Artifact 5
Commitment Cost: 5 motes

The Herdspire Totem is a five yard long rod of silvery starmetal, studded with many clusters of spheres, each a different colour of jade, and each representing a separate order of life (Birds-air, mammals-earth, fish-water, reptiles-fire, plants-wood). Flying from the top of the spire is a pennant, woven from orichalcum and moonsilver thread, depicting animals of all sorts herding togeather.

The spire is affixed to the mystic centre of a demesne, or else placed atop a manse where excess essence is flared off. Once it is so positioned, it draws from the reserve of excess mystic power at the location, and twists fate in a radius of 20 miles per point of manse or demense, splitting and reweaving the threads of mundane animals and plants into great multiplicity. It requires a commitment of only 5 motes from the owner to maintain this effect, drawing most of its power from the underlying demesne, but if the user is not already attuned to the manse or demesne, the spire's attunement will need to be renewed every day as usual.

Within the affected area, everything will begin to herd. Eagles will fly in formation, trees will grow in intertwined groups, and animals that were -originally- herd animals will naturally grow into much, much larger groups, splitting off into small squads of 3 or 4 when they would usually have been individual. Multiple births become highly common, and so the population of nearly every non-sentient species skyrockets to almost five times its normal size. This effect preserves the local ecology - as prey increases in number, so do predators, and vice versa. There is no noticable effect on the way the ecology works here, and the spire can be left to work without worrying about unbalancing anything. However, since the larger numbers of animals and plants are perfectly real, they can provide five times as much produce, food, or trade. Indeed, since you will be removing less (proportionally) from a herd at once, it will also have less impact on whatever you are culling or harvesting, and the area can easily support five times as much exploitation without any noticable effect, and often a great deal more if you're willing to temporarily reduce the populations of certain species somewhat.

The herdspire does not affect sentient or semi-sentient creatures whatsoever, and may at the storyteller's discretion fail on any magical or wyld touched animals. There is some evidence to suggest that twins and other multiple births are slightly more common amongst humans living within its effects, but this is not a strong effect and such things are still quite rare. Spirits are likewise not duplicated, so they will be rather overworked, but cannot (truthfully) complain that the natural balance has been upset.

Comments:

I have an artifact, but I have utterly no idea where it should go. I don't think it should be art 2 though, so I'm not putting it straight in. I'm considering artifact 5, but I'm honestly not sure if it's big enough.

<i>The Herdstone</i> -- Darloth

Commitment Cost: 5 motes

The herdstone is designed to be placed in the hearthstone mount of a manse, or connected to a demesne with a suitable (low level) artifact. When this is done, it does not interfere with the hearthstone (or any effects of the demesne) but instead uses the connection to a pool of geomantic essence to resonate its effects over a much larger area than could otherwise be achieved. For each level of manse or demesne the stone caps, it extends its effects over a 10 mile radius. The only drawbacks to installing this in a manse are that the essence-regeneration multiplier for those actually within the manse is only Rating*3 instead of Rating*4, and the hearthstone will not reform if destroyed until the herdstone is removed, mainly because it's physically in the way.

Inside the area so affected, everything will begin to herd. Eagles will fly in formation, trees will grow in intertwined groups, and animals that were -originally- herd animals will naturally grow into much, much larger groups, splitting off into small squads of 3 or 4 when they would usually have been individual. Multiple births become highly common, and so the population of nearly every non-sentient species skyrockets to almost five times its normal size. This effect preserves the local ecology - as prey increases in number, so do predators, and vice versa. There is no noticable effect on the way the ecology works here, and the stone can be left to work without worrying about unbalancing anything. However, since the larger numbers of animals and plants are perfectly real, they can provide five times as much produce, food, or trade. Indeed, since you will be removing less (proportionally) from a herd at once, it will also have less impact on whatever you are culling or harvesting, and the area can easily support five times as much exploitation without any noticable effect, and often a great deal more if you're willing to temporarily reduce the populations of certain species somewhat.

The herdstone does not affect sentient or semi-sentient creatures whatsoever, and may at the storyteller's discretion fail on any magical or wyld touched animals. There is some evidence to suggest that twins and other multiple births are slightly more common amongst humans living within its effects, but this is not a strong effect and such things are still rare. Spirits are likewise not duplicated, so they will be rather overworked, but cannot (truthfully) complain that the natural balance has been upset.

So, there we go. I've no idea where to put an ecology-multiplying effect like this, or even how much impact it actually has. I'd say 3 to 5, but where in there, I don't know.
-- Darloth
Oh, I forgot to state that as long as you're attuned to the manse/demesne in question, it will maintain the attunement to the herdstone for you from any range. If you're (somehow) not attuned to the manse/demesne, then I guess you need to go and poke it every day. Sounds a right pain.
-- Darloth

That's a Hearthstone, Darloth. - Telgar

Maybe we should swap it with Sifu Bamboo Arms? While Artifacts using the centralisation of Essence at the heart of a Manse is an idea I like and would happily use, it being a stone does make it a bit ambiguous. - Trithne

Why is it a hearthstone? It doesn't affect the bearer, and you need to socket hearthstones into something to get them to do anything, they never work just by themselves. Also, it's not a stone, it's a gobbet of green jade with all sorts of orichalcum twiddly bits stuck onto it, which I forgot to mention for some reason. The name is because, well, people are bound to refer to it like that what with it sitting in a manse. If you'd rather call it an Ecology-Multiplication Harmonizer, then go right ahead, does that help? ^_^
-- Darloth

Hence "ambiguous". With that description, it's more clear. Now I'll say Artifact. Although Orichalcum "twiddly bits" might need a bit of work.

I could even give it an unconnected mode, where it works on one herd of animals no bigger than bearer's Essence*10, but of course, they'd need to be attuned to it and tend said herd every day. And most exalts aren't farmers. One last point - if I -were- to convert it into a hearthstone, how exactly would it work? Where would you put it?
-- Darloth

There's all sorts of tales of powerful gems that remain in temples creating effects. I tend to think of these as Hearthstones. I admit, I've also written stationary, manse-affecting Artifacts...it's an iffy line. As a compromise between Artifact and Hearthstone, I wrote the Bastion Background, large stationary structures with powers like Artifacts and+or Hearthstones. This would be a Bastion. But since that background isnt canon, I guess on reflection it fits either place.

Overall I like the item and I'd say as a Stone it'd be level 3-4 and as an Artifact a solid 4. However unless there was some sort of weird story involved, I would not generally charge that many points to a player because of its limited game impact. - Telgar

It is a nifty artifact. Personally, I'd say that you should give it power over a single herd while not connected to a manse. I'd also suggest that you see if you can come up with some Mandate of Heaven Rules for it, because that might let you codify exactly what game effects the multiplicity of growth has more easily.
--BrilliantRain

Herdman's Crook added. I don't know about power level. It seems 3ish. There should probably be something about the magnitude of the group in there. -szilard