List of Power Sources

Things and Others from which a practitioner may draw the Power needed to perform workings.

• Self: If a power source is not specified, most practice will be fueled from your Self. This leaves you weakened for a time until you replenish your Self.
• Blood: Blood is one of the most basic power sources. Using your blood to fuel practice will draw on your Self, weakening you until you recover. Using blood this way can create Connections, which may be used to draw more power than you wish.<ref>Blood is power, basically the most distilled and direct form you can offer.  The caveat being that when you deal with some Others, you give an inch, they take a mile.  And you don’t want them taking a mile of your blood or personal power. [...] Remember that every second that you’re using your blood to keep it here, you’re making yourself just a bit weaker.  - excerpt from Damages 2.3</ref> Blood from a specific source may have specific properties or uses.
  • Incarnate Practitioners of a certain stripe may make use of blood from individuals in various specific circumstances. It is important that the different types of blood not mix, and the exact nuances of the different types of blood will influence the workings.<ref>Each jar was blood from different circumstances. [...] Another jar with blood shed in pain.  Easy as pie.  Blood from discord.  Blood from fear.  Blood from ruin.  Blood from disaster.  Nuances were important. [...] If she messed it up, then she could get some Enyo blood in the Typhon blood and both would be spoiled. [...] She could feel the diagram slowly drinking the blood she’d so painstakingly acquired.  Her power source.  White chalk lines glowed pink. [...] The image was a bit blotchy, because of the sickness.  A bit jittery, because of the fear.  Overly sharp, because of the pain.  The cost of using such things as a power source. [...] She flew it in with one hand, and with the other, drew an aquarius squiggle to start a radiating line, from power source to bird.  Empowering it.  Drawing more blood. She could see the circle around her turn a deeper red, even though she couldn’t see anything else here. - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z</ref>
• A Patron: such as the god Dionysus. Most powerful Others, especially Greater Powers can grant a portion of their power to a practitioner. Power granted this way is usually subject to restrictions, and typically may be rescinded should a practitioner displease their patron. Harbingers, Cultists, and Chosen typically receive the majority of their power this way.
• A Familiar: Similarly to a patron, a Familiar is an Other which can provide the power required for practice. Any other may be a Familiar, but many choices can cause major issues. A practitioner with a Familiar that is much more powerful is at risk of being made subservient, while a Practitioner with a much weaker familiar may receive minimal benefit. Your Familiar is in many ways an extension of your Self, frequently allowing power transfer much more efficiently than would otherwise be possible.
• A bound Other: Most others may be bound (willingly or unwillingly) and then tapped for power or services. A short term binding may allow you to have an other provide a single or small number of uses of their power, while a long term binding can let a practitioner use an other as a weaker but replenishing source of power.
• Parts of Others/ Humans/ Animals: Many body parts may be tapped for power. For example, hair won or taken from a fae may be used as a source of Glamour. Intestines may be used for Augury.
• Magic Items: Depending on the item in question a practitioner or sufficiently knowledgeable person can draw power from a given item.
  • The Hot Lead is the remains of a metal slug stained with the death of a fire elemental. Created when John 'executed' an elemental that made car engines explode and given to the Kennet Trio as his gift to them.<ref name=":0">It was a slug from a gun. It was uncomfortably hot against her palm.
    “It’s always had an energy to it. Heat that wouldn’t go away,” he explained.
    “What’s it from?”
    “Putting down an elemental that was causing engine blocks to overheat, sometimes to burst into flame. I don’t know how you’d tap into that power, but it’s yours if you want to try. Keep it in a container that won’t burn.”
    “It’s painful to hold.”
    “It’s not real harm. Don’t put it in your pocket. It won’t burn through so long as it’s carried, but no matter how you carry it on you, it’s uncomfortable.” - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.5</ref><ref name=":0" /> Primarily used as a safe power source for the Weapon Ring,<ref>- Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.8</ref> it regenerates its power over time.<ref name=":1">“The lead isn’t as painful to hold as it was, I think,” Verona noted. She moved it around her palm.
    “It’s cooling down as I use it more. It heated up again when I spent thirty minutes or so talking to my mom. I think it might have a capacity that recharges over time.” - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.8</ref> It is too uncomforable to carry around all the time,<ref>Hot lead is too uncomfortable to carry for everyday use- Excerpt from [2.5 spoilers] Gifts Collected</ref> although the pain it causes is not "real" and won't burn flesh. When unattended, however, it can burn inanimate objects.<ref name=":0" /> John was able to steal some of the power for himself in combat, by touching it and drawing on his claim as the 'original' owner.<ref>John caught the knife blades, letting them sink into his palms.  His fingers wrapped around to the backs of her hands.

