Spellbinding

Spellbinding is the practice of binding the living,<ref name=":0">Spellbinders bind the living and when the patriarch had died his slaves had been freed. The spellbinders were so focused on the Others in their midst that they’d forgotten the humans. One of the humans was able to get in position to corner and kill Eve Allemand - Excerpt from False Moves 12.z</ref> usually meaning Humans,<ref name=":2">Spellbinding. Binding humans. Griffin did his work. The magic circle he painted in the air was centered around the girl’s neck where it would become a collar. The girl’s father, already bound, watched, mute, looking grim. = Excerpt from Go For the Throat 23.b</ref> can be seen as a rarified version of Enchantment<ref name=":1">Landon Michaelsson, Spellbinder
[...]
“Spellbinder,” Joyce said. When I looked a bit confused, she added, “An enchanter, but specialized in control. He keeps three or four Others with him at all times. I named him because he broke the rules. He’s paranoid, and doesn’t really associate with people. Only Others. We’d hoped to use her as a way to bring him back to society, to get him involved. But we underestimated his paranoia.”

“What happened?”

“He bound his wife. To keep her from passing information on to us. Bound her mind and bound her bodies, so she only does what he says.”

“Hypnosis?” I asked.

“The binding is as solid as hypnosis is soft and vague. He’s… scary. In a lot of ways. I don’t think the family would miss him if he was gone, but we invested in him, we lost a family member to connect to him, and I guess Sandra decided that if we’d paid the price, we might as well…” - Excerpt from Execution 13.5</ref>

Methodology

Exists at the crux of Lore and Deals knowing information about the target is crucial.<ref>Technically, that spot belongs to Spellbinding. It's the practice of using ritual practice to capture people. You need to know them first, to know the elements that contribute to the binding, thus the lore part, and when you do the ritual, you get control over the person. Practitioners with more tied into them and stronger Others take more. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref> It is a good option if the practitioner doesn't want to kill a target but it is a slow process that can get in the way of ma<ref>Cutting Class 6.7</ref>

The subject of a spellbinding will usually have a Binding circle of some kind around their neck.<ref>Two more Others climbed up after him, animal-people, with smashed-in faces, like pugs, each with magic circles around their necks, like collars. - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.15</ref> It is unknown if other examples exist.

As with many practices, death can lead to the end of all spellbinding done by the practitioner.<ref name=":0"/>

Notable Spellbinders

• Landon Michaelsson<ref name=":1"/>
• The Allemand family of France<ref name=":0" />
• Reid and Abraham Musser<ref>We sent the victim on her way with her baby, spellbound to forget we’d existed or where the hovel was. Easier than cleaning up the evidence I’d been there.” - Excerpt from False Moves 12.z</ref>
• Willan Family<ref> The spellbinder family had been nobodies, quiet, academic, and confident, but rarely making waves. They’d risen in status some in the past few weeks and they’d navigated the trouble that naturally followed from that. Them rising meant others fell, in the great hierarchy, and that meant enemies.
  [...]
  Fit with the Millan spellbinder family’s slow and steady approach through this whole thing. - Excerpt from Gone and Done It 17.x</ref>
  • Maddox Willan<ref>Maddox Willan, 16, Spellbinding, Soulbinding- Excerpt from Student Guild</ref>
  • Vaughn Willin

Trivia

• Relevant synonyms for being spellbound include being bewitched, enchanted and entranced. Spellbound is used here instead of its other synonyms in part because many of these terms are already being used.

References

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