Glyphs and magic

[Kateel]

Hi everyone, I really enjoy the complexity of the magic disciplines in Mizahar. Each has a variety of different creative uses that can be tailored to individual players. A quick question about glyphs in relation to scrolls. Can a user make a scroll that focuses on centering their res in order to make spell casting faster and easier to do?

The idea behind it would be to have a trigger word that transfers the glyphs from the scroll to the feet of the caster which would then act as conduit for the caster. It would be similar to the caster drawing glyphs on his or her skin in order to further enhance their spell casting abilities. The enhancement would by no means allow the caster to cast above his or her skill level, but rather making it easier to produce res or focus res.

I also have a question regarding flux. The initial skill levels focus entirely on enhanced speed, strength, and agility. How would this work in relation to projection? As a projectionist could I use flux with parts of the astral body? For example, using a projected limb infused with flux in order to serve as a battering ram or produce a powerful punch? How would this effect her physical body once she reattached the limb?

[Clyde Sullins]

I'll do my best to answer, though bear in mind with magic that while perhaps the specific instance isn't possible, perhaps the end result or desired effect is possible in some other method. - As for sealing glyphs into a scroll, and then releasing those glyphs, I'm going to say no in general, at least with just personal or world magics. Unless the glyphs being stored are in some way magical constructs, ones that can somehow be applied to your body for instant focus glyphs, then they can't be stored. Normal objects can't be stored in glyphs, even if they've been enchanted or coated in magic, as they aren't totally djed based. Which means you'd either need to paint them onto your body the normal mundane way, or have a secondary means of making the glyphs out of a magical substance that can be applied to the skin. Which would likely either require some inventive uses of other magics or even gnosis. That being said, you could always just make a general ward or set up for focus on a scroll, and that could help, though I think you'd still be better off if you painted say the focus directly on your body and on where you wanted the magic to go. But laying out a focus ward set up and then attempting to cast magic over it, that would surely be easier than just casting without any glyph aids involved, even if not as good as body glyphs done before hand. Bear in mind though, glyphs in this capacity only act to aid with concentration and focus and ease of use. Its like trying to paint with a single hair, and someone handing you a paintbrush. You still use the same amount of paint, but your get it done quicker and neater, in general. Though you might use less paint if you stay inside the lines better with the better implement. Thats more or less how glyphs can work for aiding with personal magic, at least for focus aspects. - With using the flux and projection together, bear in mind the flux ONLY affects your physical body, which is done by redirecting djed within it, it doesn't enhance your astral body used in projection. So if you say used flux to make a arm stronger, and then used projection to project the same limb, you'd be left with a beefed up limb hanging limp and useless. So you can't throw beefed up projected attacks by fluxing first. Using flux is all about understanding and commanding your body, enhancing it and such yes but to become skilled in its use you must truly understand your body, its abilities, and its limits. Otherwise you'll end up ripping your own limbs out of their sockets, exploding muscles by overstraining them beyond their limit, and shattering your body by using it to apply more force than it can survive producing. In using projection you are taking your command of your body out of your body, by removing your astral body and directly using it to manipulate things. However, this doesn't mean that you can't use the flux and projection together. In fact, there is, or was, a nuit npc, who specialized in just this on Sahova. He would enhance himself with the flux, and then use his astral body to directly control his physical form in combat. Of course, he did this because he was a nuit, and nuit's bodies are sluggish and ill suited for combat compared to the living. He thus used this combo of magics to overcome this weakness of his race. I'm unsure if it would be worth it for a non-nuit with a normal body to learn this.