family or social responsibilities will compound with regular daily chores to drive her workings into after-hours and darkened late evenings as the only place she might ply her ambitions in peace.
Establishing herself as an independent occultist frequently demands the underprivileged and unsupported must close herself off from these material distractions to excel, jeopardizing the food on her table, the care of her loved ones and the roof over her head in pursuit of theoretically-profitable or life-altering ritual ephemera. During times of less-than-ideal circumstances, like flood season, drought or a harsh winter, devoting whatever free time available to anything but survival is the hallmark of a madwoman or a fool, especially in pursuit of small miracles. Thus quick-wealth schemes, hopes for an instantaneous change in health, lifestyle or social status rapidly fall by the wayside as complications and obstacles mount, forcing the jaded would-be practitioner to admit that magic itself is merely a tool, and not the mystical ascension or supernatural equalizer she was secretly wishing for it to be. Most go on to quietly retire from the field, taking these briefly learned skills and adapting that knowledge to her primary occupation as something of a trade secret to make ends meet.
Being known for growing the sweetest apples in the region, as the watchmaker whose music boxes never slip gears or need tuning, and similarly niche notions of local esteem might not be the life one plans for, but it is certainly the most attainable of the options within the reach of a mere mortal. However, developing these rituals for practice in an unrelated vocation is no mark of failure, when these makeshift 'hayseed magics' comprise the largest base of incidental thaumaturgy in Creation. While not codified or performed with the same pageantry as a cunning folk's art, minor blessings, alchemy and enchantment are often the backbone of a local economy or pride of the village when allowed to gain traction outside of the original purpose. With the sudden windfall of regional interest and trade, smaller towns and hamlets may even be renamed to be reminiscent of this valuable export, sporting new titles like Founder's Kiln, Cobblebrook or Brightiron, to help draw in fresh business partners and job-hunters alike.
But not all low-magic grows from a hardscrabble lifestyle, and most major urban hubs play host to at least one longstanding magical tradition laying claim to the legacy of some long-forgotten hero or mighty sorcerer. While the public standing of such bloodlines and organized education may vary in the eyes of the populace depending on the region, established groups of professional cunning folk will still regularly use this not-insignificant clout in local affairs to control who may or may not also practice within the area. Most unaffiliated magicians will be given the option of a simple financial partnership or protection racket, with any refusal unceremoniously run out of town as hucksters and cheats, unlike the sterling reputation the group has developed within the community. Sometimes those with notable skill may be invited to join up as an honorary member, though due care is taken to find new blood who improve the public reputation of the group. The main difference is normally accredited to the method and source of magics, because the centuries-tested arts of a well-regarded master thaumaturge passed down from disciple to disciple engenders a greater impression of trust than any old hedge-exorcist from an annual caravan, blown in with threadbare socks and a shaker-bag of chicken bones and corn seeds.
Often very little is different between the urban cunning practice and that of her rural peers, save that allusions of social tolerance mean her production values and operating costs can go higher without the oversight of authorities. Fittingly so, when her ingredients, tools and performances are more exotic, blending together esoteric rites appropriated from far lands, the background she claims is more prestigious, and her chosen audience far more discerning and skeptical of false confidences or sleight of hand. Education is rarely much dissimilar either, though owing most to the matter of focus, and financial security or patronage playing a significant role. While country folk are first learned in the ways of wrestling goats and chopping firewood, the urban cunning craft is typically taught from a young age at specialized occult schooling or in the family ritual trade. Moderately well-off households who practice or have enrolled the child where the proper rites can be instructed often do so at great expense, supporting this early ritualist career until either the high standards held by the school or eldest among the family are met.
Once trained in the craft, the newly-minted cunning man or woman is allowed to take up whatever occupation fits best with utilizing this knowledge for maximum compensation, though usually with the presence of a spouse or sibling to add a greater air of legitimacy and professional reliability. Rather than having to build up from nothing, given sparse time to work in favor of basic subsistence, the practice within major cities is cultivated from the beginning as pursuing an ambitious profession with a particular entrepreneurial spirit, and priced accordingly for a certifiable magician working humble arts for commission rates. Normally these terms are only acceptable by the wealthy, calling in an acclaimed astrologer to dispel or forecast ill-fortune much as one would carefully select an artist to paint a lavish portrait, but poor clients may equally pool meager sums for a communal boon under the assurances that increased cost reflects a higher degree of accuracy and genuine magical ability. A well-known name can even draw in clients from distant shores, eager to see the rumored conjurings of local miracle-workers.
