Revision [2270]
This is an old revision of RuneCraft made by KellyToyama on 2008-09-28 00:46:59.
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 be 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. This thing is called the Substrait (see later section). 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 circumstance 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 does not need to be exactly the same each time, it is a rote for the much more difficult task of creating the Rune Structure. The Rune Drawing is a focusing and targeting tool, little more. However just as would be difficult to type the word RIGHT while reading the word LEFT. Changing the Rune Drawing makes the incredibly difficult job of creating the Rune Structure all the more difficult. Most Rune Crafters will unerringly repeat the same Rune Drawing for any Rune Structure they know.
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, that is inpercievable to those without Rune Sight. Rune Drawings are usually incredibly complicated drawings. Rune Structures are the same drawings done in three dimensions, and millions of times more complex. The Rune Structure is built with the Rune Crafters pure will, and is attached to the Rune Drawing. (In game rules, to create a rune, Rune Crafters must expend a willpower) Like an iceberg, on the surface is the Rune Drawing, but below the surface is the huge Rune Structure that is the real driving force.
Rune Structures cannot be taught from master to student, and their complex natures prevent them from being written down. To learn a Rune Structure the Rune Crafter must see the Rune in the real world with Rune Sight. Rune Structures must be observed and copied, they cannot be created by guessing or out of the imagination of the Rune Crafter. Creating a Rune Structure is an exacting process. If there is a single mistake the structure, the Rune Structure will collapse and do nothing at all. If there are wild mistakes (or the Rune Crafter tried to build a Rune Structure out of his or her imagination) the Rune Structure will operate wildly, lashing out potentially draining all of the Rune Crafter's willpower or killing them outright.
Most of the difficulty in Rune Craft is in fashioning a Rune Structure with their will for the first time. Once done correctly once, it becomes much simpiler to repeat. After a few years of practice with a Rune Structure it becomes like breathing, and is simple to recreate. That is not to stay they can easily be done on the fly. Interrupt the Rune Casters concentration and it is easy for them to make a small "typo" in the Rune Structure, which will usually deflate the whole structure rendering it useless and wasting any willpower they have invested in it.
Some Rune Structures are so complex that it can take days to create, in these cases it is often necessary for the Rune Crafter to expend multiple willpower to maintain both the structure and themselves. Creating a Rune Structure is an incredibly draining process, and will often put Rune Crafters out of commission for days as they recover their strength after creating the Runes.
Rune Structures are fragile things and on the whole easy to destroy (there are exceptions to this see below). Destroying the Rune Drawing or the object the rune is written on will destroy the Rune Structure. Even drastically altering the Substrait (the object the Runes are written on) will often be enough to break the Rune Structures, for example if runes were written upon metal and that metal were to rust the rune structures will often break down and fail.
However knowing this, and knowing the effort they expended to create these Rune Structures, the Rune Crafter will often layer their Runes, first crafting runes that prevent the object from being destroyed, then runes on those runes that prevent those Rune Drawings from being removed. Then runes to prevent rust and decay, and so on so after time and work, Runed objects can become very difficult to destroy, as the would be destroyer must find the top layer of Runes to pick off, and then work their way down though the Runes to be able to rid themselves of the object. This is ignoring Rune Structures designed to punish or damage those that try to damage the object. Layers and layers of protection.
There is an additional wrinkle to the Rune Structure. They are not forever. Over time Rune Structures will slowly decay and vanish, the speed at which they fail is a combination of factors between how complex the Rune Structure is, (more complex and difficult runes last much longer than simple ones), how much will was expended during their creation, (Rune Crafters can spend additional willpower when creating Rune Structures to make them last longer), the medium used (The more pure the medium, the longer the structure will last), and the Substrait (Relics and Artifacts can hold Rune Structures longer, and Cold Steel is an exception all its own). There are two ways around this. The simplest is that the Rune Crafter can refuel his or her Rune Structure with an investment of will before they run out, resetting the clock. Bolstering a Rune Structure in this way is significantly easier than creating a new Rune Structure, those skilled with Runes can bolster Runes without expending willpower at all, merely concentrating on the object in question periodically. They can even refuel several at once. However the Rune Structures they bolster must be their own, (see the ColdSteel exception).
The second way is simply though use. If Rune Structures are being used they will not decay, however they take out their "use" on the Substrait decaying it. But Runes like to be used, constant use, assuming the objects substrait holds, will continuously bolster the Rune Structure. There is a caveat here as well though. Rune Structures know their purpose, and each Rune Object will have a "resonance" or feeling, a direction that it likes to be used in, usually based on the Substrait. If the object is used against its purpose that use will not bolster the runes, and may in fact cause they to decay faster than non use.
However continual use at a new purpose can shift the resonance of items over time, and the Rune Structures can be maintained. So if an evil sword was used for a lifetime by a good person, the Runes would decay quickly at first, but as the resonance shifts to the new "alignment" the Runes would bolster with good use.
For example: If you have a Rune Sword with sharpness, deftness, lightness, and strength runes on it. You use the sword to fight you enemies, you will bolster those runes automatically, no expenditure required. However if you used the sword as a can opener, or as a pry bar it will fail all the faster.
Another example would be if you used the Sword of Evil Person A to attack Evil, the Rune structures on the sword would begin to break down.
In either case though if you used the object enough in its new "state" without the Rune Structures completely failing, and the resonance changes, they will bolster again naturally through use. (Eventually the evil sword would become good, and the sharp sword, a great can opener).
When Rune Structures are built they can be built in one of two ways, either to act immediately or when triggered. Rune Structures that are designed to act immediately consume the Rune Crafter's will and carry out their purpose on the Substrait then vanish, taking the Rune Drawing with them when they go. (And potentially destroying the Substrait see below). Triggered Rune Structures are significantly more difficult to create. Instead of merely creating a Rune Structure, the Rune Crafter also creates a set of conditions that will trigger the Rune Structure, and the Rune Structure remains, fulfilling its purpose again and again as long as the conditions are met until either the Substrait fails, the Rune Structure Fails or the Fuel runs dry.
The Substrait -
Medium-
Fuel -
Using Runes
Learning Runes
Artifacts
Relics
