Alter Aeon The Great Library

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Note - as with any topic, researchers should question the reliability
and veracity of these texts.  The library's aim is to preserve
documents, not verify accuracy.

AABN:  16031
Title: a book entitled, 'The Mysticism of Dentine'

The Mysticism of Dentine

a treatise on dental magic

by Goldmoon, High Priestess of Bobcat

A tiny portion of the god Dentin dwells within each of us.  This power is
found within the dentine of our teeth.  Dentine is the calcified tissue
usually covered by enamel on the crown of the tooth and separated by
cementum from the pulp.  Dentine mostly consists of the mineral
hydroxylapatite.

Dentine is a ranges from a dark yellow to a ivory white.  (This is why
Dentin's priests typically wear white or yellow in emulation of the
material.)  Being our connection to the divine, it is, along with our
blood, a catalyst for our life force, that is the spiritual transmission
that animates our bodies.

In order to take advantage of this hidden power, a tooth must be cautiously
extracted from the jaw of a recently-deceased creature.  Care must be taken
to keep the odontoblast intact.  The odontoblast is responsible for
dentinogenesis and is the focus of life force within a tooth.  The enamel
and pulp may be harvested, but these materials are ignored by any dental
spell cast upon the tooth.

Not every tooth is a candidate for dental magic.  In some cases, especially
in wild species of living organisms that do not practice dental hygiene,
the dentine is brittle and unsuitable for magic, the result of
dentinogenesis imperfecta.  The dentin of teeth that fall out naturally as
result of aging typically have damaged dentine.  Dentine that is so porous
that the the tunnels are visible to the naked eye are also poor candidates
for dental magic.  Likewise, the dentine of a living creature is also
unusable because the process of induration necessary for mana-stimulated
expansion does not occur until after a creature has died. Rarely, sentient
creatures, even fairly primitive humanoids such as orcs, will replace one
or more their teeth with a gold fascimile. These are understandably
unusable for necromantic magic, but they are worth extracting for the value
of the metal alone.