Thread:Faenor of the Silver Laurel/@comment-26210095-20160808173151/@comment-26444332-20160809010217

A Familiar is only used by Summoners, which are always Half-elven in origin and therefore almost always Arcadian. They can be anything (they don't even have to be alive; a brick could technically be your Familiar) and are chosen by the Summoner, who makes a pact with the spirit, creature, and/or object. The amount of Familiars you can control is directly tied to how many magic circles you can summon, as well as the problem of making the pact in the first place. So most Summoners only ever have one, but the most known Familiars (the person in question could very well have more, as they can generate a hundred and forty-four circles) possessed by a single person is sixty-four.

Generally, Familiars enhance a Summoner's magic simply by being in the area, an extra reservoir of magic for them to draw on at need. Special properties are usually dictated by the nature of the Familiar (for instance, a brick wouldn't have any special properties, while an animal can fight for you and a spirit or even a goddess can do quite a bit more). Most Familiars are spirit animals, but there have been known instances where major gods have been bound into a pact.