As Nabiki wandered over to look at some of the dragonmarks, Ranma started looking at some nearby displays. He scratched his head in befuddlement at some of the strange and unintelligible designs. He noticed one such design, simple, clean, and elegant, that was pleasing to look at.
“I see you’re looking at the Sigil of Fleetness.” The low voice of the garden gnome called up from next to his waist.
“Huh? What’s a sigil?” Ranma looked down to the gnome in confusion.
“Ahh. Well, you see, this section showcases sigils and runes. They are symbolic representations of eldritch manifestations, idealogical concepts, and ancient entities.” At the confused look on Ranma’s face, Toltiir added, “They give you the abilities that they represent.”
“Oh! Like the gemstones can give me, say, nightvision or some kind of radar sense.”
“Well, yes, kinda, except that gemstones can be removed but these are permanently marked into your skin, and these tattoos are not restricted by how much power a person can conduct. They tend to be far more universal in application then a gemstone. Not everything granted by a gemstone has a corresponding sigil and the vice versa is also true. There is no tattoo that can give you dark vision or a radar sense. But, you were correct with your arbitrary guesswork. I do have gems that can let you see into the near infrared as well as thermal imaging. If your interested, I could point it out to you. Not only can you see through fog and smoke, or use infrared light to illuminate the dark, thus using a light source invisible to others lacking technological aid, but you can even see people by the heat of their bodies. Even in the absolute darkness of a deep, subterranean cave, you could still find and track anything warm blooded. Or, you could examine you own house for where heat leaks in and out. If you wanted to save money on your heating costs, you would know what needed fixing on the house. Lots of uses that one. Also, I do indeed sell a gem that gives you a full coverage radar sense. Behind you, in front, to the sides, over your head, and so forth. Next level up, you can even tie the radar senses into your reflexes so that any high kinetic signature heading right at you would automatically cause you to leap aside without you having to think about it.”
Ranma was lost in thought for a moment. “Tell me more about these sigils and runes. You have a rune that could make me fast? Unbeatable? Invincible?”
The gnome gave a put upon sigh. “Sigils. It is a common misconception these days that just one rune grants some kind of power or luck. Runes are alphabetical by nature. They are used to spell out names, as many magic spells require the true name of someone you wish to affect. They are also used to spell out words of power, names of divine entities, or write in ancient tongues used in magic. However, many divine beings recognize their names written as either an insignia or spelled out in a number of different writing systems. Sigils are ideographic symbols, and can be used singly. Though, when combined, they can be far more useful in conjunction with each other. As you can see, each sigil are either nearly hexagonal in shape or can be easily contained in a hexagon. They don’t get written horizontally or vertically. Instead, they are tiled around a seeding sigil. Each sigil can be a seed for its own subsection. Take for example the commonly requested sigil for wealth.” This final phrase had caught Nabiki’s attention who perked her ears towards the conversation. “Usually, people are foolish enough to buy just that one. But wealth comes in many forms. Wealth of money may be what they desired, but instead they receive a wealth of good health, or a wealth of rivals and enemies. Even a wealth of friends could be a bad thing if they were all the possessive, jealous type that constantly pulls a person into their squabbles. It is better to further develop the concept of wealth with more sigils or runes. For example, around the sigil for wealth one could put the sigils for friends, family, and luck. Then, keeping in mind the family sigil has wealth below it, friend to one side, and luck to the other, in the three empty places around family, once could put more sigils. No use having lots of family members if they all hate you. You could place a loyalty sigil such that it touches family and friend at the same time, thus working for both. To the other side, where a sigil can touch family and luck together, you could put the sigil for love. Not only do you get a loving family, but also luck in love. You could fill the remaining spot with the sigil for a blessing. Thereby blessing your family. Likewise, you can further define the luck sigil, as bad luck counts, with what you would like to be lucky in. Lucky in love was already mentioned, but another sigil could be added, perhaps the sigil for happiness. So, you can ring your seed sigil with other sigils to further define the influence, and those sigils can be seeds themselves. Due to the hexagonal tiling, neighboring seeds can share sigils. Creative writing can be used if sharing them is not desired. So instead of filling a space, the design can have holes, like a snowflake. Sometimes the space below the master seed has special meaning and the seeds usually grow upwards like trees. The sigils below, in some cases, are like rooting structures that collect and direct up through the seed and out. A special empty sigil allows one to write inside it with syllabic runic shorthand, so runes can be added into the construct. Now, as I don’t expect you to be able to read nor understand ancient lexigrams, just let me know what you want and I’ll tattoo it on you.”
Nabiki had walked over already to listen to the explanation on how the sigils are written. Tugging lightly on Ranma’s sleeve, she hissed into his ears, “Sounds like if you are not detailed and explicit enough in telling him what you want you are not going to get what you think you asked to get. Better be careful what you ask for, you just might get it and regret it.”
Ranma whispered back, “What’s not clear about, say, being the best at martial arts?”
“What if there is not a symbol for martial arts as you know it, but a more generic one for war? What if such purchases are considered prideful, resulting in divine retribution? If we get any, keep it simple, and ask for advice.” Nabiki then turned to look at the gnome. “Excuse me, but what can you tell me about the dragonmarks? What do they do, what are they good for?”
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Sat, 06 Oct 2007 16:02)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.