Name Plate

There is no better example of just how quickly new ideas can be adopted by a society than the name plate. It isn't even a human invention - we adopted it from the Shaedhe! Before a decade ago, no one outside of the Shaedhe communities had any idea what a Name Plate was, but now they're everywhere.
The young folk adopted them first. Their plates were rudimentary; their glyphs didn't glow like the Shaedhe's did, and they looked slap-dash until people began to develop their skill at calligraphy. Now, human name plates are every bit as skillfully crafted as their Shaedhe counterparts; they burn with blue, green, and even red phosphorescent light - though the source is arcane rather than chemical - and the glyphs themselves are works of art. Where once they were a rarity, I now see them everywhere, hanging by delicate chains from the wrists or shoulders of the wealthy, or affixed with tiny rivets to armour or outerwear. I've even seen some attempts at tattooing the glyphs directly to the skin, though infusing them with light remains a challenge.
But what I like best is that the plates have renewed our interest in our family names, origins and traditions. There's no sense in making a name plate if you know nothing of the name, yes?

Significance

Cultural and personal. Name plates identify the family or clan of the person wearing it and signal their belonging to the group. People who wear name plates often hold family in extremely high regard and are willing to sacrifice more for its wellbeing than others might.

Item type

Clothing / Accessory

Related Technologies

• Sunstones

Rarity

Increasingly common.

Weight

Dependings on the material and size. Personal name plates often weight only a few grams, while the largest can weight several hundred kilograms

Dimensions

Personal name plates tend to be roughly the size of an outstretched hand, though some are slimmer and shorter

Base Price

Depends on the materials used. An averagely priced name plate might cost half a gold mark

Raw materials & Components

Name plates are usually made from metal or ceramic. they are flat and smooth, with a single family or clan name worked onto the surface in a stylized glyph. The glyphs themselves are made from gold, silver, or platinum leaf, though among poorer families, flecked paint is substituted.

Tools

Name plates are a common form of arcana. All it requires is a pre-made plate (usually made by a smith, jeweler, or increasingly by dedicated plate-scribes) which is then infused with a tiny fraction of Spirelight.