About magic ...

[Cyl]

News section of the PS main page
Thanks to the power of the Crystal, magic is easily found in Yliakum in form of glyphs. Another matter is mastering this art, complex and dangerous. Arcane lore is divided in six Ways of magic: Crystal, Dark, Blue, Azure, Red and Brown.

So the common believe that magic is only bound in form of Glyphs is wrong?

Is there another magical force out there? And what is it?[/COLOR]

[Xordan]

I think of the glyphs as a \'focus\' of the magic. You use them to gather all the magic around you and combine into spells. A bit like tools to do something

[Cyl]

Ahh, that explains quite a bit. Still the question occoures, what is the other option?

[druke]

i\'m with xordan

[wormking]

The other option might be like using other items like staffs, books, etc. to focus the magic on.

[Zan]

There is no other option.

What that piece of text means it is easy to find the glyphs but \"another matter\" or in other words harder to actually wield them.
The glyphs are only the first step towards being able to use magic. After you collected a glyph you need to purify it and then combine it in order to come up with a spell. Then you need to be trained with sufficient skill before being able to cast the spell efficiently.

So what they mean with that is the glyphs are easy to get but there is a lot more you need to do before you can use magic. There is no alternative source of magic besides glyphs.

[darkerdreams]

my understanding of that text comes from the skill descriptions for Argan, Esteria, and Lah\'ar...

[Under the moon]

There is another way if you read carefully. The power of the Glyphs come from Talad. But where, then does the power of Laanx\'s followers come from? Let\'s find out...

and he gave his people many powerful and useful things to brighten the cave and make the lake and its shores a place to live.

So Laanx has the ability to create objects of power that are not glyphs.

Laanx would control the pure and violent power of the Crystal.
While investigating, he became aware of two remarkable spells that were created in the neighborhood of the city.

A. Laanx draws power directly from the Crystal.
B. There are \'spells\' separate from the power of the Crystal and  the Glyphs.

When Laanx left Galeran, his eyes sparkled with mystic fury, and his body glittered of the chaotic power of raw magic.

Followers of Laanx may also be able to directly control the powers of the Crystal without the Glyphs.

[Cyl]

Ahh, thanks, I really should refresh my knowledge in Ylikean History,

[steuben]

interesting...

so gylphs are only the common facet of the powers of magic.

one interest question that forms is this. does using, what could be termed, the laanxian methodology, LaM, supercede the glyphs, or is it co-incident?

assuming it supercedes, could lam be used to change/twist a glyph\'s power while the glyph remains in its original shape? which, of course assumes that the shape of glyph is independant of the power it contains. that of course is a completly different question.

assuming it is co-incident, what is the base source for the magic? the crystal is the absolute source, at least locally. but, are there intervening layers of magical abstraction that can be applied before reaching the crystal. utilizing these layers of abstraction can other methodologies be developed? can other crystals be found/developed?

[Kwip]

Hmm, I find this idea of other magic sources intresting...

Though these inconsistencies might be explained by scribal error, or loss of meaning through translation.  One can not always trust in the trueness of what one reads.

Also what is to say that the objects Laanx gave his people to \"brighten the cave and make the lake and its shores\" were not glyphs?  And as for the gods dealing directly with magic, they probably are able to harness it through many objects that the sentients can not.

[Kiva]

Originally posted by steuben
assuming it is co-incident, what is the base source for the magic? the crystal is the absolute source, at least locally. but, are there intervening layers of magical abstraction that can be applied before reaching the crystal. utilizing these layers of abstraction can other methodologies be developed? can other crystals be found/developed?

Now to start with, I wouldn\'t exactly call the crystal a source of magic. It\'s more like an inhumanly big battery that absorbs energy inside itself and concentrates it to such a high level that we mortals can\'t play around with it anymore (it\'s classified as deadly radiation and it kills us, so we don\'t like to be close to it). Magic as it is, is anywhere and everywhere, but out in the open, magic is in complete balance with all the energy in the world, therefor we can\'t simply just go throwing around with it. We need these magic absorbing crystal-like items (glyphs, for example) to suck up sorrounding magic energy so we can use it for altering the world\'s physics, by doing our deadly magic tricks and such. Of course, \"magic energy\" is a wide term, and glyphs can only concentrate one kind of energy to a high enough level, which is why there are so many.

Theoretically, other kinds of glyph-like items should be developable, but the problem is just figuring out how to do it. If one should find out how the glyphcs actually do work, of course it might be possible to create glyphs that will be able to concentrate higher levels of power, or just more powers at the same time, to increase your deadlyness. Surely, it might also be possible to find a way to alter the physics without using any of these glyphs, but again, the question is \"how?\"...

[Phinehas]

Try this out. I wrote that \"IC\". My character\'s beliefs is that magic is not in need of a source, per se. It\'s more like \"the force\" from Star Wars. \"Magic\" is the manipulation of force, rather than the manipulation of matter. Of course, the two intersect, etc. etc. That\'s a discussion for another time. Anyway, my character believes that glyphs are for simply a collection of certain kinds of energy that make it simpler to manipulate forces. The manipulation is, however, possible without glyphs, hence the power of the \"gods\". Glyphs make energy manipulation \"safe\" and comprehendable for mortals.