User:TheSatanicSanta/Mystcraft Wiki import/Modifiers

In order to master how Age Description works, you need to understand modifiers. Modifiers must be placed before the symbols that they modify. Modifiers are the symbols that fill in the details for the primary symbols, much like adjectives modifying nouns in English.

As a new descriptive book is "read" on creation, modifiers are alternately accumulated as they are read, and "used up" when they are accepted by other symbols. They do fall into categories, but these are only "required" in context, and modifiers can easily be filled in by the grammar. Most modifiers will combine with similar modifiers that came before them; for example, "South Direction" followed by "West Direction" will turn into "Southwest Direction" (which does not have a symbol of its own). Each type is discussed on its own page, linked below.

Several modifier types share this "blending" behavior. As a book is read, at most one value is held for Colors, Lengths, Directions, and Phases. This value starts out "unset", until the first modifier of each type gives it a value. When another modifier of the same type is encountered, it will be combined pairwise with the current active modifier, to produce a new value. This allows the modifier values to take values beyond those provided by individual symbols, such as directions other than the four compass points. When another type of symbol accepts the modifier of that type, the value will again be considered unset. Gradients work much the same, except that they accumulate by adding steps onto the current Gradient (and accepting Color and Length modifiers).

Biomes and material blocks are also modifiers, but these do not blend, only accumulate on a stack. When a primary symbol needs one or more biomes or materials, it will take the most recent eligible items from the stack, leaving any others undisturbed. Different primary symbols have different restrictions on the materials they can accept. See their pages for more details.

The Sunset color symbol does not blend, and can be used either as a modifier to a Sun or Moon. It itself takes a Gradient. If left dangling, it has a small chance of acting as a primary symbol, setting the default for those suns and moons without their own sunset colors. More usually, the dangling modifier would be "used up" by adding (another) Normal Sun or Normal Moon.

The special symbol "Clear Modifiers" will use all dangling modifiers at the point it was encountered. In V10 it eliminated the resulting instability, while in later versions it still minimizes the cost for the errors.

It's wise to put modifiers immediately before what they're intended to modify, just to keep things straight and minimize unfortunate incidents. While a writer can get away with writing "Stone Block, Oak Wood Block, Tendrils, Spheres", it's much safer to write "Stone Block, Spheres, Oak Wood Block, Tendrils" for the same results, and be clear about which material goes with which structure.