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sunshinemods) wrote2015-03-16 04:39 pm
sunshinemods) wrote2015-03-16 04:39 pm
Entry tags:
How To Make The Scroll Network Work
As you saw from the FAQ, the scroll network is a work of art, lovingly crafted to be highly usable, flexible, and, perhaps most important, fast.
Obviously this means that everyone needs to have some idea how to use it, and that's where this information page comes in. First things first, a few quick answers to common questions caused by the phrasing of the main FAQ.
So any seals you use have to be ones that can be used on normal bird-carried letters?
No, the seals do not have to be usable on normal letters, in fact, the reverse is actually true. Anything you can use on a normal letter can be used on the seal network. However, there are several seals that only work on the network itself since they're built into it.
I have to hire someone to do seals for me?
Nope! The level of seals your character knows is the only factor for this. If your character wants a really elaborate seal outside their know how range, they can get someone to teach them, and then thereafter reference that to do it themselves for instance, at their own peril. Alternately, if someone is in a hurry and simply doesn't know how to seals, they can go 'seal this for me' and tada, all done. It's not a requirement at all, just keep in mind how well your character might know this system. This will be clarified further down the post.
Seals must be written into the scroll itself? In the missive or after it?
Anything you put into the scroll must be done all at once or the scroll will read it as different messages. For instance, if you write a letter, then activate it, and try to go back and add a seal after the fact, it won't work, and the seal will just be... sitting there doing nothing at all in a new message.
It is advised to put the seals down, write your letter, then activate it last.
What about those voice recordings?
Often overlooked, this method of communication is rarely used, but useful. How it works will be explained below.
How the seals and scrolling works from A-Z
Ages and Experience
First things first, We're going to start on how to figure out what level your character would be at, since not everyone would know the same things when it comes to this stuff. It is, sadly, a case of characters who are older actually being at a bit of a disadvantage, given that younger characters would have grown up with the system and learned as a normal part of things, instead of having it thrust upon them at a later date.
November of year 63: BGS 5 is the month that these scrolls came into play. By January of year 64: BGS 4, they were in common distribution, and people were figuring out how to use them. By February of that year, the basics of the scrolls were being taught to final year Academy students in their last month in most countries, which makes Naruto's class the first one to have any idea how the scrolls were to work as a matter of course. Anyone younger than this group will have a much better grasp of how they work by this method.
Scrolls are now assigned after a genin is official and has turned in their paperwork and contracts for their shinobi career.
Older characters can still know how to use the network, of course, as jounin from multiple countries were given crash courses in how they worked to take back to their villages with them, which was then passed on to others in the country, and expanded upon or not as it trickled down the ranks. This means in many countries, there were classes held throughout year 64: BGS 4 to get the word out in the most basic usage of the scrolls. These classes usually only lasted a week, and were not incredibly in depth. There were a lot of shinobi to cover, and not a lot of teachers to go around to do so.
Anyone who is good with seals already will have a much easier time of handling the network seals, as it's just an extension of their base knowledge. Those without any skill in seals, however, will probably regularly need help to do anything more than the simplest of seals.
Function
All scrolls are only identifiable by the symbol on them. If you have not seen the symbol of the message being sent to you before, it's entirely possible that opening the message and reading what it says won't actually be more informative. Handwriting is translated over, however, if someone is disguising their handwriting, or doesn't put on a signature, there's very little that will allow a person dealing with an unknown sender to identify the person who sent the message in the first place.
In other words, all messages are inherently anonymous until one gets accustomed to recognizing the signature symbol of the sender. Even then, you might only know the symbol as 'that person again'.
All messages are always placed under a symbol for the scroll they arrived from, sometimes the similarities between these symbols are very close, and more elaborate seals will appear when those symbols are accessed. Once read, all messages disappear, so this is not a viable medium for reports or things one might wish to keep.
One person reading a message will not negate its presence on other scrolls! It will remain on the list of 'to be read' symbols on a scroll until accessed, and once someone flares chakra into the scroll or drops blood on it, it will then be erased from the list. This is the only way to close a missive on the scroll network, which means that a scroll will just sit with the same message on it until it is dismissed, even if rolled up and put away.
This means if a message is sent to everyone, it will remain sent to everyone until it's been opened and closed by whoever might not yet have seen it.
