Enclosing

Written by The Mad Professor

Enclosing is one of the Magical Arts, specifically dealing with closing off and/or altering environments. The primary purpose of Enclosing is to either hinder or allow access to a place, or altering a space.

Wards & Barriers
Wards and Barriers are perhaps the two most used effects of Enclosing. A Ward is a semi-permanent spell intended to keep someone or something out, whereas a Barrier is intended to keep something or someone in. They are usually relatively simple constructs, consisting of Sigils and Prime Words, although they may sometimes be enhanced by other means.

Breaking Wards & Barriers
Breaking these magical creations are not always easy, they may sometimes be broken, though this is a difficult process, often involving a lot of knowledge of the Barrier or Ward itself. It involves writing the opposite Prime Words on the other side of the Ward, thus cancelling out the power to the Sigil, once enough Prime Words have been through this process the Barrier or Ward will fall apart.

Alteration & Ley Lines
Occasionally, very skilled practisers of Enclosing may choose to alter an environment. For this purpose, Enclosing typically employs Ley Lines. These Ley Lines are gathered and worked into the spell to power these spells. Ley Lines can typically be moved from their current paths by implanting extremely potent Sigils and Prime Words into the ground where the Ley Lines reach, to divert them, or divide them into smaller lines. The spells themselves, primarily decide what manner of effect one achieves in these environments, though some Ley Lines are better suited to some environments than others.

Types of Ley Lines
For all intents and purposes there are three major forms of Ley lines, White, Black and Yellow. White Ley Lines are best for breaking down things, they can be used to create environments where things break down faster or where things fail to grow and may even take a turn for the worse. Those accidentally living on a White Ley Line may be more prone to diseases, will die earlier and are generally in poorer health than those not living on one. Black Ley Lines are generally seen to have the generative properties, they cause things to grow faster, defend against disease and make a man more hale. Those living on Black Ley Lines may experience a long life and good health to a greater extent than their neighbours. Yellow Ley Lines generally preserve things the way they are. They do not make things worse, but they do not make them better either. Yellow Ley Lines are perfect for spells where preserving something is the object of the alteration, such as trapping something in time or keeping armour placed within that environment from rusting and blades from dulling.

Ward of Resolve
The Ward of Resolve is a simple circle written in chalk, or simply in the dirt. With the insides of it filled with Prime Words. The Ward of Resolve keeps scrying spells from seeing whatever is inside it. As a passive spell it hinders all randomly looking scrying spells and most of the dedicated scrying spells.

Barrier of Entanglement
While generally a relatively large spell, often taking days to finish, the Barrier of Entanglement is a relatively simple spell. It causes the person who is inside the barrier to constantly get tangled up in the undergrowth as he passes through it. It doesn't do much beyond delaying and aggravating its intended prey though.

Peace in Our Time
This enclosing spell creates a space wherein violence becomes all but impossible, it drives out any thought of violence in those who stray inside it, once they step outside the sanctified space though, their minds return to normal relatively soon.

Ward of Thorns
The Ward of Thorns creates a thorny bush which surrounds the space the caster wishes to isolate. Cutting into this bush will only cause it to grow back faster, giving them little chance to make an entrance without destroying the spell itself. While it generally takes a few days for the spell to be cast (and the bush to grow to an appropriate size) once it's in place it's a durable obstacle to anyone trying to pass it by.

Naming
Creating this spell is generally considered to be both a dangerous and a difficult affair. It involves closing off a space with sigils and then cutting a series of highly potent Prime Words into the ground, the air and the spirit of the place, ending with a phrase of the mage’s invention. This spell creates a True Name for a place, which has uses in a great deal of scrying and travelling spells and other sundries.

Neverend
The Neverend spell is a barrier which freezes time inside it, causing whomever is inside it to be trapped for all eternity (or until someone breaks the spell). Neverend is a powerful spell and requires a lot of energy to maintain and can generally be stopped relatively easily by breaking down whatever is powering the spell. Perhaps the most famous use of this spell is the White Castle in Arameia, where an entire castle has been stuck in time for millennia.