Wizard Hat

While wizards hats are widely assumed to be a stylistic choice by the wizards, this is far from the truth, in fact they have a vitally important purpose. These hats are hand crafted by the wizards themselves and personalised for their own unique purposes. Some may use it to channel their powers, storage for useful items, or even as a writing material for important knowledge. Wizards hats are an vital part of a wizard's life, and without them their powers and memory is limited.

The Making of the Hat

It is difficult to explain how a wizard makes their hat, even assuming that the method is the same or similar for each wizard. These hats are made from whatever material the wizard has on hand, whether it be metal, cloth, wood, or sometimes paper, usually a combination of them all. The construction also depends on the type of wizard, with Artificers assembling a complicated metal hat with moving parts and complex internal mechanisms, while Collectors make it out of whatever they have available in their collection, and Historians and Scholars prefer a more simple design that is perfect for storing knowledge. As the wizard ages, so does the hat, with additional pieces being constantly added, eventually looking like something that has no right to exist, much less sit stable on the wizard's head. This is due to the wizard runes written into the very fabric of the hat, holding it together, and allowing it to exist beyond the natural laws. For this reason, the making of these hats is a very lengthy and tiring process that can take many months, even years, to create a simple base to build out from.

A wizard will begin to manufacture their hat at the end of their apprenticeship, signifying them becoming a fully grown wizard. Their mentor will give them the basics on how to start the crafting, however it is up to the wizard to discover the intricacies and design of their own wizard hat. This forces the wizard to leave the comfort of their home and go out to explore the world in an attempt to find how their hat is made. After this, a wizard will rarely return to their mentor even once their hat is made, instead finding or building their own tower for their studies and collections.

How are they Used?

The main purpose of a wizard hat is to provide additional mental storage for the wizard, allowing them more knowledge and therefore more power. It is unknown how exactly the hat achieves this, but runes are known to be able to stretch the boundaries of time and space. This can also be seen with the other uses of the hat, with there being more items stored in the folds of the hat then there can logically be, and these said items do not appear to be very heavy, spill over, or get crushed. Wizards have been known to produce intact bottles of ink and quills from a previously flat fold of their hat if they find something needing to be written down. Anyone that puts on the wizard hat does it at their own risk as their mind is not equipped to handle that amount of knowledge without breaking.

Illegal Usage

Given that each wizard only ever has one wizard hat, they are very hard to come across, much less being able to purchase one of them. If someone does manage to obtain a wizard hat, the only way to sell it would be on the black market as the hats are considered part of the wizard, meaning they should be remain with them at all time, even in death. Wizards are also psychically linked to their hats from the amount of runes and power they put into creating it, so the hat must be locked away securely to prevent it from being taken back. However, due to the connection between a wizard and his hat, if someone managed to retain the hat, then they would have a leash on the wizards actions. Despite being highly illegal, it is suspected that this is how high mages in Ethra use wizards for their own gain.