This also means that open missives from months ago are still viable targets for people to hop in and go 'what' if they had a scroll that fit the requirements at the time of its posting should they so choose. Take care when browsing the message community that you check if the messages being sent were by scroll or bird however, as bird missives are not subject to this sort of situation.
Security Ranking System
Ranks for the system go on a 1-10 scale, with the caveat that even a 10 is not impenetrable if someone is determined enough to figure it out, and has enough time. Please keep in mind that there are people who go out of their way to make sure to make seals with every village and personal marker they can think of, specifically for spying purposes, so those levels are by no means secure on their own.
Skill ranks of categories are as follows: 1-3 are D-rank, 4-5 are C-rank, 6-7 are B-rank, 8-9 are A-rank, and 10 are S-rank.
Rank 1
This is the rank of the absolute novice. You write the letter, you put a bit of chakra or drop of blood in to make the letter send, and that's it. Everyone can read the thing, no filters, no taking it back. It's now a symbol everyone can access on their scrolls if they poke it.
Rank 2
Slightly better, but not much, than the novice, this seal category requires placing the symbol of your village somewhere on your missive before applying the blood or chakra, and that will send it to scrolls within the network of that scroll system. Please keep in mind this includes any missing nin who might still have a scroll from that network as they cannot be disconnected.
Any missives sent this way will only appear on scrolls with the corresponding symbol and no others.
How this works is that each scroll, when created, has a symbol etched into the base wood, then a seal applied to link it not only to the network at large, but specifically to scrolls that share that symbol. They symbol visibly fades away once the initial creation seals are complete however, so you can't tell just by looking at it what village a scroll is from.
Rank 3
Individual locks are next up the ladder. These are the unsecure version of a personal seal, and require you to know what someone's scroll symbol looks like in full detail. Each scroll has a slightly different 'signature' and placement when messages sent from it reach their recipients. If you draw the symbol exactly as it appears on your scroll before writing your reply around it, it will only return to the person you sent it to. However, it also means if someone else has that scroll, that they will be able to access that message since it is not locked to the recipient but to an 'address'.
If you misdraw the mark, the message might end up sent to someone else in the network entirely. Alternately, two or more people from different villages might have the same mark, so adding a village symbol with the personal mark is advised just in case, as then it would only appear for those who meet both conditions.
Specific groups like ANBU or specially assembled squads are often given matching scrolls while on duty. An example is all guards having a set of matching scrolls which all will have the same identifying symbol so as to keep each other updated.
Rank 4
Exclusion seals. These work on the same premise as the above. The only difference is that you must strike out the symbols as one would when going missing nin, thus 'cancelling' the send. It means that the messages will send to everyone but the selected symbols. In this manner you can end up sending to everyone but Konoha, for instance, or everyone in Konoha except your cousin Goku, as another example.
These are rank 4 because you have to be careful to not accidentally send messages to everyone but your intended recipients, as the symbols register as an 'or' not simply exclusions.
If you make a mistake drawing something and scratch it out, it does not only exclude that group. It also sends to everyone else unless you add a village or personal limit to it otherwise. The way to clear this to start again is to make sure that all text already present on the missive is crossed out with one line, and it will blank the entire thing instead of sending it. Please keep in mind that this only works if everything is crossed out. It does not erase things in parts.
Rank 5
Voice missives. These are more complicated, as they require a specific symbol to be drawn, and you must continuously feed it chakra or blood as you speak into it. The downside is that as soon as you release whatever you were feeding into the symbol, the message will send. That means that all security symbols need to be in place before you send the message out.
The rank on this is so high because not everyone can maintain a steady feed of chakra, or are willing to bleed so much, for such an endeavor, and it's rather useless without being aware of how to manage the scroll specific symbols.
Rank 6
Matching Seals. These seals are the kind of seal where you place the seal, and someone on the other end must place a seal that corresponds to it to unlock it. These can be incredibly simple, or increasingly elaborate. Because of this, this is the lowest rank of this seal that is an option, though they can at times go to rank 10 in complexity. They're the most versatile security seal, as it takes no relationship between the receiver and sender to make it work, merely an awareness of the seal itself.
The downside is that all it takes is the seal itself, and if a stray message is sent to the wrong person, they might be able to unlock it.
