Glyphs are mythological thought-forms that allow a mystic to alter the world. Each glyph represents a single "event" in what Imperial mystics call the Orevalle, the World-Story. The glyph is a single story, legend, or event, stripped of as much culture-specific information as possible, and pulled from the Orevalle into Broken Space by the power of the mystic's focused will. The pulling-down of a glyph produces visual, audio, and gravitational "ripples" that are often mistaken for the glyph itself; the effects are properly known as "scoria," as they are the fast-hardening remnants of a glyphic operation.

With the appropriate glyphs, a mystic can alter the physical reality of Broken Space in nearly any way. However, most mystics study one or two related cycles in only a single mythology, meaning that they specialize in a handful of related effects. Further limiting the would-be omnipotence of glyphworkers are the finite limits to how much they can "bend" the glyphs before destructive interference arises.

Mystics place glyphs in two positions: superior and subverted. Superior glyphwork uses the myths "as they are" to produce effects in keeping with reality as it is, or to restore things to the way they "should be," while subverted glyphs change the nature of the myths, producing extraordinary unnatural effects. Once set in motion, however, either use of a glyph produces a spreading effect that takes skill to dampen, and even greater skill to add onto without catastrophe. Depending on their "recitation" (superior or subverted), ill-mingled glyphs can produce a variety of dangerous effects. Superior glyphs can force events into predefined mythic roles that are all but impossible to escape until they run their course, while subverted glyphs may begin to "overwrite" parts of reality with the new version, and mixed glyphs just tend to cause explosions. These factors limit the effectiveness of glyphs, but they nonetheless serve as the primary "technology" of most advanced species in the Kabacta Rift.