» Wed Sep 12, 2012 2:53 pm What, precisely, is this "flesh magic" stuff? Or more accurately, how does it fit into other known forms of magic?
In Shivering Isles, we meet Relmyna Veremin, a sorceress who was kicked out of the Mages Guild for her experiments with "flesh magic". Haskill explains this probably better than I can:
"She is a powerful sorceress. She believes she has found a "sixth element," the element of Flesh. She was expelled from the Mages Guild for this belief, and for the... extreme nature of her experiments. Our Lord took interest and brought her here, so Relmyna might continue her work, free of those provincial notions of decency and morality. You will find her in her Sanctum, hidden away in the dungeon of Xaselm."
So what does this magic involve? Some of Relmyna's experiments don't seem relevant at all, and just involve torturing people and letting creatures fight each other. But on the other hand, she seems to be summoning daedra in the form of Flesh Atronachs, and uses one of those daedroth to construct the Gatekeeper. The text of that ritual is interesting:
First, place the Gatekeeper's body into the Cistern of Substantiation. At the beginning of the worlds were five. Fire, Water, Earth, Air, and Light. Darkness turned into day, the void took form. Hidden away, by virtue of its own self-awareness, was the sixth, containing within it the five which birthed it. Flesh! Meat with the desire to consume like Fire.... Place the Dermis Membrane into the cistern. Blood, liquid nutrient, that ocean which casts pearls of life upon the shores of existence.... Place the Blood Liqueur into the Cistern of Substantiation. Bone, branch and stone of the body, giving shape and structure.... Place the Osseous Marrow into the cistern. Breath, child of air, bestowing movement, the stirring of spirit.... Place the Essence of Breath into the Cistern of Substantiation. And last, the light of Flesh, the illumination of Soul -- perception, thought, memory, imagination.... I summon thee, walker in Flesh! Flesh of true Flesh! From those waters of Oblivion which sire thy kind. Come to this altar. Join with this body. Quintessence of Flesh joined with the Essence of Flesh. Absolute in mortal. Immortal bound to contingent. Stand clear of the cistern. Over here by me. Honored Daedra, fear not thy abasemant! Thou shalt be the Holy in this Temple. I bind thee Atronach to this body, henceforth Gatekeeper of the Shivering Isles.
The same sort of thing is mentioned again in Skyrim, by Calixto Corrium's journals (http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Butcher_Journal_1, http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Butcher_Journal_2):
All the wasted minds up in their towers. They only explore the magic they already know. I am discovering new magic here. Something deeper than the cantripped shenanigans of fire and light. This flesh magic is older than us. Perhaps older than the world itself. I am tugging at the corners of the fabric of the universe, and where it bunches and folds is where I shall create my greatest triumph.
7 tendons and assorted ligaments 173 fragments of bone for assemblage approx. 4 bucket-fulls of blood (Nord preferred) 6 spoons of marrow (no more than 2 from a thigh) 12 yards of flesh (before cutting) star-scrying to the edge of the ice-mind look to the lights where the souls dance revealing the time when a spark will revive when the rotted unites under most skillful hands (translation from Aldmer text, as interpreted by the Ayleids and first transcribed by Altmer. provenance and authority unknown)
7 tendons and assorted ligaments 173 fragments of bone for assemblage approx. 4 bucket-fulls of blood (Nord preferred) 6 spoons of marrow (no more than 2 from a thigh) 12 yards of flesh (before cutting) star-scrying to the edge of the ice-mind look to the lights where the souls dance revealing the time when a spark will revive when the rotted unites under most skillful hands (translation from Aldmer text, as interpreted by the Ayleids and first transcribed by Altmer. provenance and authority unknown)
So... I guess I'm wondering: are Calixto and Relmyna just insane (I mean, they clearly are both insane, and one is living in the Isles after all), or are they onto something here? Especially with the bolded bits.
