Glyphs

Glyphs are powerful symbols that some scholars (particularly the collectors known as glyph scribes) believe are a remnant of the long lost First Language or the language of the Gods. Each glyph is a geometric form much like a word, and like our words consist of letters, glyphs consist of curves and lines, angles and points.

A glyph has the power to shape reality. Just scribbling a glyph on a surface is not enough to unlock its power, but a process known as binding is required. This often takes the form of a ritual where the glyph is usually branded or carved into the target object or creature. The rite of binding always requires the glyph to be drawn with human blood. This ritual is taxing on the binder, draining the binder's energy and willpower, and most glyph scribes only bind about one glyph per month, and never perform the act of binding lightly.

Glyphs are hard to translate, and often contain convoluted and alien ideas and themes. They seem to have a limited sentience, increasing with the power of the glyph. People who have taken multiple or particularly powerful glyphs as tattoos or brands always seem to inevitably have their personalities corrupted by the glyphs' will. Doubly troubling is the fact that glyphs seem almost impossible to remove, once bound.

In game terms, each Glyph is a Dark Power. Furthermore, no glyph is simple or without side-effects. For example, one of the most popular glyphs of fire is the Glyph of Burning Wrath (aka "an all-consuming flame of undying hatred"), which tends to bring the ones marked by it back from the dead as Ember Wraiths; soot black corpses with an unquenchable rage towards the living.