Editing Demesne (section)

==Gaining a Demesne==
The ritual itself is simple, and involves staking your claim and then defeating all those who would challenge you over it. Any method of contest can be agreed upon by the combatants. By defeating all those who challenge them, or holding out for a set length of time, the domain is the practitioners to do with as they please.<ref name="8.7">“When you do the ritual, you invite locals to challenge your claim. You’re talking about talking between individual challenges.”<br>[...]<br>The floor tiles rotated, opening a hole. A table rose from the floor, and Johannes picked up the book. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/07/24 Excerpt] from [[Signature 8.7]]</ref><ref name=":9">“Making your own sanctuary, while we have enemies gathering at the gates. It seems like a pretty simple ritual.”<br><br>“Deceptively simple,” Rose said.<br><br>“Yeah, ''deceptively'' simple,” I agreed. “You stake out the area, the magical equivalent of drawing out your borders and planting a flag, you say a few words, and you invite anyone, everyone and ''everything'' that objects to come and challenge you. Trial by combat, riddles, placating them with deals, whatever you agree on. The bigger the area you try to claim, the bigger the invitation you broadcast. They each get to confront you the once, and the ritual ends when there are no challengers left, or when a set amount of time passes. Claim a space the size of a closet, maybe get five to ten objections. Claim a house, get fifty.”<br><br>“I’m thinking that’s one of the last things we want to do,” Rose said. “When we have a familiar, and when we have an implement, so we have some ability to fight.”<br><br>“Except,” I said, “It’s a bit of a catch-22, isn’t it? The demesne gives us a steady supply of power, with bigger spaces giving us more power. It’s a sanctuary, and a place where we can bend the rules in our favor. Right? So we need a tool or a familiar to lay claim to as big a space as we can pull off.” - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/01/07 Excerpt] from [[Bonds 1.6]]</ref> The uncooperative [[Spirits]] and [[Other]]s are ejected, leaving only cooperative ones.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

You cannot prevent someone from coming to answer a demesne claim<ref>- [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2022/02/15/gone-and-done-it-17-7/ Excerpt] from [[Gone and Done It 17.7]]</ref> but if someone is already imprisoned prior to the start of a demesne claim, there's no obligation to release them.<ref>What happens for someone like Marlen, who is being held captive?”<br><br>“There’s no obligation to free someone from possession, captivity, or other circumstances if they were unable to answer the claim before it started,” Cyn said.<br><br>“But if she’s freed, she has the right to go there?”- [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2022/02/22/gone-and-done-it-17-b/ Excerpt] from [[Gone and Done It 17.b]]</ref>

Most demesne rituals require legal or de-facto ownership of the location.<ref name=":0">What if it is in a high rise which gets demolished? Would fate prevent the demolishment of the building?<br><br>If you have a demesnes you generally want to actually have a claim to the territory. You don't claim a demesnes in an apartment high rise you don't own, because that leaves you without protections and generally fucks you when you get evicted and the spirits go, "Whelp, yeah, sucks, but poof, demesnes disintegrates, bye." Most rituals are just going to require ownership of the place (or for the place to be sufficiently neutral) as a matter of how they're enacted.<br><br>Outside of the mundane world, if you own the space, have claim to it, and everything else, it's generally pretty darn hard to actually demolish. It's an extension of the practitioner and it's a rare, rare case where you'll actually be able to do substantial damage to the demesnes without also defeating the practitioner who lays claim to it... and once you pick that fight you're fighting a practitioner on their home turf. Explosives aren't liable to work right, fire doesn't kindle, flooding does minimal damage, holes in walls self-repair, yadda yadda, and while you're trying to knock down a building that's resisting the effort, the practitioner gets a heads up and then suddenly appears behind you, having arrived faster than they should've. - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/6kpxxn/_/djnxlzk/ Comment by Wildbow] on Reddit</ref>

An area that is already a demesne cannot be claimed by someone else, even if the person who claimed it is deceased.<ref name=":10">Study and enact the ritual found in ''Demesnes''. Baba Yaga had her hut, I have my room. Unfortunately, the rest of the house has been claimed by our predecessors, and while it is a haven, you will need to find your own place to make your own, where the rules bend as you need them to, and where your power is greatest. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2013/12/24 Excerpt] from [[Bonds 1.3]]</ref><ref>Once it’s taken, it’s taken, right? You can’t have something for your demesnes if someone else has already claimed that ground. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/02/18 excerpt] from [[Breach 3.2]]</ref><ref name=":5">Can you not have a demesne where a dead person had one?<br><br>Not generally. Certain families have different rules & whatnot, so they break from tradition/normal rules, but just for the sake of argument & expansion, having the little convenience comes at a cost. If you're laying claim to the space that's been in your family for a while, then, well, it goes back to the identity thing I brought up above (third bullet point). You're identifying as someone who follows the path & place set forth by family. It might make it harder to be flexible with practice, and it'd impact how Others look at you. You're less a person and more a bloodline with a power & position that's currently resting in a different body than it was 30 years ago. The demesnes itself might be more powerful but less customizable, with each person to take it on being able to make only a few changes to make their mark on it (and less so with each subsequent generation). - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/6kpxxn/_/djnxlzk Comment by Wildbow] on Reddit</ref><ref>“We could take something smack dab in the middle of it. Once it’s taken, it’s taken, right? You can’t have something for your demesnes if someone else has already claimed that ground.” - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/02/18 Excerpt] from [[Breach 3.2]]</ref> (But see Variant Demesnes, below.)

Every so often, someone will again challenge your claim, and you are required to leave the demesne to defend it.<ref>“Demesnes are like trademarks. Periodically, people are going to test them. You need to respond, but you have the home court advantage. The law’s on your side. But if you claim something that broad, and if you can’t or don’t defend it when someone else puts one foot over the line, that weakens your stance. But he’s defending it.” - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/01/07 Excerpt] from [[Bonds 1.6]]</ref><ref>He spends almost all of his time within his demesne, stepping outside only to defend his claim and attend occasional meetings. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/01/07 excerpt] from [[Bonds 1.6]]</ref>

===Size ===
The bigger the location the more challengers, from five to ten objections for a closet to fifty for a house.<ref name=":9" /> Generally the size of a demesne would be measured in rooms, a building at maximum.<ref>The book talks about it in the context of <em>rooms</em>, of houses at the most. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/01/07 Excerpt] from [[Bonds 1.6]]</ref><ref name=":12" /> A larger Demesne is generally better, with a larger one supplying more power,<ref name=":9" /> but this is dependent on the presence of useful Others; a large area that is desolate, with few challengers, is less useful.<ref name=":2" />