Book series involving magical symbols that would be placed on people, causing some aspect of them to be transferred to someone else [duplicate]

Question

I don't remember a lot of details about the series, but one of the more notable things is that there were these symbols that would be put on people and through a sort of magic, an aspect about them would be taken and put onto someone else.

As an example, it might be a symbol of strength which would drain the strength of the person being used, until they were barely able to muster enough to breathe, but give that strength to someone else.

People who had a ton of these were often superhumanly strong and fast, but they had a large group of people that needed to be cared for because if the person giving the boost died, the boost went away.

Answer 1

This may be David Farland's Runelords series as per People can transfer physical and/or mental abilities to another person through magic.

In Farland's world, there exists a magic that allows one person to take a physical or mental quality from another.

For example, a common man can grant his strength to his Runelord, living out his days as weak as a baby, while the Runelord becomes twice as strong. Noble children receive gifts from their subjects at birth: beauty, eyesight, brawn, wit or intelligence, hearing, and so on. In return, the Runelords use their talents to govern their people and defend them in times of danger.

The givers of the gifts, called Dedicates, live in luxury, pampered by full-time attendants -- but without whatever qualities they bestowed upon their lords.

So a woman who gives her beauty to a newborn princess lives out her days as a dried-up hag. A man who bestows his flexibility on his king becomes forever creaky and stiff. A gift of sight leaves one blind; a gift of wit leaves one a drooling idiot.