Maze of Mneme

Ostanes' Rotes ~&~ Rotes by Craft / Tradition

Description: The Maze of Mneme is named for the Boeotian muse of Memory and it concerns itself with memory and the caster's strength of will. It does this through the creation of an mental construct called a Memory Palace. Memory Palaces were the focus of the Method Loci which allowed the ancient Greeks and Romans to memorize massive quantities of information without need of physical notes or books. In essence, a student of the Method Loci would choose a building that they knew particularly well and visualize that place in every detail. Then they would perform a mental walk-through of that site leaving pieces of information at likely and logical locations so that when they walked through again, all the information would be contained in neat little packets that the human mind could understand.

This rote takes that principle and turns it upside-down, reversing the purpose, making the palace into a fortress, a prison or a maze. The new purpose is not to memorize information, but rather to protect the mind from intrusion by creating mental constructs as obstacles to the reading of the mind or the influencing of the will. In combination with the Method Loci, the caster utilizes a number of the more obscure Pythagorean mathematical and ritual practices. The Maze of Mneme is a random construction based upon a mathematical seed (algorithm) known only to the caster, memories are organized like troops for battle and from particularly painful memories the mage can create traps for those who would psychically tread where they do not belong.

The focus of the spell is the caster's birthstone which holds the maze together, buffering and reinforcing the magician's will. While the Maze of Mneme cannot physically injure a invader, it can slow the attacker and could cause psychological harm to a trespasser who erred in a truly significant way. Invaders can suffer loss of willpower, temporary retrograde amnesia, or even confuse the their target's life for their own. This spell is not powerful enough to imprison an attacker, but if constructed in enough detail, a foreign mind could become lost until the spell ends. The caster need not be aware of transgressor for this spell to take effect, in fact the spell is held within the stone until it is triggered by the gravity of a supernatural mind.

Origin: Ostanes

Instruments: Birthstone / Gemstone

Casting:

System: Modus + Corona = difficulty is 5 normally / or with a unique instrument difficulty is (4 + 1) -2 = 3.

Sphere: (Corona •)

Paradox:

Inspiration: Art of Memory (Black Hand)

Source Material: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mneme / https://remembereverything.org/memory-palace-the-method-of-loci/ / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth

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