That's just it. If it can, then by definition, it's not magic.
[ He's growing more animated, starting to talk with his hands. Apparently this is something he's put a lot of thought into over the years. ]
The thing about magic is, it can't be defined by what it is - only what it's not. Let's take the glyphs you drew in the supermarket way back when, for instance. They produced enough energy to reduce several dozen zombies to ash, but how? All you used was ordinary chalk, CaCO3. Inert at room temperature, electrical insulator, no psionic properties whatsoever. Nothing about the pattern you drew should have conducted any kind of energy. Or - the one you just carved into my door. The material of the door is unchanged, the glyph itself is literally made of nothing -
[ He catches himself rambling, pauses to dial it back. ] It's just the pattern, right? The only thing that changes a glyph's functionality is the pattern of lines and shapes. Its position, the materials it's made of - none of that matters.
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Date: 2020-02-24 10:00 pm (UTC)[ He's growing more animated, starting to talk with his hands. Apparently this is something he's put a lot of thought into over the years. ]
The thing about magic is, it can't be defined by what it is - only what it's not. Let's take the glyphs you drew in the supermarket way back when, for instance. They produced enough energy to reduce several dozen zombies to ash, but how? All you used was ordinary chalk, CaCO3. Inert at room temperature, electrical insulator, no psionic properties whatsoever. Nothing about the pattern you drew should have conducted any kind of energy. Or - the one you just carved into my door. The material of the door is unchanged, the glyph itself is literally made of nothing -
[ He catches himself rambling, pauses to dial it back. ] It's just the pattern, right? The only thing that changes a glyph's functionality is the pattern of lines and shapes. Its position, the materials it's made of - none of that matters.