Rank 7
Blood-bound seals. These are seals that can work in conjunction with the scroll specific symbols to heighten security, or they can be used on their own. However, if they're used without any of the above, they will appear on all scrolls in the network. They will only be openable by those who share blood relation with the sender. These require someone to use blood instead of simply chakra.
The seals for this are some of the simpler ones, and require moderate know-how in how to seal.
Rank 8
Chakra-bound seals. Trickier than blood bound seals by a large margin, these seals again would have to be focused to specific people if they don't want them to show up on the entire network. However, these only ever work with people on parent-child, grandparent-child or sibling closeness, unless a specific chakra sort is inherited by multiple people, thus rendering them similar in a way siblings might be. This applies to things that are manifest bloodlines, such as a Sharingan or rarer abilities which show up sporadically through a clan. It is not an affinity seal, but a specific 'signature' seal which requires a quarter or more 'sameness' to your particular chakra.
These can so be modified to require a closer connection, even going so far as 'my signature only' or a sibling, which means that parents and further relations couldn't use it, given the disparity of the mix.
There are circumstances that are outside the norm as well, and an example of a situation where this might not be secure is that Yamato would be able to open anything Hashirama might have sealed with chakra based seals due to having had his chakra, due to his genetics, put inside the child.
Due to their difficulty and limited utility these are much more rarely used unless one is speaking to someone very specific, or wishes to locate someone using the scroll network who otherwise might not answer. They can also be used to leave notes for yourself for the future, in roundabout fashion, if you think something might happen that requires it.
Rank 9
Seals within seals. These are seals which first have a security seal, then underneath that security seal is some sort of storage seal or trap that is unlocked with the seal laid over it is released. It makes these highly dangerous, as while goods cannot be sent over the network, jutsu can, and that means that someone can unlock an explosive tag in someone's face. These seals can have proper missives place under them as well, but the process is complicated, and often dangerous for both sender and receiver.
Rank 10
This rank is for those with a mastery over seals and covers any mix of the seals listed above in any complexity. Rank 10 seals inherently can only be broken by those with equal or better skill in seals as the one they are trying to break, and even then at times it's impossible. Things that affect the scroll itself, such as making it make noise or glow before the missive is even accessed, are also in this category.
Any scroll types from Rank 6 upwards can end up a Rank 10, with the appropriate training and skill.
Obviously this means that everyone needs to have some idea how to use it, and that's where this information page comes in. First things first, a few quick answers to common questions caused by the phrasing of the main FAQ.
So any seals you use have to be ones that can be used on normal bird-carried letters?
No, the seals do not have to be usable on normal letters, in fact, the reverse is actually true. Anything you can use on a normal letter can be used on the seal network. However, there are several seals that only work on the network itself since they're built into it.
I have to hire someone to do seals for me?
Nope! The level of seals your character knows is the only factor for this. If your character wants a really elaborate seal outside their know how range, they can get someone to teach them, and then thereafter reference that to do it themselves for instance, at their own peril. Alternately, if someone is in a hurry and simply doesn't know how to seals, they can go 'seal this for me' and tada, all done. It's not a requirement at all, just keep in mind how well your character might know this system. This will be clarified further down the post.
Seals must be written into the scroll itself? In the missive or after it?
Anything you put into the scroll must be done all at once or the scroll will read it as different messages. For instance, if you write a letter, then activate it, and try to go back and add a seal after the fact, it won't work, and the seal will just be... sitting there doing nothing at all in a new message.
It is advised to put the seals down, write your letter, then activate it last.
What about those voice recordings?
Often overlooked, this method of communication is rarely used, but useful. How it works will be explained below.
How the seals and scrolling works from A-Z
Ages and Experience
First things first, We're going to start on how to figure out what level your character would be at, since not everyone would know the same things when it comes to this stuff. It is, sadly, a case of characters who are older actually being at a bit of a disadvantage, given that younger characters would have grown up with the system and learned as a normal part of things, instead of having it thrust upon them at a later date.
November of year 63: BGS 5 is the month that these scrolls came into play. By January of year 64: BGS 4, they were in common distribution, and people were figuring out how to use them. By February of that year, the basics of the scrolls were being taught to final year Academy students in their last month in most countries, which makes Naruto's class the first one to have any idea how the scrolls were to work as a matter of course. Anyone younger than this group will have a much better grasp of how they work by this method.
