Bells
The Bells of Temperament
Four objects of the long forgotten art of Aftercraft. It was said that they were once four of the most powerful practitioners of this craft, having granted this power as favor from the Wind God of Indeterminism in exchange for an eternity as tools for entropy. As sound is a tool of the winds and empty space, one of the few trends behind the forms his followers take is that of instruments, these four bells being simultaneously the easiest to use and most dangerous to wield. Should they ever ring in sequence, god help us all!
Sanguine
The Bell of Blood and Community.
It was believed that Sanguine was once a lonely soul who sought companionship and attention, and thus turned to sorcery in hopes of encouraging dependency on him. For a time, this worked wonders. The unnamed sorcerer became the most popular man in his community. Unfortunately, this grew animosity towards one another and before long, the magic used led to the entire village killing each other in a senseless massacre amongst each other in order to win his favor. Despairing at was he had done, he took every body and brought them to sea for burial, where he then drowned himself. His body was never found. Only the bell. Sanguine, dyed in the rust of blood, has the power to magnetize all attention around it towards any who ring it. Whatever emotion the listener is feeling is redirected to whomever wields the bell, whether it is love, anger or murderous frenzy. Said emotions will then intensify more and more, all directed at the user. There has been no recorded survivor of this magic. Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, under-glaze, wire |
Melancholic
The Bell of Black Bile and Focus.
A narrow-minded scholar worked to undo the Gorgon Knot - a strange, holy artifact that imprisons them all in ignorance - for the good of himself and his people. Scouring through the endless catacombs that was the city's municipal library, he eventually finds a tattered book wrapped in chains and bound in hardened mercury. Using the strange, eldritch sorceries locked inside it, he was able to undo the gorgon knot and its hold on everybody. In time however, he came to realize that even without the knot, people around him are still filled with ignorance and will destroy themselves and each other because of it. He then uses the various sorceries in the book to rule over his people, saving them from themselves and their own ignorance. No one knows what happened for certain, but it is said that the scholar's one-track mind in bringing his people to prosperity ironically made him ignorant of the effect he had on the whims and thoughts of the people around him. His book was stolen in a brief window of opportunity and the scholar was beheaded. His remains and the book were buried in an unmarked grave, and was forgotten for all time. Three-thousand years later, archeologists eventually found the city, having been buried by time (and dried mud). Where the unmarked grave was, all they found in it was a bell, with a face of fear and shock moded onto it. Those who ring Melancholic are imbued with supernatural focus, their mind able to process the details of whatever they are seeing in that moment. Overtime, this focus becomes to powerful, one loses their object permanence, and becomes obsessed to an unhealthy, psychotic degree of whatever they see. Anyone else who hears the ringing of the bell loses all sense of focus and attention span, the infrastructure they seeked to maintain becoming an afterthought to the next shiny thing they see on the side of the road. Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, under-glaze, wire |
Choleric
The Bell of Yellow Bile and Impermeability.
Once known as a coward, Allan the Yellow tried committing suicide because he he could no longer bear the weight of the world. When he washed ashore, his attempt at suicide a failure, he was confronted by a mysterious man, claiming to be the Eastern Wind Spirit his family worshipped. He asked why Allan felt the need to end his life, who then answered "because fear is a poison that is killing [him]. [He] simply wishes to get it over with." The Wind Spirit then had an idea. He killed Allan's only horse and harvested the yellow bile from its liver and placed it into a bowl. He commanded him to drink from it as "swallowing fear hath accept fear, and courage shall rule your life." He did as he was told and Allan felt his own fear leave his body. He returned to his home city a new man, only to see that it was under attack by the Ottomans. Drunk of the bile, he charged head-first into the army, only to die when he ran into one of the front-soldier's spears, having taken no precaution to notice. As his body was burned among hundreds of others, all that remained was a mysterious bell with a smiling face sitting in the ashes. Those who ring the bell Choleric are imbued with an indomidable courage that surpasses any before. This however is not miraculous, as any others who hears the bell's toll are stripped of their own courage (their bravery passed into the ringer), and are placed under a consuming state of terror. All involved are known to die from this experience, those of terror either from shock or suicide, the ringer from pure, human idiocy. Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, under-glaze, wire |
Phlegmatic
The Bell of Phlegm and Wishes.
