Lore:Principles of Conjuration

Note: This introductory text appears to be the only available section of Corvus Direnni's "Grimoire", as mentioned in The Library of Dusk: Rare Books.

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—Introduction—

Conjuration is the arcane art of summoning creatures and items from other planes for the usage and benefit of the conjurer. Its study has long languished due to its inherent perils, for summoned entities, particularly the more intelligent Daedra, resent being brought to Nirn to do another's bidding, and often seek to do the conjurer a mischief.

The notable success I have had in formulating safe and reliable conjuration spells comes from my system of defining such magics as always having two essential and interlocking components: a summoning incantation and a binding rune. It is the latter part, of course, that protects the conjurer from the entity or item summoned by enthralling it to the summoner.

Heretofore conjuration has been quite a dangerous pursuit due to the fact that a conjuring wizard had to cast summoning and binding as two separate spells, and if the binding was miscast or cast too slowly, the conjurer might pay for the error with his life. My innovation has been to interweave the magics of summoning and binding so that they become one spell that manifests both effects simultaneously, thus ensuring that what is summoned is also necessarily bound.

The apprentice is urged to apply himself diligently to study of the spells in the accompanying grimoire: though my methods have rendered conjuration less perilous, it is by no means an art to be attempted lightly and carelessly. The apprentice who does so will only briefly be a burden to his or her master.