Material Protection (Solo)

[Eridanus]

Day 60, Summer of 512 AV
Early Evening
Syliran Campsite, Along Kabrin Road

The flames flickered as murmurs from the crowd filled the surrounding air. It was the usual comfy state of a campsite, and it was what he had experienced plenty of times since travelling with the Syliran detachment. The benefit of moving in such a huge group was the effective division of labor, not to mention the Knight's streamlined hierarchy and organization that allowed such efficiency to take place.

Eridanus had been hired on a freelance basis to aid with shielding works, which was highly required every night whenever the two-thousand strong army stopped marching for the day in order to set up camp. There were the usual defensive fortifications placed by experienced soldiers and the usual night patrols done by knights and squires, but magic was always welcome to offer additional protection.

There were many things to be done, but that was not his problem. No, that was the problem of the Shield-In-Charge for today, the Sergeant Mageknight William Mernford. All he needed to do was to receive instructions from the supervisor for tonight's arcane works, and he would get to it before retiring comfortably to his own tent.

[Eridanus]

"Good evening, gentlemen. I am your Shield-In-Charge for today's rotation - Sergeant Mageknight William Mernford. For the benefit of the non-knights here, you may address me as Sergeant Mernford. This is how it will go..."

As the mage began the usual briefing, Eridanus glanced at the small group gathered, immediately pointing out those that belonged to the Syliran army. They were those who wore uniform armored robes with the recognizable crest of the Knights, though he noticed that they all contained the picture of a single sword, as compared to the two that Sergeant Mernford had. The rest of the group, though little, were in an assorted mixture of gear, and those he assumed were recruited similarly like him.

"Eridanus of Alvadas and Syliran Mageknight Jordan Drikhan, the two of you are responsible for biologicals," The conducting officer finished. "Let's move out and do this quickly."

"Let us work well together, Ser Jordan," Eridanus raised a hand courteously, to which his mageknight partner shook with agreement.

And then it was to the large circle where the shield would bubble around the entire campsite. Eridanus followed the mageknight's lead, for the man was definitely more experienced than him in the ways of how the knights worked. They moved in silence to a part of the campsite before stopping, and the mageknight pointed to the pole that was seemingly placed there randomly.

Hammered onto the ground and supported by a few pegs, the pole seemed to form no purpose.

"This pole will form the basis from which we drape our shield. There will be others who are assigned to take care of consolidating all the separate shields, we only need to begin our work here," Jordan Drikhan explained, his palms already forward as djed began to gather.

Eridanus wasted no time in following suit, and released djed from his body as the two of them began pooling their collective power around the wooden pole.

[Eridanus]

As they shaped the djed above the pole, they did not cement the creation of the shield, taking into account that it was meant to be a piece in a bigger picture, sort of like a patchwork quilt.

As the mageknight began to target setting instructions, Eridanus followed suit, supporting the man's actions as he initiated tasking procedures. It was like a two-man sewing technique, whereby the initiator roughly set the basic pattern in the tapestry while the follow-upper filled in the blanks.

Thus they worked in silence, the ethaefal and the human, each comfortable in their own ability and trusting in each other's proficiency. It was a comforting sort of silence, where time passed by silently as they proceeded to task the shield firstly against all biologicals, then slowly making exceptions for the various list of people that belonged to the detachment.

Jordan took out a piece of parchment give to him by the conducting officerShield-In-Charge Sergeant Mageknight William Mernford that laid out a precise list of tasking exceptions in terms of biologicals and referred to it as he worked.

There was a deadline to fulfill, and the mageknight was smart enough to recognize Eridanus' adaptability. Therefore, he did not completely task, instead tasking enough for the ethaefal to know what direction he was heading in, before rapidly going on to the next one. It was in a way, a silent form of communication and connection that only shield-mages could understand.

It was akin to Jordan drawing the vague outline of a series of pictures, while Eridanus filled in the details and color. And thus they continued working in silence, finishing the entirety of the work assigned to them and finally finishing up with glyphs to strengthen and fortify the instructions and shield.

"We are done ahead of schedule, it seems," Ser Jordan remarked calmly, his eyes glittering in appreciation as he gazed at the ethaefal intently. Eridanus acknowledged his silent gesture and tipped his head gratefully, recognizing the chemistry they had in the shielding effort. It was the type of teamwork that shield-mages, with the exception of world mages working in cohesion, could understand.

"I will check with Sergeant Mernford for the reporting time to consolidate today's duty. In the meantime, wait for me here," The mageknight placed a hand on the ethaefal's shoulder in a friendly gesture, before turning around and heading into the heart of the camp.

[Eridanus]

While waiting, Eridanus glanced at the shield that they worked on together, the result of a collective two-party group shielding effort and marveled at the speed at which they managed to cobble it together. Just from sheer chemistry, without speaking and gesturing, they understood each other's actions and acted independently and appropriately. He wondered if he should attempt to bring the man into his guild, before realizing with regret that he was a Knight first and foremost and had his priorities.

Shaking his head at the waste of such a potentially bright team-mate, the ethaefal turned his attention from the shield on the pole to the one around his body. He had been continually maintaining the shield with minimal doses of djed, for the shield that he created to protect himself had been crafted with care and finesse so as to allow for proper longevity.

Perhaps he had time to weave yet another layer, and he had already gained inspiration during the briefing when the sergeant briefed another team on their tasking instructions.

The idea of material or substance denial.