Scrolls are now assigned after a genin is official and has turned in their paperwork and contracts for their shinobi career.
Older characters can still know how to use the network, of course, as jounin from multiple countries were given crash courses in how they worked to take back to their villages with them, which was then passed on to others in the country, and expanded upon or not as it trickled down the ranks. This means in many countries, there were classes held throughout year 64: BGS 4 to get the word out in the most basic usage of the scrolls. These classes usually only lasted a week, and were not incredibly in depth. There were a lot of shinobi to cover, and not a lot of teachers to go around to do so.
Anyone who is good with seals already will have a much easier time of handling the network seals, as it's just an extension of their base knowledge. Those without any skill in seals, however, will probably regularly need help to do anything more than the simplest of seals.
Function
All scrolls are only identifiable by the symbol on them. If you have not seen the symbol of the message being sent to you before, it's entirely possible that opening the message and reading what it says won't actually be more informative. Handwriting is translated over, however, if someone is disguising their handwriting, or doesn't put on a signature, there's very little that will allow a person dealing with an unknown sender to identify the person who sent the message in the first place.
In other words, all messages are inherently anonymous until one gets accustomed to recognizing the signature symbol of the sender. Even then, you might only know the symbol as 'that person again'.
All messages are always placed under a symbol for the scroll they arrived from, sometimes the similarities between these symbols are very close, and more elaborate seals will appear when those symbols are accessed. Once read, all messages disappear, so this is not a viable medium for reports or things one might wish to keep.
One person reading a message will not negate its presence on other scrolls! It will remain on the list of 'to be read' symbols on a scroll until accessed, and once someone flares chakra into the scroll or drops blood on it, it will then be erased from the list. This is the only way to close a missive on the scroll network, which means that a scroll will just sit with the same message on it until it is dismissed, even if rolled up and put away.
This means if a message is sent to everyone, it will remain sent to everyone until it's been opened and closed by whoever might not yet have seen it.
This also means that open missives from months ago are still viable targets for people to hop in and go 'what' if they had a scroll that fit the requirements at the time of its posting should they so choose. Take care when browsing the message community that you check if the messages being sent were by scroll or bird however, as bird missives are not subject to this sort of situation.
Security Ranking System
Ranks for the system go on a 1-10 scale, with the caveat that even a 10 is not impenetrable if someone is determined enough to figure it out, and has enough time. Please keep in mind that there are people who go out of their way to make sure to make seals with every village and personal marker they can think of, specifically for spying purposes, so those levels are by no means secure on their own.
Skill ranks of categories are as follows: 1-3 are D-rank, 4-5 are C-rank, 6-7 are B-rank, 8-9 are A-rank, and 10 are S-rank.
Rank 1
This is the rank of the absolute novice. You write the letter, you put a bit of chakra or drop of blood in to make the letter send, and that's it. Everyone can read the thing, no filters, no taking it back. It's now a symbol everyone can access on their scrolls if they poke it.
Rank 2
Slightly better, but not much, than the novice, this seal category requires placing the symbol of your village somewhere on your missive before applying the blood or chakra, and that will send it to scrolls within the network of that scroll system. Please keep in mind this includes any missing nin who might still have a scroll from that network as they cannot be disconnected.
Any missives sent this way will only appear on scrolls with the corresponding symbol and no others.
How this works is that each scroll, when created, has a symbol etched into the base wood, then a seal applied to link it not only to the network at large, but specifically to scrolls that share that symbol. They symbol visibly fades away once the initial creation seals are complete however, so you can't tell just by looking at it what village a scroll is from.
Rank 3
Individual locks are next up the ladder. These are the unsecure version of a personal seal, and require you to know what someone's scroll symbol looks like in full detail. Each scroll has a slightly different 'signature' and placement when messages sent from it reach their recipients. If you draw the symbol exactly as it appears on your scroll before writing your reply around it, it will only return to the person you sent it to. However, it also means if someone else has that scroll, that they will be able to access that message since it is not locked to the recipient but to an 'address'.
If you misdraw the mark, the message might end up sent to someone else in the network entirely. Alternately, two or more people from different villages might have the same mark, so adding a village symbol with the personal mark is advised just in case, as then it would only appear for those who meet both conditions.