“I gave you this,” he told her.  “It was mine originally, I earned its power, and I’ll take some of that power now.”

She looked.  His fingertips grazed the hot lead.  His eyes glowed a faint orange.

She felt the pull against her Self as the weapon ring began drinking other power. - excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.8</ref>

• • The Sanguine Stone is a stone that drips blood when squeezed tightly, discovered by Clementine Robertjon. The blood can be used as a power source, but the stone contains a malign intelligence, which gains some influence over workings powered by it once the blood is expended.<ref>Item two: Sanguine Stone.  No longer would they have to share the Hot Lead between them.  It was a power source.  Simple enough to use.  Squeeze, it dripped blood, and dripped blood enhanced any practices it touched.  Continuing to squeeze produced more concentrated blood, which increased the enhancement over time.  It could, as far as Clem or Verona’s diagnosis had been able to figure out, provide steadily improving enhancement for a long, long time.

Except there was a drawback, of course.  Several.  Gripping the stone meant a white-knuckle squeeze that was hard and painful to keep up for ten seconds, let alone the minutes needed to get the super concentrated blood to really boost a practice.  That was one thing.  The other was that when the squeeze stopped, an intelligence tied to the stone got a chance to push back, wrest control, or do something with any and all affected practices.  Sometimes that meant lashing out, back at the practitioner holding the stone.  Other times, it just destroyed whatever had been powered up.  The more power put into the object, the more power and time that other intelligence had. - excerpt from Summer Break 13.5</ref>

• • Alexander Belanger made use of old coins of unclear provenance as a potent power source.<ref>“And you’ll need power as well,” he said.

“Tell me that before I mark down the days.”

“You can provide it yourself, or I can provide it for another, hm, six weeks of favors.  It’ll need to be a lot.” [...] He pulled some coins out of his pocket, old and possibly gold.  He tossed them into the box with the figurines. - excerpt from Stolen Away 2.z</ref>

• • The dog tags left behind by a Dog of War carry power in them. John Stiles sometimes used this to empower himself or his attacks to a moderate degree. When they were used to summon a Dog, the power in the tags helped to guarantee the summoning's success.<ref>John reached for the tags at his neck.  Then he began reciting names.  Asking for help. [...] “…Horseman, Meyers, Miles, Doe, Angel [...] Ghost, Smith, Grandfather, Poe…”
    
    

Avery threw a ball skyward.  The Wolf reached out to catch it.

John whispered.  “Yalda.  I’m home for a little while longer.  I need your power to keep the promises I made.  Sorry.”

The ball dropped.

John shot.  One bullet to the back of the head.

The Wolf staggered a step forward.  His hand missed the ball.

[...]

“Give me strength,” he murmured, chin at his collarbone.  He didn’t have a spare hand to reach for the tags.  “Each and every one of you.  Give me vigor, and anger, and whatever else you have, buried in there.  Let me heal.  I need to fight.”

He paused, feeling it work.

“Don’t hold anything back,” he whispered.  “It’s not as if I’ll need to draw on you again past this summer.”

They stopped holding back.

Sensation returned in a painful way.  He felt his leg mend.

[...]

His hand gripped the tags that were still intact, silently asking for strength.  To break her grip, to separate her from what prevented the others from escaping.

It didn’t work.
[...]
“I’m so glad we were able to call you,” Lucy said.

“I’m bound to this place by history, by other things.  And there’s power in those tags.” - excerpt from One After Another 10.a</ref>

• BlackForester Taps
  • Thea's Battery<ref>Playing a Part 15.8</ref><ref>Left in the Dust 16.1</ref>

References

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