During the 13th through 17th Centuries in Europe, the Church declared all magic blasphemy — calling it cursed — in an effort to permanently confine demons to the outer realm and devils to hell, to reduce their influence, and to remove their ability to harvest wisps. This declaration and the genocidal war against mages that followed had the opposite effect, however, generating numerous temporary hell gates through which demons and devils feasted upon earthly humans. It also created unnecessary confusion and fear regarding the use of magic. Eventually, the word curse was used to describe any socially taboo or offensive language – i.e. curse words, or to describe any solemn utterance aimed at invoking supernatural power to inflict harm.
To mages, curses are quite different. Whether they inflict harm or are used for benevolent purposes is determined by the intentions and acts of the mage who uses them. Curses are thus the means to unlock a mages’ magical abilities and span healing, invocation, summoning, divination, transmutation, exorcism, along with other more rarified or specialized magic. They are both a mage’s art and the bridge by which a mage accesses universal wisp energy — called many things including multiversal spirit, mana, wyrd and more — channeled through their unique being. These channels are set through intention and often come in the form of chants, written words, or symbols. Mages choose words and languages that have power and meaning both to them as individuals and to larger society. Older words and languages often bear greater force in association and are therefore typically ideal choices to serve as vessels for intention in magical curses. The most common form is Latin. But any language can be used so long as it creates enough significant weight of intention to cause the curse to form an effective bridge with wisp energy.
List of Curses in Helkey
Amplio — An alteration curse used to enlarge or intensify another curse’s effect.
Bene Sevetur — A personal transmutation curse, that cleans and mends cloths while sanitizing the body and bushing the hair.
Confractus — A breaking curse that attempts to interrupt or destroy the operation of magical constructs. Confractus is often used to break diabolical magic. However, it can be used to target long-functioning magical curses. More permanent and powerful magical constructs are less likely to be affected by Confractus. Confractus can also be used to break non-magical, technology related constructs. For example, Sadie uses confractus telefari to disrupt phone signals.
Clypeus — An invocation curse that briefly conjures a field of protective energy.
Duplici exemplari — An alteration curse that duplicates a simple substance, such as food or water, over time. Often used to expand a basic resource. Not useful for complex materials like manufactured materials or volatile chemicals.
Exorcizamus – An exorcism curse that involves a long incantation to develop the curse energy needed to expel a demon from a human body.
Faetor oculorum – A divination curse used to detect other curses, see the otherwise invisible presence of demons and hell gates, sense heat as visible light, and otherwise visualize various forms of radiation.
Horologium — A chronomancy curse that allows for the telling of time through a multi-functional magical time-piece. Often-semi-permanent.
Ignarus – A long lasting, easy to maintain, and sometimes permanent suggestion to ignore the presence of specific people, objects, sounds or activities. Most mages operate under some form of contingent ignarus curse which is often used to mask their implements and activities.
Indespectus – A light-bending curse that renders the subject temporarily invisible.
Infernum clavis – A Helkey curse to send the recipient through a temporary Hell Gate. Also one form of Myra Helkey’s name curse.
Interpretor — An alteration curse used to translate spoken or written language.
Lanuae — A transmutation curse that vanishes a mage in blinding flash of light and smoke, casts out a spark to a point within sight, then causes the mage to appear in an equally blinding flash where the spark lands. Essentially a short-range teleport.
Ligamen Malum — A binding curse made to trap and contain demons and other evil spirits. Often works best when the vessel used for containment contains a powerful aura of good.
Lunen Svert Umbra – Moonshadow blade which is a summoning curse. This is a unique curse crafted by Myra Helkey. It produces a blade formed of light and shadow and is linked to her name curse.
Lux — An evocation curse that conjures light to illuminate an object or to infuse another curse with light.
Name Curse – A curse that becomes a channel to universal wisp energy which is a kind of oversoul (multiversal spirit). It is a signature curse that determines the nature of a mage’s curse expertise and her level of overall power. Each mage possesses a unique name curse that expresses its magical curse energy in its own particular way.
Macto – An invocation curse used to smite demons, devils, and undead.
Mobilis — A curse that adds motive force to a physical or magical object.
Omnis scienta – A divination curse that allows a mage to project an invisible magical sensor through which she can visualize a subject – usually a person or an object. This sensor will then track the subject.
Praesidia — A protective curse that shields allies or objects from physical and magical harm for a brief period of time. Praesidia can also be patterned into clothes or implements to trigger a protective magical field when damage occurs. Mages like Mori and Beatrice, who often encounter physical and magical danger wear clothes and other objects to generate overlapping protections. Praesidia is ablative. So its effect degrades as more damage accrues.
Pluma – A transmutation curse that slows the rate of fall of the subject. Often used when jumping off tall buildings.
Qaue Mala — A binding curse that sets up a sphere of divine energy focusing inward. Typically used in association with holy ground to imprison devils or demons.
Revelare — An incantation that removes the effects of Ignarus to show the workings of permanent or semi-permanent magics.
Salire — A transmutation curse that enables the subject to make extraordinarily long jumps.
Sana Carnes – Healing curse that repairs damaged flesh.
Scriptum fictus – An alteration curse used to insert forged script into physical or electronic writing.
Somnos – A curse that causes induced sleep in a subject. It’s one that can be resisted, but becomes more difficult to if the subject of the curse has a higher level of physical exhaustion.
Suggero – A suggestion curse used to erode the will of anyone through the use of language. Beatrice is an expert practitioner of suggero.
Teneo – An alteration curse used to hold barriers open.
Una – A channeling curse that allows numerous people to share the effects of a linked curse.
Venenum sa – A healing curse that removes poison from an afflicted creature or person.
Vexare Verberare — An invocation curse that hurls a barrage of destructive magical energy typically focused into three or more explosive projectiles.
Visus capitis – A curse that changes a sensor’s perspective to that of the subject’s head or eyes.
(Want to read the first Chapter of Helkey? You can find it here.)
(Looking for something else? Check out Helkey Contents.)
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/ March 31, 2021This section will be updated as more curses are used throughout the Helkey story.
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