Craft
- This page is about the general use of Craft. For the use of Craft in battles, see Skills
Craft is the name given to magic in the world of In Stars and Time and START AGAIN: a prologue.
Description
Craft is the art of sculpting the many facets of the world to one’s desires. It is omnipresent and can be used by everyone, no matter their age or country of origin. However, its use is limited by several rules that need to be respected in order for Craft to work correctly and to keep the user safe.
In order to use Craft, one needs to know the appropriate ritual to cast the spell. For most Craft types, this ritual only involves doing specific hand signs[1] as well as some minor gestures, such as clapping,[2] putting your arms up[3] or snapping your fingers.[4] More powerful Craft, like Wish Craft, requires special conditions and complex rituals[5] that are only known by a handful of people, thus preventing regular folk from using it under normal circumstances.[6]
Using Craft also requires the user to spend some amount of power. For most Craft types, this consumption is barely noticeable, but some Crafts, like Time Craft, are so powerful and taxing that they can potentially kill the user if used recklessly.[7] When someone uses Craft intensively without taking the time to rest or cool down, they might become sick, woozy and feverish. Those symptoms are usually harmless and go away after resting.[8]
Craft has a wide variety of applications, from skills used during battles to everyday spells, such as sculpting matter to a specific shape,[9] painting,[10] creating weapons,[9] modifying one’s appearance[11] or giving objects magical properties, such as animating Change God statues[12] and drawings,[13] making clothes able to regulate their temperature and grow with their user,[14] or making candles which change smell as time goes by.[15]
There are three main types of Craft, which are used on a daily basis: Rock Craft (also called Protecting Craft), Paper Craft (also called Creative Craft) and Scissors Craft (also called Piercing Craft). Most of their uses outside of combat is unknown.
Each person usually has one or two Crafting types, which makes them able to easily pick up skills of the corresponding Craft, but with enough research and time, Craft skills can be acquired regardless of one's type(s).[16] The categorisation of people depending of their Craft type has led to the popularization of craftology, which assigns certain personality traits to specific Craft types in a way not too dissimilar to astrology,[17] though most people know that it is not grounded on reality.[18]
Craft Types
Rock Craft
Rock Craft, also called Protecting Craft, is strong against the Scissors type and weak against the Paper type.
As the name suggests, Rock Craft heavily focuses on protection by tanking hits, buffing allies’ defense and debuffing enemies to prevent them from doing too much damage.[19] The hand sign associated with Rock Craft is a closed fist, as if mimicking a rock. Rock Craft smells like wet rocks.[20]
In craftology, people who use Rock Craft are described as patient, honest, loyal and very gullible.[21]
| Characters | Sadnesses |
|---|---|
Paper Craft
Paper Craft, also called Creative Craft, is strong against the Rock type and weak against the Scissors type.
As the name suggests, Paper Craft heavily focuses on creation, crafting powerful spells and modifying allies and enemies’ Craft resistance in order to get the advantage during a fight.[22] The hand sign associated with Paper Craft is an open hand with the fingers held together, as if mimicking a sheet of paper. Paper Craft smells like wood or leaves.[20]
| Characters | Sadnesses |
|---|---|
Scissors Craft
Scissors Craft, also called Piercing Craft, is strong against the Paper type and weak against the Rock type.
As the name suggests, Scissors Craft heavily focuses on raw damage by attacking multiple enemies or one enemy several times and buffing allies’ speed in order to attack first.[23] The hand sign associated with Piercing Craft is a closed fist with the index and middle fingers held outwards, as if mimicking a pair of scissors. Scissors Craft smells like scissors.[20]
In craftology, people who use Scissors Craft are described as determined, brave and honest, but also as callous, aimless and manipulative.[24]
| Characters | Sadnesses |
|---|---|
Body Craft
Body Craft is the use of Craft to modify one's body and appearance.
Though some people use Body Craft to subtly change some details of their appearance, like their height,[25] a lot of people go through Body Craft in order to get an entirely different body, sometimes of a different gender.[26] In the past, it took around one year to make big modifications to one’s body, but recent advancements in the understanding of Body Craft has shortened this time to a month or so.[27]
For the people of Vaugarde, Body Craft is widely accepted[28] and it is customary to regularly use it so as to follow the Change belief's precepts and be closer to the Change God.[29] However, due to Body Craft having no known limits and regulations (with the King using it to grow impossibly big and powerful), doing Body Craft in Ka Bue is a punishable act that can be grounds for prison.[30] Despite that, people still go to underground organizations in order to secretly craft their body.[31]
Siffrin and Mirabelle are the only characters confirmed to have never used Body Craft.[32][29]
Time Craft
Time Craft is the use of Craft to bend time to one’s will. It is the Craft type used by The King to freeze Vaugarde in time (known as the King's Curse) and by Siffrin and Loop to loop back in time during the events of the games (see: Looping).
