- See also: Phylactery
Codex text
A phylactery is a vessel, often a glass vial, containing the essence of a magical being. The Circle of Magi and the Chantry use small phylacteries filled with blood—taken from apprentice magi—to track down mages that turn apostate to flee the wrath of the templars.
Before an apprentice passes his Harrowing, his phylactery is kept at his home Circle Tower. Phylacteries of first enchanters are stored in the White Spire, an Orlesian Circle and the Templar Order stronghold. Vials belonging to legal, yet powerful and controversial mages are kept in carefully hidden caches in remote locations. For anyone but a member of the Chantry, tracking one down is all but impossible—quite literally like trying to find a needle in a hay farm.