Binding

Binding is the art of tying down or restricting more dangerous things. Practitioners who focus on binding are called Binders.<ref name="Docs" /> There is some overlap between Binders and Sealers<ref>Protection x Deals
Sealing
Sealing magic uses ofuda or the like, but can do what they do with simple words and orders spoken as short rituals. The emphasis is on imposing restrictions that activate effects when broken. With greater puissance, the restriction is mandated (ie. can’t move from the spot) for a short time, with the affected party gaining the ability to break it at a cost later. Sealers are a middle ground between Wardens and Binders, but frequently play out their power as a defensive, chess-like game of frustrating and stymying opponents.</ref> as well as Enchanters.<ref name=":2">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> Most practitioners had at least some facility with binding.<ref>Dozens of practitioners, each and every one capable of binding me, or calling in help. - Duress 12.8</ref>

Methodology

Manipulators of connections, focusing on deals and lore, and on using connections to tie people down. Much like the magicians of myth, can make contracts with Others and then draw on that Other later. Binders excel at tracking and redirecting people through connections; the most powerful binders can outright control people.<ref name="Docs">Lore x Deals
Binding
If connections are like threads, tying people to one another, then binders tie people up with threads. They manipulate threads and follow them to sources. Very strong at finding people, turning them elsewhere, etc. At high puissance, can outright control others. Binders lean heavily on the ‘make a contract with an Other, use that Other’. - Pact Dice: The Practices - Wbow Version</ref>

One of the most basic dichotomies of binding is that like can cancel out like, but opposite can cancel out opposite even more strongly (and unpleasantly for the Other.) More powerful Others will of course require more powerful bindings.<ref name="4.1">Collateral 4.1</ref> If an other has been bound by the practitioner enough times, even as simple an incantation as reciting their name and "I bind you" could be effective.<ref name="16.6">Judgment 16.6</ref>

Binding an Other too strictly and permanently could weaken it severely.<ref name=":1">Comment on Binding by Wildbow</ref>

Negative Bindings

Also known as hostile bindings, an Other can be bound using elements that oppose their nature. This type of binding weakens and angers the Other, but is more powerful with less effort compared to a positive or neutral binding.<ref name="4.1" /><ref name=":1" />

• Ordered, geometric, artificial barriers are effective against the most common types of Other, which are natural and chaotic.<ref name="4.1" />
• Malignant Others can be bound with purifying forces like salt and running water.<ref name=":0">Like in Essentials, malignant Others are going to react to purifying substances and patterns, like salt and running water. Fresh wood against dead things.”
  

“Iron against things that are born from nature,” I said. - excerpt from Bonds 1.7</ref>

• Iron is useful against things born from nature.<ref name=":0">Like in Essentials, malignant Others are going to react to purifying substances and patterns, like salt and running water. Fresh wood against dead things.”
  

“Iron against things that are born from nature,” I said. - excerpt from Bonds 1.7</ref>

• Fresh wood is useful against dead things.<ref name=":0">Like in Essentials, malignant Others are going to react to purifying substances and patterns, like salt and running water. Fresh wood against dead things.”
  

“Iron against things that are born from nature,” I said. - excerpt from Bonds 1.7</ref>

• Faeries are vulnerable to crude, unworked, unrefined things.<ref name="2.5e1">“Tell me, can you identify the Other we just saw?”
  

“Name it? No. Stick a label on it? I could maybe say it’s a Faerie, but that’s only a guess.”
“Very true. In this case, I think it’s a safe assumption. You’ve read Essentials, I assume? Standard reading for most new practitioners.”
“I have,” I said.
“Then you know what Faerie are weak against?”
I thought, but I couldn’t connect it. “Something about raw iron, but…”
“Crude elements,” Rose cut in. “Things that have been worked, refined, or crafted are less effective against them.” - excerpt from Damages 2.5</ref>

• Bogeymen were typically bound using natural, permanent things with a connection to the area of the Abyss the Bogey hailed from. Elements used might include a moat, a burning circle, or even a simple closed door, depending on the bogeyman. Antiques with a durability and history to them were particularly effective.<ref>Malfeasance 11.2</ref>
• A tortoise spirit might be bound with broken shells or teeth.<ref name=":3">Bestiary: Tortoise Spirits</ref>

Positive Bindings

Also known as binding like with like, a positive binding is made using elements that are in tune with to the Other's essential nature. Such a binding is weaker than a negative binding, but does not weaken the Other and so is less likely to offend it.<ref name="4.1" /><ref name=":1" />

• Pauz had his powers blocked with circles of gore on several occasions.
• A fire elemental could be bound with a circle of fire.<ref name=":1" />
• A tortoise spirit might be bound with a circle of sea shells, snail shells, eggshell. If associated with water, rainwater; if earth, smooth and equal-sized stones; if treasure, gold.<ref name=":3" />

Neutral Bindings

Similar to positive bindings, but possibly even less effective.

