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A curse was a powerful, negative magical effect placed upon a person, place, or object.[1][2][3]

Effects[]

Curses could have a wide variety effects, but often involved weakening, injuring, or thwarting the intentions of an afflicted individual[1][2][4] or destabilizing an afflicted item.[3]

In general, a curse was hard to remove. Only a handful of specialized spells—such as remove curse—could hope to remove even a weak curse. A more powerful curse needed great power to remove, if it was possible to remove at all.[1][2][3] The fancy stone tremair, when worn next to the skin, was believed to grant immunity from all magical curses.[5]

Types of Curses[]

Spell Curses[]

The most fundamental curse was the one created by the spell bestow curse.[1][2] Other common spell curses were bestow greater curse, curse water, geas/quest, hex, Laeral's crowning touch, and lesser geas.

Item Curses[]

Any mundane or magical item could become a cursed item, and pass that curse onto individuals who possessed the item. Often, this type of item was created as a trap by an individual, an accident, or the decay of time.[3][6]

Cursed weapons would bind themselves to a wielder, forcing them to fight to the death or otherwise preventing the wielder from getting rid of the weapon.[7]

Family Curses[]

This type of curse often started as one of the other types, but changed over time to affect the whole family of a cursed individual. In some rare cases, a powerful curse could be put on a whole family.[8]

Divine Curses[]

This type of curse was inflicted on a person, place or thing in accord with a god's ethos. They were always powerful and often spectacular.[9] A primary example was the Curse of Mystra, which afflicted any individual who willfully copied the sigil of a mage with the intent to impersonate that mage.[10]

Undeath[]

The existence of undead was sometimes considered a curse on life.[11]

Warlock's Curses[]

Some warlocks had the ability to bestow minor curses onto their foes in battle, which made the afflicted targets more vulnerable to the warlock's attacks and magics.[4]

Appendix[]

References[]

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