The existence of Time Craft remained unproven for many years due to the sheer amount of power it would require: theoretically, using Time Craft to stop time even for one second would kill the user outright.[7] However, the use of a long-forgotten Craft type made Siffrin, Loop and the King able to manipulate time without having to use all of their power at once.[33][34]
Time Craft is the subject of a lot of research outside of Vaugarde on account of its potential uses, but also its dangers: it could be used to make people age slower or faster, make bodies younger or older, hasten the growth of crops and plants, but also go back in time and potentially rewrite history itself.[35]
Mirabelle is the only character known to be immune to the effects of the King's Curse, thanks to the Head Housemaiden giving her power. This has led Vaugardians to falsely believe that she was chosen by the Change God.[36]
Wish Craft
Wish Craft is the use of Craft to make the user’s wish become a reality. It is the Craft type used by The King, Siffrin and Loop to be able to use Time Craft without having to spend all of their power at once. Wish Craft also caused the disapperance of colors,[37] the forgetting of the Forgotten Island,[38] and helped Loop escape their own timeloop, destroying their body and trapping them in Siffrin's loop in the process.[39]
Due to the very nature of Wish Craft, there are technically no limits to what one can wish for.[40] Nevertheless, the use of Wish Craft relies on two basic principles in order to work properly: the ritual used and the user’s desire to see their wish granted.
“You choose a leaf, to represent yourself. [...] You breathe your wish into it… To make a link between you and whatever you’re wishing to. [...] You repeat your wish three times… [...] Six could work, I think, or seven, or thirteen. It’s about which number feels right. [...] And then you fold the wish into the leaf, to tether the link between you and the wish. Touching it. [...] If you just look at the Tree and clap and say stuff aloud, why would the wish know where to go?”
Siffrin’s description of the Favor Tree Wish Craft ritual.
There are several rituals that can increase the probability of a wish being granted,[41] such as calling out to shooting stars, picking up a four-leaf clover, and wishing under a Favor Tree the correct way.[42] These rituals help create a link between the wish, the user and the Universe and give the wish a direction,[43] thus making them the most important component of Wish Craft.[44] However, the correct rituals are only known by the inhabitants of the Forgotten Island (like Siffrin and The King) and have been forgotten by other cultures, which have learned the wrong rituals over time.[45] Consequently, Wish Craft is impossible to use by most people in normal circumstances.[6]
The user’s desire to see their wish granted also plays a part in the use of Wish Craft, to a somewhat lesser extent.[44] A wish made with no true desire behind it (such as Odile’s wish to win a coin flip) has less chances of being granted than a wish made with a strong intent.[46] Thus, if someone’s desire to see their wish granted is strong enough or if enough people wish very hard for the same thing, their wish might become true anyway even if the correct ritual wasn’t used: this is what caused the Vaugardians’ wish for Vaugarde to be saved from the King to become true despite them using the wrong ritual.[47]
Wish Craft isn’t a straightforward process. It doesn’t directly grant wishes, but it gives the user the means to do so,[48] such as how the King’s wish to keep Vaugarde perfect forever gave him the ability to freeze people in time and Siffrin’s wish to stay with his friends forever gave him the ability to loop back to a time before his quest was over. If two wishes are in competition with each other, it is theorized that they would either cancel each other out or that a compromise will be made so that both wishes can become true at the same time.[49] Also, if the intent of two wishes are complementary, they might merge into one: this is how the Vaugardians' strong desire to see the King defeated and Siffrin’s wish of staying with his friends fused together and gave Siffrin the ability to loop back in time in order to fulfill both wishes.[47]
Wish Craft has a smell of burnt sugar when used.[50]
Other Craft types
Other Craft types and skills are known to exist in the context of the game, but they do not have an official name.
Healing Craft is a unique Craft type used by Mirabelle to heal someone's wounds.
Restoration Craft is a unique Craft type used by Mirabelle to cure teammates who are K.O. or frozen in time.
