Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl
Another ritual with long term strategic implications is Sterility (the Path of Health). If we use the previous assumptions, we end up with 27 energy points for a 6 point ritual, giving us 21 energy points for ritual parameters. While it would be tempting to use Sterility on the crops of an enemy nation, it is probably more damaging to use Sterility on select people (meaning that we need a one decade duration, which would cost us 12 energy points). With 9 remaining points, we could spend 7 energy points for a range of 300 miles, allowing us to reserve 2 energy points for overcome magical protections.
What would be the effect? Well, Henry VIII started the English Reformation because he could have sons with Catherine of Aragon, and he was hardly unique. By targeting the leaders of your enemy with Sterility, you cause chaos as their relatives start positioning to inherit their position when they die. For additional chaos, target the men rather than the women, so that the men cannot even sire children on their concubines and/or mistresses, meaning that the virility of the leaders becomes questioned by his followers.
Since the ritual would likely require less than half a day, your mage specialist could wither two men a day without major effort. Within a year, your mage specialist could wither 400 men in a nation without extraordinary effort. With the highest nobles and/or wealthiest elites being sterile, the psychological impacts would be quite devastating to the enemy. Within a decade, an entire generation of leaders could be lost, as 4,000 of the most important men in a nation could be deprived of their fertility.
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There was, after all, a reason why it was illegal to perform a horoscope on the monarch...
Presumably this would also be behind the various blessings, amulets and similar things that play part of royal ceremonies. The Romans were famous for their apotropaic amulets.