I remember suggesting something about this a while ago, but it was within another post so I never got much light. I thought I\'d try to explain it in greater detail here.
Imbuning weapons and armor isn\'t anything new, but from my grand experience of many crappy mmorpg\'s who try to squeeze as many monthly payments out of you by disguising a cheap, time-consuming, ridiculously laborous process as an \"exciting weapon customization\" feature.
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I thought that if I bought me a longsword in Yliakum, (like I would in real life) not only would I want to stand out from the rest of the noobots, and the thousands of other swords that look just like mine. Also, it wouldn\'t be too hard for me to mosey on over to the blacksmith to have him tweak my sword up a bit. Method: Each weapon has a number of items that can be used to enhance the weapon. Some items most enhancements are cosmetic, though some more powefull items will enhance the attack and defensive power of a sword or armor. Some items may even add magical effects or stat modifiers to a person weilding/wearing them.
Each Weapon has up to three items that can be used on it. A character collects these items, then either using his/her/its armour/weaponsmithing skills, imbunes these items into their desired peice of equipment.
The difficulty of a procedure is based on the power of the weapon being altered and the rarity of the items being imbuned. (Most items are common, I will explain later)
Faliure, results in the weapon losing a few points of its durability again, depending on the difficulty of the procedure. ( I will explain more later)
Types of Weapons and Items: The three types of items are: Alloy, Inscription, and Stone.
These let you add three types of alterations to the weapon: Coating, Engraving and Jewel.
The blade is covered with the coating, it is also engraved, and a jewel is added to the pommel or hilt. It depends on the weapon. On bows for example, the engraving, jewel and coating is done throughout the bow.
For Shields and Armor, Stone and Jewel is replaced by Symbol and Emblem.
Each item can be found throughout Yliakum, most can be bought from stores. The more poweful, or interesting effects will be found by rarer, more expensive items found in dungeons or carried by the more powerful monsters.
Examples of each are:
Gold - Gives your weapon a fine gold coating (making it poisonous to certain residents of Yliakum.
Silver - Dittoness...with a silvery variation 
Damascus - A Rainbow-pattern adornes your weapon. Is not a precious metal.
Platina - Used in the holiest of weapons. This of course will make a very nasty anti-diabloi/deamon weapon.
Vow of Laanx - Curse said to be spoken from the lips of Laanx that was said to shatter stone. (Really Rare)
Talad\'s Oath - Oath of spiritual strength spoken by the most loyal worshippers of Talad. (Also Really Rare)
Polished Sapphaire - Grey-blue stone relatively valuable.
Rockbeast\'s Heart - Pusating, hardened crystal that seems to always be warm to the touch.
Iron Glyph - The universal symbol representing the whole of Yliakum. Things like Emblems and Engravings are rarer than the rest of the items, Emblems like the Iron Glyph would be more commonplace, as would Guild emblems (which could be submitted after a period of Guild activity)
Lets get to work: To actually get all these crazy things together, you must either be a swordsmith, armorer or a shield...making, person. I\'m not too sure about how this will work, but it shouldn\'t be too complicated.
Items + Weapon = Imbuned Weapons
You could just do it one at a time, but where\'s the fun in that? Each item counts as a seperate process.
Faliure is per item and again, is based on the difficulty. Faliure results in the weapons durability being reduced by a few points, but the items will not be destroyed (unless you\'re trying to do something, really, really difficult, then one is randomly lost)
Some Loose Ends: The items used in the imbuning process cannot be removed, but they can be replaced by other items.
Projectile weapons like shurkiens, throwing knives, throwing axes and the like, cannot be imbuned. ( I have my own crazy post for those
)
This only applies to metal items (with the exception of the emblem as it is sort of painted on.
Helmets fall under Armor, but can be jeweled like swords. All other pieces worn fall under Armor and those rules.
Yep...lalala...: I stress that most of the items (especially the rarer coatings) have some use, i.e. poison to a certain race, e.t.c. Its all about being a little different than Joe R. Noobert, or Ron B. Powergamer.
