the whole point of posting a topic that has been used is to bring the topic back to the new members or for the lazy people that just read off the front page.
Bumping the topic is the same as bringing back a new one. Its just as effective as well, and helps to ensure that points that have been made are not lost to time.
Battle scars, if done like Fable, are downright terrible. Every character I played in that game eventually looked like a scarred freak. Scars are already confirmed in Skyrim, but are instead added at character creation, not gained as the game progresses.