ANCIENT RUNES INDEPENDENT PROJECT:
CREATE-YOUR-OWN AMULET
{all elective years, third to seventh}CREATE-YOUR-OWN AMULET
Amulets, talismans, charms, sacred objects, curse objects and defixiones are all material forms of magic, whose power is harnessed through the power of letters, symbols and runes. Forms of material magic are found in many ancient cultures - and sometimes make it all the way to Irvingly! - and could be used for all manner of purposes, general or specific, helpful or hostile, such as: inciting good or bad luck, procuring revenge or protection, bestowing love or other strong feelings, even curing ailments.
For example: gemstones of green jasper, if kept in contact with the body and inscribed thus, were used by wizarding Greeks to cure indigestion!
The process is a tricky one: It could, however, be fairly risky if runes were carved by unskilled persons. In Egil’s saga, we learn that a young girl has become ill because an infatuated suitor has carved runes on a whalebone in order to awaken her love. Egil finds the runes under the girl’s bed. He scrapes the signs away and burns the whalebone and then carves new runes which he places under the girl’s pillow, which lead her to make a recovery. x
Your project this year is to create and test your own runic amulet. Naturally, nothing that will inflict any serious or permanent harm on yourself or your fellow students, but otherwise: go wild!
OOC: Each step is optional and can earn you points during this school year. Complete all three and get bonus points!
STEP ONE: Figure out what your amulet project will be by answering the questions below in a proposal essay no longer than 250 words. Post your IC answers in this thread before 4th Jan 89/19 Extended to 1st May!
1. What do you want your amulet to do?
(Will the effects be positive or negative? Preventative or provocative? Who do you want it to affect, one person or many? Yourself or others?)
2. Where might you place it?
(Is it designed to be worn? Hidden in a safe place? Placed near the object of its purpose?)
3. What materials are you considering using?
(What properties or magical effects is this material known to have, and how might this enhance the effects of your amulet?)
4. Which runes, symbols or kharakteres will you inscribe upon it?
(Think of these and their meanings as the producing the incantation itself. Do you have any particular reason for choosing one runic culture above another?)
STEP TWO: Complete a thread based around discussing your ideas, asking for help or physically working on producing your amulet with a) a fellow student or b) Carmelina Cramming in an office hour. Threads should be 10+ posts. PM Carmelina Cramming a link to your completed thread by 1st March 89/19 Extended to 1st May!
STEP THREE: Complete a thread based around testing the effects of your amulet in a school setting. Does it work? Does it go horribly wrong? Any other participants do not have to be Runes students! Threads should be 10+ posts. PM Carmelina Cramming a link to your completed thread by 1st May 89/19.