But despite a steady demand for business, it is only a rare few who can pay a suitable price for the services rendered by an occultist who values her time well, at the frequency her lifestyle demands, and most pointedly in locales where she must compete with other, more experienced members of her house or discipline. The common solution is to make her business private, seeking out employment with a rich benefactor and using this greater proximity to nobility, wealth or social power to give her practice both a measure of profitable exclusivity and security from changing public attitudes towards ritual magics as frivolous or even dangerous. Though this risks bringing her into comparison against wielders of 'true' thaumaturgy in the practical sciences, the aged scholars of culinary or medicinal alchemy and meteorological scribes with compiled tomes of meticulously-drafted weather charts, often she may gain an edge by preying on the ignorance and naivety of her patron to never realize the difference.
Ramifications of this agreement are often realized too late, because while a series of flamboyant tricks and petty blessings might win over a small audience of curious onlookers and desperate hopefuls without needing to change tack for several years, a generous patron supplying a stable income is going to expect more variety for her money. The contract of employment becomes something of an ongoing challenge, catering to not simply the demands for regular and concrete results, but to additionally increase the amount of elaborate flair and exoticism of the performance to justify the ongoing expense as a status symbol. To some extent, exploiting the cunning craft becomes another display of wealthy extravagance, warding the hull of a merchant vessel for the rigors of the sea with carefully painted goat-blood sigils, or reading the auspicious signs of her benefactor's good health in the shapes made by molten gold dripped into jugs of perfumed oils.
Satisfying the terms and organizing these intricate rituals can often be more difficult than conducting the magic itself, sometimes creating such tight scheduling requirements the practitioner is sharply limited from fully utilizing the social prestige she has ingratiated herself into. By acceding her skills to the whims of sponsorship, she may have inadvertently tied her practice to an inescapable career eking out meager wages fulfilling the dreams of others, especially where she deals with the matters of royalty or mercantile endeavor. But being privy to such powerful secrets, the knowledge of her mystical workings and the details of the ruling family or business, surely means she represents an extremely high-risk asset for potential enemies and rivals should she go rogue or independent. Faced with the choice between a somewhat comfortable lifestyle and a price on her head, the majority would conclude there are already too many dangers associated with occultism as an occupation without adding more because of misguided sentiment. Making a living means actually living, after all.
Ritual Behavior Therapy:
Unlike the shamanic traditions which characterize the untamed wilderness, the more mercantile cunning folk largely shun the greater supernatural elements of nature to instead focus upon clever mechanizations and significant people, especially the predations of one mortal on another through the use of ritualistic curses or alchemist recipes. As a professional extension of "kitchen magic," cunning craft generally forgoes the fanciful tools and litanies of cult practice or warfare rites for the most part, in favor of effective visual shorthand. Knives and scissors may be wielded to "cut away" illness, bad luck and pain, mirrors or painted weapons are wielded for frightening away unruly minor spirits, while ribbons, rope or cord get used for symbolically binding one person, animal or object to another, all for the sake of quickly conveying her magical intent to a receptive, if skeptical audience. This often includes some element of associated palmistry, astrology or scrying upon her subject, making the client a very clear participant in creating the purchased boon.
When streaks of crippling misfortune or injury run rampant through the community, the most likely culprit is assumed to be some manner of malevolent actor plaguing the good, gods-fearing townspeople with insult and indignities for some unknown slight. Whether this is an accurate assessment makes little difference, most cunning folk are still more than willing to trade good coin for occult services at healing, spirit-banishment and warding off inauspicious circumstance, even with the thinnest of excuses. Rhyming codas dismissing bad airs are spoken while binding limbs and stitching up wounds, braziers of sour herbs and incense are burnt as purifying smoke to keep curious bystanders at bay, everything she practices has some concrete benefit to her work beyond the ritualism and performance. Often she may wield no practical magic at all for the purpose of her aid, merely disguised with the trappings of mysticism, and not only for the sake of appearances.
