Difference between revisions of "Life dust"

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Life dust is the magical essense of life.  Since it is shed and consumed by all Fay creatures it is a common substance in [[Faierie]].  Both [[The Fayrie]] and the plants of Faierie shed and consume life dust.  Fay plants use life dust in place of seeds or fruit, while the Fayrie use it to empower magic, or go into a dormant state.
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Life dust is the magical essense of life (especially of the [[The Fayrie|fay]]).
  
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==copied discussion==
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==Nature of Life Dust==
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See [[The Fayrie]] page and history for the lead-up discussion.  It is copied here for reference.
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All fay condense life dust off of themselves (ie "fairy dust") while alive, and disintegrate into life dust when they die.  Life dust is the magical equivelant of body heat, it leaks into the world around living creatures, and lingers for a while after death.  Eventually life dust degrades into nothingness, faster or slower depending on the nature of the fay that produced it.
  
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*Fay dust is used by who?
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Some plants in [[Faierie]] release magical spores which look and function somewhat like life dust.  These spores can be used in magic, but are different from life dust in that they do not impart the will of the fay.
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:anyone who uses fay magic can use Fay dust.  It is an essential ingredient in some spells, or may merely augment them.  Fay dust is also an essential (of the essence) part of the Fay diet. Fay dust is a stage in the lifecycle of all fay, as well as many of their plants and animals.
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i was thinking we might be able to take the whole dust concept farther, there just seems to be so many creaturs that are relaited to dust, i think we could take it farther than just fay. almost all demonic or evil creatures i can think of are reduced to dust when killed. vampires, demons, there are some legends that say zombies fall to dust when killed. this way we get an interesting dinamic not only between good and evil creatures but also between evil and evil. idk something to think about--[[User:Zack|Zack]] 21:34, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
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==Uses of Life Dust==
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Life dust allows the fay to exert controll over their surroundings.  It is the primary method the fay use to work [[enchantment]].  The following categories are by no means exhaustive.  Some fay can only use life dust in one of these ways, some can use many.
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===Exertion of Will===
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Life dust can also allow the fay to exert their will directly over the enchanted object or creature.  This is a classic example of magic in the raw sense, the exertion of the will over nature and others.
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===Spillover of Fay Powers===
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Life dust can bind inanimate objects or other fay into the nature of the fay that produced the life dust, sometimes under certain conditions. For example:
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*Tinkerbell has the power of flight.  Her fairy dust allows her to confer on others her nature (flight).  She places the restriction (when working the enchantment) that the user must think happy thoughts. After a while the fairy dust "wears off" or degrades, ending the link and the enchantment.
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Life dust also confers some of the strength and talents of the fay that produced it, regardless of their will.  This is especially important after death (see below).
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===Arbitrary Conditions===
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Life dust can also be used to link two objects, creatures, actions, or causes arbitrarily through the fay's will.  Arbitrary causes and unknown effects are stock and trade of old fairy tales.  In addition to the tinkerbell example, see below:
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*The Fairy Godmother creates an illusion of splendor over Cinderalla, but links the enchantment to the striking of the clock at midnight.  This arbitrary cause nevertheless defines the enchantment.
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===Reverse Exertion of Will===
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Life dust can be used to work magic on a fay, even if the fay is remote or protected by other spells. This is the equivelant of a focus (such as a lock of hair) or a homing beacon.  For this reason, gathering another fay's life dust is a sinister action, unless there is a strong bond of trust.
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===Chaining effects===
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When life dust is used to share powers with, or enchant another fay, they two fay become linked. In this way, fay can gain powers not intrinsically belonging to them, and can exert their enchantments over large areas which are only dusted with the life dust of their subordinates. Dominance in this chaining relationship is very fluid, so there is always competition in large groups of fay (Where everyone shares their life dust with everyone else) to exert their will over the assembly.  It is always difficult to tell who is really in control of the relationship.
  
