Forgery

Forgery
by Isaac Stewart
Related to	The Dor
Type	End-Positive
World of Origin	Sel

Forgery is a manifestation of Investiture on Sel that is powered by the Dor.

Much like AonDor, Dakhor, and the other known magical systems used elsewhere on Sel and detailed in Elantris, Forgery involves shaping a specific form in order to evoke some sort of extra-normal event. There are many types of Forgery that are explored in The Emperor's Soul, but all seem to involve the carving of a sort of stamp, the application of ink to the stamp, and then applying a mark onto the desired object or person.

One appears to need an extraordinary amount of knowledge of the background and composition of the object or person being Forged in order to make a stamp affect a target for an extended period of time. Therefore, Forgers probably need to be scholars and researchers as well as talented artisans.

Forgery is a cousin system to Bloodsealing, which shares some similarities.

Using Forgery

Soulstamps

Soulstamps are the main medium for enacting a Forgery. They are used to stamp an object with a seal, which changes the object's past in a way described by the design of the stamp. The seal left by the stamp itself is also called a soulstamp. If the new history is similar enough to the original the stamp will take, and hold indefinitely. If not, the stamp will fail after an amount of time relative to the similarity of the histories. A plausible enough stamp will stay nearly permanently.

The seals left by soulstamps were slightly indented, and had a noticeable texture to them, regardless of the material they were stamped into.[2] When a stamp fails, the embossed texture disappears, and the ink becomes as if fresh.[3]

Carving

In order to carve a soulstamp, one must have two bases of knowledge. The first base of knowledge is of the forms necessary to program the stamp. The forms imprinted on stamp act like symbolic functions in a computer program, and it is required to put the correct forms in the correct positions to achieve the desired effect. The modifiers and forms necessary to encode a soul stamp function in a way similar to those of the AonDor, though different shapes are used.

The second base of knowledge is that of the altered history. The success rate of a soulstamp relies on the plausibility of a stamp to established history. While a Forger does not need to know everything about a subject to create a stamp for it, the more knowledge they have on the topic the more plausible, and thus successful, their stamp will be. Many simple forgings require very little knowledge of an object, it's history, or various skills, such as reforging a table to be cared for, or reforging an awakened object to have a different command phrase.

Materials

Known materials that can be carved into a soulstamp are wood, crystal, Soulstone, and bone. It is implied that any material could be used as a soulstamp, as long as it could be carved to have the proper seal on it. The material used in the creation of a soulstamp affected the quality of the stamp, with harder, finer materials being more prized, and soulstone most of all.

The ink used to stamp the seal also had an effect - only fresh, organic inks would function, though they could be mixed with other compounds such as wax, and clear, bright colours were the best. Animal inks were superior to plant-based inks, squid ink being well regarded. Given its relation to bloodsealing, it is speculated that human blood would be quite potent. It is possible that the suitability of the ink is determined to the original investiture in the creature, as realmatically organic objects have higher investiture than non-organics, and sentient creatures more than non-sentient.

Subtypes of Forgery

Soul Forging

“The Forgery of the soul, that was what they considered an abomination.”

—Wan ShaiLu

Soulforging is a type of Forgery on Sel practiced by the people of MaiPon requiring the use of specialized stamps called Essence Marks. The use of Essence Marks are termed soul forging due to the fact that they forge the spiritual aspect of an individual. This is considered blasphemous by many cultures.

The people of MaiPon practice Forgery on their own souls, making Essence Marks which can be used to impart new skills, enact disguises, change their personality or physiology, rewrite their memories, or in general affect the history of a person in a manner similar but more complex than ordinary forging. Essence Marks are powerful, but incredibly difficult and complex to make, requiring a lattice of hundreds of different stamps networked together.

Resealing

“Resealing repairs a body and makes it anew.”

—An unnamed Grand surgeon

Resealing is a form of magic on Sel practiced by surgeons skilled in the art of Forgery. This subset of Forgery allows the practitioner to repair damage to the human body. It is also called Flesh Forgery by the MaiPon.

While Resealing can effect miraculous healing, even allowing Emperor Ashravan to survive a crossbow bolt to the head, it only repairs physical damage. After a traumatic brain injury like Ashravan's, the mind remains empty, and requires the forging of a new soul to return the subject to functionality.

Resealing requires a great deal of skill and specialization. According to Shai, a Forger has to know everything about the body of the subject, including the placement of veins, muscles, and sinew in order to properly perform Resealing. Resealing is expected to work in a similar fashion to Aon Ien, and to a lesser extent other healing methods throughout the cosmere.

“Get a Flesh Forgery wrong, and people died.”

—Shai

Remembering

“Our workers are not Forgers, we don’t use that word. They are Rememberers.”

—Gaotona

Remembering is a subset of Forging on Sel employed by the Heritage Faction. Remembering is limited to the use of historic objects, where Forgers are employed to discover the history of objects, manipulating them for aesthetic purposes. These restrictions are enacted due to the general disregard for Forgery in the Rose Empire. Rememberers employ methods of mass production to convert low quality goods into historic works of skill.

Notable Forgers

• Wan ShaiLu

Development

Example of a Chinese seal and seal paste, to compare to Soulstamps

The idea for Forgery as a magic system was developed during a trip to the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. While investigating the museum, author Brandon Sanderson was inspired by the east asian seals which had been applied to works of art by ancient Chinese nobility who appreciated the works. They would stamp the work of art with their personal seal to indicate their approval, sometimes covering works of art with stamps of various patrons.

“What a fascinating mind-set. Imagine being a king, deciding that you particularly liked Michelangelo’s David, and so having your signature carved across the chest. That’s essentially what this was.”

—Brandon Sanderson

This seed led to the concept of a stamp magic, Soulstamps, that rewrote the nature of an object's existence. In order to not overlap too much with Soulcasting, inspiration was taken from the setting of the museum. Thus, Soulstamps became objects that could rewrite history. As it developed, the seals grew to match the symbolic programming of magic systems on Sel that had already been in development, and as Sel had several pre-established Asian-style cultures, the seal system fit naturally into Sel's established background.

The story of The Emperor's Soul grew from the starting place of the magic system of Forgery engendered there, the National Palace Museum, and the asian setting on Sel.

Notes

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