Difference between revisions of "Forgery"

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.{{booktes ref|tes|part=postscript}} Many simple Forgings require very little knowledge of the object, its history, or pertinent topics. Examples include reforging a table to be cared for rather than neglected,{{tes ref|12}} or reforging an awakened object to have a different command phrase.{{17s ref|post|120568}}

Soulstamping an object functions by rewriting the history of an object or individual to match the encoded intent of the seal.{{tes ref|3}}{{qa ref|977|115}} The likelihood of a soulstamp "taking" is dependent in part on the plausibility of a stamp. This includes both how the object views itself (the object's history) and how others view it. This is congruent with what we know of the Cognitive Realm, and suggests Forgery is similar to [[Soulcasting]].{{qa ref|979|15}}{{booktes ref|tes|part=postscript}} It is also likely that Forgery draws heavily on the spiritual aspect of an object, as connections that should be otherwise unavailable to the object cognitively affect the plausibility of a stamp, such as the instance where the room [[Atsuko]] of Jindo was placed in was modified in order to influence the drawing of a mural.{{tes ref|76}}

The idea for Forgery as a magic system was developed during a trip to the [[Wikipedia:National_Palace_Museum|National Palace Museum]] in [[wikipedia: Taiwan|Taiwan]]. While investigating the museum, author [[Brandon Sanderson]] was inspired by the [[wikipedia: Seal_(East_Asia)|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.{{booktes ref|tes|part=postscript}}

This seed led to the concept of a stamp magic, [[Soulstamp]]s, 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.{{booktes ref|tes|part=postscript}}

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.{{booktes ref|tes|part=postscript}}