Revision [2266]
This is an old revision of RuneCraft made by KellyToyama on 2008-09-27 23:53:59.
Rune Crafting is the mystical art of placing pictographic runes on an object to grant that object abilities exceeding the normal properties of that object. Those who practice this difficult and dangerous art are known as Rune Crafters. The art of Rune Crafting takes decades to master in even its most simple forms and almost exclusively the practice of metahumans, and some carriers whose unnaturally long lives lend themselves to the study of the art.
Rune Crafting cannot truly be taught. The focus, techniques, and to a degree, Rune Sight can be taught but each individual rune must be seen, learned and practiced on their own. It is a path you must walk yourself, regardless of skill. The apprentice Rune Crafter must have patience, a high degree of awareness, and willful to succeed. Metapower does not aid in this quest, though powers that allow the user to create sub strait, or medium can be incredibly helpful in the practical use of Runes. Age does help, as does practice, the more runes the person learns, the easier it is to learn new ones.
In terms of game rules, a character must have awareness 4 or more, 6 or more willpower, and decades of time to learn Rune Craft.
Non Rune Crafters can be taught the basics of how to operate runes, and often Rune Structures can be built that allow anyone, aware or not, to activate and use the Runes.
In a practical sense, Rune Craft is the creation and use of Runes Structures are constructed of several parts:
The Rune Drawing - This is the actual real world representation of the rune on the object. The Rune Drawing is what ties the rune to the particular object. Runes must be drawn on something, and affect the thing that they are drawn on. The runes can be carved, or drawn on the object and appear as any number of languages. However students of the language will note that runes, while they look similar to the language that they are written in will often have key difference or changes to the base structures of the "letters".
For example, if the rune was the capital letter A, it might have three crossbars, as well as an accent mark and a flourish on the stems, still recognizable as the letter A, but obviously more detailed, and "wrong".
The particular flourishes and accents that the runes have on them vary from Rune Crafter to Rune Crafter, so particularly observant and studious learners can identify a Rune Crafter by seeing their Rune Drawing.
The physical writing has little to do with the effect of the rune. For example the rune drawing might be the Chinese for bakery, but the effect might be sharpness, fire, or something entirely unrelated like darkness. The Rune Drawing is meaningful to the Rune Crafter, and usually represents where the Rune Crafter learned that rune, or particular cicumstance in the Rune Crafter's own life that make the link clear. (In the above example, say the Rune Crafter was in a Bakery when they were cut by a sharp knife, thus there is a link between Bakery and Sharpness to the Rune Crafter that would not be clear to anyone else).
The physical creating of the rune drawing however is a important ritual, creating the Rune Drawing and creating it exactly the same every time, is incredibly important and a huge focusing tool to create the actual difficult part of the Rune, the Rune Structure. Basically the creation of the Rune Drawing allows the Rune Crafter to create the true meat of the Rune, the Rune Structure.
This same focusing technique is often used for things that have no Rune Structure. For example building a Threshold is aided by the same focusing techniques, so often Rune Crafters will draw Rune Drawings around their circles when creating them. The Rune Drawings are not needed in this case, but the process of creating them allows the user to clear their mind and focus their will in such a way that the Threshold can be created.
This focus, and both the mental and physical discipline can be taught to a student by a master. The Rune Drawing must be exactly the same each time, there is simply no room for error or the runes will do nothing, or worse, backfire and kill or damage the Rune Crafter. Rune Craft is something that for this reason is almost never done outside of a safe, stable environment.
The Rune Structure - Is what actually gives runes their abilities. As a Rune Crafter is drawing the Rune Drawing, they are creating the Rune Structure.
The Substrait -
Medium
Fuel -
