Ink and watercolour plate: a gloved hand hefting a pale blue spear of misty ether, beside a rough ether stone trailing wisps.

Spell

Ethereal Spear

A spear of ether drawn from the ether stones of the Shrike Desert: the only weapon that can harm the phantoms that cross between worlds.

  • The Goblin Invasion

Description

Ether is a magic that does not belong to the material world. Taken from an ether stone or an ethereal lantern, it settles in the wizard's hands, and from it a spear of ether can be summoned and thrown. Such spears shatter ethereal barriers and wound ether phantoms, which no spell from the material world can touch.

The ether can be pulled from the hand again with focus and intent, and lanterns lit with it hold the magic until the wizard returns for more.

Historical context

The stranger first took up an ether stone in the sandstorms of the Shrike Desert, to Aurelius's alarm, and used its spears to fight through the phantom-haunted ruins of Shrike's Lookout. Aurelius noted that the Shrike was never known for ether magic and wondered whether the other Aurelius had brought it there.

In later trials held on the same grounds, fireballs aimed at ethereal lanterns were transmuted into Ether Darts, against which the spectres stood no chance.