How's this look, folks?
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Karm Gifts - reader's digest version
Gates in a nutshell
Gates come in several varieties, but at least one end will be attached to a doorway, a large gateway device, or something of the sort. In the case of the Portafada, short-lived gates can be created for purposes of drama, but will have to be in a solid structure capable of bearing a door - a wall or a cliff face, for example.
Players cannot create short-lived gates…the skills used for long-term gate construction take quite some time and may be used as a plot hook, but any gate project started will not be finished in the run of the MUSH.
Seals
* Those signet ring things, and variations thereof (need not be a ring, can be on the pommel of a blade or worked into a glove, for example). (GAT-SK defines the form and function of the signet). These are typically involved in temporary effects (e.g. while the signet remains in contact with something…such as pressing to the floor to form a protective circle or punching a water god in the jaw.). GAT-WK (bonus using Seal) refers to this.
* The magical wax seals you put on other things (see: ILL-KS). When gifts refer to seals on things, this is what they are talking about. The Karm Lock (ILL-KL) is a variation on this (although wax is not explicitly mentioned in the gift description, it is likely involved in lock creation).
The Great Seal of Karm
Application of ILL-KS. Turn a everburning candle into a waxen coin the size of a dinner plate. It is a more robust, resilient version of the normal ILL-KS seal.
An everburning candle of Karm can be melted into a Great Seal of Karm and placed on a container or portal to reinforce it and to seal it shut. A creature locked within cannot normally exercise magics that effect the container or anything external to the container. However, sufficiently powerful creatures (including PCs) can break the seal, given enough time (See: Caine: Lamp post outside of White's.). Like any good binding, a seal is absolute. This means it cannot be detached without destroying it, and when they break, they do so completely.
Sanction of Karm:
A variation on the Great Seal of Karm, used to seal a world away as if it never existed when gate collapse is imminent. Such seals are placed on a physical portal (gate, doorway), or place of egress that is defined to be the Exit (provided it's at least a metaphorical portal, like the Temple of Doors, a teleportation platform, etc), and locked to a specific key, which is typically a relatively small object, and portable. This event is not done lightly; practioners trained in this responsibility are encouraged to use it as a last reasonable resort.
Undoing the seal undoes the Sanction entirely; there is no half-way. However, occasionally, circumstances demand intervention on a previously Sanctioned world; the risk of that intervention is letting potentially unknown horrors loose, or allowing a Shadow Collapse event to occur. As with seals, Sanctions cannot be simply patched.
Everburning Candles
Specialty candles made from specially prepared wax that incorporates a drop of the user's blood; they have various minor powers indicated within individual gifts. Part of the training involved is how the practioner can prepare his or her own wax.
Wards
A skilled Illuminatum of Karm can use the light cast by an everburning candle to various effects. Some of these effects are 'warding' effects. These effects are generally absolute for some narrow criterion, and often require a sample of the thing to be warded against to burn in the candle's flame. Warding candles themselves are typically not left unattended, as they may be extinguished by outside forces or accidents. For such occasions, a more durable housing is sometimes used. (ILL-SC).