"That sounds horrible! Why would anyone decide to do such a thing to themselves?" Mina asked with a visible recoil at the very idea.
"Because the benefits are just as grand. The mage with such a familiar gains all the talents and affinities of their familiar. This means magicka, innate magics, physique, everything gets translated over. These mages are head and shoulders above all the others on their level until you reach the ranks of masters. At that point it's difficult to truly quantify who is superior as masters rarely ever actually compete directly." Phineas said giving me a pointed look.
The others also stared at me warily as they put the pieces together.
"But couldn't you just target the familiar then?" Hadrian asked seriously.
"Indeed! The trouble with that is that such mages VERY rarely leave their familiars unguarded. Densely enchanted pieces, wards and of course whatever the familiar themselves are capable of stand between any would be attacker and the familiar. This is assuming the mage themselves are not nearby, you can imagine if they are." Phineas said seriously.
"And the last type of familiar?" I asked moving the attention off me and the little monster in my lap.
Phineas chuckled at that but answered my question. "Self replication familiars. There is only one known case of this type of familiar and no one other than the creator knows how they work. I am of course referring to the infamous case of Divayth Fyr and his four daughter-wives. Each of these women are clones of the man himself made female. The truly astounding part is that each one has their own personality, likes, dislikes and even appearances! If you didn't know it beforehand you would never know they were in fact clones of the same person." he said with a look of barely contained awe as he talked.
The man himself was not really mentioned in the game but I was aware of the mage before my previous life's end. According to lore he was one of the only examples of a mage who had seen almost literally every era of this world. The man was originally of the Chimer race(later Dunmer) and was born early in the first era. Not much was truly known about him beyond the fact he was well over four thousand years old and had not been idle during that time. Perhaps not actively interfering in the worlds big plots but he was always seemingly in some form of research or other. -
A mage of such caliber that even legendary mages like Vanus Galerion and Shalidor were at most peers of his and in the case of Shalidor even owed him a great debt that he supposedly intended to cash in on still despite Shalidor being considered dead for millennia. No one knows if he survived the eruption of Red mountain but his daughter-wives have been seen since so speculation abounded that he was still kicking. My personal interest however was in one of his close friends, Yagrum Bagarn, The last Dwarf.-
As the title should make obvious this was the only known remaining member of the Dwemer race in Nirn. His story is one that was fairly well known since he had published it in a book, mostly after a lot of people bothered him about it. The published story was obviously simplified but basically went that he was in a separate plane entirely when the rest of his race vanished. It was ironic that his disregard for the orders of his peoples closest equivalent to a ruler was likely the entire reason he was spared. -
Of course after that he was infected with Corprus by the machinations of Dagoth Ur and gained immortality of a sort. I personally held great interest in him for a single reason, he knew tonal magic. I had already dedicated myself to walking the path of the divine that was using words or sound to write the rules of reality and tonal magic fell into this just as the Thu'um did. I could of course try and learn the magic from the ruins scattered across the world but I'd prefer to just do so from someone who already knew it.
Anyways the lesson moved on while I contemplated this matter. Phineas focused on the others mostly teaching them a spell to summon their planar familiars. When he eventually approached me while they were all studying it I pulled myself out of my thoughts.
"Something caught your interest during my lesson didn't it?" he asked with a knowing look.
"Not quite, was just remembering a relevant piece of information that was rather important to me is all." I said honestly.
"Care to share?" he asked curiously.
"Yagrum Bagarn." I said simply.
"Ah! The last dwarf, no wonder. Never met the fellow myself but rumor has it the Archmage has." he said with a smirk.
"I'm not surprised, of everyone in the college the Archmage seems the most likely to have any sort of run in with such a character. Do you know the first time I met him when I was enrolling he was in the middle of a summoning with Mephala?" I said shaking my head with a chuckle.
"I'd hope that didn't spoil your impression of him?" he said with a bit of worry.
"No no, nothing like that. It just caught me off guard is all, that was the second prince I'd met in a months time after all. Made me a tad suspicious." I admitted freely.
"Hircine was the first right?" he asked like he was talking about the weather.
"How'd you know?" I asked surprised.
"He gave you something, don't tell me I genuinely would prefer not knowing. That said the nonphysical "gifts" given by the princes have strings attached to them. Nothing harmful but yours are like a mark, a sort of way of telling the other princes he's got his eyes on you." he said honestly.
"Well that's not concerning at all." I say with a groan.
He shrugged "Honestly I'd take it as a compliment. The princes rarely place such a protective measure on someone and when they do it's usually because they are fond of that person in some way." he said casually.
"Well he actually gave me two things. The first a reward for impressing him, his words not mine. The second was something given with no explanation or anything, like a bonus." I explained.
He raised an eyebrow at that "Now THAT is interesting. What was this "bonus" exactly?" he asked intrigued.
"A spell, [summon hound of Hircine]." I said honestly.
"Show me." he said with eyes that narrowed dangerously.
"I've never cast it, I might not be able to control the summoned creature." I warned seriously as I looked at the others nearby.
"Your concern for your fellow students is good but do you really think I'd make such a demand if I wasn't fully prepared to deal with it potentially going off the rails?" he asked sternly.
"I suppose not. Fine but be ready." I conceded the point before standing up and holding out my right hand.