(06-11-2015, 05:38 PM)Goodfellow Wrote: This has only just occurred to me somehow, and maybe I overlooked it in the thread, but is there any evidence for being able to cast from pre-drawn geometries? The animations all seem to have the toon writing in the book and my assumption has been that the actual tracing of the symbol was a key part of the casting ritual, not simply having the symbol ready already and I don't recall if it's mentioned in quest text anywhere.Â
I don't know that I really have anything to base that on and even if it is the case, the tracing motion over enchanted ink could be a workaround instead of actually having to trace with the enchanted ink.
Just some thoughts and things to consider to flesh out the idea some more (and again, sorry if I'm being repetitive/redundant).
Arcanima works primarily off of pre-drawn geometries, actually. It works like this: the arcanist channels aether through their body (their MP). They visualize the geometric shapes that form that aether into a specific kind of spell, say, Physick. The magic that is shaped by the geometries is then channeled through the grimoire through the ink that's used in its pages and the spell takes effect.
The important thing to note is that arcanima primarily works through the arcanist forming mental imagery. However, we're told that the geometries are complex; thus the designs within grimoires are like reference notes or cheat sheets, while the ink used to draw those designs are amplifiers. It's kind of like a traditional wizard's spellbook, only instead of magical phrases and words, it's pretty fractals and circles.
The only animations in which an arcanist writes in their grimoire is for summoning, as I recall. I don't remember the exact details behind it, but I'm fairly certain that summoning a carbuncle, and by extension Egis and fairies, does not require editing of a grimoire's contents or composition of arcane glyphs. I believe the initial idea you had is probably pretty accurate: tracing over an existing glyph in order to form a better mental image and thus enact the magic.
