Summoning

Elementals are beings that walked the world in the time before the Sealing. What they looked like and what they got up to and is largely lost in myth; some don't believe they ever existed, though they were conclusively proven wrong on the day of the foundation of the new task force when an elemental known as "Grettid" escaped from the task force HQ and bulldozed a small trail out of the city. Stories are told of monstrous beings, walking corpses, capricious tricksters and savage demons.

Some ancient writings spoke of the (literally) legendary art of summoning and bargaining with elementals. None of this ever actually worked when tried, until the Sealing began to unravel. Since then summoning has been explored and experimented with, and some facts have been determined.

Summoning is best done at a warded summoning circle. The ward should be raised before summoning, preventing the summoned elemental from affecting the mortal realm. As long as the ward is raised, the summoned creature can only affect the warded area, and appears to be bound by some rules of conduct that aren't so well understood; in cases where the summoner wanted to affect the world outside the ward, the elemental would need to be released from the circle.

An elemental can be summoned without a circle, but to do so is much more dangerous. The creature would not be bound by any rules and could attack the summoner, or leave.

Summoning circles are magically active places, and spending extended periods of time inside one when not performing a summoning or other work of magic can have deleterious effects.

To summon an elemental, one usually needs the creature’s name. It could be possible for a summoner to specify what sort of elemental they want if they’re not too picky. In desperate cases the summoner might simply specify what service they want, but this is risky (any entity willing to perform the service could turn up, with any agenda).

All stories of a successful summoning agree on one element and that is sacrifice. Pacts made with elementals would always require the summoner to sacrifice something of themselves dear to them^FAQ. Elementals appear to be largely uninterested in material goods, and instead seem to be more keen for more esoteric sacrifices that change the character of the summoner in line with their aims.

If players want to summon an elemental, the refs need to be informed a short while in advance. The outcome of the endeavour will largely depend on the roleplay between the summoner and the elemental and the bargain the summoner attempts to make.

Curiously, summoning is one of the few skills you can perform while Terminal.