The 24 Hosts are twenty-four candles of invocation, two per zodiac sign, the stakes of the Game of Shadows over the twelve platforms of Antiterra; burning one opens a door through which a platform guardian descends.
| Spanish entry | Las 24 hostias — velas de invocación |
Properties
- Burning one summons its house’s guardian and binds it to the world, “closing” the house. Two burned in one square summon two powers at once (the Double Invocation before Notre Dame).
- They come in white and black, opposites made in one act; “they used to be gray”, says the sage of Montbron (see White and Black Hosts).
- Eating one causes consubstantiation: when Magda did so in the tower, a beam of light liquefied the stone and holed the wall.
History
- Paris arc (1717 A.D.A.) — the hosts are won and lost at Host Poker, wagered as cosmic chips until someone holds all or everyone withdraws.
- Siege of the Tower of Heva — Queen Eva hoarded twelve black and received four white; with those in play and those the liberators held, the count came to twenty-four.
- Closing of the platforms (New York, 1784 A.D.A.) — the last, 24th host seals the cage of the black butterfly.
They are distinct from the singular original Host that names the saga, marked by the Call of Guilt and pursued by the Arkane Society.