Bastet Glyphs

[Darling_Rose]

I'm hoping Rich T. is around and can weigh in with his developmental thoughts. I'm trying to develop some more of the Bastet Glyph language, but I'm having trouble deconstructing what certain symbols mean. There's a lot of individual meaning to parts of the glyphs even in the limited amount of Bastet Glyph symbols. From the short thorny marks to the direction of the curling swirls. These have individual meaning such as rage, fury, or corruption. The geography symbols are inherent to the different tribe symbols of the Bastet. But there's certain things I can't decipher that I'd like others opinions on. Such as the little circles and the larger circles. And the little branching curls like in the glyph for Nala and lesser curl in the Glyph for Celican. There's individual lines that repeat in certain symbols that lack a meaning as well. If these keys can be given a meaning, the possible combinations for Bastet glyphs can be expanded.

[RichT]

I'll have to take a look, but I do recall that the little curl on the Celican was representing the Fae connection. Pretty sure, at least.

[Darling_Rose]

Hello Rich T. I'm so glad you posted. This is very interesting to me. I guess it's not legal for you to release any of your Bastet doodles that never got used in the books? I can see the beginnings of a Bastet glyph culture that could have expanded, but it seems it never got the chance. I'd really like to explore what could have been with the range of Bastet glyphs. Thank you for any insights you can contribute. I'm especially interested in what you were thinking/imagining/daydreaming as you crafted the distinct design of the cat scratch language. Were there any concepts you wanted to try for Bastet glyphs or other Fera language, but never got the chance?

[The Cat Came Back]

Well, CRAP, I had a big post on this planned out... only to get a message that I'm only allowed to use four images in a post! So... well... here's hoping that four images will convey what i was gonna say. SCREENSHOTS AHOY!

[Yakecen-Sings]

I love you, Cat Came Back, for the effort and thought alone.

[Darling_Rose]

Firstly, CCB I wanna say that I find all of your posts on many topics well thought out and spot on in terms of interpretation of the information in the systems.

Secondly, your icon amuses me to no end. And I have the weirdest tendency to read your posts in Pinky's voice which takes me to a special level of surreal. I like it.

Now down to business. What you've managed to illustrate so cleanly here is almost exactly what I have on a bunch of pencil drawn notes and sheets of printer paper that I have no means to scan and am too embarrassed to photograph to show everybody. The parts that you speculated on are some really good ones. The dots representing Spirit-beings are bits I had pondered. Maybe not simply denoting the symbol as relating to a spirit-being but size and multiples could be indicators of the power of the spirit like gaffling to Celestine. Or how important that symbol is to the individual Bastet. The larger the circle, the more powerful the meaning. But that theory didn't seem consistent enough.

I am also of the idea that the size, rotational direction and tightness of the curling marks bears their own meaning. At what point a hook becomes a curl and how tightly it curls could be significant. When comparing the Glyphs for Nala, we see the two extra curls branching off from the one, tight and exact as the one they come from, where in the Celican glyph the curl is loose and going a different direction than the curl it's attached to. Could clockwise and counterclockwise on the same symbol be the part that means madness? Or maybe how the Celican seem to be contrary to themselves as a tribe.

With the evolution of hook into a curl in mind, I don't see the glyphs for Oathbraker and Knowledge quite resembling each other in any related way. Instead I think the glyph for knowledge is its own wavering mark lacking any sharpness that seems to relate glyphs like Asura, fury and Oathbreaker. In fact, I have a slightly different definition of the wavering mark that isn't exactly knowledge. Instead of "Knowledge" I read it more as "What is Known". The difference lies between what knowledge is found in a written book of secrets or information, and the things one finds out from other sources more like reputation, gossip and notoriety. In this sense Knowledge has a darker connotation that fits with symbols like Mine and the related looking mark of Beware. The Bastet carving them is counting on the reader to know just how serious the author of the warning is if they are "Known".

The curving mark in Taghairm is indeed a mystery, but then I thought, that could be exactly it's meaning, Mystery. A meeting of Bastet is going to be all about secrets.

I've got more thoughts on the Geographical glyphs and the tribes, but it'll have to wait till I've had some sleep. Thank you so much for your screencaps CCB. They're a fantastic help. Much better than I could have explained with text and photos of my chicken scratch.

[David Michael Felt]

I love the attention being paid to Glyphs by fans and developers alike. Really, all of you deserve a high five for this awesome work.

[Darling_Rose]

Thank you DMF. I hope more people contribute. I love developing cultures. Language is a wonderful portrait of a culture.