Ritual inscriptions, scrolls, alchemical catalysts (which themselves are used for all manner of craft), runic templates, skleens, and most potions. These all utilize the intrinsic value of blood. The life-force that it carries is the font of all magic. Blood is the vehicle of consciousness. It carries Aether--Quintessence--those metaphysical qualities within all things. It is raw potential, both and neither, Positive & Negative. Hermaphroditic. Mercurial. Divine. This lends it a great variety of use as the crafter gives, to this raw potential, definition and purpose. However, the secrets of blood are not so easily accessed, and often shrouded in controversy. It should not be surprising then, that blood more richly endowed with aethers, would be the primary source in our magickal crafts. Perhaps most recognizably, from dragons.

But not every act of spellcraft requires that one collects aether-rich blood. Magick can utilize all manner of material components. Consider the sorcerer, utilizing the power of their own bloodline. Consider malachite's inclinations toward general elemental spellcraft. Go on to consider all the variety of known material components, from diamonds in Resurrection, to pearlescent brews stirred with an owl's feather for Identify. There are intrinsic qualities in all things; animistic narratives that define outcome and interaction. You, as a conscious being, reading this right now? Your blood carries the qualities of your soul; the quintessence of you. This is where darker sacraments often muddy the perception of this truth, with sympathetic fears. Any shaman ought be able to show you that the natural cycle is one of life-devouring-life in a constant cycle of refinement and self-manifestation. We transform the intrinsic qualities of our food, creating energy with which to sustain ourselves. Environments adapt just the same, transforming with the flow energy that substantiates their local Balance. The only crime here is in ignoring reality's supremacy, for that is the seed of irreverence.

Why use blood at all, though, if all things contain magickal aspects? Quite simply, blood is far more nutrient rich. In fact, it would seem to me that the more complex a lifeform becomes, the richer its blood becomes by consequence. In whatever narrative reality is playing out, humanoid seems to be the recurring pinnacle of physical form. Elves. Humans. Orcs. Githyanki. They are all Races of Destiny; the Pinnacle of Fate. They all share the same physical template; the same potential. This creates an interesting supposition that is supported by all spiritual accounts, religious or otherwise. And it's this: The primary direction of the universe, in respects to the humanoid soul, is to churn toward the metaphysical. To become more spiritual. To obtain divinity. This is why it is referred to as Apotheosis: it is the highest point of obtainment, from whence the cycle starts anew. Being so rich with aether, it shouldn't be a wonder then that blood is the dominant component in magickal crafts. Further, this is unlikely to change. Our magickal technologies are not currently capable of extracting useful quantities of aether from anything other than blood, and even if we did manage to develop such technologies, blood would (by all accounts so far) remain our richest source.

I now wish to make special note of various examples. The first being Regeneration. This spell is of the Transmutive or Conjurative practice, and it gradually repairs corpuscular damage. This is in contrast to the overwhelming flood of positive energy, used to redefine one's well-being, in spells like Heal. Instead, Regeneration activates the target's innate healing mechanisms in order to promote natural healing at a faster rate. To do this, the spell confers the necessary aethers required to metabolize swift repair. Practices toward this end include various blood-transfusions, and even some experimental aether-solution-injections, all to be used in welfare recovery. A prime example of this same quality is Troll's Blood. A rare and expensive reagent, Troll's Blood can be used in a variety of solutions, including poisons, healing draughts, and antidotes. To highlight the association with life-force, I now point at the fabled Bloodforges of the Utter East. They purportedly use quintessence (the raw magick of consciousness, also found within blood) to manufacture fully sentient constructs.

I leave it at that.

[*Obscure notes seem to have been hastily stuffed into the lass few pages of this tome.*]

"The concept of a natural order that regulates the life of the savage is closely related to the guiding principle of alchemists. The essential feature of both is the notion that everything is alive, and therefore things can be radically acted on only by using life as a factor. There are also close ties between alchemy and witchcraft. Witches being people who supposedly make corrupt or illegal use of the powers of life; alchemists are often thought to pass beyond what is permitted to the mortal, and to encroach upon the prerogative of the Creator(s)."

BAPHOMET

BAsileus philosoPHOrum METaloricum

'sovereign of metallurgical philosophers'

In Untheric this roughly equates to BPWMT. Which translates to Thorassic as Shofya-Sophia-Wisdom. He is the destruction that begets new creation. He seeks to uncover the foundation; to find the absolute maximum. This is seen by his emphasis on bestial truths. In this way, we could say Baphomet is understanding Reality. The issue is that it is done at the expense of Reality itself. For when everything that can be made, has been made, nothing may be made.

Baphomet is wisdom debased.

It is in his Tower of Science that he seeks.

It is in his very being that he perverts the alchemical philosophy, existing as both & neither; yin & yang; cinnabar; the stellar ray.

"Apparent savagery then actually straddles the border between tearing down the material house of the ephemeral (the fury that craves deeper truth), with that of a frustration at its inaccessibility (a bitterness at one's own ignorance that they inflict upon reality, in act of self-destruction)."

Do not stray.

u Moon o Sun T Matter m Energy

It is the sophic processing of quicksilver, not in the primal fire but the emergent, when seeded by sun and moon, that will reveal reality's quintessence. And it is in countless revolutions herein that one will find all mystery, for this is the universal motion.