Can you think of any spells/incantations/rituals that depend on the caster's gender to function? Like a spell that can only be cast by women or a ritual that more potently affects men or something like that. Maybe only young girls are chosen to learn ancient magics aligned to the Unicorn, owing to the Unicorn's nature as a symbol of femininity and purity.
Not any system/setting in mind. Just a thought exercise.
I thought unicorns were actually a sign of masculinity and strength, hence why they were used as a coat of arms a lot.
Carter Sullivan
"Haadvar's lasting sorcery of erection" "Lynne's monthly vaginal barrier" "Restore Hymen" "Haadvar's elixir of testicular refill" "Abort Pregnancy" "Klopinski's Great Circumcision Blade"
William Brown
Association with femininity came later. In fact a lot of the old house insignias that features unicorns pictured them collared or chained in some way. This was based on the myth that a Unicorn could only be subdued or hunted if the hunters had a virgin girl lay in the fields and wait for the unicorn to come and rest beside her.
Lincoln Fisher
That's a thing in Wheel of Time, where for whatever reason there are different metaphysical departments governing male and female spellcasters, and the male one got corrupted by Satan and made all the male wizards insane.
There are a couple of channels in Unknown Armies that require you to be physically pregnant.
It's sort of a thing in Dune, which doesn't exactly have magic but does have pseudoscientific psychic powers. One of them is Other Memory, in which a disciplined mind that takes enough drugs can access the memories of ancestors, but generally only through the female line. I guess because a baby has a more prolonged physical connection to its mother and has more time for the memories to sink in? But anyway, there's a centuries-long eugenics program to breed someone strong enough to recall their male ancestors' memories just from that one sperm they came from.
Evan Nguyen
Man, I gotta go re-read Dune.
Wyatt Nelson
Unless you're the Kwisatz Hedarach (spelling?)
Jaxson Flores
Yes, that is the name for the super-being who can read the thousands of generations of memories that apparently were encased inside the sperm he came from.
Dominic James
The only part I remember is how the Bene Gesundheit witches make you drink poison and you have to use your telekinesis to rearrange the poison molecules to make it not poison.
Alexander Ramirez
Norse stuff.
Wyatt Cook
Yeah, that's a thing they have to do. But you have to make sure you're not pregnant when you do it or else your baby will be born with the mind of an adult - an evil adult. Because, sure, why the fuck not.
Joshua Reed
Which apparently was a joke. As in "how to find a mythological, inexistant beast? But with something even rarer, like a virgin woman!"
>not sure if this story is true, but I love it
Andrew Carter
it's not necessarily an evil adult, it depends on the mind they get intruded by
Oliver Flores
Wasnt the virgin thing supposed to reinforce the masculine theme of the unicorn?, as in he was a ruthless and uncontrollable beast until the right woman came along and made him settle, you know symbolizing marriage and all that
Kayden Allen
In my setting only women can learn how to cast magic spells without materials like books or scrolls, but their breadth of abilities without materials is fairly narrow. A wizard is essentially just a guy who's hoarded a bunch of magical crap that other people made. There's a bit more to it but that's the basics.
Angel Morales
Apparently. But honestly I want that little story over there to be true. Medievals were the absolute madmen regarding humour.