Kanji Mage — as seen in Kamigawa block novels

[fissionessence]

Kanji Mage — as seen in Kamigawa block novels

So to anyone who read the Kamigawa block novels or is otherwise familiar with Toshi Umezawa's 'skills', does anyone know of a precedent for this style of fighting and magic use?

Basically, if you don't know, Toshi would use his jitte (dagger basically?) to carve kanji (Japanese characters) runes into stuff to trigger magic effects. He would may times use stronger substances such as blood to enhance the effect; he many times cut himself with his jitte for this exact purpose.

So . . . does anyone know of any other character/class/story/setting where this kind of thing exists?

~ fissionessence

 

[Huw]

So . . . does anyone know of any other character/class/story/setting where this kind of thing exists?

Some Hong Kong fantasy films, such as the Chinese Ghost Story series , feature characters who do this in a number of ways. Examples:

• Character writes a hanzi on his hand, shows it to demon, who is repelled (a bit like a holy symbol)
• Character writes a sacred text on a piece of paper, sticks it on the monster, who is then paralysed (the traditional way to deal with Chinese vampires)

 

[Clavis]

Sounds a lot like the Norse practice of carving runes and rubbing blood into them for magical effects.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Now all we need is the Chinese Zorro.

"Hey, you just carved your initial into my chest, what ... OH GOD IT BURNS!"

 

[Krensky]

It's really pretty much the oldest form of magical (in the anthropological sense) practice. Language is power. The written word is power. Particularly in the far east (China, Japan, Korea) there is a long tradition of written charms and spells, and kanji have always been central to it. The Golem of Prauge is another example.

Blood has always been powerful.

And a jutte is basically a metal rod, or truncheon with a 'hook' on the side to catch and break swords. A varient of it, the marohoshi or marohoshi jutte whihc incorporates a blade.http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marohoshi&action=edit&redlink=1

 

[Umbran]

It's really pretty much the oldest form of magical (in the anthropological sense) practice.

I doubt that - mankind had shamans and various other workers of magic long before we had the written word.

The Golem of Prauge is another example.

Yes, but let us remember that the golem is just one example of a much larger tradition - Kabbalah.

 

[BlackMoria]

So to anyone who read the Kamigawa block novels or is otherwise familiar with Toshi Umezawa's 'skills', does anyone know of a precedent for this style of fighting and magic use?

Basically, if you don't know, Toshi would use his jitte (dagger basically?) to carve kanji (Japanese characters) runes into stuff to trigger magic effects. He would may times use stronger substances such as blood to enhance the effect; he many times cut himself with his jitte for this exact purpose.

So . . . does anyone know of any other character/class/story/setting where this kind of thing exists?

~ fissionessence

Check out Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved and look for the Runethane class. Another book had a re-imagined version of the Runethane (I think it was the Book of Experimental Might) called the Runeblade.

Basic shtick - carve or trace runes on objects, people and items to create magical effects. Runes can be enhanced (it is called investing a rune) but the methodology isn't mentioned so I can see one easily using one's blood to invest a rune.

I played both classes in different campaigns and it is a really fun class to play if you got some imagination and some deviousness.