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" /> Immaterial others may be difficult to trap with this unless first bound in a Hallow (see below).<ref name=":4">Negative binding is the practice of using opposites to bind an Other. Using clear water to bind fire, salt to bind the unclean, civilization (elements running through manufactured metal) to bind goblins. Bogeymen

are often bound by antiques - things of value that have gained value 

over time, often decorated ('more' as opposed to the bogeyman's lack). Works on just about every kind of Other, but immaterial Others are often

hard to pin down, since they aren't necessarily locked to a particular 

place or shape, and they often have to be convinced to enter a hallow or

trap first, taking a form before they can be explicitly pinned down. [...] Bogeymen must often be defeated before their essence is up for containment within the antique. - Comment by Wildbow</ref>

• 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>

• Water can be used to bind things associated with fire, such as a fire elemental or other fire-based beings.<ref name=":4" />
• Salt is commonly used to bind unclean or impure things.<ref name=":4" />
• 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 often bound using antiques with a durability and history to them.<ref name=":6">Binding a bogeyman typically involved using some form of the natural elements, and things with permanence. 

In the former case, it depended based on the type of bogeyman and the 

place beyond the cracks in reality that they had come from.  Some were particularly vulnerable to running water, others struggled to move solid

objects and could easily be trapped or stopped by a simple closed 

door.  Yet others didn’t like fire.

Moat, box, or burning circle could serve, depending on the type.

The other option was old items that had a history and durability to them, antiques.

- excerpt from Malfeasance 11.2 </ref> They may need to be defeated before they can be bound into an antique.<ref name=":4" />

• Bogeymen were also frequently averse to natural things, with the specifics based on 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.<ref name=":6" />
• A tortoise spirit might be bound with broken shells or teeth.<ref name=":3">Bestiary: Tortoise Spirits</ref>
• Blessed Silver is helpfull against a broad selection of Other kinds.<ref>[1] I recognized it.  Blessed silver chain or something.  A one-stop measure for most kinds of Other or something of the sort. </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" />

• An elemental could be bound using energy.<ref name=":5">Positive/neutral bindings are those which appeal to the Other's nature.

This is the 'like works on like' form of binding something.  This is 

using energy to bind elementals, filth to bind goblins, etc. The aforementioned method of blocking off all outside connections can work too, so stuff like a circle of salt makes for a good standby. These don't tend to hold up well to attacks and are more about getting an Other to stay put long enough to have a conversation. Though they don't

hold up very well, exerting power or using other methods in conjunction
with it (such as the right language or glyphs) can work. - Comment by Wildbow</ref>

• Filth could be used to bind goblins.<ref name=":5" />

• 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

Based around trying to symbolically sever outside connections, without anything particularly tied to the entity being bound. Similar to positive bindings, but possibly even less effective. Generally only used to try and hold an Other long enough to talk, but with more elaborate circles or an infusion of power it can be strengthened.<ref name=":5" />

• A circle of salt is a common go-to.<ref name=":5" />
• 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.
• Tortoise spirits can be bound with a chalk or salt circle.<ref name=":3" />

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 or vessel refers to an object, person, area etc. which is prepared for an Other, usually an immaterial Other, to inhabit.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /> Often involves symbolically cleansing the hallow of other influences first,<ref>To make a hallow, one makes a space for an Other. To make a hallow for a

spirit, one would create a vessel, container, or designate an item 

(circles, glyphs, markers all help) and cleanse that item, emptying it of all other influences, spirits, echoes, everything else. Then you do what you can to encourage spirits of the right type to find the hallow.

