Forging Soulstamps

[Trusk'our he/him]

A primary use of Forgery is to shortcut the skill and knowledge necessary to accomplish the task you want on your own. Shai Forges herself to know many various skill sets and have greatly improved knowledge, for example. 

So, would it be possible then for a Forger to make a simpler stamp, then Forge another stamp to change it into a more in depth, powerful stamp?

I don't think it would be possible to make an infinite feedback loop Skyrim style since a Forgery requires plausibility, but maybe Forging a stamp itself to have better detailed carvings might be possible enough?

[Through The Living Grub He/Him]

1 hour ago, Trusk'our said:

A primary use of Forgery is to shortcut the skill and knowledge necessary to accomplish the task you want on your own. Shai Forges herself to know many various skill sets and have greatly improved knowledge, for example. 

So, would it be possible then for a Forger to make a simpler stamp, then Forge another stamp to change it into a more in depth, powerful stamp?

I don't think it would be possible to make an infinite feedback loop Skyrim style since a Forgery requires plausibility, but maybe Forging a stamp itself to have better detailed carvings might be possible enough?

Shai spent a lot of time studying the arts she Forged herself to know. She knew how to paint, so she knew how the painting would have looked when she finished, so she convinced they wall by describing exactly what it looked like.She had to infiltrate a society to learn their martial arts. 

If you knew how to make the stamp more detailed in the first place, why not care the stamp that way. Analogy: you aren't telling the table that it looks nice, you are telling it that the wood was polished and people prevented mold growing in it. It is redundant

[Quantus he/him]

Fun thought experiment!

Ok, there are two ways to go about this general Idea: Forge the Stamp, or Forge the Forger.  Either requires a plausible alternate timeline-esk explanation of the difference. 

To forge the stamp you'd need a Forger capable of the final product, but you might be able to forge it to a state where you spent all your time and energy on that one stamp (rather than ten simultaneous project); so you couldt Forge a Stamp that is beyond your capabilities, but you might be able to Forge a mediocre example of your stamp-craft into your Best Work, and thus maximize your output.  Taken a step further, if a Master Forger had 10 apprentices, but he made a weekly habit of randomly choosing one of their Stamps to examine and perfect, all ten of the journeyman efforts would have a Plausible path to being a Masterpiece beyond the original apprentices skill-level.  

To forge the Forger you'd simply need to be able to explain an alternate life path that made them better than they already are, which is going to require a plausible alternate life-path to make it happen. The easiest would be to forge yourself into a specialty at the expense of another (ie.  I spent all my time on Forgery and didnt waste any practice time or effort on Learning a musical instrument or another language or whatever).  You might be able to forge yourself into a version that was Accepted by a better Teacher or School early on and so they didnt have to struggle to learn their skills alone or unlearn bad practices from inferior examples, etc.  But if you've already always been a dedicated practitioner or even a prodigy, then you likely arent going to be able to increase your skills beyond what you naturally achieved already.  

[Treamayne]

9 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

So, would it be possible then for a Forger to make a simpler stamp, then Forge another stamp to change it into a more in depth, powerful stamp?

Didn't you already post this? (or very similar).

[Trusk'our he/him]

6 minutes ago, Treamayne said:

Didn't you already post this? (or very similar).

There I was talking about continuously updating and evolving a singular stamp for everyday use, making something that can be time efficient for short-term changes.

Here, I'm thinking along the lines of cutting out some of the steps for Forgery with Forgery. Stamp a stamp to improve its ability to stamp other things.

[Treamayne]

5 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

Here, I'm thinking along the lines of cutting out some of the steps for Forgery with Forgery. Stamp a stamp to improve its ability to stamp other things.

Except the same issue applies (which is what I meant, sorry if I was not clear) - once it has been hardened and received a setting mark I don't think even another Stamp could change a Stamp without invalidating everything.

[Quantus he/him]

20 hours ago, Treamayne said:

Except the same issue applies (which is what I meant, sorry if I was not clear) - once it has been hardened and received a setting mark I don't think even another Stamp could change a Stamp without invalidating everything.

Maybe?  There certainly could be an issue with the two maintained investiture effects interacting with each other.  But on the other hand, theoretically the Stamp object itself doesnt matter much, rather the Shape of the stamp imprint and the nature of the Ink are what govern it.  And per other WOBs just interacting with other Investiture effects doesnt innately Break the Forgery enchantment (you can steal Forged Spiritweb chunks with Hemalurgy, for example) unless it actually disrupts the shape Seal Imprint (by eating or Burning the forged material, etc).  To maintain things you're still likely to need to reapply Both Seals periodically, so it would really be most efficient to Forge the Seal to be better Once and then manually copy the resulting pattern onto a new stamp.  

 

Side questions that I think are relevant: The question on Forging Soulstamp itself boils down to whether a Soulstamp (the object, not the imprint) can be Invested in some manner without getting disrupted during the Stamp application Process.  If it does (or even just sometimes can) that raises Corollary questions: Can a Bonded Spren form themselves into a functional Soulstamp?  Can a Soulstamp be created from Aetherbound Materials? Can a Soulstamp be carved into the back/blunt side of a Hemalurgic Spike and/or metalmind to function as both?  Can you have Stamp on the front of brass knuckles and punch a hostile Stamp on somebody mid fight?

Edited December 5, 2024 by Quantus