I met the old Norse woman near the windmill house overlooking the swamp. She called the area Fen’s Breath, though we know it as Outlook Mill. She claimed to have been a wise woman in the Old World, one who could speak with the spirits of nature. The Fae, she called them, the Folk of Light and Shadow.\n\nShe claimed they taught her to create various wards and charms. I had heard of such things but my granny told me such magics were wicked. But here, magic manifests as easily as mist on a cold night. The wise woman agreed to tell me of her spells so that I could create a Book of Shadows.\n\nI asked her if the Fae were present on Aeternum. She smiled and stroked the end of her crooked nose. “They be everywhere, child,” she whispered. “You may not see them with your eyes, but they are there, watching, waiting…”\n\nI asked her what they were waiting for, but she would not answer. She began humming a haunting tune I had never heard before, but I have heard many times since.\n\n-Deidre\n

Old World Spells

Book of Shadows, Fragment 1

It is said Odin shaped the world and the cosmos with the corpse of Ymir. So too do we shape the chaos of our world through acts upon the lifeless clay. Though it might give these milksop church lambkins a dire case of the collywobbles to contemplate it, we know there dwells a tremendous wellspring of virtuous power among the once living remains, both man and beast, long after the spirit flees.\n\nBy His many Names and Faces, may He spare me a straw death. By Her many Names and Faces, may She grant me this corpus of knowledge and the audacity to use it. The corpse is a vehicle of change. The clay is the means to shape order in the chaos.\n	\n

Power of Clay

Book of Shadows, Fragment 2

Acquire the head or skull of a wolf whose name you know. Boil it in a dead thief’s tallow and place it in a circle of stones where it may soak up moonlight. Keep vigil over the skull for no less than three days, keeping away any beast or bird that might disturb it. \n\nOffer the skull a portion of your meal on the night of a holy feast. Draw the appropriate magical stave upon the skull’s brow.\n\nAnd now, may you enjoy expeditious travel, when you call upon the living name of the dog’s skull.

The Wolf Skull Expedient

Book of Shadows, Fragment 3

Whosoever is troubled by unruly sleep in the night would be wise to acquire a raven’s head. Place said head near the entrance to the house, beak pointing to the portal. In front of the beak, draw the appropriate magical stave in the dirt.\n\nMay you know peaceful sleep.\n

Raven’s Succor

Book of Shadows, Fragment 4

Acquire a wolf with fur the color of night. Deglove the skin from its body.\nMix pigment with the water extracted from a raven’s eye and draw the appropriate magical stave upon the skin.\nSprinkle the skin with myrrh and submerge the lot in a well, stave facing down.\nCircumambulate around the well, four times, anticlockwise.\nRemove the skin and peer deeply into the drawn stave.\nYou shall receive the Shadow Sight.\nStore the skin in a caul until you next intend to use it.\n

Shadow Sight

Book of Shadows, Fragment 5

Thus, he made a gallows of the World Tree.\nFull of fruit dangling, wisdom ripening.\nAnd so, I know, if on a tree I see\na hanged one hoisted on high:\nthus, to scribe with the runes I stain,\nthat down he drops\nand tells me no lie.\n

Preserving the Heads of the Wise

Book of Shadows, Fragment 6

A desolate swamp haunted by the ruins of failed settlements and rumors of the dark magic

Book of Shadows Chapter - NWGuide Database of Lore

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