Abstruse Vancian names for Cairn spellbooks
Inspired by the magnificent spell names in Worlds Without Number and by reading Vance’s Dying Earth series, I decided to supply alliterative adepts and thesaurus-loving thaumaturges everywhere with a less anodyne appellation for each spell in Cairn. Now, instead of casting “hover,” you can enunciate the “Golden Word of Induced Elevation” to the wonder & delight of all.
I wish I could say that the quality was consistent throughout — there’s some repetitiveness, and more than a few words are misused or invented. But what are such things to a wizard?
Adhere - Lumivix’s Excellent Amber Adhesion
Anchor - Dhalgren's Ductile Tether
Animate Object - Animate the Quotidian Servitor
Anthropomorphize - Bestowal of Anthropic Astuteness
Arcane Eye - Invocation of The Ocular Apparition
Astral Prison - Incarceration in the Pellucid Penitentiary
Attract - Glebov's Induced Affiliation
Auditory Illusion - Bewitch the Powers of Audition
Babble - Induced Intersubjective Glossolalia
Bait Flower - Blossom of Putrescent Seduction
Beast Form - Bestial Metamorphosis
Befuddle - Shroud of Perplexity
Body Swap - Odo's Exquisite Corporeal Exchange
Charm - Urizen's Benevolent Benediction
Command - Ineluctable Directive of the Dour Demiurge
Comprehend - Charm of Comprehensive Comprehension
Cone of Foam - Evoking the Effervescent Effulgence
Control Plants - Ludibap's Arboreal Agency
Control Weather - Jade Syllable of The Circumscribed Welkin
Cure Wounds - Tactile Panacea
Deafen - Aida's Formidable Sonic Shock
Detect Magic - Ascertain Arcane Emanations
Disassemble - Pelagria's Anatomical Permutation
Disguise - Formulate Phantasmal Physiognomy
Displace - Translocated Mimetic Mirage
Earthquake - Incantation of Seismic Doom
Elasticity - Declan's Ductile Devolution
Elemental Wall - Erect the Intemperate Redoubt
Filch - Interstitial Abscondment of the Silken Viceroy
Flare - Marduk's Meteoric Inversion
Fog Cloud - Landau's Ineffable Nebulation
Frenzy - Mururation of Multifarious Malevolence
Gate - Transdimensional Threshold
Gravity Shift - Sigil of Selective Levity
Greed - Curse of Incorrigible Cupidity
Haste - Spell of the Alacritous Sojourn
Hatred - Anathematic Inculcation
Hear Whispers - Writ of Perspicacious Audition
Hover - Golden Word of Induced Elevation
Hypnotize - Abscondment of The Inhibitory Powers
Icy Touch - Glaciating Gesture
Identify Owner - Glyphic Nomination of the Proprietor
Illuminate - Valka's Luminous Apparition
Invisible Tether - Implacable Bond of the Unseen Tether
Knock - Arcana Assisted Ingress
Leap - Velocitous Vertical Ambulation
Liquid Air - Exhortation of Atmospheric Viscosity
Magic Dampener - Circumscribed Emanation of the Voracious Void
Manse - Charm of Fortuitous Domicilation
Marble Craze - Ortwin's Omnipresent Orbs
Masquerade - Bestowal of The Dissimulating Aspect
Miniaturize - Dweomer of Diminution
Mirror Image - Manifestation of the Mimetic Magus
Mirrorwalk - Passage through the Polished Promenade
Multiarm - Application of the Multifarious Appendage
Night Sphere - Unfold the Interstitial Firmament
Objectify - Ophaline’s Ontic Interchange
Ooze Form - Injunction to Protoplasmic Reformulation
Pacify - Banishment of Rancorous Choler
Phobia - Althea’s Anathematic Inculcation
Pit - Creating the Chimerical Chasm
Primal Surge - Diachronic Displacement in the Earliest Eons
Push/Pull - Arcadis' Radial Locomotion
Raise Dead - Necromantic Exhortation to the Calcified Corpus
Raise Spirit - Thaumaturgical Query
Read Mind - Caspar’s Cognitive Ascertainment
Repel - Polarizing Proclamation
Scry - Crystalline Aperture of Astral Sensation
Sculpt Elements - Reformulate The Substantial Hypostasis
Sense - Dewomer of Desirous Detection
Shield - Bestowal of the Arcane Aegis
Shroud - Don The Obnubilating Shroud
Shuffle - Valerian's Expeditious Transposition
Sleep - Breeze of Puissant Somnolence
Slick - Decree of Enigmatic Lubrication
Smoke Form - Creed of Corporeal Nebulization
Sniff - Implacable Olfactory Elucidation
Snuff - Dane's Dimming Dweomer
Sort - Weirlund's Eximious Negentropic Organizer
Spectacle - Project The Effulgent Panoply
Spellsaw - The Defoliating Disc
Spider Climb - Adhesive Ambulation
Summon Cube - Decree of Polyhedral Manifestation
Swarm - Ludibap’s Verminous Deluge
Telekinesis - Project The Psychic Pseudopod
Telepathy - Spell of Clairvoyant Locution
Teleport - Ezra Thoon’s Transcendent Ambulation
Target Lure - Arcane Attractor
Thicket - Irruption of Verdancy
Summon Idol - Grim Gesture of The Graven God
Time Control - Hypatia's Altered Horologium
True Sight - Leda’s Elucidating Episteme
Upwell - Invocation of the Primordial Pelagic Profusion
Vision - Chimerical Shroud of The Ocular Apprehension
Visual Illusion - Perfunctory Phantasmal Projection
Ward - Silver Circle of The Abjured Interloper
Web - Silken Ensnarement of The Archetypal Arachnid
Widget - Odradek’s Felicitous Contrivance
Wizard Mark - Marsden’s Percipient Pigmentation
X-Ray Vision - Palimar’s Profundal Perspication