Lapidarist

A lapidarist (not the mundane kind) uses jewels of dumaqu, radiant emotion. Lapidarists started in the ancient lands of the inannans, where they discovered acts of love would generate the jewels from the fires of their passion. They learned to cut the jewels to unlock different powers, and they learned that they could use the jewels to make themselves or others beautiful to behold (unlocking inner beauty) or otherwise improved. A lapidarist is someone who intentionally gathers and uses these jewels to help others.

Acts of Love

Any act of love generates some dumaqu, but for one to generate an actual jewel and use it, the act must be genuine and profound. The creation of these jewels is done by anyone who is deep in love and acts upon it, but to sense, capture, and use them, it takes someone with special powers or skills. As such, lapidarists seek out lovers, families, and others who might be generating these jewels and buy them, often trading a little bit of the power of the jewels back to those who created them.

Radiant Emotion

Sometimes, jewels are created by radiance interacting with emotion. These jewels are less potent, but they can still be used. Prismatic mages usually sell them to lapidarists.

Jewels

Dumaqu jewels are beautiful, glowing blue, often thought to be magical sapphires. Jewels have nine facets. Each facet exudes a different hue of blue light when any kind of light is shone through it. If it is held in shadow, it resonates with the shadow in a different shade of violet. If cut, the jewel breaks into nine pieces, each one representing the different facets. If kept whole and used whole, they exude pure love, considered by some to be the most poweful celestial essence.

Facets

The nine facets represent different kinds of love:

• Amaargi: free love
• Billuda: divine love or worship
• Dusa: friendship
• Ga-e: self-love
• Gisdu: physical intimacy
• Imrua: familial love
• Misusa: romantic love
• Munumun: hospitality
• Namluulu: communal love

Other forms of love are possible to generate or draw from, but they require cutting the jewel. Every cut weakens the jewels, however.

Each facet can have many specifications - i.e., familial love can be separated into motherly, fatherly, avuncular, sisterly, brotherly, etc. (including separating into relationships not defined by a nuclear family); physical intimacy can be separated into different physical desires; romantic love can be narrowed to specific paramours; etc.

Note that all of these are forms of love between people. Love for things or places can sometimes be associated with some of these (communal love may include love for one's country), but that is still love between persons, just associated to something else (i.e., one may associate one's love for their partner with a memento, a wedding ring, a grave, etc.). But love solely for objects or places do not generate jewels in the same way as love bewteen persons. For users of dumaqu generated for love of objects or places, see Variations below.

Love for one's pets is a facet of familial, communal, or friend love. If you make a joke about it being romantic or physical, I will strip you of karma for a year.

Jewel Forms

Lapidarists shape jewels into different forms, each of which is more attuned to different facets. If a facet doesn't match a form, there is a frisson that creates a variation on the form of love. For example, a

• Cabochon: flattish and rounded, a simple form used for when the facets are too small to work well. These are best for billuda.
• Cameos/intaglios: images carved into the dumaqu jewels (carved up - cameo, carved down - intalgio). These are very small and very finely made. Cameos are best for friendship. Intaglios are best for free love.
• Faceted stones: mostly symmetrical, flat facets cut into perfect polygons. These are best for full stones or misusa.
• Beads/spheres: fully rounded stones, often used as beads. Perfectly smoothed. These are best for gisdu.
• Inlays: stones shaped for specific depressions in other materials, made to fit into a setting. These are best for imrua.
• Intarsia/mosaics: stones shaped for works of art (either set into a structure or into a flat surface). These are placed, then cut to fit. These are best for munumun (intarsias) or namluulu (mosaics).
• Sculpture: stones shaped into sculpted, artistic forms. Due to size constraints, these are very rare, and always small. These are best for ga-e.

Light and Shadow

The simplest way to use a jewel is to shine light directly through it. The light that comes out will drain the jewel and instill love of some kind into those that see it. One may also hold the jewel in darkness and let the darkness absorb the dumaqu. The object that is occluding the light will then very briefly contain the power of the jewel. If a jewel is placed into a box, for example, then darkness inside the box will take in the energy. If multiple jewels are put in, it will absorb the energy of all the jewels. Darkness creates what are essentially batteries to be drawn from. Shinging light through the jewels uses the power of the jewels up quickly.

Setting

Jewels can also be combined when set into an object, such as jewelry or clothing, bringing in multiple jewels or multiple facets. They must be set such that half the jewel is in shadow, half in light, and thus, constantly absorbing and using their power, which will be drawn back by the shadowy area into the jewelry or clothing. When set into something, the jewel imbues the object with qualities of the facet, or of the whole jewel.

