Benedict Jacka

In reply to Bill.

Depends on the armsman. New recruits don’t have sigls at all. Higher-ranked ones have continuous sigls that operate automatically. Elite, long-serving armsmen might eventually get tapped for drucraft training and would get active sigls that they could use on their own. This puts quite a lot of power (and wealth) into the hands of the armsman, though, so this is something you only do if you trust the person.

In reply to Jim Sackman.

Yes, there are Primal sigls that do exactly that.

In reply to Allan.

Pretty much, yes. There are some bad consequences that come from running too low on personal essentia for too long, but that’s a topic for another article (and it’s quite rare for that to happen unless you’re doing it deliberately for some rason).

Do the Armsmen actually have any drucraft skill or are their protection/attack sigls set on “automatic” and operate unconsciously?

While one can’t change ones personal essentia capacity by very much perhaps skilled drucrafters are able to design sigls that, while doing the same job, have a lower Lorenz rating? I’m thinking, for example about the Slam Sigl, where it could be set on continuous charge-up and only require attention from the drucrafter to activate the stored charge in a fight. Might this lower the Lorenz rating?

Since we know that essentia can be stored at least temporarily from the draining of wells, is it possible to provide a short term boost of essentia capacity using some sort of storage device.

Clearly this would be for a triggered effect but just thinking that this might be a way to boost an effect for a short period of time. Think of an extra strong push or light.

Thanks for the update and glad to hear that Book#4 is well under way, even if progress isn’t as fast as you’d like.

Looking forward to Essentia Capacity and if age or training can increase it for Stephen, even if only by a little…

Will the November release date for Book#3 be better for sales as you might be inside the Christmas timeframe as people struggle of gift ideas, or are sales fairly even during the year?

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.