The Decanter can produce fresh or salt water - though why someone would want salt water from it is a mystery to me (maybe mouthwash for a Dragon?)
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It has a number of potential medicinal and mineral uses EM. Saltwater for mixing with other substances, evaporation producing large quantities of salt (if you don't have mines, don't live near the sea and can't extract it, or have to import it) which in pre-technological societies is vital for food preservation.
Plus, in a negative sense you could foul enemy water supplies or mess up local fish-stocks. You could also sue it to create artificial salt water bodies and then stock them with salt water species to harvest sea-food.
It would probably have magical uses as well. Fire suppression for instance. Also Alchemical uses. If that was your only magical item it could be pretty useful. Almost anything can be useful if put to the correct employments.
The Original Poster though brought up a fascinating, if tangential point though, to my way of thinking. (Assuming someone else hasn't mentioned this, my internet reading time is very limited nowadays.) How would magical items be viewed, displayed, and valued by those in a society not involved in adventuring, but in governance, security, and power? By that I mean to what degree would non-adventurers value the magic they possessed (would they consider it a convenience, or vital) and to what degree would they go to conceal and/or protect what they had?
I can literally see a good sized town or a small city looking upon certain magical devices as a matter of state security. Like a public concern, or a magical utility.
And since I reckon that the common trade in really important magical items would be limited at best, then wouldn't this mean that many governments, states, even military commanders would have a great interest in at least certain magical items? I would if my public responsibility were the welfare of a sufficiently large or important group of people. (And if I were a military commander imagine having at your disposal for combat a ring of sustenance, a decanter of endless water, or some similar such device. Imagine the logistical advantage one would have with what to many adventurers would be rather small scale supply and transportation and medicinal and communication advantages, but during war or even disaster, bad weather, plague, or drought would be enormous assets? Could any state ignore such potential advantages without the chance of suffering mortal peril should an enemy locate or possess such advantages? Imagine not having to forage, or supply on march or campaign, or imagine no convoluted baggage trains or supply lines endangered by ambush or disruption? Imagine marching into a desert and not having to worry about securing water sources, or imagine being able to foul enemy wells and water supplies as needed?
Surely it would occur to some leaders to relieve any adventurer they heard of impressive, practical and useful magical devices, items, and artifacts, if not by force then at least by influence, barter, or purchase.
Which would lead to a potentially lucrative state trade in such items, not to mention the obvious black-market and attempts by certain governmental agents to covertly acquire what they deemed needful for public good.
It would make obtaining and especially using magical items in public a much, much more dangerous, or at least problematic undertaking.
I've never really considered the equation in quite this way before (but my setting does employ teams of adventurers working for the Byzantine government and church, but for negative reasons, to keep magic and magical creatures from destroying the Empire) but if I were a King then I would definitely have bodies of adventurers working for me in order to secure
"positive magical items." Items that would increase my popularity with the people as well as create a better state and military force, etc.
On the other hand think of how many ambitious princes, dukes, and generals would want to employ their own covert teams in order to secretly obtain magical items that enhance their own prestige and power so that they could ascend to the throne. It would be a near constant and very "Byzantine business" this underground trade in magical items.
It would also be an extremely dangerous trade for the adventurers themselves, who on the one hand would be useful employees, and on the other a potential and real threat to the state.
This thread has definitely made me rethink the value of magical items not just to individuals, but to whole societies and governments. And once one force figures out the potential and starts employing magical devices then another would be quick to follow or potentially fall to the more magically resourceful. I can also see this easily leading to a
Magical Arms Race with an eventual fantasy based
MAD (Magically Assured Destruction) type of mind-set to follow in at least some quarters.
Anywho, goodnight folks. I got a whitewater trip to prepare for.
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