Burnt on Glyphs

[Nikodemus]

animal fur

You might feel thats nitpicking but do keep in mind that hair and so also fur is dead material. This would limit it to enkidukai and none of the other races.

But you do realise a fur is not a single object? ^^
Or are you saying that a glyph fits inside a single... "hair" (what is the damn word? ;P) Tiny. Also, it would fall appart when the "hair" would grow, as the "glyph carrier" must be very durable, as we know that destroying it we have explossion. I thought it is easy to figure out.
I also suppose such glyphs would be painfull, especially at childhood, as while the rest of the body grows, the glyph carried doesn't.

Or you mean't a pile of "hairs" ? But what if one of the "hairs" fall appart? Glyph carrier must be one object.

[Cyl]

I have come to think. If carrying glyphs at your body works, it might work just as well to hold them inside your body. I actually see no reason why embedding glyphs with the help of some kind of "medical" operation. The only things that speak against it would be heavy loss of blood as well as a (probably) pretty high mortality rate.

[/nonsensualstatement]

[Atomica]

animal fur

You might feel thats nitpicking but do keep in mind that hair and so also fur is dead material. This would limit it to enkidukai and none of the other races.

But you do realise a fur is not a single object? ^^
Or are you saying that a glyph fits inside a single... "hair" (what is the damn word? ;P) Tiny. Also, it would fall appart when the "hair" would grow, as the "glyph carrier" must be very durable, as we know that destroying it we have explossion. I thought it is easy to figure out.
I also suppose such glyphs would be painfull, especially at childhood, as while the rest of the body grows, the glyph carried doesn't.

Or you mean't a pile of "hairs" ? But what if one of the "hairs" fall appart? Glyph carrier must be one object.

The hairs could be glued together with enamel or some kind of gooey concoction, to make it like a hard surface. But that doesn't seem very natural...

And Niko makes a good point about the initial topic - if you tatoo a glyph onto yourself, what happens when your skin sags or stretches, and the glyph is distorted?

[/nonsensualstatement]

You just keep telling yourself that...

[ThomPhoenix]

Since when can you tatto glyphs onto yourself?
The fact that you put a picture of a glyph symbol onto your skin doesn't mean it'll get magical all of a sudden.
You wouldn't be able to use it anyway, you need to use a glyph stone.

If I'm wrong I will tattoo one huge energy glyph onto my body, making me incredibly powerful...

[Kaithro]

Sorry for not reading the whole thread before posting, just adding my own two trias here.  Basically, I think the issue of pickpocketing glyphs could be mitigated by making the glyph bags soul-bound so that they cannot be taken off the owner's body. 

[bilbous]

It could be as I suggested that naturally or artificially created replicas of the symbol might give a small susceptibility or resistance to that glyph's effect. The determination of which might be discovered by herbalist or alchemical lore as the plants and unliving materials may have such properties innately, thus if you tattoo that energy glyph on your skin with the wrong type of ink you might become more affected by such spells cast at you because the herb it was derived from is susceptible to that way of magic. I suppose it all depends on how involved the devs want to make the system.

[Nikodemus]

You wouldn't be able to use it anyway, you need to use a glyph stone.

People, why it has to be repeated. It has been said more than this, that you need a good carrier and such a carrier isn't some kind of weird herb, but stone strong stone.
What was said is possible, are glyphs, which naturally appeared in some person body, like they could appear in/on tree or rock. Why the heck do you disrespect what has been said and continue writing about some tatoos?

[bilbous]

Well if all magical power comes from glyphs then what place is there for magic-like effects from herbology or alchemy? Are these things really not connected somehow? Besides that I was not talking about being able to cast any spells from tattoos I was talking about some conceivable SLIGHT effect of the symbol. Why are people so hostile to suggestions? Just because there is no effect now and no current plans for any effect does not mean that three years down the road the idea will not become more attractive and even if it never gets adopted what difference does that make? Perhaps it will provoke a way of thinking about some other subject that will get adopted.

Is this place really all about politics and who schmoozes who?

If there is absolutely no residual effect then I am going to paint every empty surface with representations of every known glyph and a description of its use and its power. What is to prevent me from this?

