Question: What is the greatest magic of all? Answer: Friendship, right? [B]: The greatest magic of all is not friendship, it's chronomancy, the ability to control and warp time. If friendship were the greatest magic, look, it's a pet peeve of mine (...)
DUNGEON MASTER BRENNAN LEE MULLIGAN ANSWERS DnD QUESTIONS (TECH SUPPORT | WIRED)
Look here, motherfucker. It's BLOOD MAGIC. Fuck you. So, how it works is: Life gives itself up for Life. There is no greater love of life than this. (Timmain, Elf Quest, Richard and Wendy Pini.) Do you see the magic? It's equivalent exchange. Your health, your life for theirs. All of your health is shunted to the other. Basically it gives a Phoenix feather or a shield, depending on the use. If the other person is dying, it shunts them your health until they live. Quite often you die from shock alone. After all, you can only take so much blood before you don't have enough to survive. Your cellular regeneration is shunted to them to heal, but you need that. Your white cells to stave off sickness, so on, so forth. If the person is healthy, but you are dying you can basically cast 'my last breath' in combination with 'last testament of will'. This is extensively powerful magic, combining them makes things exponentially harder. It exchanges your potential energy, a.k.a. your life force, and translates it into an energy shield. One the sprits and applicable deities can sense/see. Depending on the application of the exchange, it either puts up a force shield, or calls upon a minor blessing that travels with the recipient. Scientifically, your energy has to go somewhere. It goes into that spell. You heathen ass tecromancer. More often than not, you are reading stories about minor to moderate blessings that travel in the very marrow of the recipient. It's etched on the inside of the bone itself. That's why these people are often stronger or harder to kill, or just repel specific people/attacks. These sorts of blessings are rare and require full force of faith, or sincere cursing that can cause the caster to be damned. Fortunately, sacrificing yourself for another is considered noble, provided it's not for selfish reasons. Some pantheons/specific deities/supernatural beings across the morality spectrum do not care about selfishness, so that's not always a factor. If this is the case for your character keep in mind that means the blessing can be removed at a whim, or under specific conditions, depending on who you are dealing with.
Back to that quote. Someone has to love you enough, have enough will, or enough spite: Fuck YOU in PaRTiCuLaR, or FUCK THAT GUY in particular (through you): to be willing to DIE for you/to screw over that guy for not even 1 (one) corn chip. Often this is associated with parents, lovers, or friends.
However, it can be people with the biggest hate boner you don't even know. These people don't care about you, they care about doing over that guy. But do keep in mind. No matter who it happens, this is a blessing to the outside world. The reality is: You. Have. Been. Cursed. Nothing you do will ever again be of your own free will. You will forever be weighed and measured against that sacrifice. It can be used to control and manipulate you. (Your mother didn't die so you could do action A. Your best friend took that hit for you, and this is what you do with your second chance? Ext.) It can also warp you with the action itself. You could grow up thinking everyone should sacrifice for you or woe-is-me to manipulate others. My daddy died and now I am all alone boohoo, boohoo. Timmain meant that in order for one to live, one must eat. This requires sacrifice. Naturally, the extension is that for things to live, something else must die. Now, YOU DENSE MOTHER FUCKER! The power of friendship is something else entirely. Simply put, it's a confidence boost and mind clearing charm. I cannot tell you the amount of time I have had my anxiety and depression reduced to an amount where I suddenly had spoons enough for this one task and enough will power to follow through immediately no matter my condition or health by simply hearing the words 'we can handle it, it will be okay' from someone I trust and love enough to call my friend. That 'got your back'/ride-or-die mentality comes with some very elegant features such as: 'smacked upside the head', 'i-love-you-you-dumb-bitch', and 'honest because you need to hear it, not to be cruel', but it uses up several powerful components such as time and effort. This exchange must be reciprocal. This is why it is powerful, but not a shield. A true friend will not shield you from consequences. It will help insure you do not receive more than you deserve as to keep you honest, true, and humble. You are expected to do the same for them. The exchange is generally balanced. Much like every shield, it must be maintained and polished with love, affection, respect, and kindness. Dents are to be beat out with a motherfucking hammer before they can be polished and repainted. Loud, painful, annoying and it's never quite the same, but you now know where strengths and weaknesses are. Too many dents, hammered out or not, and your shield will break. People often power these rituals with calls, texts, and sleep-overs (a.k.a. gathering of the coven). Movie/game nights are considered rituals. You are linking and reinforcing your mental and physical well-being to another who can, through that connection, lend you some of their own abilities for a short time, provided it does not harm them. Inconvenience, but not harm. This must be rebalanced by offering to help them in their time of need. Incantations are powerful things. Toss in metaphysical bonds and you got yourself the power of friendship. Can the power of friendship be combined with blood/life sacrifice? Yes. It's built into the spell. The more powerful the bond when you cast the spell, the more likely you are to create a hero, villain, or an army of John Wicks out for vengeance. The power of love, no matter the form of it, is not the sacrifice. It's what allows you to make it. ::throws entire tomb of beginners level necromancy at your head::
Bitch.
