MatHaz
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Spatial Items
🕑 Added 2023-03-08 12:00:05 +0000 UTCSpatial items have been there since nearly the beginning of the story, but they are also one of the things I have spoken about least. Understandably, there have been a few questions about them, so I thought I’d tackle them in this post.
Rarity
Let’s start with this. How rare are spatial items? How common is it for someone to own one?
Spatial Items are decently expensive, so they’re not things just about anyone will have. In a small city, most clans and schools probably won’t have one. The top Sects will have a few, and the local Young Master might carry one around to show off his status.
In the Eternal Flame Clan, they are significantly more common. For example, (and I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I’m almost positive I have) Lu Mei has a spatial ring that she uses to store her flying carpet.
If you have enough money, you can buy them in most major cities.
Types
Technically, any item can be enchanted to be a spatial item. It’s really a matter of preference. Rings are pretty popular nowadays, especially among younger cultivators who want to look fashionable. It’s also harder to lose a ring than it is to lose a small pouch.
Pouches are considered a bit old-fashioned, but they have advantages over other items. Since they are items meant to store things, they are easier to enchant.
Not all spatial items can store the same number of objects. Actually, let’s talk about that next.
Holding Capacity
I originally planned to name the spatial items by how much you could put inside them. For example, 10-Item Spatial Ring, 100-Item Spatial Hat, etc. Felt like a bit too much to type every time, though.
A “common” spatial item can store about ten items. There are some restrictions of mass and what exactly counts as “one item,” but let’s keep things simple: Average spatial item = Ten Inventory Slots.
You can, in theory, put one spatial item inside another, but the holding item’s capacity must be big enough for it. A spatial item never occupies just one inventory slot. A Ten-Item Spatial Ring will occupy ten inventory slots in whatever spatial item you store it.
Liu Jin’s pouch is very old and very high quality. It can store a lot of stuff. A lot. It also preserves whatever you store inside it, which is not always a feature spatial items have. That brings us to the next subject.
Spatial Enchantments
Very hard to do and, unfortunately, a discipline that doesn’t translate well to combat (very lucrative, though). Spatial enchantment can take days, weeks, and even months, depending on the skill of the artisan. They also don’t last forever.
Imagine a spatial enchantment as making a house of cards. You can make a nice house of cards. You can put glue on it to make sure everything sticks together, but sooner later, that house is going to fall.
The more complex the enchantment, the harder it is to make it last. This is why most spatial items only have ten slots. Less complex enchantments tend to last longer. Most of the time, artisans are trying to find compromises between quality and longevity. Someone might be able to make you a nice bag that holds a hundred items and preserves them indefinitely, but it might last you one month at most.
Spatial Enchantments in Other Things
Certain places, like the Five Blessings Auction House, are noted to be larger than on the inside. This is another type of spatial enchantment. It’s similar to what is done to spatial items, but not quite the same. It's like... a sibling discipline? A cousin?
Yep, a cousin. That works.
Anyway, each type represents a different set of challenges.
Also, and this is important, storing things inside souls is not related to spatial enchantments at all. Just making that clear.
Storing Humans
You can put corpses into most spatial items. Depending on the quality, they might decompose eventually, but you can put them there.
Storing a live human or animal is a bit harder. I mean, you can put them there, but you might not want them running around. Who knows what they’d do? They might even get out.
Also, depending on how strong they are, they might cause the enchantments to fail. That can get really messy.
Comments
Mat Haz
Thanks!
burning_the_paper
I just wanted to say thanks for all these lore explanation posts. I really appreciate you going the extra mile to explain the world and making it feel even more concrete and real.
Thewizzardpineapple
I’m imagining that Old Jiang’s pouch is like a 100k item pouch, worked over by a bunch of people with time and durability Daos to make sure that thing will last…not forever, but damn close?
