- See also: Mage, Mortalitasi
Codex text
I confess myself troubled by the rise in mages binding multiple spirits to a single object. Among the Mortalitasi, interacting with spirits is a serious, even intimate undertaking. These "spellbinders," as they call themselves, bind many simple spirits, usually to books or other easily compartmentalized objects set with runes, and they have stripped the interaction with spirits of its importance, reducing it to a mere mechanical exercise.
That such magic is useful to the spellbinder, I do not argue. Although the power contained in these objects is difficult to focus, the diffused magic can easily distribute energy across a broad area, augmenting the mage's allies. The spellbinders insist that no individual spirit is capable of breaking their bindings, and that the spirits cannot cooperate well enough to effect an escape together. Furthermore, they maintain that because the bindings are all tied to the spellbinder personally, there is no risk of these enchanted books falling into the wrong hands.
Still, the books are in their hands, and I am concerned. Although the practice has spread across most of Thedas by now, it seems to have originated in Tevinter. These mages bind spirits and demons too readily, and it is not natural for spirits to remain in this world for any great length of time. Our Maker placed the Veil between our world and the Fade for a reason, after all. Who are we to second-guess His wishes?
Perhaps I have grown more reverent in my old age.
—An excerpt from Life Among the Dead, by Enchanter Rodomonte van Heigl, senior member of the Mortalitasi
Researched: Damage Against Humanoids Increased