(Call Loop.) is a unique Craft skill used by Siffrin to communicate with Loop when inside the House. In order to use it, the user must make the appropriate hand sign (a closed fist with the thumb and little finger held outwards on the side of the face, as if mimicking a call on a flip phone) and think really hard about wanting to talk with Loop.[51]
References
- ↑ "We need to do certain hand signs when we Craft skills… So maybe we should look at their hands?." — Bonnie during the battle tutorial, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "Mirabelle claps her hands three times firmly!" — Description of Mirabelle’s Lovely Moving Cure, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "Mirabelle brings her palms to the sky!" — Description of Mirabelle’s Super Sparkle Heal, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "You snap your fingers!" — Description of Siffrin’s Make Up The Time, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "So by Crafting some specific rituals, in conjunction with a powerful will for your wish to come true, people can seemingly make any kind of wish come true..." — Odile talking about the rituals of Wish Craft, In Stars and Time
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "It’s just funny. This could have been a way to save Vaugarde if everyone somehow wished for it, but no one knew how to do it correctly. [...] And the only person who knew how to do it wished for… What DID you wish for, Siffrin?" — Odile talking about the Favor Tree ritual and how Vaugardians have been doing it wrong, In Stars and Time
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Crafting clay barely asks for any power from the user… But crafting time… It was theorized that crafting time, even to pause time for a single second… Would probably kill the user immediately." — Odile talking about Time Craft, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "Well, [Siffrin] sure is running a fever! Those symptoms… I would say they’ve been using Crafts too much, maybe? [...] Maybe they’ve used too many Crafts without taking the time to rest, or without cooling down for as long as needed! [...] But he’ll be fine, now that the battle is over. [...] They just need some rest." — The Head Housemaiden talking about Siffrin’s illness during ACT 6, In Stars and Time
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "But crafting time wouldn’t be like crafting clay to a specific shape or crafting a sword" — Mirabelle talking about Crafting, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "Like Crafting a painting for weeks at a time?" — Bonnie talking about Siffrin’s sickness during the Epilogue, In Stars and Time
- ↑ (See: Body Craft)
- ↑ "A little figure of the Change God. It’s been Crafted to dance slightly." — Description of the animated Change God figurines, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "A crafted drawing animates back and forth. It’s some kind of… thick, flowy line?" — Description of Mirabelle’s reminder note, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "Your cloak's been sewn with some kind of temperature regulation spell crafted into the stitching, that's kind of cool. [...] Aw, it's also been crafted to make the cloak grow with you! It must've been incredibly expensive, unless it was handmade?" — Isabeau talking about Siffrin's cloak, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "Unlike normal candles, it seems Crafted candles last longer, and can change smells as time goes by…" — Description of Crafted candles in the candlemaker’s room, In Stars and Time
- ↑ (See: Odile and Siffrin)
- ↑
Isabeau: "Oooh, is this a craftology book? Piercing Craft, Creative Craft... Where's the Protecting Craft chapt--"
Odile: "It's a craftONOMY book, not a craftOLOGY book. This one is about the study of Craft, not your fortune." — Isabeau and Odile talking about the craftonomy book in the candlemaker's room, In Stars and Time - ↑ "It's absolutely useless and has no basis in reality, but I like it when some letters tells me I'm gonna have a good day" — Isabeau about craftology, In Stars and Time
- ↑ (See: Isabeau’s skills)
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2
Odile: "Rock Craft smells like wet rocks, Paper Craft like wood or leaves..."
Bonnie: "Scissors Craft like scissors?"
