Benedict Jacka

In reply to Benedict.

Ah that makes sense. Obvious we haven’t seen the Ashfords aside from Calhoun use sigls due to lack of screen time but from what little we have seen, it doesn’t seem like they are that skilled with Drucraft. If they married into House Meusel and only one of them is a prodigy that would indicate they are better at selling sigls than using them.

Magnus seems to be a Drucraft cripple which he passed on to Tobias and Isadora, and Lucella isn’t even a shaper which I think would mean she is only a tyro. That leaves Helen who I believe leans more on the Drucraft business side of things than actually ability and Stephen got his skills for his Father.

So would Stephen in pure Drucraft be behind Calhoun in for lack of a better term rankings for the Ashfords? Or would Charles and his mother have an edge or be equal to him?

In reply to Kevin.

Charles is a manifester, yes. Most senior members of important Houses would be.

Calhoun isn’t unusual for being a manifester, he’s unusual for being a manifester at such a young age.

Thank you for this post, it was exactly the knowledge I was thinking Stephen was missing and should be thinking about. I mean, obviously he has seen people drain wells, and should be wondering about doing it himself and what one can do with the drained magic. Sounds like he desperately needs to educate himself on how to convert wells into pure arum (rather than sigils) so he can start building a supply. And then secondarily can practice with all the old failed sigils he already has. Considering the extreme competition for powerful wells and his extreme skill at finding lower ranking wells, it seems the most likely chance of him manufacturing higher level sigils would be by combining the magic from multiple small wells…

In reply to Celia.

Thanks for the insight Celia; it’s nice how these drucraft articles get the mind speculating!

I wonder if the drucraft skill a traditional/bloodline thing (like the Hapsburgs) demonstrating the house’s ‘pedigree’?

Although Charles and Calhoun haven’t been seen making Sigls (But is just may be that Benedict hasn’t recorded it for us) they could be spending time making specialist items that can’t be bought in the exchange.

Another possibility is that they are working on enhancing the house wells with the aim of getting them to ‘A’ Class and hence a seat on the ruling council?

BTW: I hope that work is proceeding well on Book #4 and that the personal issues are now sorted…

Congrats on good news in Germany, and I hope everything’s OK now.

I have just found the Inheritance of magic audio books after finishing the Alex Verus series (which I loved) I am on chapter 10 of book 1 and I am thrilled so far…..can not wait to see what is to come.
I hope your family are well.

Very sorry to hear that book four is delayed but family do come first and, as you say, focus is on Book#3 at the moment. I hope that you are able to straighten things out quickly and get back into the routine again.

I am looking forward to the world-building articles, although I have to admit that Judgement of Powers is even more eagerly anticipated!

Good Luck!

Hope the writing goes on well.
I instantly bought the German version of Inharitance of Magic 1 and it was great. I read the thing in a couple of days and I am thrilled for book 2 in German.❤️

Interesting, quite a lot of expertise & ‘facilities’ needed to get the most out of unwanted sigls. I was wondering what the Best Case would be when reshaping a Sigl into a replacement one (Same sigl just adapted to a different person). Perhaps to drop down one ‘level’? (eg From a ‘C’ to a ‘D’)

The UK and US covers are very different, does that mean that the stories are different? With two different editors, is the difference mostly grammar? Or content? Or reference to modern life?

In reply to Jim Sackman.

I wonder if just taking the essentia (as Aurum) from a well might be a better return (if that can be done easily), rather than crafting it into a sigl?

I am guessing that if Stephen could get hooked up with the right people, he could make a bunch of crappy sigils for the entire purpose of selling them to be recycled.

Thanks again for the weekly Drucraft update. As always very useful and thought provoking. I’m wondering if Stephen would need a room to construct his own well or if it is just a piece of private open space, as I don’t think that essentia is constrained by walls and such? On the other hand he knows, at this stage, where a lot of natural, hidden wells can be found so he may be happy to use those locations.

Hum, perhaps he isn’t thinking at all about this anyway as he (currently) doesn’t have a lot of high power sygls to convert!

I hope that work on Book#4 is progressing well and that the sales of Books#1 & #2 continue to live up to expectations. Sadly, for me, A Judgement of Powers still seems a long way from publication. Six months to go!

Interesting, how does the technology to ‘drain the well’ (and store it for later use) interact with sigil recyling?
Looks like one could ‘create their own wells’ by acquiring different sigils and capturing the essentia from them. With enough skills, research (of background of these sigils) and money, one could actually build quite a formidable well this way.

In reply to Tony.

*Essentia, stupid autocorrect

I thought the answer would probably have something to do with filling wells. Wonder if there’s a primal effect to help homogenise essentially as it’s added?

>the provisional release date is 4th November, 2025.
Let’s go!!!

In reply to Celia.

We give them swords and let them fight to the death?

In reply to Cindy Houghton.

I really like the body piercing aspect but would go one step further with direct implants into the skin. Wonder if that would work? Maybe allow you to keep a certain powerful sigl close to an area of the body that it needs to sit in to work correctly. Has anyone brought this up already and I’ve missed it?

I had hoped the ‘Sigl Fashion’ option would have scored higher… I figured with the nobility and ultra wealthy type of folks, sigl jewelry would almost reach a ‘crown jewels’ sort of function. You become head of house, or the heir apparent, you get something like a signet ring, like the official ducal seal worked into the ring Paul inherits from his father as Duke Atreides in Dune. Or the signet ring Hadrian wears in the Sun Eater series, as a sign of his status and rank as a Palatine. The King still wears the three feather signet ring of Wales, like he did as Prince of Wales. The new heir or head of house would get the ring, just getting a new sigl created and mounted in the antique setting.

Also, I figured with the younger crowd and the fact some sigls need to be worn close to the skin, that sigl jewelry piercings would be more widespread than they apparently are in the series so far.