Wish magic

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Wish magic, also known as wishcraft, is a form of magic in which reality itself is remade to suit the wishes of its wielder and is among the most powerful forms of magic. Wishes can make and unmake nations, ascend mortals to divinity and upend pantheons, and raise from death beings that otherwise cannot be resurrected.

Wish magic can be capricious in nature. Carelessly stated wishes can have unintended consequences, and utterly failed attempts can wreak havoc and entrap, curse, or destroy those who attempted to make it.

Among creatures

Certain creatures, such as genies and vespergaunts, can grant wishes.

Among genies

Genie shuyookhs of the Elemental Planes are particularly renowned for their ability to grant wishes to mortals as often as thrice per year, though each type of genie implements such wishes in distinct ways, sometimes counter to mortal desires. These powers of shuyookhs are derived from the ancient knowledge of the janns, all of whom can grant wishes. However, summoned genies refuse to grant wishes.

• Faydhaan shuyookhs of the Plane of Water attempt to please as many people as possible in a diplomatic manner when granting wishes.
• Ifrit shuyookhs of the Plane of Fire are the most pedantic, with a cruel tendency to grant the wish with the most suffering possible.
• Jaathoom shuyookhs of the Plane of Air use visions of the future to influence how they grant wishes.
• Jabali shuyookhs of the Plane of Earth are the most straightforward and economical wish granters among genie-kind.
• Unlike other types of genie, all janns can grant wishes, not only shuyookhs. They do so in ways that encourage the requester to explore and improve themselves.
• Kizidhar shuyookhs of the Plane of Wood grant wishes to mortals in ways that are most likely to also benefit themselves. They particularly enjoy seeding ideas for wishes that they want to grant and improving the wish's contents with elements unique to each kizidhar shuyookh.
• Zuhra shuyookhs of the Plane of Metal are mercurial in their wish-granting, and the results are often inherently unstable or temporary. They often use their long isolation from the rest of the multiverse as an excuse to wildly misinterpret requested wishes.

While most genies can fail, if rarely, in their attempts to grant wishes, janns always succeed. Many genie wish granters prefer to redistribute existing objects or materials when granting wishes over creating new matter, and are more likely to reward (or avoid corrupting) simple, modest wishes over those that would reshape broad swaths of reality.

The minor genies known as gennayns can reshape fate and reality in minor ways and within close proximity of themselves using wish magic. Mortal geniekin descendants of genie shuyookhs do not inherit wishcraft, though some retain enough of a spark of wish magic to affect minor, temporary changes that they wish into existence, such as miraculously repairing a mundane mechanism.

In spells and rituals

For mortals, wish magic most often takes the form of the wish ritual, which requires tremendous expertise and as much as 100,000 gold pieces of wealth for a single attempt. The ritual can draw the attention of powerful forces, including deities, to attempt to disrupt the ritual since no power in the multiverse can reverse its result.

In magic items

Very powerful artifacts, such as the Moon card from a deck of many things or a ring of recalcitrant wishes, can grant wishes, though such items often bear conditions on their use and are consumed or depleted when used.

Wish alchemy

The legendary alchemist Artokus Kirran developed a wish magic-infused form of alchemy that bottles the power of an arcane magic spell.

Wishborn creatures

Some poppets are animated through a wish, and such poppets bear a hopeful outlook that makes them more emotionally resilient.

Wishwarps

Wish magic involves powerful reality-altering forces, and many wishes granted in a short span of time and space can result in reality becoming locally unstable. Such phenomena are known as wishwarps and can manifest as light, sound, and other senses behaving unusually and spellcasting having wildly unpredictable outcomes.

On Golarion

Wish magic was in part responsible for the destruction of Tar-Baphon during the Shining Crusade, when he wished for the heart of General Arnisant to be transported into his hand. The Shield of Aroden blocked the spell but was destroyed in the process; however, a shard of the shield became embedded in Tar-Baphon's hand and consumed him in holy fire.

Some constructs and dolls have become living, breathing, mortal creatures through wish magic.

Other parts of Golarion have been shaped by wish magic, including:

• Kelesh, whose line of Padishah Emperors have maintained their rule through the use of bound genies' wishcraft
• Castle Everstand, which was wished into existence by Sergeant Strom Gauntwood after he drew a Moon card from a deck of many things while facing an orc invasion from the Hold of Belkzen on 17 Arodus 4517 AR
• Pale Mountain, which erupted in 4709 AR when the ifrit prince Jhavul was interrupted during his granting of the thousandth wish required to awaken Xotani
• Dustpawn, on which the vespergaunt Emissary from Beyond used wish magic to prepare as the site of its arrival to Golarion in 4713 AR
• the lair of the red dragon Vorathadyn, transported by a genie-granted wish into a demiplane along with a dwarven mine