Because the most astute of the cunning folk understand the results of these tangible efforts will be more illustrative of a lasting solution once the ritual is wrought and fears dismissed, and how her presence is closer to a reassurance that fell powers may not run roughshod over the community, should the need arise. "Magic" serves as both the dreadful suspicion which makes poor harvests and the deaths of prized livestock into the actions of a shadowy figure or sinister conspiracy, but also the peace of mind in knowing that embodied fear can be waylaid or overcome. By assigning life's hardships onto wicked external forces, her people are attempting to find reason in randomness, and relief at knowing those hardships are not the natural state of things. That there is more to the daily routine than backbreaking labor, savoring small victories while tirelessly persevering against the whims of fate. The foremost job of any ambitious cunning folk is to make that dreaming outlook seem the most sensible response in a world where gods walk, and preferably make a tidy bit of profit along the way.
In the absence of authority to dictate rural law, the cunning folk are normally called upon to establish the missing consequences for theft or vandalism within the community when possible, making elaborate public statements of cursing and foretelling a variety of horrifying ailments or dooms on the perpetrator unless what was taken is returned or recompense paid for what was ruined. Very rarely does this gesture need enforcement by more than word of mouth in the kinds of small villages and towns where cunning folk practice, typically home to superstitions all its own. The mere threat of such magically-enforced misfortune is usually enough to cause the miraculous rediscovery of important legal documents, payment of silver left at the doorstep by an anonymous hand in the night, or a tearful confession from misbehaving children about just how the local waterwheel was broken. Other times wishing down blights may be employed privately, as a contractual certainty against marital infidelity or spurious business practices, using the cunning folk as an impartial third party against future or suspected wrongdoing.
Missing persons or livestock are found by employing similar psychology, promising incredible luck and blessings upon anyone who would bring the wayward home again, particularly in situations when the petitioning family would have no means to pay a sizable ransom or reward, only the customary ritual fee. Sometimes the suggestion of an auspicious boon upon a charitable soul may even sweeten the deal of otherwise unsaleable goods like an old warhorse unworthy to stud or a run-down property, implying some greater destiny or significance than what can be seen by mortal eyes. Services for love, sex and relationship magics might be predicated on placing blessings on the subject to improve chances for a happy pairing, or using divination, mud-brick fortunes or wax-reading to discern the true name or appearance of the client's future lover... within a given margin for error.
The social contract of the community becomes somewhat dependent on the role played by the cunning folk to show, or at least give the pleasant illusion, that good fortune and happiness comes to generous people with fine coin, and bad luck finds its way to those most deserving. Forward-thinking practitioners who wish to do more than set up an overnight shop to fleece some dinars from pliable rubes will typically pay close attention to the gossip and material lives of her petitioners before making more than vague generalities in these domains, in the hopes her match-making or justice-seeking does not create more problems than it solves. Justifying the forbidden romance between two feuding families as something enshrined in stars or blown ash carries with it an incontestable supernatural weight to smooth over disputes, and rare would be the dissenting voice who cares little if her face becomes the next curse target the near-blind omen reader incidentally sketches with her fate-guided hand.
But in the absence of extensive scrying magics or rumor-networks, uncovering this wealth of actionable information is far more difficult than truly acting upon it, particularly in ways which would not out the ritualist as some manner of prying snoop or intolerable busybody to her prospective clientele. Assistance comes in many forms, but most cunning folk with any claim to true skill tend to employ a minor spirit as a familiar for the task. Stories of how such spirits come into agreeable partnerships with mortals are as varied as any cunning folk practice, from one allying itself with a mighty hero of the past and continuing this loyalty onward to every worthy generation thereafter, to a mischievous creature captured by a well-laid magical snare and offered something of a square deal. For all of these, the one thing in common is how it invariably comes back to a deliberate pact between the two, usually allowing the spirit free access to the community in ways which would be nearly impossible by its own actions. This pact is often formed via dreams or projected visions, whisking her senses away into its sanctum to discuss terms, if it even has one.
These minor spirits are often weak and dull-witted, representative of some disease or emotional malaise, and dependent on the practitioner to sustain it on the plights and fears of her community. Stronger spirits formalize this partnership better, demanding an equal share of recognition by the way of regular sacrifices, integration as a medium into her various performances and skimming prayers from those in need. But one simply cannot go bringing a spirit around everyday people's homes without causing a stir, so the standard practice is for the spirit to take up semi-permanent residence inhabiting a domestic animal the cunning man or woman may have on-hand. Barn cats, stray dogs and pets are common subjects for spirit possession as a makeshift spy, though enterprising souls may get away with substituting a chicken or goat if it would be more inconspicuous. More intelligent, proud spirits may insist on a more noble vessel, like a monkey, horse or even a hawk to move publicly as her eyes and ears, though this can make for a great deal more inconvenience when she must employ a highly distinctive animal as part of her practice, and claim no prior knowledge of its errant wanderings through town.
