Topic: On the possible origin of Glyphs

[comeau]

Being that I've been preparing for a more open-ended fan project set around/preceding the events of OoE, I've been doing a deep dive into the series lore surrounding the origins and nature of magic in Castlevania; and also the mystical traditions from which the series draws from.

In the process, I've inadvertently developed a theory or explanation regarding the possible origin and nature of the Glyph System in-universe, which I hope to present in a similar vein as theplottwist's excellent essay on the nature of Chaos' first form. Unfortunately, I've been limited primarily to whatever English language sources I've been able to find, so I can't quite confirm if my hypothesis holds up to the Japanese text of the original games - but feel free to correct me if there's something I've missed.

Ultimately, though, this very well might just be a lot of conjecture - but nevertheless, let me know what you think.

(click to show/hide)

"What ARE Glyphs?"
The Glyph System is introduced as the primary tool of Ecclesia in combating monsters and fighting Dracula, with Shanoa being the only person capable of hosting Glyphs on her body. Within the context of game mechanics, it's analogous to a sort of expansion upon the Tactical Soul System from AoS and DoS - Shanoa is capable of absorbing Glyphs from enemies who use magic, and from enemies who might drop them; and is capable of equipping not only "weapon" Glyphs, but also "spell" Glyphs with various offensive, defensive, and utilitarian purposes. Furthermore, Shanoa is capable of equipping up to three at any given time. Unlike the Tactical Soul System, however, absorption of Glyphs involves the active process of Shanoa exposing the larger Glyph upon her back to draw them towards and into her.

The Glyph System itself also allows for "Glyph Unions" - the utilization of two Glyphs in conjunction with one another to create a third, more powerful Glyph.

In-universe, they are described (via the Terms List) thusly:

We aren't ever given an explanation of how Ecclesia managed to discover the key to creating Glyphs, nor how Shanoa is able to exactly transcribe one of these symbols onto her body simply by absorbing the apparent Glyph that a monster is using/leaves behind. But the absolute fundamentals of what Glyphs are remains, combining the Terms List description and their function in-game:

• They're representative of a power (if not "the" power) underlying "all things"
• They themselves contain magical energy independent of a host
• Their energy can be released if magic is channeled through it by another person
• They can be derived from the magic or spirit possessed by another magical creature

For lack of a better term, they are akin to magical "circuits" - they conduct magical energy from the bearer, and express it resultantly in a particular form corresponding to their origin.

The most important element pertaining to this theory, however, is the fourth point - because the previous three points offer no exact insight into the mechanics of how a Glyph is created - only how a Glyph appears and functions. And for us to get to my explanation for how a Glyph is created, we'll need to talk about alchemy.


"What IS Alchemy?"
Alchemy is a field which experiments with the principles of God's creation of the world, as outlined by Gandolfi in LoI. It's the means by which the Philosopher's Stone, the key to immortality, is created; and is also the source of the Ebony Stone and the Crimson Stone. It is, of course, based off the real-world practice of alchemy - which also sought the creation of the Philospher's Stone, and the transmutation of material into gold.

The process of the creation of the Philosopher's Stone, however, was not an easy one - it requires a multitude of operations to be performed upon the original raw material, the prima materia, for it to be transmuted into gold. The outline of these operations, of which traditionally there are seven, generally goes as follows:

• The burning away of dross to reveal the hidden essence of the prima materia in the form of ashes (Calcination)
• The dissolution of these ashes into "essential salts", which are to become the Stone (Dissolution)
• The separation of the essence from the remaining materials, and the recombination of these essential materials into a new compound (Separation and Conjunction)
• The death and introduction of new life into the product of Conjunction (Fermentation)
• The release and condensation of volatile essences from the fermented solution into a purified form (Distillation)
• The fusion of the products of Distillation and Conjunction to form the Stone (Coagulation)

These operations are part of the greater four stages of the Magnum Opus (the "Great Work"), which are directly referenced in the form of the Ebony Stone and the Crimson Stone in LoI.

