Sources of Arcane Power

The usage of arcane glyphs and diagrams to power a wide variety of occult rituals.
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nobody
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Sources of Arcane Power

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I have lore questions. Kind of. I have been trying to develop a deeper understanding of arcana in part to have the knowledge, but also in part to make better suggestions. Lately I have been perpetually finding that I need more knowledge before I can logic more things out. From my observations, I believe that the glyphs used in arcana are powerful in and of themselves (mostly because studying them causes sanity loss and they're carved up on sturdy metal plates rather than produced more cheaply from clay or wood or just written on paper). To embrace my inner bad scholar, they seem magical. Anomalum chalk is also powerful. I'm trying to figure out what each contributes. As a character, the way I would pursue that is drawing complete occult diagrams (circle, line, activator glyph, effect glyph) with a stick of writing charcoal or plain limestone chalk, carving them in stone or wood, shaping them with clay, or trying to metalcast them. I fully expect that they wouldn't be able to be activated. I also expect that studying them in that way would have potential for danger. I would probably also experiment with drawing non-occult figures with anomalum chalk. With those, I fully expect that nothing would happen, but I'd also try to be cautious enough to not lose an arm. Which activity, drawing occult diagrams with limestone chalk or drawing non-diagrams with anomalum chalk, if either, would result in feeling drained as I would with drawing occult diagrams properly? Is the anomalum chalk a power source, or a catalyst, or something else entirely? What power do the glyphs have, if any, when written or carved using other media? I cannot actually do these experiments in character, but I'd happily accept any consequences for such dabbling if it came with some more knowledge.

I was wondering about these things this morning when I happened across this: "Its bones are surprisingly clean and smooth, many of them etched with tiny glyphs." and I thought, "Is that arcana? Those are bones, not chalk golems." (anomalum chalk golems are a terrifying idea BTW) So, I ask, is this arcana? Is this not arcana?

As a semi-related tangent, I'm curious about whether anomalum chalk is made (is it chalk that is enchanted?) or discovered (are there anomalum chalk mines somewhere with VERY brave miners extracting whole blocks that are carved down to sticks?)? I'm not going to ask to be able to make my own (I understand it's a riln sink), nor would I ask to mine my own. I'm not the only person who is ever going to play this game though, so I also understand if you don't want to touch this question, ten-foot pole or otherwise.
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Rias
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Re: Sources of Arcane Power

Post by Rias »

(We talked about this stuff in the Friday voicechat, but I'm posting the answers here for anyone who wasn't able to attend.)
As a character, the way I would pursue that is drawing complete occult diagrams (circle, line, activator glyph, effect glyph) with a stick of writing charcoal or plain limestone chalk, carving them in stone or wood, shaping them with clay, or trying to metalcast them. I fully expect that they wouldn't be able to be activated.
Correct. The glyphs and diagrams produced in such a way wouldn't work, and they likely would end up looking wonky as well, and not in their full or true forms. Apparently anomalum chalk does something to help accurately translate the glyph's form from your mind to a physical surface. Those tricky glyphs really seem to not want to be committed to physical records. Someone figured a way out at one point though, evidenced by the glyph plates in the Library. Alas, that was before the Plague and the secret method has been lost.
I was wondering about these things this morning when I happened across this: "Its bones are surprisingly clean and smooth, many of them etched with tiny glyphs." and I thought, "Is that arcana? Those are bones, not chalk golems." (anomalum chalk golems are a terrifying idea BTW) So, I ask, is this arcana? Is this not arcana?
This is something you'll have to speculate on for yourself. Is this some form of arcana that someone devised to work in a non-digram way? Is it purely aesthetic? Is it something else? The skeletons certainly aren't talking about it.
As a semi-related tangent, I'm curious about whether anomalum chalk is made (is it chalk that is enchanted?) or discovered (are there anomalum chalk mines somewhere with VERY brave miners extracting whole blocks that are carved down to sticks?)?
No means of producing new anomalum chalk is currently known - or if someone does know, they're not sharing. Characters can assume the chalk they buy is taken from stores and stockpiles found in the ruins of Aetgard. Rumor has it there was quite a lot discovered in the stores of the Library of Qamar. Perhaps someone in pre-apocalypse Aetgard knew how to produce it, or maybe -they- were finding stockpiles of it themselves. It's a deliberate IC mystery. I'll likely be adding anomalum chalk to the loot system to further enforce this idea.
<Rias> PUT ON PANTS
<Fellborn> NO
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