Odile: "Exactly. They all smell like you'd expect." — Odile and Bonnie talking about the smell of common Craft types, In Stars and Time - ↑ "People who use it are patient, honest, loyal... And very gullible." — Odile talking about Rock Craft craftology, In Stars and Time
- ↑ (See: Odile’s skills)
- ↑ (See: Siffrin’s skills)
- ↑ "You're Piercing Craft! Determined! Brave! Honest! Or so people say." (ACT 1-3) "You are Piercing Craft. Callous. Aimless. Manipulative. Or so people say." (ACT 4) — Siffrin talking about Scissors Craft craftology, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "Ah, I would love to craft my body more! I would love to be two centimeters taller!!!" — Isabeau talking about crafting his body further, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "When I was Bonnie’s age, I was like the SMARTEST smarty pants around. [...] Big glasses. Super neat braids. Always knows the answer to any question the teacher has. [...] And, um, I didn’t really like myself. [...] So I went to one of Jouvente’s Houses and threw myself into it! [...] Lifting weights! Training my voice to be deeper, louder! Crafting my body to be cooler, stronger!” — Isabeau talking about his experience with Body Craft during his Friendquest, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "Apparently, they’ve made some big strides in Body Craft recently! Before, it took close to a year to make big changes… But now, you can change in a month or so!” — Mirabelle talking about the time needed to do Body Craft, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "That’s one of the things people go to Houses for, you know? To learn things, to train, to do Body Craft on yourself… To Change! And you can stay for a bit, and come back Changed, and no one would say a thing. They’d just accept the new person you’ve become." — Isabeau talking about Body Craft during his Friendquest, In Stars and Time
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 "We have YEARLY FESTIVALS all around showing yourself as a new person, for crab’s sake!!! Most Housemaidens have Changed at least once, and I haven’t! Isabeau isn’t even a Housemaiden, and he’s Changed!" — Mirabelle talking about the pressure she feels around Changing herself during her Friendquest, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "Crafting your body is so… accepted, here in Vaugarde. In Ka Bue, using Craft on yourself would be grounds for prison. [...] Because if you can craft your body to your liking, where’s the limit? Take the King, for example. They say he crafted his body to become so massive, he can destroy houses in a single gesture." — Odile about the use of Body Craft in Ka Bue, In Stars and Time
- ↑
Odile: "It’s not like there aren’t ways to do Body Craft in Ka Bue, if you know where to look."
Isabeau: "Oh my, m’dame Odile… Were you part of the underground resistance?" — Odile and Isabeau talking about the use of Body Craft in Ka Bue, In Stars and Time - ↑ "You've always wondered about crafting your body to something else, but it seems like a lot of work. You don’t mind inhabiting this meat prison for the time being." — Siffrin considering the use of Body Craft, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "So the King knew how to do Wish Craft, then? That's what this means? Wish Craft could account for his mastery over Time Craft... And so, he must have known specific rituals to make his wish come true..." — Mirabelle talking about the use of Wish Craft to grant the King the power to use Time Craft, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "Siffrin… You must know this already. The reason you’re the only one who got those powers, when we were also on a journey to fight the King… Isn't it because you, somehow, got involved? Isn't it because of something YOU wished for?" — Odile talking about how Siffrin obtained their time loop ability, In Stars and Time
- ↑
Isabeau: "I’ve heard scholars outside of Vaugarde are really excited right now! Time Craft, confirmed to be real!"
[...]
Odile: "Think about how Time Craft could be used. The King is only stopping people's time… But it could be used for many other things. It could be used to hasten or slow people's time, too. Maybe make people's bodies younger or older. Maybe make buds grow into trees in an instant."
Isabeau: "Worst case scenario, it could be used to change history itself. Crafting time to go back in time, and change history!"
[...]
Odile: "The possibilities are endless… And terrifying." — Odile and Isabeau talking about the potential uses of Time Craft, In Stars and Time - ↑
Head Housemaiden: "I'm so glad I managed to give you some power before the King's Curse took over me!"
Mirabelle: "Ah, Head Housemaiden, just so you know, everyone thinks the Change God blessed me..."
[...]
Head Housemaiden: "Oh, well that's a rather silly thing for them to think. I thought we all knew that the Change God is a pretty lazy deity!" — The Head Housemaiden talking about Mirabelle's immunity to the King's Curse, In Stars and Time - ↑ "Colors... Shades people can't see anymore... It seems silly, but somehow, this knowledge feels familiar to you." — Siffrin thinking about what made the colors disappear, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "A wish made everyone forget the Country" | https://insertdisc5.tumblr.com/post/739585437105094656/the-in-stars-and-time-spoiler-qa
- ↑ "You see, not unlike you a few hours ago, I did a special kind of giving up. But unlike you, who gave up on your wish, and almost destroyed the world in the process... I gave up on my wish, and destroyed myself. I wished I could get out of here. I wished for someone to help me. For someone, anyone... To help me!!! And someone did help me, right? The Universe did! They got me out of here! And trapped me in some other Siffrin's loops instead!!!" — Loop talking about their second wish during the secret encounter in ACT 6, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "According to this, there seems to be no clear limit on what kind of wish you can make come true…" — Odile talking about the limits of Wish Craft, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "It seems that just wishing for things does hold a little bit of power, but like, not enough to actually make anything come true. But like Sif said, over time, people figured out specific ways to do Wish Craft, to increase their chances of the wish coming true!" — Isabeau talking about Wish Craft rituals, In Stars and Time
- ↑
Siffrin: "The book talks about many different rituals to Craft wishes, from the correct way to pick up 4 leaf clovers, to calling out to shooting stars the right way, to… Favor Tree what now?"
