Eternal Flame

Before the ritual begins, place the sconce on the ground in the shrine, fill it with small amount of alcohol and ignite it.

Pick up the sconce and Invoke the Yang while adding more alcohol to the sconce. Six successes needed on an Accuracy roll with Firetending to bring the size of the flame up to the desired intensity and then a Yang roll with Magical Ritual.

Invoke the Yin while adjusting the configuration of the sconce (angle of flanges, air intakes, etc) to produce a smooth-burning, uniform cone of flame. Six successes needed on a Dexterity roll with Sleight of Hand/Sculpting and then a Yin roll with Magical Ritual.

This gives direct connections to the flame and the sconce, which should be sufficient for a ritual of this size.

The ritualist holds the sconce for the duration of the ritual.

The actions and elements then signify the creation and eternity of the flame:

1. Creation of Metal: Assemble the metal stand (parts are preplaced) that will hold the sconce inside the shrine. [The stand must have been designed and the parts created earlier with at least 3 successes in metalworking/smithing.] Three successes on sculpture, metalworking or engineering are needed. The stand has a set of triangle-shaped slots on its sides to hold a set of 6 small gems (see next step). The ritualist continues to hold the sconce in one hand during the rest of the ritual. (This reduces Creation a bit, but because metal is now a bit light, the plan is to get the Finger on the Balance schtick to adjust the metal part back up to balance with the other elements.)
2. Seeking of Earth: Start with a preplaced wooden bucket, filled with water, a large number of stones and 6 gems in a trilliant cut. The ritualist must pull out six and only six objects (the 6 gems) without looking in the bucket by determining/feeling the correct shapes. He then puts the gems into the slots. Six successes on some sort of reasoning/deduction skill or some perception (touching) skill. The remaining stones are piled around the base of the metal stand.
3. Transformation of Water: Sprinkle droplets of water from the bucket on the flame and boil them away without extinguishing it. Six successes on cooking to boil away all the water.
4. Destruction of Wood: Break off bits of wood from the bucket and feed them to the flame to have them destroyed by it. Six successes on woodcarving to burn away all the wood.

To complete the ritual, the ritualist kneels before the holder and places the sconce in its final configuration. The Yang energy rises up into the sconce and is used to power the flame and the Yin energy goes down into and is grounded through the ritualist as damage.

Experiment

Different Gem Shapes

2 points (Earth)

Of the ones you've tried, marquise is best.

Ritual Hints

• It would be good to make the invoking the Yang and Yin steps more strongly Yang and Yin-ish. Those are the weakest correspondences. (Puttering from 4/2-4/16)

• A re-lighting "Eternal Flame" also wants some Creation in it. It's still mostly Control for not requiring fuel, but the re-lighting step is creation-y. So making the Creation step a bit lesser than the others would be good. (Puttering from 4/16-4/30)

• You want an explicit step that soaks the Yin. (Puttering from 4/30 - 5/14)

• Actually, a trilliant is probably an ideal shape, for the fire/triangle symbology (Different Gem Shapes experiment)