Specific groups like ANBU or specially assembled squads are often given matching scrolls while on duty. An example is all guards having a set of matching scrolls which all will have the same identifying symbol so as to keep each other updated.
Rank 4
Exclusion seals. These work on the same premise as the above. The only difference is that you must strike out the symbols as one would when going missing nin, thus 'cancelling' the send. It means that the messages will send to everyone but the selected symbols. In this manner you can end up sending to everyone but Konoha, for instance, or everyone in Konoha except your cousin Goku, as another example.
These are rank 4 because you have to be careful to not accidentally send messages to everyone but your intended recipients, as the symbols register as an 'or' not simply exclusions.
If you make a mistake drawing something and scratch it out, it does not only exclude that group. It also sends to everyone else unless you add a village or personal limit to it otherwise. The way to clear this to start again is to make sure that all text already present on the missive is crossed out with one line, and it will blank the entire thing instead of sending it. Please keep in mind that this only works if everything is crossed out. It does not erase things in parts.
Rank 5
Voice missives. These are more complicated, as they require a specific symbol to be drawn, and you must continuously feed it chakra or blood as you speak into it. The downside is that as soon as you release whatever you were feeding into the symbol, the message will send. That means that all security symbols need to be in place before you send the message out.
The rank on this is so high because not everyone can maintain a steady feed of chakra, or are willing to bleed so much, for such an endeavor, and it's rather useless without being aware of how to manage the scroll specific symbols.
Rank 6
Matching Seals. These seals are the kind of seal where you place the seal, and someone on the other end must place a seal that corresponds to it to unlock it. These can be incredibly simple, or increasingly elaborate. Because of this, this is the lowest rank of this seal that is an option, though they can at times go to rank 10 in complexity. They're the most versatile security seal, as it takes no relationship between the receiver and sender to make it work, merely an awareness of the seal itself.
The downside is that all it takes is the seal itself, and if a stray message is sent to the wrong person, they might be able to unlock it.
Rank 7
Blood-bound seals. These are seals that can work in conjunction with the scroll specific symbols to heighten security, or they can be used on their own. However, if they're used without any of the above, they will appear on all scrolls in the network. They will only be openable by those who share blood relation with the sender. These require someone to use blood instead of simply chakra.
The seals for this are some of the simpler ones, and require moderate know-how in how to seal.
Rank 8
Chakra-bound seals. Trickier than blood bound seals by a large margin, these seals again would have to be focused to specific people if they don't want them to show up on the entire network. However, these only ever work with people on parent-child, grandparent-child or sibling closeness, unless a specific chakra sort is inherited by multiple people, thus rendering them similar in a way siblings might be. This applies to things that are manifest bloodlines, such as a Sharingan or rarer abilities which show up sporadically through a clan. It is not an affinity seal, but a specific 'signature' seal which requires a quarter or more 'sameness' to your particular chakra.
These can so be modified to require a closer connection, even going so far as 'my signature only' or a sibling, which means that parents and further relations couldn't use it, given the disparity of the mix.
There are circumstances that are outside the norm as well, and an example of a situation where this might not be secure is that Yamato would be able to open anything Hashirama might have sealed with chakra based seals due to having had his chakra, due to his genetics, put inside the child.
Due to their difficulty and limited utility these are much more rarely used unless one is speaking to someone very specific, or wishes to locate someone using the scroll network who otherwise might not answer. They can also be used to leave notes for yourself for the future, in roundabout fashion, if you think something might happen that requires it.
Rank 9
Seals within seals. These are seals which first have a security seal, then underneath that security seal is some sort of storage seal or trap that is unlocked with the seal laid over it is released. It makes these highly dangerous, as while goods cannot be sent over the network, jutsu can, and that means that someone can unlock an explosive tag in someone's face. These seals can have proper missives place under them as well, but the process is complicated, and often dangerous for both sender and receiver.
Rank 10
This rank is for those with a mastery over seals and covers any mix of the seals listed above in any complexity. Rank 10 seals inherently can only be broken by those with equal or better skill in seals as the one they are trying to break, and even then at times it's impossible. Things that affect the scroll itself, such as making it make noise or glow before the missive is even accessed, are also in this category.
Any scroll types from Rank 6 upwards can end up a Rank 10, with the appropriate training and skill.