Level Up (A5E) Representational Magic and You!

[Steampunkette]

Like I said, it doesn't have a correlation with the times that silver was regularly used in mirror production, nor where such would be regularly used and where you'd find the vampire myths popping up with mirrors.

If you find evidence to the contrary I'm happy to be corrected, but I did a bit of research into it when my wife's TikTok popped up with that "interesting fact" and it seemed like bunk.

Silver mirror | Roman | Early Imperial | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Richter, Gisela M. A. 1915. <i>Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes</i>. p. 288, New York: Gilliss Press.<br/><br/>Oliver, Andrew Jr. 1977. <i>Silver for the Gods : 800 Years of Greek and Roman Silver</i>

www.metmuseum.org

1st century silver hand mirror from Rome. These things were heirlooms and expensive as all heck. They were also something that continued to be made for particularly wealthy people all the way into the 1900s.

Silver mirror | Roman | Imperial | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Milleker, Elizabeth J. 1992. "Ancient Art: Gifts from The Norbert Schimmel Collection: Greek and Roman." <i>Bulletin of The Metropolitan Museum of Art</i>, 49(4): p. 62.<br/><br/>von Bothmer, Dietrich, Carlos A

www.metmuseum.org

The horizontally handled Roman mirror died out around 900CE. This one's also from the 1st century.

So, y'know... Silver Mirrors have continued being a thing for 2,000 years. And like white wedding dresses they were a sign of wealth and privilege, something that gets filtered down into the populace even if it's not kept true to its roots.

As far as silver being associated with purity, that goes back to the various deities of the moon and virginal goddesses it's been associated with for a few thousand years. But it also isn't just werewolves silver is supposed to ward off or contain. Things like mirror-lined or silver-lined boxes are meant to contain evil spirits and keep them from escaping, for example.

And also of note: It doesn't matter WHEN the myth about Vampires, Mirrors, and Silver came about. Whether it's witches or Bram Stoker, the vampires we deal with in pop culture are not the Vrykodlak of ancient myth. If it works for the story and makes sense to the primitive part of our brains that go "Oh that explains it" then the magic works, you know?

Vampires didn't command beasts or turn into bats or become mist in the ancient myths. They were wandering corpses that would slowly drain your life away and retreat back to their grave before dawn. Grave. Not sumptuous velvet lined coffin with a handful of dirt spread across the bottom of it. And they certainly couldn't make Vampiric Thralls back then, either.

Of course give it another generation or three and maybe they'll sparkle in sunlight!

Call it a "Sparkling Interpretation" of vampire myth since it doesn't come from the Vampire Myth part of France, if you like.

 

[GuyBoy]

“Name magic” and the dangers of giving one’s name to a faerie is an interesting concept, partly because our names are something chosen for us (usually by our parents) and arguably reflect them more than they do us. Perhaps giving one’s name to a faerie should allow them to control one’s parents instead?
Or maybe the “true name” concept should apply for gaming related magic?

 

[Jacob Vardy]

Could you scry on someone with a +4 or +10 if you were in love with them?

After all... your heart belongs to them.

If someone said that at my table? I'd -absolutely- give them the +10. Any time someone uses representational magic to interact with arcane magic I'm -deeply- compelled to provide them with interesting connections that don't work literally but work metaphorically or in effigy.

What are your thoughts of this kind of magic?

Yep. And the inverse too "From hell's heart i stab at thee!" That's why the merchant the PC swindled can cast scry.

 

[Jacob Vardy]

While it's true that Silver-Lined glass mirrors (Looking Glasses) weren't common until the 1800s, polished silver mirrors have been a thing since the Roman Empire at the absolute latest. It's why I included the "or Solid Silver" portion.

But even if you want to argue it's a modern belief about an ancient tradition, which is entirely valid, it's still an explanation of why they don't cast a reflection. And one that would happily fall in line with any ancient myth.

Silver was also associated with running water. As opposed to "dead" ponds, which could be a way into the underworld in Germanic and Slavic cosmology.

 

[Steampunkette]

Silver was also associated with running water. As opposed to "dead" ponds, which could be a way into the underworld in Germanic and Slavic cosmology.

That is super cool!

I was talking to my husband in the car about this on the way home from watching the new Ghostbusters movie and he coined the term "Anillogic" to describe it.

It's not an entirely illogical connection, but it's based on magical thinking. It's -sort of- like Sympathetic magic, and indeed directly representational anillogic magic (Fetishes/dolls/etc) are covered under Sympathetic magic as 'Imitation'.

Meanwhile there's also "Correspondence" which is particularly important in things like Alchemy and Potioncraft. Lead and Gold weigh about the same amount so there's got to be a way to make Lead into Gold. Similarly the four humors can be manipulated by eating correspondingly colored foods and herbs. Yellow herbs were often used to deal with jaundice, while red beet juice was thought to be good for the blood. And, of course, -any- sufficiently phallic root can be consumed whole or brewed into a tea that will cure impotence!

But it's also where the lich's relic came from. The idea that someone's life-force could be externalized and placed into an object that then needed to be destroyed. Like the heartless giant's heart being in an egg in the nest of a duck in the bottom of a well that was in a church on an island very far away.

On the other hand pretty much every myth about shadows either has the shadow representing a soul or being a representation of the self that can be manipulated. Romanian folklore includes stories that damaging a person's shadow would see similar injuries inflicted on the owner. Austrian holiday traditions included the idea that if someone cast a shadow without a head they'd be dead before next Christmas. And Peter Schelmihl and other stories spread the idea that people without shadows had no souls, or would sell their souls. (In his story, Pete sold his shadow to the devil but not his soul, people just -thought- he sold his soul)