Old Wizard Gabriel of Occitanie spent much of his youth wasting away learning the deepest and wisest of sorceries . When he returned to his hometown, once and boy and now an old man, Gabriel was bombarded with requests and pleadings from the townsfolk, wanting him to use his magic to ease their troubles, ranging from healing the sick and injured, to painting their fences and rubbing their sore backs. At first eager to please, Gabriel soon grew bitter and resentful of his own power and the people around him. When he began denying requests, the town's admiration turned to hatred as they chased him out of town with intentions of enslaving him. A broken man, Gabriel wished vengeance upon them all, attracting the attention of the Wind God of Indeterminism. The Wind God took the wizard's soul and placed it into the form of a large, orbital bell with a scowling face. A small village boy found the bell, and within a week, the village was destroyed by unimaginable chaos. Phelgmatic has the power to grant the wishes of those who ring it, their very desires brought to life. Unfortunately, the bell grants the wish in a manner that twists the desires into something horrifying, killing not just the bell-ringer, but those around them as well. For instance, a starving man rung the bell and magically gained a massive feast fit for twenty people. He shared with with his friends, only for them all to become sick with a highly contagious disease brought on by the tainted meal. The entire city was quarantined afterwards. Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, under-glaze, wire |
Darkness
The Bell of the Chasm.
There was once a secret, malevolent cult that practiced forbidden magics within a channel of caves below the Scottish countryside. They intended on using the darkness around them to enslave the Gods of Philosophy and control the minds of the world as a result. As punishment, the Wind God of Indeterminism encased them in the very darkness they claimed dominion over, where they would be lost for all of eternity, blind and afraid. When investigations of the missing members were called in, the authorities managed to find the caverns. The only sign of the people was a bell with a face on it, its expression filled with pure horror. Darkness - bound in wax and primordial darkness - has the power, when rung, to shroud an area in pitch blackness for a quarter mile. The handle itself magically lights itself like a candle, allowing the weilder to see through the darkness while others stumble around blindly. Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, yarn |
Herculade
Once there was a demigod in ancient Vitinia who's god-like power was that he could literally piss alcohol. While popular among drunks too drunk to care, he was considered a laughing stock by both the people of his village and the gods that he was kin to. Feeling insignificant, he decides to make a name for himself and challenge all of the smart alecks of his day and tried outdrinking the finest scientists and philosophers. While the philosophers agreed, they were too smart for him and was able to trick him into drinking himself unconscious as the philosophers sat and watched, only to die of alcohol poisoning.
Feeling charitable after having a good laugh from his humiliation, the Wind God of Indeterminism decided to grant pity on him and placed his soul into a bell, sparing him eternal self-pity along the Asphodel Fields. Those who hear the ring of Herculade are granted the powers of a demigod (what specific powers like strength, speed, skills vary) at the cost of their common sense. Their minds become foggy and sluggish, as if they were drunk, whatever sort of demigod-like powers they gain becoming weaker the more sober they become. Unlike most other Bells of Indeterminism, Herculade was created out of charity, making it one of the more harmless magical bells that can be found. Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, underglaze, yarn |
Old
The Rusty Bell of the Past.
Melded from recycled swords, Old was fashioned by a philosopher who's name was buried by the sands of time and offered to his nameless gods as an offering for youth. Unfortunately, the gods were not pleased with the offering, finding the workmanship shody and the tone unpleasant to the ear. As punishment, the gods cursed the bell. As soon as the old man rang it, the mildred tone reached into his old bones and reduced him to dry bones, accelerating the aging process indefinitely. Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, underglaze, yarn |
New
The Shining Bell of the Future
Molded by a colleague of Old's creator out of a metallic meteroite, he tried to give the bell as an offering for youth. Pleased with the bell's quality, the gods blessed the bell. Now anybody who rings the bell has the power to alter their age to whatever age they desired. Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, underglaze, yarn |
Shiny
Sickening
SeXXXy
SeXXY is just that. It binds those that hear in a bondage-esq spell of lust. Usually metaphorically. Once a man in an Africa village turned on a microphone and rings the bell against it. One of the largest orgies in history post-Ancient Rome soon followed.
Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, underglaze, yarn |
SeXXist
Made by the same mysterious being that forged SeXXXy is the horrifying bell known as SeXXist. While SeXXXy was made to pacify, SeXXXist was made to control. It robs one of all of their senses. Their capacity to see, hear, taste, touch and smell are dropped to 0, as everybody who hears become lost and confused as their bodies become puppets to the bell-bearer.
Media: White Stonewall clay, glaze, underglaze, yarn |