Again, having the right signifiers and spiritual signposts really help.
 If you've got a carved katana with red wrapping around the handles and
a flame etched on the blade, you can guess what sort of spirits are 

going to move fastest toward the open spot. Regular cleansing keeps the

'pollution' out, and spirits or echoes in general will follow the path 

of least resistance. Then you just keep them there, locking the door behind it after it arrives. This 'locking' can be naming and clarifying

the spirit, making a deal, exerting power, or drawing out a barrier or 

circle to close off any lures or awareness of the world beyond the hallow (if it's very dull or lacks much will of its own, this can work nicely). Or whatever else. The hallow can be a place or a person (including oneself), in addition to an item. Hallows tend to work better on immaterial Others and don't work on material Others (those with actual bodies, forms). - Comment by Wildbow</ref> and "hollowing out" the vessel. From an Other's perspective, the benefit of a Hallow is that they don't need their usual sustenance while inside it.<ref name=":7">“Hallows.  Making a place for an Other.  They can occur in nature and

may have been the foundation for the very first practitioners to learn 

how to deal with Others.  Others, like us, need sustenance.  The nature of that sustenance varies wildly, ranging from food, sleep, and drink for the most visceral Others, to specific sentiment or faith for the immaterial.  The Hallow is a shelter that is intended for the long term,

and spares most Others the need for sustenance, as the Hallow 

supplies.  It is, if one dwells on the positive bindings, a place made into a long term home for the Other, within a person, place, or thing.  The place must be hollowed out, treated, and the correct signposts must be set, to guide the right inhabitant to that space. [...] Immaterial Others are most inclined to inhabit a hallow.  Spirits, echoes, and incarnations are diffuse enough that they could inhabit anything.  For many visceral others, such as your common goblin or bogeyman, they may require that you break the body first.  The goblin becomes its own hallow.  The bogeyman can be slain, then trapped in an appropriate vessel.  The negative binding, using opposites, then applies

to seal the hallow, should you want to trap the Other within.  Put the 

Bogeyman or echo into a container that suits them and their nature, then

seal that container appropriately with something anathema to them, so 

emerging is harder.  A rusty box surrounded by fine silver chain, an old

fashioned syringe of emotional significance, buried in salt.”  - excerpt from Cutting Class 6.1 - excerpt from Cutting Class 6.1</ref>

• 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" />
• A familiar's animal form is a type of vessel for the transformed Other. If the normal familiar bond is damaged they may "leak" spirits and energy, but they can also accept spirits as a power source.<ref>I’m a container for spirits. I’m supposed to be a vessel for an

Evan-spirit, but stuff got broke. Spiritstuff is leaking out like a slow drip, so we’ve been giving me more spirits to keep me going. So what I’m saying is, we stuff something inside me. Something like a megahuge fire spirit, and we let me blaze a trail. Literally. - excerpt from Judgement 16.4</ref>

• Blake speculated that a ghost's body serves as a vessel helping them stay anchored, which is why destroying it weakens them.<ref>“Tear me up… I’m tired.”

“I know,” I said. Your body is less intact, and your body is… some kind of vessel that’s keeping you anchored here. - excerpt from Conviction 5.2 </ref>

• Many material Others, such as Bogeymen, can be trapped inside a vessel after their body has been slain. A possible vessel for a Bogeyman would be a rusty box.<ref name=":7" />
• An unborn child is a naturally defenseless hallow that could become a vessel for many things, but normally the mother's body serves as a barrier to protect it.<ref>I talked about Hallows, before. A child that is yet to be born has no defenses and forms a vessel that… many

things could inhabit, let’s say.  The body of a mother protects the 

child within, but it doesn’t readily protect the child from what’s already within the mother, or that which is part of the child. - excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.5</ref>

• A hole in a person's skull is a natural hallow. Ancient Practitioners would deliberately create them using trepanation.

Some Practitioners will create humanoid vessels to act as servants, such as Feorgbold and Terracotta Soldiers.

A hallow may be additionally surrounded with a negative binding (see above) once occuptied to trap the target inside.<ref name=":7" />

Human Vessels

A human can be hollowed out, creating a Hallow inside them usable for a variety of Others. This might be done deliberately or accidentally. If too much is removed they may be left a vestige able to do little but serve as a vessel. Edith James is a natural example of such a vessel,<ref>These three were vessels. Like Edith was, but these ones were too neat, when he looked at them with the Doom’s eyes. Closer to the space he’d carved out for his Doom, but… a much, much bigger hole. There were practices that asked for high prices. Practices like the Heartless practice his father had conducted. Blood magic, host magic, cultists… and many preyed on innocents, or counted innocents among the collateral damage. When too much was taken out, there could be vestiges. Just enough of a person that it could stand, walk, and breathe, but something integral was gone and wouldn’t come back. A house with an exterior and little in the way of rooms or furniture, if it had anything at all. A practitioner could put anything in that space, really. Someone had probably done that to these four. - excerpt from Back Away 5.d </ref><ref>A jockey that my family warned me about- an Other that takes over bodies. Like the Girl by Candlelight did with Edith, but hostile. They