For instance, a ring set with an imrua facet will empower the wearer to love their family (defined as blood or chosen family, so long as the love is there) - meaning to support, protect, care for, or otherwise serve their family. They must, however, feel love for their family and serving or supporting their family must not involve acts of hatred toward others except in self-defense (including self-defense against oppression).

Another example might be a coat with dumaqu jewels set into the buttons. There are nine buttons, nine jewels, each one representing one of the facets. When the wearer is actively feeling or acting on one of the facets, the coat might become warmer to protect them from the cold as they go about their task, or it might give them PRS bonuses when expressing their romantic feelings, or it might give them self-confidence when trying to better themselves, etc.

Art

Jewels used in art make the art more potent when invoking love in those who engage with it. They make art more appealing to those who feel the form of love used in the art. It can drain quickly, however, as anyone who views it uses up the dumaqu in it.

Crushed Jewels

Crushed jewels contain every facet, unless they were jewels that were already a single facet. When crushed finely enough, the powder form of dumaqu is safe to use in food or drink (indeed, even the whole form dissolves within someone, though it would not be entirely comfortable and would not have an effect except to make them feel loved). When baked or mixed into food or drink, the crushed jewels have many different and potent effects once consumed. As they are inside a body without a light source (presumably), the darkness within a person (not metaphorical but literal) absorbs the dumaqu and fills them with the love the jewel contains, which, if prepared properly conveys specific effects.

Effects

The power of love is one of the most potent on all of Shem, as this is a fantasy setting and we are allowed to be sops like that. Depending on how a jewel is used, it will create one of the following effects:

Beauty

Radiant beauty, the kind of beauty that stuns, blinds, confuses, uplifts, kills, empowers, strengthens, performs near-miracles, inspires, catalyzes something within people. It does not change the actual appearance of anything - it impacts the perception of it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as it were. To instill beauty in something or someone, the jewel must be set into it. How this manifests varies by object, facet, intention, etc. But the beauty itself has a faint blue light that radiates out that can be perceived.

Protection

The protection of love is transferred either in the form of jewels set into armor (bonuses to defending loved ones), in the form of jewel boxes being opened into a closed dark room (thus fortifying the room), in the form of baking jewels into sweets (which give those who consume them temporary protection), or in the form of giving a jewel intentionally to a loved one. The last one must be done with the intention of providing protection, and knowingly sacrificing oneself - for the wounds of the loved one will be taken by the giver of the jewel.

Empowerment

Jewels baked into bread, basic bread usually, will allow those who eat the bread to gain strength, athleticism, will power, perception, speed, carefulness (stealth), or other qualities to act in service to one's relevant loved ones. Jewel-bread is often given to those who anticipate great challenges in service to one they love.

Healing

To heal someone with dumaqu, there are several options. The most potent requires self-sacrifice: one must feel the appropriate form of love for the target and facet used, and intentionally place one's heart into the jewel (emotional resonance), then press the jewel to the breast of the target. One will lose emotional capacity for a length of time depending on the severity of the injury (minor loss for an hour for flesh wound, moderate loss for a week for normal wound, major loss for a month for deep wound, total loss for a year for mortal wound, total loss for a lifetime for reviving the recently dead). The catch for reviving the dead or healing mortal wounds is that the jewel (or box) must have enough dumaqu to contain all of the emotion of the user, which means the jewel or box must have equal dumaqu to the full emotional content of a mortal. Such jewels are extremely rare. But lesser jewels for lesser healing is not uncommon.

The second method requires creating potions from dumaqu powder, usually mixed with basic medicinal ingredients such as willow bark, penicillin, saline, etc. These are weaker than self-sacrifice, and act as slower-acting medicines rather than instant healing. However, they do work.

The third method is using raw dumaqu light on an appropriately loved target, which fills them with warmth, comfort, and ease. This is more of a painkiller and a way to encourage healing, but it is often used. It is very effective against mental trauma.

Emotion

Affecting emotions is the easiest way to use dumaqu. Dumaqu light fills targets with the love embodied by the facet used (or all forms if applicable).

Repelling

Dumaqu can repel infernal energies, especially feirua, if used in weaponry or wielded with the intent to harm those who seek to harm those one loves. The most potent form of this is to keep a jewel box with a great deal of dumaqu stored, then open it when under attack. A soft, cold blue flame will appear around weapons wielded by one using dumaqu, or a display of bright blue light will erupt from the jewel box if such is used

For weaponry, the dumaqu will add +6 vs. wielders or beings of feirua or hollow energy; +5 vs. beings or wielders of baleblood, pravum, or thorn energy; +4 vs. beings or wielders of mollesse or arnum; +3 vs. beings or wielders of uafas or drenante; +2 vs. beings or wielders of infernum, msawhat, cacophony, feirua, gossamer light, quaestus, razdavit', or sterisi; +1 vs. all other forms of infernal essence except void, which can repel dumaqu.