Mirabelle: "THE FAVOR TREES CAN GRANT WISHES?!?!?" — Siffrin reading the book about Wish Craft in the secret library, In Stars and Time - ↑
Siffrin: "You breathe your wish into [the leaf]… To make a link between you and whatever you’re wishing to."
Isabeau: "So, a link between you and the Tree?"
Siffrin: "No, the Universe, I think? [...] And then you fold the wish into the leaf, to tether the link between you and the wish. [...] If you just look at the Tree and clap and say stuff aloud, why would the wish know where to go?" — Siffrin describing the correct Favor Tree ritual, In Stars and Time - ↑ 44.0 44.1 "Although, it seems the strength of the wish isn’t as important as the whole ritual part. You can wish as hard as you want for something, but if there’s no ritual, it’s very likely that nothing will happen." — Isabeau talking about the importance of rituals in Wish Craft, In Stars and Time
- ↑
"Siffrin: "Clap your hands?"
Isabeau: "Uh yeah? That’s how you ask a favor to the Favor Trees. You look at the tree, and clap your hands once, and say aloud whatever you ask for. [...] Is that… Not correct? [...] Siffrin, did you… Not do it like that?" — Isabeau describing the incorrect Favor Tree ritual, In Stars and Time - ↑ "Well, I mentioned it earlier, but I… Wished… To win a coin flip. A wish that didn’t come true, by the way. Well, I might have done the correct ritual, but I didn’t put any belief in it, did I?" — Odile talking about the wish she made, In Stars and Time
- ↑ 47.0 47.1 "Before your loops started, you made a wish to stay with all of us. A simple wish, but backed with rituals. [...] Unrelated to this, people in Vaugarde wished for the King to be defeated, for people to not be frozen in time anymore… Wishes that can be boiled down to 'we wish for Vaugarde to be saved from the King.' Everyone in Vaugarde knows about the Favor Trees, but no one really knew how to Craft wishes from them. And rituals are more important than intent, when it comes to wishes… But that’s when it’s a single person doing Wish Craft. But an entire country, channeling their belief towards a single goal? No rituals are needed. Just intent. And, in the end… Mirabelle, and every one of us… We had little to no chance of winning against the King on our own. Which would make Vaugarde’s wish, filled with belief, and yours, supported by rituals, impossible to grant. And so… My theory is that Wish Craft merged those two wishes together. Mixed them up and made you able to spend more time with us, and also allowing you endless tries against the King?" — Odile’s theory about what caused Siffrin’s loops, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "Yeah, depending on what you ask, your wish might not come true, but you might get the MEANS to make your wish come true! So like, let’s say… Let’s say you wished to win a Rock Paper Scissors tournament. Instead of just having it come true through pure luck… You might get SOMETHING to help make it come true. Like, maybe you’d get better at reacting, and you could see your opponent’s hand in slow motion as it falls, so you can change your own hand!" — Isabeau talking about Wish Craft, In Stars and Time
- ↑
Bonnie: "But what if your opponent also made a wish to win? What do you think would happen?"
Odile: "Hm… Maybe the wishes would cancel each other out, and the match would end in a draw. Or maybe their wishes would both be considered null, and it’d be anyone’s game."
[...]
Isabeau: "Maybe they’d both get to win somehow. Maybe they’d go to different tournaments." — Bonnie, Odile and Isabeau making theories about what would happen if two conflicting wishes happened at the same time, In Stars and Time - ↑ "The smell of burnt sugar, again. It’s been following you for a while, for so long you can't even remember when it started, but when you talk to [the Head Housemaiden], it's overpowering. So overpowering you could throw up." — Siffrin when they talk to the Head Housemaiden at the end of a loop, In Stars and Time
- ↑ "How about I teach you a special Craft Skill so you can talk to me whenever? [...] So, take your hand, and make a fist. [...] Then you're going to raise your thumb and little finger. [...] And, keeping your hand in that shape, you're going to put your hand next to your face, with the thumb to your ear and little finger to your mouth. THAT'S the secret hand shape no one knows about. [...] And the very last step... [...] You just have to think very loudly: 'Boy I sure wish I could talk to Loop right now!!'" — Loop teaching Siffrin the 'Call Loop' Craft Skill, In Stars and Time
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