It was often said that the best way to foil a shield was not to overpower it with brute force, but instead to properly analyze what made it tick, and to outsmart it with wit. That was often the downfall of many arrogant shielders, for all it took was one weakness to be exploited ruthlessly and they would become just as vulnerable as an unshielded mortal.

Eridanus sought to close down as many loopholes and weaknesses that he was aware of.

Bringing forth djed into his palms, he began the familiar process of shaping it around his body, following the outline of the original shield as he initiated the shield stacking procedure.

[Eridanus]

In this shield, he would protect himself from actual materials. Now that he was getting better at defining concepts through his flexible, customized Glyph of Definition, he felt that it was time to do so without resorting to procuring the physical object.

Besides, using physical objects was time-consuming and often limiting, and effective phrasing of concepts would be more efficient and powerful.

First was the common resource in Mizahar - metal. Whether it be iron, steel or its derivatives, Eridanus sought to task the shield against metal, and began to meticulously lay out its core ideas. Instead of simply tasking it against a single type of material, he narrowed down the common characteristics of many of the common types of metals - such as sturdiness, malleability, and related ideas that he knew.

Using these characteristics as a starting point, he expanded on the rest of the metals of which he did not have proper understanding of, making exceptions where required. All these he did so by continually laying out Glyphs of Definition, and rounded up with the mentioning of tasks against Gold and Silver - for they were metal after all.

The second most common material would be that of rock. Or more precisely, stone, masonry, concrete, and et cetera. The ethaefal had a tiny idea that his previous task against the element of earth may be able to block some of these materials, but he did not want to leave such things to uncertainty. Better to be completely sure than to allow a possible weakness through.

And thus he did the same as for metals. Narrowing the characteristics of these building blocks of materials that formed the basis of buildings, of walls and of fortresses in civilization, he used these characteristics as the core of his instruction template, expanding on it with his favorite flexible glyphs.

[Eridanus]

The next would be to protect against wood, and all its different types. Soft wood, hard wood, timber, lumber, all of it were encompassed as he once again narrowed down and organized the information carefully.

Placing at the core of his shield weave the characteristics inherent to all sorts of materials, such as the organic nature of wood, the variable flexibility of the material and the vulnerability to fire and decomposition, he used these as the foothold for his case-by-case expansion of the instruction set, filling the whole area with glyphs and instructions until he could no longer find any space to do so.

Turning his attention to the fourth space he implemented the idea of bone. Now, he was sure that the biological limitation he implemented in his base shield should technically protect from that, yet he was aware of the existence of malediction. Would maledicted bone weapons be considered biological as well? Or would their magical nature trump over its base nature and be able to bypass his shield based on that characteristic?

He did not really want to find out the painful way.

Drawing from his knowledge of biology, he focused more on the physical characteristics than immaterial concept of bone, for the magical nature of malediction might twist the conceptual nature of the bone used.

Expanding on it to include bone-like substances from organics, such as claws, teeth, beaks, spiked wings and various implements, he formed a sturdy and cohesive tasking against any and all of such materials.

[Eridanus]

As the moonchild drew back from his incomplete shield, he understood that there was one final, important material to defend himself from. That of magic. It was different from his previous taskings to block djed, for those were the blocking of pure djed, or the pure versions of its derivatives. He could not block djed on a general principle because djed was inherent in everything. Instead, he sought to block - in layman terms - magical objects.

Using this understanding as a building block, he began elaborating on this idea. Djed-infused objects such as malediction or magecrafted items. Animated objects, alchemical objects. They all bore the significant trace of magic and would therefore be banished from his shield's sphere of influence. He could not do anything against divine djed, for even if he tasked his shield against such energies the shield would still be overwhelmed. For divine djed trumped mundane djed; that was the natural law of the world.

Next he proceeded onto items and things, basically all sorts of matter be it artificial or natural, biological or non-living, that had djed as a basis for their creation. In order to do so, he delved deep into the core of such beings and objects, using his understanding of Auristics to pinpoint the fundamental concept of djed as a central theme of the auras of such beings. That would then block against things like Nuits and Kelvics, who were inherently magic, as well as Valterrics and the wild djed by-products of the Storm of 512.

Finally, he wrapped up the entire shield by adding the usual glyphs to enhance and empower the shields to boost their already formidable ability, and more importantly inscribed an individual trigger glyph for each of the taskings, and an overall trigger glyph for the entire shield, allowing him to toggle them at will.

[Eridanus]

"Nice stacking," A sudden voice caused the ethaefal to look up quickly, relaxing only when he recognized his partner from before. "A little paranoid, are we?" Jordan Drikhan chuckled, point a thumb behind him. "Sergeant Mernford is going to do a debrief and a dismissal parade for duty staff today. Let's get going."

"Aye, Ser Jordan. Thanks for the update," The celestial child nodded, grunting as he sat up from where he had been sitting down. He had been here longer than he thought, for the other teams had taken a significantly longer time than his to fulfill their portion of the duties, and his limbs were weary from waiting.

"I suppose rest is in order after this," He muttered, to hearty agreement from the mageknight. Together, they headed for the last event of the day.

[Paragon]

Eridanus

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Shielding	+3
Glyphing	+1
Leadership	+2
Philosophy	+1

Lores

•	Lore Earned
•	NPC: Sergeant Mageknight William Mernford
•	NPC: Syliran Mageknight Jordan Drikhan
•	Group Shielding
•	Material Tasking: Metal/Wood/Bone/Stone/Magic

Legend Becomes Reality

Nice solo, I enjoyed the idea behind it! If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can work from there.