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:I think you've hit on something there!  Not only are supernatural beings related to dust, but man himself was formed out of the dust!  Dust is kind of like the fundamental building block of life, just as atoms are the funamental building block of chemistry.  What if any living creature, supernatural or not, turns into dust when they die, and then, if you want to create a creature, you have to use this essential dust to do it.  Healing too, requires dust.    Humans do too (minus the water, zombie dust, mummy dust).  Fay dust would be magical (since the creatures themselves are magical).  Maybe vampire dust attracts demons and other evil creatures?  Ashes could be a kind of dust as well, which would be an interesting hook for why dragons can breath fire, they reduce the whole of their prey to dust.  They wouldn't even need a mouth to eat, just fire, and then absorb the dust magically, or inhale it or something!  To make a ward against a creature, perhaps you need some of its dust.  "Dusting" would take on a whole new meaning.  I'm sure there are more ways we could go with this.  Keep the ideas coming. [[User:Ziggy|Ziggy]] 22:38, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
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==Life Dust, Death, and Re-birth==
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When a fay dies, it releases the remains of its magical strength, tallents, and personality in the form of life dust.  This life dust can be used to gain some of the abilities, personality, and even form of the fay or work enchantments in line with their natural allignment or tallents. It also can be used to gain controll over (and thereby maintain) the enchantments that fay had in place when she died. There are many tiny proto-fay all over the place, waiting for a fay to die so that they can absorb their life dust and take their place. As a result, it is difficult to tell when a fay has died, because they are often replaced by a near replicate with many of the same powers, personality, and appearance.  This also means that the most powerful fay (who constantly release large amounts of life dust) are surrounded by small swarms of tiny copies of themselves, who are bound to their will.
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k, ya i was thinking something along those lines, what about the idea of spells being agmented by the "spirit" of the creature from which the dust was taken? does that only aply to Fay? This also gives us a physical mode for essence, every fantisy world or RPG you hear about essence of...whatever: fire, water, air, death, life. You would be able to enbed life into all sorts of enanimate objects or perhaps elements. see were im going with this? golems or elementals. but the dust would only work on simple, or pure elements '''unlike''' steel, acids, and complex gasses leaving you with the basic elements. The dust from a fire elemental would be an essence of fire since dust takes on the atribues of the creature it comes from. having dust from a fire elemental would be ideal for the use of fire magic since the will of the dust would be bent towards fire. And what happens when you have the ability to make somthing you need?...you are going to get elemental farmers whos crop would be essence of fire.--[[User:Zack|Zack]] 09:46, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
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This could also lend itself well to a more traditional type of magic. where most magic is shape shifting, illusions, and mind altering. so if you want to make shape shift into, make illusions of, or alter the minds of a Human, then you need the dust of dead humans.... which makes magic against humans morally questionable. Then other forms of magic would be less detestable, like killing a bear and using its remains to turn into a bear. [[User:Oswald|Oswald]] 20:30, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
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hummm....not a fan of that idea. I like dust the way it is right now, as a tool for magic, not the entire magic system. besides dust is only really going to be used in the Fay world because they are they only culture that is built around it, otherwise there are very few other being that would have knolege about dust, also im thinking we should call it "life dust" if we go with the idea that the dust is deposited life enegies.
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going back to my idea about farming elementals, this would add a whole new level to the eco-system of the Fay world. the easiest way to get life dust would be from certain plants (as stated above) so now you have life dust farmers whos crop is bought by pretty much everyone for all kinds of every day comodities. this dust would also be sold to elemental farmers who in turn would sell the essece of elemenals as fuals for magics, fay technology, or perhaps even weaponry.--[[User:Zack|Zack]] 05:07, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
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:ok here is a crazy idea: fay cannot "die" untill they age to a certain point, but what if physical events can turn them to dust, fayrie dust, thats what gives it so much power. fairy dust is actualy the dormant remains of fairies and can only be retured to its physical form when...psh i dont know, retuerd to its birth place, or tears, or fire, or maybe a whole ritual but whatever the case they should be able to be revived reletivly easily. in the mean time though, fairy dust then becomes a powerfull tool long with a highly debatable moral subject.--[[User:Zack|Zack]] 23:48, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
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::Yeah, I like where this is going.  Maybe Fay can choose to spall off fairy dust as well.  That way, physical damage, or the Fay's will can convert them into this ''passive'' form.  However, using fayrie dust for your own ends doesn't actually ''consume'' the fay, it just gives the fay partial controll of your spell, binding the fay, but empowering it as well.  Thus Fay can lend others their power, but they also gain a hand and knowlege in whatever it is used for.  I'd say that, barring outside influence, Fayrie dust re-coagulates into the fay it came from after some time has passed.  Fayrie dust could also be magical energy, created by plants in Faierie, and any fay can eat fayrie dust (from plants, or other fay).  Consuming the fayrie dust from plants gives the Fay properties of those plants as well.  In this way, the fay are all intertwined.
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::Perhaps the Fay are also graduated in power.  Some are ''greater'' creatures, with a longer lifespan, and an ability to absorb more fayrie dust.  If a fay eats too much, the dust begins to spaul off, and could make the fay unstable.  There could be lots of different types of fayrie dust as well, reflecting its origins, potency, uses, and character.  The very soil of the great enchanted forests would sparkle with the stuff.[[User:Ziggy|Ziggy]] 06:11, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
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i like the idea of its not consuming the fay...cuz then you run into all kinds of moral snags. Even with this system we are still going to get magic hungry creatures though, wich im sure will add nicely to the story. I also like the idea of fairy dust empowered spells. That way anyone who would use spells in an evil way, they Fay would be able to stop the spell or at least channel it deffensivly, but if there were fay that wished to be used by evil...then we have an interesting delema. so what about the dust from pants and such?
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is the dust from plants not as potant as the dust of a dormant Fay?
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also, test here to see if we are on the same page. for example, Peter pan: to fly the children need fairy dust, but because its the dust from tinkerbell she can mold the spell such that only a person wih happy thoughts can fly, protecting her magic from the piraites. is this the basic idea?--[[User:Zack|Zack]] 16:38, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
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:Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking.  If a fay is reduced to fayrie dust before its lifespan is up, then using the dust also allows the fay to partially controll the spell even after it is cast, since the will of the fay gets bound into the spell too. The difference between plant and Fay dust could be both a matter of potency, as well as the fact that plants have no active will, and therefore won't mess up your spell.  Plant-originated dust could also be ill-suited for certain kinds of magic.  On the other hand, certain magical plants could produce specialized forms of fayrie dust, so to cast spells requires gathering all the right kinds of dust together.  Lots of places we can go with this.  When a spell is broken, or expires, it would dissolve into the component fayrie dust (or whatever was left over) and the captured Fay could then re-emerge.[[User:Ziggy|Ziggy]] 17:12, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
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::ok but there is still a normal use of spells without Fay dust corect? they are just far less potant?--[[User:Zack|Zack]] 19:58, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
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:::Right.  Fay magic isn't the only kind of magic, and even some of that doesn't require Fay dust (Though perhaps the more potent workings should).[[User:Ziggy|Ziggy]] 20:01, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
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Revision as of 18:17, 11 January 2009

