Benedict Jacka

Gorgeous!!!

In reply to Skeeve.

Seems like the easiest way to hold a drucrafter captive would be to just take all their sigls. Barring some primal effects, they wouldn’t be able to actually use their essentia for anything then. (Assuming they didn’t do anything odd like imbed a sigl subcutaneously or swallow it.)

Essentia capacity is a rate of converting ‘free’ essentia to personal and (with good skills) one can maximize the usage of sigils by skills and combining usage on and off.

Are there sigils that could influence the flow of essentia around someone (or some area) to make it harder for person to use their capacity to full extent?

In reply to Celia.

I believe it is three it was in one of the AMAs. But it would be interesting to see if he could use some primal sigls to enhance his A class rank making them far more effective. I think we will get an answer when the Primal sigls guide comes up.

In reply to Jim Sackman.

That’s pretty accurate, yes.

So, if I think of this like with standard weapons. The person with more essentia capacity is bigger and stronger so can carry (example) a shield with a sword. Having a second sword is great but unless this person has the skill to use all those tools at once, the advantage is nullified. And that is if the fight is a stand up one on one fight. But most fights won’t be that way. So, situational awareness and skill may compensate or more than compensate for the capacity disadvantage. Does this seem the best way to view it?

In reply to Kevin.

There’s no such thing as a Primal sigl that increases your essentia count. There are ones that let you store personal essentia, which lets you simulate a higher essentia capacity, but you don’t get something for nothing – you have to pay that essentia in first (and it’ll de-attune quickly unless you do something to stop it). Also, if your plan is to use multiple sigls at once, you have to actually have enough channelling skill to make effective use of them, which a lot of people don’t.

In reply to Benedict.

Ah I should have clarified better!

I meant could you activate a strong enough Primal sigl to increase your essentia count, so you could activate three more. Thus using four activated sigls at once.

But I am guessing from your answer that is not feasible for most Drucrafters unless in cases where you have 2.8 or above Essentia Capacity where that is practical.

In reply to Kevin.

You can use as many sigls as you want – you can use ten if you like – but unless you’ve got a superhuman essentia capacity, you’re only going to have enough essentia to actually activate 2.5 to 3 of them at once, same as anyone else.

Very informative as always, with this info it makes me wonder if Tobias and Helen are using Essentia Capacity prejudice as an excuse for why they are not the heirs.

On the topic of Essentia Capacity, and since I love loophole abuses is it possible to use four sigls at once with one of them being a Primal sigl increasing essentia to “trick the body” as it were into thinking it can use three sigls?

Thanks for the update but sorry that Book #4 is flowing as well as it might. I’m looking forward to next week’s guide on corporations & also Book 3 of course but still over six months away .

In reply to Alicia W..

Yes, you can (slightly) increase essentia capacity through conditioning and strength training. But it’s usually not as much as people would like, and you eventually hit a point of diminishing returns where you can’t realistically push it any higher.

In reply to Kevin.

Good spot on your part. Yes, and you’ll find out the details this autumn when Book #3 comes out.

In reply to Skeeve.

There are some methods, though they’re pretty esoteric and aren’t in common use.

Since essentia capacity is so strongly linked with the mass of the skeleton & skeletal muscle, how much does a person’s essentia change as their skeleton & muscles change?

For example, as we get older, bones become less dense & muscle mass/strength tends to decline. But people can go the other way, too: they can “bulk up” through intense exercise & a high protein diet.

So, is a person’s essentia capacity a constant thing? Or will it gradually decrease as they age? And, if so, can a person stave off that age-related decline in capacity through exercise & calcium supplements? Can they increase it through weight-bearing & muscle building exercises?

In reply to Benedict.

I presume theres a way to keep a drucrafter personal level lows by external means – to limit their action potential – when holding someone against their will?
And knowing the wickedness of the world this can evolve into torture?

Or is it purely up to the person themselves?

In reply to Benedict.

Huh I guess Scar and Diesel were somewhat competent, it seemed kinda of odd that they were with House Ashford… unless Charles knew they weren’t that effective and did it to undermine Lucella seems like something he would do.

Did William, Stephen’s Dad get training and sigls from House Ashford despite his young age? If so I could see why Charles took him marrying his daughter so badly for some reason I got the feeling they saw each other as a surrogate father/son relationship for some reason.

In reply to Benedict.

Many thanks for that – Doh! I was thinking it was more complex – somewhat like that Tier specialist used.

In reply to Bill.

It’s pretty much exactly the same as making sigls. Anyone with basic shaping skills can take the essentia from a Well and crystallise it into a piece of aurum. And even if you can’t shape, there are sigls that can do the job instead.

In reply to Benedict.

Oh! That sound both interesting and very useful for Stephen!
At the moment I’m still not understanding how essentia gets taken out of wells and stored – perhaps you need an engineer and a machine as per the Tier raid…