Item enchantment

The process of item enchantment involved the casting of various spells to imbue an ordinary item with magical properties.

Process
In the broadest sense, the steps to create a magical or enchanted item were the design, experimentation and refinement of a process that would create the desired results. By extension, there was no singular way to create any specific magical item. Even the most simple of enchanted items had a number of different methods to its construction.

Design
The first step in crafting a magical item was an initial plan for its function. The mage would research which spells would be necessary to create the desired magical effects in the item being enchanted. The selection of which spells would be most appropriate was never clear-cut, especially this early in the process. An inappropriate choice of spells could prematurely doom an otherwise well-thought-out design.

Along with the suitable spells, the focal stones would also be selected and prepared at this stage. These stones were clear or translucent gem stones, to which had been the target of the 5th level mage spell of the same name. This would prepare them to hold the magic representative of the item's desired effects.

Primary casting
After the desired spells and focal stones had been gathered, the two were linked via dweomerflow spells. This may have been done by the enchanting mage, or outsourced to another spellcaster. The transference of magical energy from the spell to the focal stone occurred either through the caster, from their well of known spells, or directly from another item, using the caster as a bridge.

This differentiation depended on whether the target of dweormerflow was a spellcaster or a magical item. In the case of a targeted spellcaster, it created a resonance field that caused the caster's next spell to have no outward effect and rather flow into the focal stone. When a magical item was targeted, it would transfer its stored spell through the caster and into the focal stone.

The spell abeyance was then cast on the focal stones to ensure the enchantments were held within. The spell magic could only be released, or transferred to another item, via a few other alteration spells. Many enchanters would have scores of focal stones in this state of the process, waiting for months or years until they had the knowledge and resources to fully implement the design of their magical items.

Shell creation
Once the focal stones had been created, the physical form of the item had to be planned and accounted for. If the planned item was to be struck with permanency it was pertinent that the majority of item be comprised of more inorganic material, such as stone, metal or gems, than organic material. The exceptions to this were a few select species of wood native to Faerûn and bone material used in necromantic enchantments. The types of woods that lent themselves to enchantment were oak, ash, thorn, blueleaf, calantra, duskwood, felsul, hiexel, laspar, phandar, shadowtop, silverbark, suth, vundwood, weirwood and zalantar. It was ideal that the wood be gathered from living trees, or to have them entirely felled, by silver-bladed implements.

The main inorganic compounds within the non-magical item would ideally have been exposed to the same type of magic as the properties possessed by the finished enchanted product. If that wasn't possible, they should have at least been soaked in tinctures of substances that have been affected by the desired magical, or naturally-occurring analogous, powers.

Similarly, the organic compounds of a future magical item.

Side effects
The process of imbuing magic into items took a toll on the body and mind of a spellcaster. The drain on their fortitude with spells like permanency was exceptionally harmful. Due to this, mages who spent too much time crafting magical items have been known to become distant, withdrawn and mentally unstable, while their physical appearance took on a blurred, or shadowy appearance. This is known as spell hollowing. If any mage who had this effect came across the wrong combination of magic they could transform into a wizshade