The info here is in a state of flux, everything can be changed!

Life dust is the magical essense of life (especially of the fay).

Nature of Life Dust

All fay condense life dust off of themselves (ie "fairy dust") while alive, and disintegrate into life dust when they die. Life dust is the magical equivelant of body heat, it leaks into the world around living creatures, and lingers for a while after death. Eventually life dust degrades into nothingness, faster or slower depending on the nature of the fay that produced it.

Some plants in Faierie release magical spores which look and function somewhat like life dust. These spores can be used in magic, but are different from life dust in that they do not impart the will of the fay.

Uses of Life Dust

Life dust allows the fay to exert controll over their surroundings. It is the primary method the fay use to work enchantment. The following categories are by no means exhaustive. Some fay can only use life dust in one of these ways, some can use many.

Exertion of Will

Life dust can also allow the fay to exert their will directly over the enchanted object or creature. This is a classic example of magic in the raw sense, the exertion of the will over nature and others.

Spillover of Fay Powers

Life dust can bind inanimate objects or other fay into the nature of the fay that produced the life dust, sometimes under certain conditions. For example:

  • Tinkerbell has the power of flight. Her fairy dust allows her to confer on others her nature (flight). She places the restriction (when working the enchantment) that the user must think happy thoughts. After a while the fairy dust "wears off" or degrades, ending the link and the enchantment.

Life dust also confers some of the strength and talents of the fay that produced it, regardless of their will. This is especially important after death (see below).

Arbitrary Conditions

Life dust can also be used to link two objects, creatures, actions, or causes arbitrarily through the fay's will. Arbitrary causes and unknown effects are stock and trade of old fairy tales. In addition to the tinkerbell example, see below:

  • The Fairy Godmother creates an illusion of splendor over Cinderalla, but links the enchantment to the striking of the clock at midnight. This arbitrary cause nevertheless defines the enchantment.

Reverse Exertion of Will

Life dust can be used to work magic on a fay, even if the fay is remote or protected by other spells. This is the equivelant of a focus (such as a lock of hair) or a homing beacon. For this reason, gathering another fay's life dust is a sinister action, unless there is a strong bond of trust.

Chaining effects

When life dust is used to share powers with, or enchant another fay, they two fay become linked. In this way, fay can gain powers not intrinsically belonging to them, and can exert their enchantments over large areas which are only dusted with the life dust of their subordinates. Dominance in this chaining relationship is very fluid, so there is always competition in large groups of fay (Where everyone shares their life dust with everyone else) to exert their will over the assembly. It is always difficult to tell who is really in control of the relationship.

Life Dust, Death, and Re-birth

When a fay dies, it releases the remains of its magical strength, tallents, and personality in the form of life dust. This life dust can be used to gain some of the abilities, personality, and even form of the fay or work enchantments in line with their natural allignment or tallents. It also can be used to gain controll over (and thereby maintain) the enchantments that fay had in place when she died. There are many tiny proto-fay all over the place, waiting for a fay to die so that they can absorb their life dust and take their place. As a result, it is difficult to tell when a fay has died, because they are often replaced by a near replicate with many of the same powers, personality, and appearance. This also means that the most powerful fay (who constantly release large amounts of life dust) are surrounded by small swarms of tiny copies of themselves, who are bound to their will.

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