prey on those who take Others into their bodies, or innocents with 

vulnerabilities. [...] It stayed with its host too long. Became too intermingled. It died It was a relief when it did, especially considering how Edith James is the kind of vessel it would have loved. It was the kind of thing that we had to constantly keep in the backs of our minds. I made triply sure it was dead and gone. - excerpt from Out on a Limb 3.7</ref> as was Blake Thorburn.<ref>I was a vessel, and the spirits would fill in the gaps in the way that made the most sense. If I was damaged, they’d shore me up, but I’d become less me. Already, some of the branches were raised, the skin rougher. - excerpt from Null 9.6</ref> If done deliberately, care must be taken that something unwanted doesn't claim the vessel.<ref>A vessel, but the edges weren’t so neat. Some were, but it was like a

space of a certain size had been measured out, and this figure had 

forced her way in, breaking and straining some parts of the container. [...] When a hallow or vessel was prepared, care was usually taken to guide

the right things to the space created.  Here, something had failed and 

an elemental Other with an affinity for mirrors or reflections had crawled inside. - excerpt from Back Away 5.d </ref>

Some Others are better able to occupy the vessel of a normal human body than the human soul is, allowing them to take possession of a person and squeeze the soul out.<ref>Or facing possession by something like Mr. Rudbeck, a snake slithering into you, nestling into a part of you deeper than biology goes, and squeezing you out, because he can occupy the vessel of your body more easily than your Self and Soul can, just as his flowers and grasses will

grow through every place and everything nearby, making it his. - excerpt from Cutting Class 6.1</ref>

Even an undamaged human can potentially serve as a vessel, such as a Practitioner who has willingly allowed themself to Host an Other.<ref>“May I come in? Only a bit?” “What happens if you ‘come in’?” “I can reach through you, and you can draw on my power. Many practitioners act as vessels to hold spiritual power. You’d have a bit of me in every bit of you. You’d do it for a minute or so.” - excerpt from Back Away 5.2 </ref>

Human vessels are vulnerable to simple diagrams; since the immaterial Other within is more affected by them than thematerial human, they are jarred out of alignment somewhat, possibly damaging the vessel.<ref>She hit the line and staggered. A line could be considered the simplest of diagrams, and that thing that occupied her was more vulnerable to it than she was, and the momentary lack of synchronicity hurt her. – then do as you will, but-

He closed the distance, stepping into a puddle, and he knew full well

what that puddle was.  He grabbed her wrist, pushing her back across 

the line. Same effect, but this time, he was rattling the bars of the cage his own Other was within. Testing the metaphorical screws, bolts, and welding. - excerpt from Back Away 5.d </ref>

Practitioners will generally anchor the hallow to one or more of seven standard points on the human body when creating a vessel: crown (top of head), mind’s eye (forehead), throat, heart, solar plexus, stomach, groin.<ref>He knew from his studies and work with the Doom that Hosts liked to bind things to key points in the body. It made sense that a Vessel would have their space carved out starting at one of those. He slammed his forehead into hers. The reaction wasn’t anything special. Which others? The Crown was one space, very top of the head, but he was pretty sure she’d manifest differently if the Other were housed there. He punched her in the solar plexus. She didn’t carry the mirror woman there. He hit her again, dead center of the stomach. There. He could see the Other within her react. It looked like it was housed in two of the seven points. Stomach and groin. [...] When it slammed her into the tree, the branches of that tree and the branches it had put into place slammed through the seven ‘host’ windows of her body. Crown, mind’s eye, throat, heart, solar plexus, stomach, and groin. - excerpt from Back Away 5.d </ref>

Other Types of Binding

• Binding of humans is called spellbinding and overlaps with Enchanting.<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

<references/>