#charter marks

A tattoo stencil commission I just finished. This was personalized TO THEM so nobody but that person has permission to use this stencil. It's extremely personal and it's not cool to take that from someone

Hey magic side of tumblr, quick question: what are Charter Marks?

Thank you so much Nonnie!

I’m posting this separately from the earlier ask about this (or actually a later one, since tumblr tells me I got this ask first… oops!) as I wanted to compile what marks I could find on tumblr here. 

Of course there are the forms we know from the book covers (and I posted a sample of those in the linked ask), but a number of artists on tumblr have done amazing imaginings of other marks. These are some of my favourites:

@bernadettepeterschmidt‘s Sabriel at Cloven Crest

@visuallibrarian has some interesting Marks in the background of her portrait of Sanar & Ryelle

And @izzi-illustrates has some neat sketches of marks here.

In Garth Nix’s handy little summary of Charter Magic, he reminds us that they’re written in shorthand as writing their full form would summon that mark.

As to which marks do what, I think we only know a few. From To Hold The Bridge (man that story was useful in worldbuilding), we know that Anet, Calew, and Ferhan, possibly together and in that order, or possibly each alone (none seem to be Master Marks) form the spell for (or is each a mark for) little blades that fly in the direction you point. That novella also tells us that many new mages faint after a couple of spells (and Morghan was exhausted after doing three quickly), which shows us just how powerful the main characters from the series are (except Nick. Poor, confused Nick).

Other than those, we only potentially know there’s a Northmark, Southmark, Eastmark, and Westmark that form the Diamond of Protection, but those seem to be their descriptions rather than their actual names. 

Additionally, we know from Sabriel (Mogget licking Touchstone’s baptismal Mark) and To Hold the Bridge that when you touch some’s baptismal Mark, it tells you thinks about them; at least their strength as a Mage, and possibly something of their life, though that may be a special Mogget/Shiner remnant ability. From pretty much all the books, as far as I can remember, we also know Mages can feel Marks that other Mages are preparing.

We also know that if you aren’t sure of the Marks you’re using, they can overwhelm and kill you (although Lirael and Sam have both ventured into spells they didn’t know (Lirael when summoning the Dog and Sam when forging Nehima into the sword that would bind Orannis), but their survival seems tied to their bloodlines).

Finally, the Bells pretty clearly have their own Marks, but it’s not clear they’re marks that can be directly summoned from the Charter. What each would do if actually summoned (if that’s possible) would be quite interesting...

So these are the Charter Marks I was working on the other day. There are 27 of them in the first picture and the bottom picture is my initial attempt at conceptualising how they work together (e.g. to form a Charter skin to cover something). It is a protective sigil (unactivated) of some sort but I can't actually remember the details.