Editing Implement (section)

==Variations==
Although a single irreplaceable Implement is the standard in the West, some Eastern practices allow for multiples or sets of Implements.<ref>It's like how some eastern practitioners have their own systems & standards, where they have familiars and implements wrapped up in the same system (generally with multiples or sets). - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/6kpxxn/_/djnxlzk/ Comment by Wildbow]</ref>

It's possible to combine an implement with one of the [[Defining Rituals|other major rituals]], such as making a vehicle both your [[Demesne]] and your Implement. However, this generally results in a single item which fills both "slots" without being any more powerful than a standard Implement, merely different; possibly even weaker. Violating the strong traditions that surround the Implement ritual is generally not considered worth it.<ref>Demesnes can't generally move.  There are other ways to go about it, which wouldn't be termed demesnes, but generally at a steep cost.<br><br>It's like how some eastern practitioners have their own systems & standards, where they have familiars and implements wrapped up in the same system (generally with multiples or sets).  You might go this route, but there's caveats - at least 2/3 of these are liable to crop up, but very likely all 3, depending on measures taken & how much the practitioner puts into the ritual:

*You might go for a mobile demesnes but you're basically wrapping it up in familiar or implement. So you have a motorcycle as your cradle, but it's also your familiar, or you have a van as your cradle but it's also your implement. It's not ~actually~ an implement though, but it's taking up that space in terms of your self definition, because it's just this clumsy thing you're doing, and it's not an equal proportion of power. This means you're basically, instead of having a familiar at 100%, an implement at 100%, a demesnes at 100%, you're going 50/50, 100.
*It's exaggerated further in that it's nontraditional here and so there's less respect and focus afforded to it. So it takes a hit and winds up being more like 33/33, 100 in terms of general puissance/power level. The end result is you've almost halved your overall power level compared to what you could achieve otherwise.
*Remember Blake talking about how the tool represents how people approach the world, the familiar represents the relationships they form, and the demesnes represents the position they occupy in it? If you're saying "The place I hold in the world is living in a car" or "the place I hold is that of a traveler" then you're sending a lot of signals to the spirits. There's a pretty heavy quality of life cost in this. You're signaling to the spirits that hey, you're probably never going to own a house or live in an apartment for more than a few months. Now all of a sudden you're getting evicted or the landlord wants to stop renting so they can move family into your apartment, or you just can't get that mortgage approval or get a realtor to answer your calls. There's subtle effects to how people & Others see you too. To Others, the practitioner with a sailboat demesnes isn't worth dealing with because they're not going to be here next week.<br><br>Tradition  matters and you can buck tradition but at a steep cost.  Generally speaking, trying to get tricky with it isn't worth it - some niche cases exist and some people don't care about overall power level, they just want a talking motorcycle that makes their nomadic lifestyle more comfortable.  But you're not going to have a van and be able to be a lesser god of your own domain when you crawl into the back of it. - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/6kpxxn/_/djnxlzk/ Comment by Wildbow]</ref><ref>You can blend as a more permanent thing (not what Laird does).  You can have a familiar plus demesnes for a more intelligent demesnes.  A familiar plus implement for an object with a personality.  An implement plus demesnes for a demesnes you could bring with you.  Generally you take a pretty significant hit to power in exchange for some degree of utility.  You also lose standing with practitioners and Others.  I think I've posted on this before.  If you have a talking motorcycle you're giving up 90% of the power of a proper implement and 90% of the power of a proper demesnes, but you're getting an implement that's more weighty and a comfortable seat that isn't limited to one place.  And because you're a practitioner that's flouting convention then convention helps you less, so your practice in general isn't going to be all that. - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/8hx8vn/_/dyn7app/ Comment by Wildbow]</ref><ref>[https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/05/6-3-spoilers-implementum-text/ Bonus Material: Implementum Text]</ref>  Familiar/Implement hybrids where an Other is forcibly bound as an object have become popular in eastern [[Russia]].<ref>In some places, such as eastern Russia, there is a tendency to adjust the relationship, binding the Other to the form of an object, in a grand and formal ritual that blurs the line between the Implementum and the Famulus rituals.  It remains a measure that offers a wealth of control, but does without the companionship or easy negotiation.  As a practice it may have its roots in the same sorts of binding that occur among goblins, but the process was spearheaded by elite families who have not shared the particulars, mimed thereafter by others.<br>[...]<br>These two forms of binding are not established and are far weaker together than the archetypical Familiar and Implement or the archetypical Familiar and Demesne would be, if both were taken apart.  The established approach does offer simplicity, as well as minor benefits such as not needing to manage or talk to one’s familiar, or having a demesne that can withstand and fight back against intrusion, in a practitioner community where such invasions may be common.  - excerpt from [[List of Books#Famulus|Famulus]], quoted in [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/29 Bonus Material: Famulus Text]</ref>