It is also noteworthy that, in the spirit of keeping the nature of these alchemical operations secret, many real world alchemists used figurative symbology to conceal the necessary materials and the exacts of these steps towards creating the Philosopher's Stone - using the imagery of entities such as the "Red Lion" (the principle of Sulfur, or of spiritual fire within an alchemist's soul), the "Black Toad" (symbolic of nigredo, and the path towards the Stone), and others. Additional elements, pairing with beliefs in astrology, included the associations of certain planets or metals with the operations, such as Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn, and Venus.


"What do Glyphs have to do with Alchemy?"
If you recall, one of the key and repeated elements of the Seven Operations of Alchemy was the extraction of a substance's essence from its form; and the later revivification of this essence through the introduction of a new element. My proposal is that Glyph System is a descendant art of Alchemy; and that Glyphs are directly a product of "distilling" and "coagulating" the essence of an object, spell, or living being (their "spirit", if you will) into a reusable form of magical "circuit" or relic.

• A Glyph, as already established, is an extrapolation or representation of an object or being's "underlying power"; which upon having magical energy channeled through or into it expresses its latent magic - mirroring the processes of Dissolution as well as Fermentation.
• With Shanoa, they can be derived from spells cast by other enemies, as if "stolen" from them - a function alchemy has already been shown capable of doing, as Leon's Magic Gauntlet was capable of harnessing the magical energy of monsters and re-channelling it into other relics.
• Glyphs may also be derived by Shanoa from the remains of enemies after they've been defeated, just the same as the Crimson Stone (a product of alchemy) was capable of retaining the soul of a vampire and allowing the user to utilize the bound spirit's power. It is equally analogous to the process of Calcination being followed by Dissolution, the enemy's remains acting as the "ash" to form the "essential salts".

As for the notion of Glyph Unions: what are they, if not the Conjunction or Coagulation of two Glyphs into a more powerful Glyph? Not to mention that six different Glyph Unions are named after six of the same Planets which alchemists associated with the Seven Operations of Alchemy.

The strongest evidence for me, however, is that the ability to absorb Glyphs is proven to be something that isn't limited by bloodline: Albus (who has no actual blood relation to Shanoa) is capable of figuring out how to do it through observation alone after witnessing Shanoa absorb two of the three pieces of Dominus. In the same vein, Alchemy was never something limited to the scope of a particular bloodline, unlike the sort of magic demonstrated by the Belmont Clan or the Belnades family. Learning magic from the likes of Dracula or his followers also wouldn't be an option, considering that Ecclesia was acting in the name of combatting the likes of them - meaning that the logical conclusion as to the Glyph System's origins (out of any of the magical traditions present in canon, and their available practitioners) would be that of Alchemy.


Conclusion
Admittedly, there's a fair bit of possible conjecturing here. I can imagine that in 5 years time (between the release of LoI and OoE), IGA could've up and forgotten about alchemy's existence within the lore of Castlevania; or possibly wanted a new magic system to emulate the successful formula of the Sorrow games. Nevertheless, as it stands, I'd argue that the development of Glyphs from the applied use of Alchemy (especially when it comes to the creation of Dominus from Dracula's remains, and its lack of ties to specific bloodlines) would be a reasonable possibility within the scope of the lore.

[zangetsu468]

The above hypothesis reinforces my own understanding of the Glyph system, from a functional perspective (hoe the operate in-universe rather than in-game).

The way I interpret glyphs relate bank to Plato’s “Idea”. The glyphs are metaphysical representations of power which exist in another realm/ layer of existence beyond our own.
You have a chair in the real world for instance, there are multiple variants and even in a production line, each becomes slightly different due to the waking world being imperfect by nature. Whereas in the realm of the Idea, ‘the chair’ itself is perfect. Essentially the chair which exists in the realm of the Idea is the essence of all chairs in the waking world. ie it’s symbolic and metaphysical, like a glyph.

The uniqueness with glyphs being that they don’t only represent something, they contain an essence which is ‘imprinted’ from their source. (I also like the idea that it’s taking something inherent in nature of those creatures and using that against them.)

What I like about this interpretation is that it grants an explanation for there being hundreds or thousands of generic enemies (bats, skeletons, mermen etc) and for those generic creatures, having only 1 glyph per enemy type. Reinforcing that the more powerful and rarer the creature, the less common the glyph, with Dracula’s being the least common and existing in 3 separate components. 

It’s really quite fascinating.