Corpse wax candles

[Bruno]

Normally corpse wax is pretty crumbly, and probably not well suited for candles. That just means it needs some alchemical preparation to make it into even a mundane candle :)

The first thing that jumps to mind is the classic magic item, a Hand Of Glory, from real-world European folklore. A Hand of Glory is crafted from the hand of a hanged man (a hanged thief is appropriate, although I think traditionally it should be a murderer). The hand is made into a candle holder that clutches a candle which I think is supposed to be made of corpse wax anyways. If not, well, it should be darn it :D

The story about a Hand Of Glory is that while the candle burns (traditionally one hour) the Hand unlocks all doors, makes the bearer invisible, and paralyzes everyone in the house except the bearer. The folklore Hand Of Glory is an ultimate tool of theft and assassination.

As a game item, it's pretty simple to have it allow the user to cast Invisibility, Total Paralysis, and Lockmaster as long as the candle is lit (effective skill 15, user has to provide the energy themselves as usual). If the candle is blown out, or after an hour it's used up, the item doesn't work until a new corpse wax candle is provided.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Bruno

The story about a Hand Of Glory is that while the candle burns (traditionally one hour) the Hand unlocks all doors, makes the bearer invisible, and paralyzes everyone in the house except the bearer. The folklore Hand Of Glory is an ultimate tool of theft and assassination.

There's a ritual in Path magic that does this. And I got the impression that the Hand of Glory was a candle in the form of a hand with wicks for all the fingers.

ETA: Google gave me this

Adipocere may appear paste-like, be crumbly in texture, or may form a hard material depending upon the type of fatty acids involved and the chemical environment in which it is formed.

So if formed in the right environment it's not crumbly.

[Bruno]

Per Wikipedia:

Originally Posted by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_of_Glory

A Hand of Glory is the dried and pickled hand of a hanged man, often specified as being the left (Latin: sinister) hand, or, if the person was hanged for murder, the hand that "did the deed."

Old European beliefs attribute great powers to a Hand of Glory combined with a candle made from fat from the corpse of the same malefactor who died on the gallows. The candle so made, lighted, and placed (as if in a candlestick) in the Hand of Glory, would have rendered motionless all persons to whom it was presented.

I've seen art with it as the five-candle type hand (and there's an example on that page), but the actual grimoires describing how to make a do say it's a candle held in the hand.

[benz72]

Why restrict the use of wax to candles? Surely some sort of unguent/cream/paste made of corpse wax could:

• Render the covered individual invisible to undead
• Replace/block all information normally gained via Aura & similar
• Grant temperature tolerance as it burns the spirit of the deceased to keep the covered individual warm
• Be used as a contraceptive/abortive or to strike infertile/barren/impotent
• Cause the covered individual to adopt the appearance of the source of the wax (physically, astrally, or both?)
• Act as a barrier to contact effects, transferring them to the corpse that produced the wax

or some other thematic effect

[The Colonel]

I'm told that when they exhumed the cemeteries of Paris into the catacombs, at least some of the adiopocere they turned up was sold to soap makers...

To the best of my knowledge, there is no occult relevance, but it does make you wonder...

[Anders]

Soap that makes you undead if used for a long time? Or that makes you smell terrible to the undead, so they won't bite you?

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Anders

Soap that makes you undead if used for a long time? Or that makes you smell terrible to the undead, so they won't bite you?

..soap that attracts ghouls? Could be the unintentional cause of a series of nasty deaths.