Some practitioners have a way to choose something that isn't solid as an Implement,<ref>The '''non-solid implement''' is a choice made by some elementalists, as well as some divine practitioners and visceral practitioners. - excerpt from [[List of Books#Implementum|Implementum]], quoted in [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/05 Bonus Material: Implementum Text]</ref> but the techniques are kept secret.<ref name=":17">These exceptional cases are anecdote only and we unfortunately lack a full and rich understanding of their operation, and can only acknowledge they exist.  The more mundane, visceral cases may be our closest analogue and our best hope of understanding: art and music or their inverse, corruption and noise, can be treated much as elements are, given a vessel.  Still restricted and kept secret by prominent families, we can testify, with their agreement, that the courses taken to codify one’s link to these elements (in our examples, a piece of oil painting that creeps along one’s immediate vicinity or a consolidation of trypophilic ooze that creates thousands of holes in whatever it wets) closely resemble that of the implement.  We have been asked not to release the limited information we have on these practices. - excerpt from [[List of Books#Implementum|Implementum]], quoted in [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/05/6-3-spoilers-implementum-text/ Bonus Material: Implementum Text]</ref> Examples include an [[Elementalist]] choosing a liquid, gas, or quantity of dust,<ref>In the elementalist’s case, water, smoke, sand, or some other quantity of fine material may be gathered up and be made one’s own.  What it lacks in value (typically) it grants in affinity to elements or specific forces.  One can expect to become more Other than with an implement choice, and some attention must be paid to the management of the material, which may be kept in a vessel, released, and then brought back.  Amorphous or wild material like smoke or blue flame can be harder and more expensive to manage, but the practitioner may benefit from not needing something extant to work with. - excerpt from [[List of Books#Implementum|Implementum]], quoted in [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/05/6-3-spoilers-implementum-text/ Bonus Material: Implementum Text]</ref> a [[Greater Powers|Divine]] practitioner using a quantity of divine energy bound in abstract form,<ref>For the divine practitioner, the gathered up essence may be divine light, the divine word, or a vibration.  While we say ‘divine’, there are some greater powers that trespass into the realm of divinity, such as great spirits.  When bound up and given some material form, this power tends to take some form that is not explicitly physical.  It may be lines of light on skin, resembling a tattoo, a shuddering godscream contained in a music player, or a spike of glass that, should it touch anything, will turn that thing to glass. - excerpt from [[List of Books#Implementum|Implementum]], quoted in [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/05 Bonus Material: Implementum Text]</ref> or a practitioner claiming some "art", "noise" or "corruption" as an Implement (such as a patch of artwork that moves along surfaces or a corrupting ooze.)<ref name=":17" />

The Ascetic Ritual is somewhat like choosing one's own body as an Implement, eschewing physical possessions.<ref>In the '''Ascetic Ritual''', the practitioner not only doesn’t choose a specific implement, but eschews item ownership and claim to material possessions altogether.  Favored by evangelists, martial practitioners styled after the world rhythms, and those who wish to maintain immaculate bindings within their own bodies, the ascetic ritual has a resemblance to the implement ritual but leaves the spot blank and includes declarations to abandon all things of material worth.<br>[...]<br>While largely an inverse of choosing an implement, the ascetic ritual does share similarities in how it is carried out and in the effect on standing, one’s appearance and relationship to Others, and the finality of the decision. - excerpt from [[List of Books#Implementum|Implementum]], quoted in [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/05 Bonus Material: Implementum Text]</ref>