• Rose Jr bound Pauz with a simple chalk circle, but admitted that it would probably break free after a short while, and binding it with like (guts and gore) would be more effective.

Voluntary Bindings

A restrictive contract made with an Other, usually a defeated Other, is also considered a type of binding.<ref name="Docs" /><ref name="16.6" />

• Mags was able to bind defeated goblins who she had bound numerous times before simply by declaring "I bind you. You know the drill, standard rules" and having them assent.<ref name="16.6" />
• Blake voluntarily bound Pauz into a copy of Black Lamb's Blood.
• Goblins can agree to be bound by transforming into weapons, allowing the defeated goblin to continue shedding blood and gaining reputation.<ref>“I do.  Goblin sects have traditions,” Maggie said.  “Taking the form

of a weapon started off, if I remember right, when goblin warlords 

dueled the toughest bastards on the battlefield, and offered a choice between servitude or death.  But even bound goblins wanted a chance at shedding some blood and furthering their reputation, especially when the

binding was short-term.  Becoming a weapon became a way to achieve 

that, while the conquering goblin got a symbol of victory, something he could hold in the air to convince the defeated goblin’s followers to follow him.” I’d already read something on the subject when I’d been considering the sword as an implement.  I waited while my friends quizzed her. “Why the spikes on the handle?” “That’s kind of a fudge-you,” Maggie said.  “Except with more colorful language.  A grudging sort of surrender, where using your power

and reputation costs the victor something.  Failing to acknowledge the 

grudging surrender means bleeding yourself, the goblin drinks the blood,

and can, given a few decades, drink up enough to buck the bondage and 

get free.” - excerpt from Void 7.11 </ref>

• A basic practice for Valkyries is to summon a ghost and have them agree to be bound into a thematically-appropriate object (see Hallows, below.)

Hallows

A hallow refers to a vessel or area which is prepared for an Other, usually an immaterial Other, to inhabit.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" />

• A ghost can be bound into an object connected with their nature, such as a bottle for an alcoholic.
• A Tortoise Spirit can be bound into something ritually washed with rainwater and marked with tortoise sigils. A vessel containing a Tortoise Spirit will be made tougher and heavier, possibly larger or slower as well.<ref name=":3" />

Other Types of Binding

• Binding of humans is called spellbinding.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" />
• Ainsley Behaim knew an elaborate Chronomancy binding that wore down the target's vigor by connecting them with weaker past and future versions of themself, focused by sticking pins into a candle, she had to do the ritual methodically and in sequence with any errors affecting the binding distractions got in the way but rhyming helped.<ref name="bind6">Ainsley drew a striped candle from her purse with one hand, and it lit itself. She already had needles in her other hand.
  
  I couldn’t imagine many situations where one of my enemies using needles was a good thing.
  [...]
  Ansley slid a needle into the candle, right at the base.
  
  “Zero hour,” she murmured, “Let us begin.”
  [...]
  “Hour one,” Ainsley said, sliding a needle in at the first stripe. “I bind your legs, Blake Thorburn. I bind the pigeontoed that first held you up. I bind the legs you wear as a man, now, and the crooked weary hips that will be yours when you’re old.”
  [...]
  “I reject your binding,” I spat the words, “Because I have sources telling me I won’t fucking make it to old age. Your third point doesn’t stick.”
  
  “Doesn’t matter,” Sunglasses said.
  
  Ainsley nodded, grave.
  [...]
  She found another needle. “Hour two. I bind your legs with the folly of childhood, the trials of adulthood, and the frailty of age.”
  [...]
  “Hour three,” Ainsley said, “I bind you in place, the cradle with its bars. The career with its trappings. The cage of the body, the deathbed, the coffin.”
  
  “I reject your binding,” I gasped, as I slumped down. “I rejected it once, I reject it again. I was never going to be able to hold a career, I can’t now, as a diabolist and a target for just about fucking everyone. I’m probably not going to die an old man, either. I reject it, I reject it, I reject it!”
  
  “This isn’t about you,” Sunglasses said. “It’s about saying things that other forces understand. But by all means, please keep going.” - Excerpt from Subordination 6.12</ref> However, it could only affect a single target.<ref name="16.6" />
• A lawyer for Mann, Levinn, and Lewis Firm employed a binding that caused each step to be less effective than the last. Ainsley Behaim was able to reveal it's underpinning with her pins and link it to her candle flame, then snuff it out.<ref name="16.6" />

Notable Binders

• Duchamp Coven (?)
• Craig and Ainsley Behaim<ref name="6.12a">Subordination 6.11</ref>
• Landon Michaelsson, Duchamp husband<ref name=":2" />

References

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