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# Technologies

## Messenger Birds
Simple magic that can be cast on written notes to send them to a named recipient. The spell requires the paper to be folded into a specific bird shape. The bird will seek out the named recipient. A named location is the easiest recipient. Seeking out a named individuals when their location is unkown is a bit more complicated and expensive.

## Encryption Magic
Written words can be encrypted to be unreadable for anyone not holding a decryption stone.  Encryption and decryption stones are often made in pairs so that they can encrypt/decrypt messages between the two stones, enabling secure communication between two parties. Decryption keys can also be words or even tied to certain individuals.

## Automated Work Force
Many kingdoms use some sort of automated work force. Either in the form of zombie, golums, or bound spirits/elementals. This causes some conflict with the the traditional workers.

## Teleportation
Teleportation is about as accessible as air travel today.  Expensive enough to prevent it being a casual occurrence, with most still preferring cheaper overland alternatives for most travel, but accessible enough that most could afford a trip in emergencies or special occasions.

## Magical Items
While magical weapons can be forged, many of them simply become magical through use. Creation magic flows through everything, and naturally coalesces with powerful intent into manifestations of the users will.

One use or temporary effect magical items are fairly common and easy to create. Lasting magical effects are more difficult to create, often requiring physical shards of magical essence to power their continual effects. 

Because the creation magic that powers magical items is the same that brings things to life, magical items often express lifelike qualities, imbuing their wielders with specific personality quirks.  More powerful magical items may even have their own intelligence.  Wielding too many powerful magical items risks the wielder's ego being overrun by that of the magical items.

## Sky Ships
Less expensive than teleportation, but also  much slower and prone to bandit raids. Necessary for some cargo that reacts badly to teleportation or is uneconomical to do so.

## Refrigeration
Not common enough to be in every household, but common enough that large cubes of ice can easily and cheaply be bought from most town markets to keep household food cold for a few days. Large ice magic machines can create enough ice to cover the whole town.

## Magical lights
Ever burning torches are easy enough to produce that street lights are common in most cities. In larger cities, magical energy is piped underground and can be tapped for even larger effects.

## Medicine
Most cultures have advanced medical knowledge. Most diseases were created as weapons or curses, so casual sickness isn't as common, and most diseases have known treatments. Further, curative magic is also quite powerful. However a magical arms race for magical diseases exist, to the extent that diseases can be created to affect a single family line or even a single individual with little chance to develop a cure before it takes effect.  Several powerful family lines have been eliminated this way.

## Divination
Divination magic exists, but is frustratingly unreliable. It is mostly vague and cryptic. Even when clear, it is easy enough to deceive or disrupt if expected. Entire houses can be warded from casual divination, and many false imprisonments have been based on carefully crafted visions planted at crime scenes. So much so that divination is not usually permissible as evidence in later ages.

## Cold Forged Weapons
Certain metals when forged in a certain way are highly resistant to magic. They can often disrupt magical entities and prevent magical effects. However cold forging is expensive and crude. The weapons and armor are often not as effective as their traditional counterparts against traditional enemies.

## Birth Control
Magical birth control is simple and effective. Most are taught it in sex ed.

## Person Creation
A powerful and heavily restricted magic. It is possible to create a fully developed person of an existing or entirely new race. Many of the races that exist today were created by early Shapers who wielded raw creation magic able to create life from scratch. This power was revoked when it became widely abused to create slave or monstrous races, resulting in a devastating racial war.

Person creation magic can be used by inter-species or same-sex couples to create children, either baby or full grown. However there is a long arduous legal procedure to do so which can sometimes take years.

People created at maturity can usually speak and have basic understanding. The creation magic is based on the original divine creator language which all sentient creatures inherently understand and most modern dialects stem from. Only nightmare beasts or particularly monstrous races cannot understand the common dialect.

## Resurrection
Resurrection is possible, but it comes with a few asterisks and restrictions. There is no afterlife, instead there is a somewhat karmic system where souls dissipate into the natural life magics that bring others to life. This means that souls quickly start to dissipate after death. Only those with incredibly strong will, unfinished business, trauma, or regret tend to linger for long. But even if the soul lingers and is put back into a body, it tends to not be complete. Like putting water back into a broken cup, it's hard to get the original person back 100%. 

Instead resurrections are more like creating a new person based on the memories and personality of the original. It's common for those resurrected to come back with different personalities or fragmented memories. Many have had loved ones resurrected only to find that they no longer loved or remembered them. 

The worst was when Mad King Theon was repeatedly resurrected in the 7th Age. Each time he came back more deranged, as lingering souls of the vengeance driven or wannabe despots would wait for his inevitable resurrection and try to merge and hitch a ride back to the living with the king's soul. This resulted in a fragmented and deranged set of personalities vying for control, And ultimately to the fall of the 7th Age and the restriction of resurrection magic. 

Resurrection is still used in some circumstances, but is heavily controlled. That does not stop the occasional desperate soul from attempting a unauthorized resurrection, hoping that this time will be different.