Regarding Sanctions (Shortly after the Glatisant fight of the Rise Era)

[youandyoualone]

Although I know that clean-up from the battle with the Glatisant and the message gleaned from its remains is likely of the utmost importance as of now--as well as the matter of the unintelligible Familiars and Spirit Companions--I do have some news that I hope will aid in improving the lot of the Adversaries of the earliest era.

Before her vocabulary became limited to a single word, the vixen who attached herself to me instructed me on how I might use Oracular knowledge to glean further knowledge on Sanctions. What I have learned is this:

These Sanctions use the power of existing bonds between people, either the ones doing the Sanctioning or those bonded with the person Sanctioned. As these bonds are real in the Realm of Dreams, they can prevent action just as well as rope or shackles might--although 'tis only acts with intention they can prevent, not accidental acts, for it is the dream of action that they prevent.

They can be entered into willingly and with consent, but unless that consent was explicitly and deliberately part of that Sanction, rescinding consent would not break the Sanction.

After learning this, I wished to know more of how one would break the Sanctions and Fidelite, who was then still in possession of her full vocabulary, advised me to build a Dreamcatcher and have it gather energy in the Questing Country of the earliest era for roughly a week. Fortunately, I was already there after the bridge broke.

Shortly before the battle started, my Dreamcatcher was deemed sufficiently filled by my still-coherent Familiar, and now that the fighting has concluded, I have had time to look within to see what might break the Sanctions. That information was granted to me in a series of three visions:

The first, of bitter and acrimonious arguments between Champions and Oracles, leading to the severing of a bond group, also severing all Sanctions they created.

The second, of a cabal of Adversaries furtively meeting, banding together, forming a fresh bond--overwriting the Sanction with the energy of their alliance.

And the third and most intriguing, of a heavy, metal-hafted mace, light wavering around its head like one reads in reports of desert mirages.

Comments

[otomechapilot]

Shacklebreaker.

No. No, Shacklebreaker didn’t look like that, unless it’s a metaphor for it.

(Hey, Sara? Context would be nice.)

[triggerhappytraitor]

...So two people could form a new bond to overwrite the old, and then choose to directly afterwards, in order to free the person from an unwanted one.

[crouching_sin]

I vote for the third option. I hate the idea of those things.

Though the first two are amusing in their own way.

[truerevelation]

I... Ngh, I'd heard of this Sanction stuff before, but you're- you're saying that it's-

[He barely throws up a 'let's not wake Rose up' filter before-]

What on Ea- dammit, in all'f the Known Worlds are they thinking?

[claudiometer]

...Random thought that I'm not sure we're going to have time to try, but.

There are a handful of words in English that are their own opposites. 'Sanction' is one of them. Depending on how you use it, it's either blocking something someone wants to do because you don't approve... or granting them a special exception to the usual rules.

I wonder if you could use the framework of these Sanctions to give someone their power back.

[fridgeninja]

If light's wavering around the mace, it's probably a gravity-based weapon.

That far in the past... it's probably a Diabolin weapon. I'm not sure if the Hecatites had that level of technology yet. I know the Gorgons and humans won't.

[theflyingone]

In light of this new information, is there any way we can prevent future Sanctions? Um, not future as in the cosmic travel future, but just... after the Travelers leave. I would like to prevent the Sanctioners from the chance to do it again, or eliminate the means of doing so.