It is not uncommon for a spirit in this position to outlive its vessel by some accident or another, and while it may hold a preference on the type of animal host, the precise details matter very little if another is needed to fill the role. But to the common townsfolk, unaware that such a spirit exists in the ritualist's employ, and merely that her kind hold strange mystical ways and carry stranger terms when it comes to house animals and livestock, this relocation comes across very differently. When the practitioner comes to call and the "lucky cat" or "blessed dove" of her craft differs in size, age or even breed from one appearance to the next, despite being referred to and treated as the exact same animal, it simply gives more credence to the eccentric qualities of her lot, putting her faculties into question even if her practice remains sound. So long as her poultices still soothe wounds and the fortune-reading prices stay cheap, it stands to reason that whatever creature she has chosen to be 'lucky' still works well enough to give the proper blessings, and so is respectfully overlooked lest offense be taken.
But having a spirit on-hand opens up many new opportunities for an ambitious occultist, allowing her to go beyond simply heavily suggesting others confess to crimes, find or return people and objects, and abide by contractual promises. Instead she may actively send her familiar to investigate evidence and uncover signs of misdeed, sometimes culminating in making a grand show of retracing these steps with baffled authorities and bystanders in tow, constructing a roughly plausible tale for how she put all the pieces together from scraps of implication and her own magical awareness. Nowhere else does this potential come to the forefront more than being employed for the purpose of locating valuable sites and unearthing lost treasures, the considerable chunk of which contain legitimate sources of mystical power.
Not every member of the cunning folk is trained in scrying magics or omen-reading however, and of even those who are, the majority hew towards minor works of prophecy and reading sympathetic bonds between people, rather than exploring especially exotic forms of pathfinding and archaeology. But that typically doesn't stop anyone asking about the more material benefits to her supernatural sensitivity, and with an untapped market of glory-seekers at her behest, a smart and resourceful practitioner will find the right amount of vagueness and compelling truths to send her client off satisfied without having to pin down anything concrete about the journey. With a familiar at her back this becomes a much easier scheme, gathering up not simply useful intelligence, but perhaps an idea of the dangers posed by such claims to have remained undisturbed for so long.
Traveling along with the expedition can serve a dual purpose, not just providing her with the dashing air of an in-demand magician making waves in lands aboard, but also a welcome opportunity to observe something certifiably magical 'in the field.' While her employers might look sourly on pawing over the find itself, the magically-enriched surrounding environment, the method of storage or ward-sealed containment, even the aging dust or dirt caked upon the tomb threshold can serve as rare and valuable inspiration or ingredients for future conjurings. With a miraculous bauble in-hand the average scavenger lord isn't likely to care overmuch about handfuls of pebbles or paint-scrapings from ancient frescoes lifted from the site. Even more may even immensely pleased if she would consider several packs stuffed full with heat-powdered brick and petrified wood to be "her take" of the discovery, unaware of how as an occultist she may well have supplied herself with more ritual material than could be bought by even auctioning the trinket she was tasked to locate to begin with.
Such expensive prizes usually have some commiserate degree of danger involved regardless, if only in handling the object with a careful touch for fear of activating long-slumbering powers, which would place it well outside the interest of anyone valuing a safer, reliable payout for her contributions. If the find has guardians of some sort, be it supernatural or mechanical, then the remains or detritus of these are too worth its weight in gold... assuming there is someone else brave enough to take the first step and tackle the problem head-on. Should a find be considered too harmless, less scrupulous cunning folk may employ her own disembodied spirit companion to play the role of a lingering death-curse or terrifying gatekeeper, giving her the chance to improve her esteem by "banishing" the assailant and thus proving her unrivaled dependability to the expedition crew.
Upon her return home, the story of her exploits securing lost artifacts and perilous demesnes can easily feed into her growing reputation, now of a worldly and accomplished practitioner than when she left. So then the cycle begins once again, spinning new and more grandiose displays to back up her claimed status as a local figure of note, graciously offering small pieces of her experience to an unsophisticated crowd looking for the security found in heroes. Simple matter then to keep her audience in waiting suspense for her latest venture to far-off places, making her time and attention a scare commodity, and which keeps coin flowing into her waiting pocket with little effort.
