Keystones are magical gems distributed by the Endymion Empire’s government to local leaders, allowing approved spells to be cast for the benefit of towns and cities by people with no formal magical training. Think of it as a magical welfare system — and, simultaneously, as the mechanism by which the Empire keeps every legal act of magic inside its borders licensed and accounted for.
They are one leg of the Empire’s control of magic, alongside registries for the innately magical and government-run schools teaching only approved disciplines. See Endymion Empire.
Enforcement
Per a trader at the Pentamarone docks (Session 10): outside a sanctioned town’s borders, if the army catches you casting unauthorized magic without keystone authority, you are in serious trouble.
Session 11 — The Law in Detail, and the Warlock Problem (September 9, 2026)
The WitchCrafters spelled out for The Fallen what happens the moment they step outside Pentamarone’s jurisdiction. They call them power stones:
- Any unregistered magic is illegal in Endymion Empire territory. Not restricted — illegal.
- Legal casting requires the Empire’s power stones.
- Registration or approval is possible. Get approved, and you are issued a supply of stones to use at your discretion.
- Nobody knows whether that works for a warlock. Asked whether Leif could cast through his patron under the system — registered or not — the guild’s honest answer was “I don’t really know if you’d be able to use anything given to you by your patron.”
That last point is a live problem for two members of the party: Leif and Drolta are both warlocks, and the road out of Pentamarone in most directions is Empire road.
Genni confirmed the symbol’s meaning the same session: the triangle on her staff is the mark of the power stones the Empire’s magic engineers use. She learned magic on them, growing up near the Citadel, and has since moved to tapping her own magic instead.
The Symbol
Keystone magic carries a distinct symbol — recognized by Asha in Session 10 as “the symbol of the magic the Endymion Empire uses.”
She found it in an unexpected place: on a safe under Genni’s desk inside the WitchCrafters guild hall in Pentamarone — the one city the Empire does not rule — and on Genni’s own staff.
- Benign reading: the guild holds keystones so its witches can cast legally when they travel outside Pentamarone’s borders, and keeps them in a safe.
- Less benign reading: the Empire’s reach inside the “free” city runs deeper than the city admits.
Unresolved.
Related
- Endymion Empire — issues and enforces them
- Pentamarone — the exception to the Empire’s jurisdiction, where keystones still turned up
- Genni · WitchCrafters — whose safe bears the symbol, and who explained the law
- Leif Kalanchoe · Drolta Amara Tzuentes — the party’s warlocks, for whom the system may have no provision
- Types of Magic
First Appeared
Referenced in the Endymion Empire’s founding description of magical law; first seen in play in Session 10 (August 26, 2026), as a symbol on a guild safe.