Enduring Love

If one's love dies, the love had for one another endures eternally and protects that yet live, if they have a jewel. These jewels shine more brightly than any.

Tools

The lapidarist uses the tools of jewel-cutters, -setters, and jewelry makers everywhere, but with some special adjustments:

Jewels

The jewels themselves are often very small, about the size of an ant. The largest known dumaqu jewel is the Sapphire of the Temple of Hili Kar in Lohar, and it is about the size of a dime.

Appraiser

An appraiser is a lens, a magnifying device, usually a tube of lenses that can be adjusted or a simple, small magnifier. These are always made of unaligned or celestial glass, but never with dumaqu itself. If not common, unaligned glass, then it is made with glass containing euphotonia or radiance.

Cutter

Lapidarists use a process called "progressive abrasion" to cut gems. Usually they do this with finer and finer-grained grinders, saws, drills, or sanders, all of which are mundane, but the primary esoteric tool of a lapidarist is the lap, a rotating disc that creates flat surfaces on stones to emphasize the facets. In modern settings, this would be mechanical, made of steel or some strong alloy, but lapidarists of other times use hand-cranked laps that are made of heavy unaligned metals or stones, usually something with oalkhaylaoataa in it, or from celestial materials (usually euphotonian materials). Some use mundane materials, such as cast iron.

Jewel Box

Jewel boxes are made of hand-crafted wood and stone, lacquered, and painted with unaligned or celestial properties. They are designed carefully to let no light in whatsoever, and thus, they are usually air-tight, often using adhesives or special crank mechanisms that close them impossibly tight. These are specially designed by lapidarists.

Crusher

To crush jewels, lapidarists use a mortal and pestle made from unaligned or celestial materials, which they work for hours every day for nine days to crush the jewels into fine enough powder to bake with.

Variants

Some variants include

• Aphrodisiascist: a lapidarist who crushes their jewels into love potions.
• Beautician: a lapidarist who helps people recover their self-esteem.
• Bulugkisikil: those who sew works of beauty and love.
• Conferencier: a communications worker who uses dumaqu jewels to facilitate broad messages to the community.
• Dil Churaane Vaala: a lapidarist who steals dumaqu jewels from those who collect them for nefarious purposes or uses dumaqu to steal something else in the name of love.
• Dubsar: a scribe in the temples of the gallae who records where and how jewels of the gallae are used.
• Herec: a stage performer who uses dumaqu in their performance.
• Kirimah: a gardeners whose love for plants generates dumaqu, which they use to beautify their garden and make a place safe for love.
• Lillu: a jester, fool, or clown who uses jewels to make their performances more beautiful.
• Lovely Lydia: a bearded lady or contortionist or other freak who uses dumaqu to become beautiful for their audiences.
• Rapadu: a ranger of the lake regions, one whose love generates dumaqu for a place, bonding them to it.
• Sardam: lapidarists who create jewels via poetry, expressing their love through verse.
• Su de: lapidarists who specialize in jewels created by love for objects or things.

Similar Occupations

Other users of dumaqu:

• Alofa Manu: those who wield dumaqu to communicate with their pets.
• Ashugh: bards who use dumaqu to fill their voices with love.
• Asra Se'u: one who uses the light of dumaqu to investigate relationship issues.
• Cocotte: sex workers who wield gisdu and wield it.
• Digir'ama: a witch who advises on love by seeing into people's hearts.
• Gagti: an ursaq archer.
• Gallae: a trans priestess of Hili Kar.
• Parivartak: a warrior who transforms into a dhole via zoanthropy.
• Pillipilli: a trans or queer follower of Hili Kar.
• Raqisat Jamila: a raqisa who wields dumaqu through dance.
• Starlet: a supermodel or actress who uses dumaqu to maintain popularity.
• Sugi: an elder among the inannans.
• Ursaq: a warrior whose armored is set with dumaqu jewels.
• Vedette: singers whose voices are filled with love.

Persecution

Lapidarists are misunderstood by the ruling classes, who assume the powers of dumaqu will work for them. They often seek to exploit or enslave lapidarists to make themselves beautiful, loved, protected, to fill the void in their horrible lives where love should be, but lapidary only works for those whose love is not an expression of control and violence, but of support, nurturing, mutual affection, and so on. Thus, lapidarists are punished for their failures, accused of fraud, and/or otherwise persecuted for not being good servants of the powerful. Most assume them to be frauds.

Skills

Some common skills include

• Gemcutting
• Sewing
• Smithing
• Jewel setting
• Art
• Psychology
• Geometry
• Medicine

Stats

Modifiers from base of nation/species:

PRO -3
ATH /
STR /
AWA +3
WIL +1
STH /
PRS +4