21.6.7 SPECIAL DESIGN COMMODITIES

While all designs must contain base commodities per HELP DESIGNCOMMS, there are times when certain special commodities are necessary for a design to achieve a desired quality or effect. Likewise, there are some materials that do not exist as commodities in Lusternia and therefore must be substituted with existing alternatives. 

This helpfile seeks to inform designers and trademasters on the Charites' ruling precedents regarding the use of such effects and materials.

As mentioned in HELP DESIGNCOMMS, remember when setting the commodities on your design that they should not include commas. They should be listed as: commodity <num> commodity <num>, i.e.: wood 100 steel 50.


Essence Guidelines
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Per HELP DESIGNS, essence can be used to add a minor effect to a design:

   * Lightessence: Makes an object glow or sparkle slightly.
   * Darkessence: Makes an object appear slightly darker.
   * Silveressence: Makes an object slightly sparkle or shimmer.
   * Shadowessence: Makes an object appear to have dark angles and corners.
   * Cloudessence: Makes an object appear slightly cold, moist, or wet to the touch.
   * Fireessence: Makes an object seem warm to the touch (not hot), or shimmer slightly as if it is hot.

These small sensory effects must be appropriate to the essence being used (ex. shadowessence should not make an object glow), must be minor in nature (ex. cloudessence cannot make an object levitate), and cannot affect the viewer (ex. looking at fireessence should not make an observer feel warm).

Currently, essence cannot be used in Cooking or Tattooing designs. Essence must always be bound in another material, such as a glass or gem.


Special Effects
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Other than essence, there are various other commodities in Lusternia that can offer a design a unique special effect. These are several with established precedent from the Charites.

   * Motes: Gives an object a dreamy 'sheen' or 'blur'. Like essence, must be bound in glass or a gem.
   * Powerstones: Gives an object an innate glow. Unlike essence, this may be used in tattooing.
   * Spectres: Gives an object a pale spectral glow. The spectre must be inert, not writhing or moving.

Remember all such effects should be subtle and minor, as with the essence guidelines above.

If you are uncertain if a special effect is achievable in a mortal design, you are encouraged to MESSAGE CHARITES with your query.

If you do not think it is something that a mortal craftsman could reasonably create, then you should instead submit your request via the Customisation system (HELP CUSTOMISATION).


Special Materials
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Commodities that don't exist as objects in Lusternia may be replaced by stretching existing alternatives. Here is a list of several commodities that can be substituted as a material alternative per the Charites' previous rulings:

   * Bird: Feathers (See also: Corpse).
   * Cloth: Cotton, wool, velvet, damask, lace, and other non-specified fabrics*.
   * Cocoa: Chocolate.
   * Corpse**: Blood, skin, fur, bones.*** (See also: Using Corpses as Commodities)
   * Fruit: Nuts.
   * Gems: Glass, quartz^, amber^^, and other non-specified, uncut jewels.
   * Iron: Brass, bronze, copper, pewter and other non-specified metals. 
   * Infernobeetle: Obsidian.
   * Kafe: Kawhe(coffee) beans.
   * Mammoth: Ivory (See also: Corpse).
   * Marble: Porcelain, stone, alabaster, clay, granite, and other non-specified stones.
   * Silk: Satin, organza, chiffon, taffeta, and other non-specified, silk-based fabrics.
   * Snowball: Ice cream and iced drinks.
   * Spices: Vanilla, mint, and other non-specified herbs.
   * Sugar: Maple syrup and similar. But honey must still use honey commodities.
   * Wood: Ebony, amber^ and resin.
   * Palette: Can replace tints in designs where three^^^ or more different colours need to be represented.

* With the exception of silk-based fabrics (See: Silk). 
** Cannot be listed as a corpse. Must always be specified (ex. elfen, bird, mammoth).
*** If the design requests a specific type of corpse in its description, then the commodity chosen must correlate with that (ex. 'merian blood' requires a merian commodity). You may PROBE the mob to check if it has the specific alias you need.
^ While some stones like granite may naturally include quartz, if there is enough present to warrant a mention of quartz, you must still include gems.
^^ Amber may be represented either by wood or by gems.
^^^ Palettes are not required in lieu of tints but are optional and acceptable when this threshold is reached.

If you are uncertain if an existing commodity can be substituted for a desired material, you are encouraged to MESSAGE CHARITES with your query.


Using Corpses as Commodities
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Please be advised that corpse commodities cannot be used to avoid base commodities. For example, you cannot use a cow commodity in place of a leather commodity, even though logically a cow is a source of leather.

Likewise, remember that although races such as merian, furrikin and taurian bear similarities to animals, they are not synonymous with those terms and should not be treated as equivalent commodities. Using trill as "poultry" or merian as "fish" or even lucidian as "gems" is therefore unacceptable in crafting.


Disallowed Materials
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There are several items in Lusternia that are deemed beyond the power of mortal craftsmen to work with for various reasons. The following are examples of such materials that are disallowed from mortal crafting at this time:

  * Illicite
  * Starshite
  * Voidcopper
  * Skysilver
  * Mistglass
  * Zingavium
  * Dreameater silk
  * Smokesilver

For more reading on this topic, please see HELP DESIGNS (Divine Symbols and Likeness).


Pattern Exceptions
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There are certain design patterns in Lusternia that have unique guidelines for commodities. We have outlined them below to better share that information with you.

ARTISAN:
   * Sconces must have candle-based lighting.
   * Instruments may be made with 100+ commodities if 50% of the commodities are wood. Otherwise, they must be made with 200+.

BOOKBINDING:
   * All origami designs are made with purely vellum as a commodity. The paper may be patterned or solidly coloured.
   * Skylanterns must be primarily made of paper with a candle lightsource. They cannot have additional adornments of gems, metal, feathers, etc.
   * Books and stationery cannot be primarily metal or gem based (Ex. You cannot write on a sheet of crystal stationery or a book with iron pages).

COOKING:
   * Essence, wood and mercury are inedible and may not be used in cooking designs.
   * Silverware and plateware may be mentioned in cooking designs without requiring commodities to account for them.
   * Spectres are technically considered edible at this time. They may cause a mild numbing effect if included.
   * Ice cream requires a snowball commodity.
   * Mead requires a honeycomb commodity.

FORGING:
   * Tessen may have silk described beyond the bolt as long as the silk is layered on metal, as tessen cannot be purely silken; they need to be able to feasibly work as a weapon.

TATTOOS:
   * All tattoos are primarily inked using tints.
   * Essence may not be used in tattoo designs.
   * Powerstones, however, are allowed in tattoo designs to accomplish a minor innate glow.
   * Crushed gems may be used in tattoo designs.

For more information regarding how designs are reviewed, please visit HELP DESIGN REVIEWS.