[ThomPhoenix]

If you take a pen.
And draw a lightning symbol onto your forehead.
Why would that enable you to cast lightning?
Makes no sense to me, there's no "transfer" of magic power in any way.
Just a drawing on your head.

And Herbology/Alchemy is NOT magic!

Herbology says that because of combining certain herbs and plant extracts you can create healing potions or example. Just like in real life some antidotes are created from plants, there doesn't have to be magic involved.

Alchemy is metallurgy, combining all kinds of metals in strange ways and even more complicated processes to eventually create the philosopher's stone. It also focuses on the elixir of life. It's just chemics but with fantasy results. No real magic has to be involved either.

[bilbous]

Sure I never suggested that drawing a symbol on your head would allow you to cast anything. What I was trying to suggest was something akin to a hint or suggestion of the power of the glyph. I tried to make it clear that yes indeed the power resides in the magical item itself and all spellcasting requires the actual item itself. Can the symbol itself not have some vestigial effect? Some marginal echo of the effect that occurs when the god has infused it with his power to produce the actual magic item used to cast spells with. It is sort of like what happens when you blow your speakers, no matter how much power you put through them all you get is a faint tinny suggestion of what you would hear if they were functioning properly.
I guess the reason I am belaboring this point is that I see no real understanding of what I am talking about just a blanket dismissal. Perhaps that is just me misunderstanding the responses or not being able to articulate the subtleties of my thinking. I'll try to let it go now, wish me luck

[Nikodemus]

I think alchemy is mainly about chemistry, while I agree herbology has nothing to do with magic. I believe alchemy does, because like you say Thom, alchemists tried to make philosophers stones, life elixirs, turn lead - Pb into gold - Au and so on. But they never managed it. With time alchemy turned in chemistry and there is rarely someone who believe these failed experiments and attempts are possible at all. But different alchemy experiments may as well have nothing to do with magic
In fantasy worlds like PS, where magic is present, it is also part of alchemy. Like in healing potions. There is no purely chemical substance, which would regenerate strenghts so fast, like the healing potions do. But i would like to note there, that alchemy is still very different than magic purely from the glyphs. For example I believe the strenghts regeneration process after drinking a potions, shouldn't be as fast as effect of casted spell. There are number of differencies, which should bo present, to clearly distinct alchemy from the ways of magic.

Bilbous is asking a good question about the source of magic in alchemy products. It has originated from use of glyphs in some way for sure. But claiming that with use of alchemy you can extract a glyph from nature to your body is fragile theory. Like it was said, to extract a glyph, you need a carrier. How to say it... a skin may not be a carrier. It is not durable enough. It gets damaged too easly. And you should know what happens if a glyphs gets destroyed.
What you could do, to make your beloved tatoo, is to put the carrier with glyph undewr your skin, like it was suggested. Then make some nice drawing around and done. But i don't know if you would enjoy it^^ especially possible death from infection.

[bilbous]

That is still not quite what I am trying to get at, let me try another analogy from real life. Think of one othose holographic plates, if you look at it it is flat but you might be able to see some shapes but if you shine a laser of the proper wavelength then you get a three dimensional image to spring up into the air. So to bring my analogy back to Planeshift, the symbol is like the holographic plate, the magical Glyph that is used to cast spells with is the three dimensional image and the laser that makes it all possible is Talads will. Without "Talads will" all you have is a hint of the possibility.

And now I have to go to work, booo!  I really am just trying to understand the system and "just because" is kind of unsatisfying but may be all there is.

[Nikodemus]

So, you make a tatoo, which is somehow supposed to do the same thing as Glyph (it can't be a glyph, because a glyph you can normally use is something found in nature and rafined into a powefull and durable substance, like stone - this has been told in Q&A) and then Talad need to want you to be able to use it like a glyph. If Talad doesn't want it at some time, you can do sh*t.
Nice theory and good luck with understanding the system. Only i think you would already understand it, if you have reed the Q&A

[Parallo]

Alchemy in the traditional roleplaying sence(eg. mortar and pestle, some leaves and hey presto a potion!) cannot be magical. Its all about chemistry and plant biology. The traits of the potions are a direct effect of the combination of its ingredients. There is no magic about it.

[ThomPhoenix]

* ThomPhoenix points up and nods.