Dear Mr. Stroud,

1. In the books, Bartimaeus mentioned that magicians are powerless and have no abilities of their own. How, then, are punishments like the Shriveling Fire and the Essence Rack activated? Do the magicians draw upon the spirits' strength? Or is the magic created from the pentacle and the runes?

2. How are objects like the Mournful Orb created? It appears to be magical in nature, but is it created by storing a magical attack into an artifact (e.g. Inferno Sticks) or by confining a spirit into it (e.g. a scrying glass)?

3. If a person has resistance to magic, would that be the ability to resist all magic, whether it's aggressive (e.g. Detonations) or defensive (e.g. Shields), elemental (e.g. Infernos) or physical (e.g. Obedient Breath... to some extent? Since you do manipulate the air. I guess)? Or simply the ability to resist elemental magic?

4. If a person with resistance was to walk into a fire created by normal means, would it injure them? Likewise, if this person was to walk into a fire created by magical means, but later spread (e.g. Gladys dropping the elemental sphere in the warehouse), would he or she be injured? Assuming that his or her original resilience was strong enough to overcome the elements.

5. Is essence capable of replication? You mentioned that werewolves were originally created by Gladstone by means of magic, and (much) later, near the end of Golem's Eye, Kitty threatened one with a silver dagger, indicating that they must have some sort of essence within their bodies (unless Kitty was just assuming that all magical entities were afraid of silver). Does essence carry over in generations?

6. If spirits are encased within an object or a mortal, will they be affected by silver and other herbs? Bartimaeus seemed to be really dreading Old Chokey, and Honorius was injured by Kitty's silver pendant, but Nouda and the other hybrids didn't seem much affected by the iron around them.

7. Theoretically, if the Amulet of Samarkand was to be destroyed, either by brute force or by a spirit more powerful than whatever was contained in the Amulet, what would happen? Would the Amulet simply break down, or would the energy stored blow up like the Staff?

Hi there,

Excellent questions, which have required a bit of pondering.

1. The latter is closer to the truth: the same mechanisms that draw the spirits to earth and keep them imprisoned - the spoken words of the magician, the drawn runes, the inscribed pentacle etc - have continued power even after the spirit has been given the job and headed on its way. If the spirit subsequently displeases its master or - most potently -if it actively disregards its mission, the magician can draw on the power of the original summons to chastise it. In a way the spirit is 'caged' throughout its time on earth: even when it leaves the pentacle it is under threat from the power of the original summons.

2. Mournful Orb: the nature of these is a bit obscure, but I suspect they operate similarly to most magical objects - i.e. their power comes from some kind of trapped spirit, possibly contained within the plinth on which the Orb rests.

3. Resilience varies from person to person, both in strength and efficacy and also in breadth: some people will be able to resist many different types of magical influence, while others have specific talents. Hence some of the Resistance are resilient to aggressive forms of magic, and others are able to see through more 'passive' magical defences, such as illusions etc.

4. Interesting point. I think that there is a difference between the initial magical attack, which may be elemental in character - such as an Inferno - and the effects it then has on physical objects around and about. So a person with resilience might happily withstand an Inferno (a brief, concentrated magical blast), but then ultimately succumb to a sustained fire that rages about them.

5. Just as resilience builds up in the population over generations (assuming that magic is regularly employed in the area), so magical traces in specific bloodlines can linger for generations too. The initial experiments of Gladstone were with a relatively small group of people, and a certain amount of interbreeding is necessary to maintain the strength of the adaptations even over a small number of generations. Whether or not the werewolves strictly contain 'essence' I don't know - perhaps the echo of it is enough to make the prospect of touching silver displeasing to them.

6. If a spirit is encased in an object or person they are certainly less affected by the traditional dangers of iron, silver, rosemary etc. Not wholly unaffected, mind you: Honorius's response shows that (but silver is pretty potent to a spirit at close range). The iron in the Great Glass Palace is less dangerous to Nouda, at least until N and B cause it to collapse upon him.

7. I think the spirits within the Amulet are less aggressive than the ones within the Staff - so you wouldn't get a massive explosion. But there would certainly be an eruption of power of some kind - and in fact, given the amount of energy absorbed by the Amulet down the centuries, it would be a pretty risky business letting it all out, except under extremely controlled conditions.

Phew! That's it!

Cheers,

Jonathan

wouldnt it be that the iron would affect nouda more because he essentially breaks free of the human body, and so his true nature is protruding?

I think that in relation to question 7, when a spirit is encased inside an object or body it depends on the nature of the vessel when it comes to vulnerability to silver, iron and herbs. When a spirit is encased in a body, I think it's essence may be protected. In the case of Nouda, his essence was not protected because it was not fully contained within the body. In the case of Honorius, he was encased in a skeleton; so I think that he was not fully protected either.
When a spirit is encased in an object, I think they may be invulnerable to silver, iron and herbs unless the object is made from or contains them. Unlike a human body, an object certainly doesn't protect them from the pain of being present on Earth.

umbreo wrote:I think that in relation to question 7, when a spirit is encased inside an object or body it depends on the nature of the vessel when it comes to vulnerability to silver, iron and herbs. When a spirit is encased in a body, I think it's essence may be protected. In the case of Nouda, his essence was not protected because it was not fully contained within the body. In the case of Honorius, he was encased in a skeleton; so I think that he was not fully protected either. <br />When a spirit is encased in an object, I think they may be invulnerable to silver, iron and herbs unless the object is made from or contains them. Unlike a human body, an object certainly doesn't protect them from the pain of being present on Earth.

Well said.

Welcome to the forums. =D

"When a spirit is encased in an object, I think they may be invulnerable to silver, iron and herbs unless the object is made from or contains them."

Not strictly true in the case of Honorius, who was repelled by Kitty's silver pendant.
But then, you did mention Honorius in your reply.

Honorius wrote:Not strictly true in the case of Honorius, who was repelled by Kitty's silver pendant.
But then, you did mention Honorius in your reply.

A skeleton isn't exactly a proper container. Take the hybirds in PG; they were incased by the flesh. But in Honorius's case, bones are not thick (I suppose) enough to protect him.

Point taken, I suppose. But that warrants another question.

I can partly understand how spirits can be encased in a human- their spirit can float around the nervous system or something. Similarly, I see how a spirit can be contained in an object.

However, how can a spirit like Honorius be encased in a skeleton? Is its essence spread out inside the skeleton's bones?