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Originally Posted by Archangel Beth
Or are feral hobby horses a different (though clearly related) sort of ethereal? O:D
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A wild hobby horse is a pretty rare commodity; they're quite valuable, and very few have the Essence capacity to make use of their skills without a partner, so they're almost always found serving a more powerful Ethereal. They end up being associated with legends of riding animals ranging from winged horses to Garuda to flying crocodiles.
This despite the fact that riding a hobby horse can't take you anywhere the hobby horse hasn't been -- an old hobby horse has been a
lot of places. Since they're valuable to begin with and only get more so, they tend to be well-protected. Older ones often achieve sentience, and enter a contractual working relationship rather than being owned. The below is the absolute minimum set of statistics required for a hobby horse to be minimally effective.
Hobby Horse
Ethereal Riding Animal
Element: Beasts (often Horses, or a flying creature); sometimes Information (News). Only the newest Hobby Horses are Vehicles-strand.
Affinities: Not always, and usually minimal when present. Often Animals, of its Image type; sometimes Air (if a flying animal) or Speed.
Corporeal Forces: 0 Strength: 0 Agility: 0
Ethereal Forces: 2 Intelligence: 4 Precision: 4
Celestial Forces: 0 Will: 0 Perception: 0
Skills: Are Knowledge (the Marches)/n
Songs: Location(Ethereal)/n, Projection(Ethereal)/n
Stats of n are at least 1 and usually much higher.
Artifacts: Reliquary/6. This reliquary typically manifests as a lavish caparison, saddle, or other piece of tack. A Hobby Horse is crippled without this Reliquary, unless it has 6 Forces of its own and arrangements for Essence on demand. Hobby Horses with more forces may have smaller reliquaries and still function, although this usually means an older one has been stolen and replaced.
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The Hobby Horse is a means of fast retreat to a known location. In short, it Projects to a place it has been, sets up one end of a bridge with Location, has the other end set up by hook or by crook, sees itself and its rider across the bridge, and then either gets the rest of a group through or (if retreating) shuts the bridge down by cancelling its Song of Location.
Logistical details must be borne in mind. The Hobby Horse, and its reliquary, must have quite a bit of Essence to function. Upon command, it uses its Ethereal Song of Projection (2 Essence) to send its viewpoint to a place it has been before. It then uses Ethereal Location to create one end of an ethereal bridge of a size at least large enough for the Hobby Horse itself. This requires a minimum of 6 Essence, and at least as many as the Hobby Horse has Forces, so the Hobby Horse always requires a reliquary of sufficient size to perform this Song. A Hobby Horse with 3 Forces will have at least 1 Essence left over to use the bridge itself; one with just 2 Forces requires a gift of 1 Essence from its master to join it in crossing the bridge. Back at the starting location the Ethereal Song of Location must be performed again; either the Hobby Horse can do it itself, with a refill of its reliquary from its master or yet another reliquary, or the master can do the necessary singing. Sorcerers making use of a Hobby Horse typically make elaborate preparations of large Essence Jars, as they cannot usually sing Ethereal Location themselves.
The minimal Hobby Horse described above can create a bridge that will transport a 6-Force Ethereal which has 1 Essence to spend personally.
A Hobby Horse with a
second reliquary/6, and a
third reliquary/1 (or Rite, or another way to obtain Essence) can transport itself around the Marches between places it has been, without intervention of a master! The services of such couriers are in intense demand. Several Hobby Horses are said to be discussing the possibility of investing in a collaborative Essence cache system, setting up "Pony Express" stations with reliquaries available and staff on hand that can courier goods or passengers to numerous Marches locations fast. If this begins working, this "banking system" could develop in interesting directions for the Marches, as the Knights Templar were doing in Earth's medieval European era.