Alcazar
An Alcazar is a Visceral ritual with a variety of uses.<ref name=":2"/>
They are one of the subjects taught at BHI.<ref name=":0">–Immaterial Realms – Visting Ruins, Storm, creating an Alcazar for diagnosis.
[...]
Stickemupp[Avery]:
realms are interesting to me
what’s an Alcazar?
A Literal Cat[Verona]:
a wooble search says it’s a kind of castle.
L♪Ell[Lucy]:
The big question is if its useful for what we’re doing. - BHI Information Packet & text group</ref> While one incident "went of the rails"<ref name=":2">“Uhh, a big ritual, turning an object or person or Other into a place you can actually wander around, explore. A diagnostic tool, a way to handle cursed items, or cursed people, or just to figure out an item you don’t know the function of. It can be exceptionally dangerous, obviously. The guest teacher had every student open up an Alcazar with an item that was uniformly pleasant and safe. One of the girls did it with a thing she received as a gift from a boy she liked, who wasn’t in that class to tell her no. It had such pleasant associations for her, it had to be that way through and through, right?”
“What happened?” Verona breathed.
“The item was present when the boy dealt with some bad stuff. His last girlfriend hurting the pet rabbit he got her for Easter. A time one of his first practices got out of control and hurt innocents. His father beat him after that. This girl got a front row seat to all of that, freaked out, lost her footing, and became parts of the scene. The rabbit, the father, others. The lecturer and some older students had to go in after her, along with the boy, who was there to help them navigate. There was a lot of fallout. [....]The boy and the girl both had a hard time dealing with that. The girl flipped out in front of Ray, at one point, and he just walked away from the conversation, texted me to say to go handle it.” - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.5</ref> it does have good resources for the procedure.<ref>“The Alcazar is a complex tool for any of the practices that use tools [...] It is, at the same time, a crude tool for the beginner who wishes to perform changes with the same care one might employ when swinging a hatchet, and a tool of nuance for the expert who seeks to work with more than mere stone and wood, but with the whispers the wood catches and the heart-impressions laid beneath stone. - Excerpt from an unamed book about Alcazars
[...]
“Good. Okay. Book should have covered something like how, when you’re inside, you need to be very careful what you say or do. Even small actions and sentences will leave their impressions. If this a gift is for Lucy, then be nice and be Lucy-positive.”
Verona nodded. “Cool, alright, book did say something like that, but not in that context.”
“The more of a change you’re doing, the more it’s going to fight you. You’re inside a house and you’ll be rearranging where the rooms are, the walls, some are going to be load-bearing.”
“What do we do about that?” Lucy asked.
“Standard rules. A lot of that is going to be metaphor for spirits transforming, or flooding in, or washing out. Picture being in a spaceship and someone puts a hole in the hull, or you’re in a submarine, same scenario. Standard measures for dealing with spirits work. Barriers, diagrams. Reinforce before you undertake anything big.”
“Circles and lines?”
“Yes. What does the book say about means of escape if things go poorly?”
“There are instructions on a circle we can put inside a paper. It makes a door.”
“Have multiple.”
“There are also some papers for containing and moving certain objects or aspects of objects.”
“Bring more than you need. I never did that ritual, but I know my father did, and he explained it. I was young and too stupid to listen as closely as I could have, but I remember it was tough for him. He had to face his demons, looking inward, and he had a lot. Even in the easiest, most mundane case, I think the regret of not having enough is far, far more than any regret of spending the time to prepare more papers.”
[...]
“The book suggested one room was pretty normal. A handful of rooms if you’re really good.” - Excerpt from Cutting Class 6.6</ref>
An alcazar can be used as Demesne, which can greatly expand the capabilities of the ritual.<ref name=":1">Sebastián is a Complex practitioner who finds, creates or encourages the creation of Incarnate Spirits that are enriched by being set on the world, then collected and stored in cards. For him, the Contrivance is the deck of custom-made cards, each card a binding for the specific Other, and the deck as a whole a battery for power he can gather, with the cards taking on color and additional detail as they divide up the power between them. He finds he spends enough time in the Alcazar constructed of his deck that he decides to formalize the arrangement, creating a Demesne where the Alcazar is forever erected.
[...]
The Complex practitioner Sebastián finds that the Demesne space is a refuge. The contrived situations, the deck of volatile Others, and the number of outside parties who want the cards for themselves are a constant onslaught, and the Demesne is a contrast to that; a place of rest and a vault few can penetrate. Because it is an Alcazar, he can spend this leisure time examining the deck for imperfections, taint, and influences, something he cannot do in the hectic day to day elsewhere, and he can remove any taint or alter any cards while within. Rules are adjusted to put the specific requirements of each card on hold while Sebastián and the deck are within. Later he expands this effect to ease the strict requirements for a time after leaving. - Demesnes Text</ref>
Trivia
- Alcázar is indeed "spanish" for castle,<ref name=":0"/> it derives from the term "al quasar" in arabic (as can occur with spanish words) which usually describes the more palatial kind of castle.<ref>Some fun reading material</ref> Conversely the arabic word comes from a latin word for types of military encampments.