A Bag of Beautiful Coyns
Many years ago, a trader from far away died while in The City. One of the entries of his possessions was a "bag of 220 beautiful coyns". These coins were sold to a crafter who sold some of them and made others into hat band decorations, jewelry, bag clips, and so on. It was years later that someone discovered their true worth and their power. They make things move.
Many years ago, a trader from far away died while in The City. Having no next of kin or friends in the city, and the magistrate not having any way to find and contact them, his personal goods were inventoried and eventually sold. One of the entries was a "bag of 220 beautiful coins". These coins were of no real value, being made of a copper alloy. They were beautifully detailed and artistic in design. A local crafter purchased them in the auction. He turned them into buttons, clasps for bags, hat bands, and jewelry. The items were sold, traded, and gifted.
Years later a whimsical artist placed a beautiful old trinket upon one of his statues. She magically came to life. So fun and enchanting was she, that she married the Prince of the City. The ending of this story goes badly. Some of those who opposed the Prince stole her necklace. After turning her back into a statue, they broke her. The Prince died soon after. His end was of a broken heart, with or without a knife through it.
Across the land, rumors and folk tales of animated snowmen, trees, statues of people, horses, and animals, began to appear. Scholars and magic users investigated these folktales and facts (if they got there in time) and found a common thread, a common item with a beautiful artistic circular element. Horrace of the Impressionists guild researched and discovered their origin, a bag of 220 beautiful, artistic coyns of unknown origin.
Now those in the know are searching for coyn items, hoping to find those with animation properties to use for their own purposes.
Magical Properties:
Each coin (coyn in the old tongue)has the ability to animate a "lifelike" inanimate (statue, toy, oddly shaped tree). Simply placing the item or coin on the lifelike inanimate will bring it to life. Removing said item returns the object to an inanimate state. If animated thing is exceptionally lifelike, it will turn to flesh with hair, and appropriate elements. If it is not, the thing will simply be mobile and intelligent.
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? Responses (15)
Wow! I love this idea!
It reminds me of the Greek legend of the sculptor who fell in love with his sculpture, and then it was brought to life.
Definitely going to use this. The backstory is wonderful, too.
It was inspired by some seasonal holiday specials. It was never the Hat, it was the Hatband with a coin.
If you were going to make 'batteries' for your servants, they would need to be small, compact, uniform, and distinctive. The coins (coyn in the old tongue) just seemed appropriate.
If you like the OZ series... the animate, inanimate characters in all 12 books can inspire some cool animates for you.
Oh, and if your local culture puts coins over the eyes or in the mouth, you can have a lot of zombie fun this way.
This whole bit reminds me of the Garage Sale from Hell thread.
Now, placing coins on eyes would ensure they will fall off as soon as the body rises. (Still good for a little mystery or suspicions of necromancy/haunting/unrest of the dead.)
Luckily, there are also cultures that place a coin under the tongue of the deceased. Same effect, less talking. :)
Yup I like it a lot, I use the coins on the eyes thing in my game for people who die etc. Could definitely be interesting.
And that is why we post them up here. :)
and occasionally bump them so people can see them.
I have never seen this before. Beautiful! One of those golden Moon submissions, it sparked my imagination! Oh, delicious delivery from jadedness.
AG imagines dancing statuettes and animated stalkers
I do not have many plots posted up, as most of the plotlines I create are linked to a given character, its history, or its development. But the few I do post are the better generic ones I had ever developed.
For some reason I failed to post here when I first read this a few months ago. Probably in my new stage of being here and anti-social behavior because of my newness.
I just want to say... wow. I want to use this for my game system now. I remember thinking that before...
Once again I realize I failed to vote on this when I had originally failed to vote on it.
Again good job Moon. Your submissions are always top notch. Everyone should strive for a piece of your quality.
So I was thinking, perhaps there are coyns useful for animating elementals. Place one in a fire and the fire animates. A coyn of the right kind would animate x volume of air/ earth/ water/ fire.
Now I know that The Dreamweavers are the origin point of the Coyns. But, lets us take a detour. This is not part of the 220 coyns, but related. Imagine, if you would, an entire magical system could be based off the enchanting and using of coyns.
It would be a magic system in which your power would be based on how much wealth and effort you have sunk into your magical power.
There should be some limit as to the number of animates you can have running at a time. Well you could have an unlimited number I would think. However, you could only actively control a certain number based on your intelligence/ will power/ and animate control skill.
So Coyns would come in various flavors
1) animating X-Jacks like figures. Thus there would have to be much prep work
2) Animate a specific solid substance. Like the Grant of Living (following this one) except for only one substance.
3) Grant of living- This is the animation that creates the magical joints and senses of a creature for the animate.
4) a hover coyn, allows its subject to float, fly if it has wings.
5) Elemental Animation. A more powerful version of animate a specific substance, but for a type.
There would be coyns to grant greater intelligence, speech, dexterity, skills, and so on. So enough coyns and your animate would be buff.
Technically only one coyn could be used per animate. So, perhaps a Greater Coyn that allows you to put 5 coyns into it. Thus your buffer animates would have 5 coyns worth of power.
If you like this, reply to this comment, and maybe I will work this out as a submission.
5/5 and an HOH too.
I love submissions that have great flavor without being too lengthy. This has lots of possibilities but I think the one thing that would make it complete are one or two plot hooks.
I love this idea!