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This is an old revision of RuneCraft made by KellyToyama on 2009-02-27 19:55:12.
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. (Note however, that thresholds can be strengthened by runes, for more details see the Threshold page).
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 imperceptible 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 simpler 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, these triggered Rune Structures are the ones usually found on ancient artifacts and relics as they last though multiple uses and will continue to operate long after the Rune Crafter that made them has passed on.
The Substrait -The Substrait is literally the object that the Rune is written on, and it what it acts on. This object is important in a few ways. First and foremost the Substrait determines the final rune objects resonance, as discussed earlier, Rune Objects all have a purpose for which they were made and this determines their Resonance. This purpose comes from the Substrait and the Runes placed on the object must agree with the Resonance of the object or the Rune Structures will fail.
So for example, if you had a sword, created for killing people by stabbing and slashing, that you wanted to use as a Substrait, the object limits the Runes you can put on it. Meaning you could place sharpness, cutting, killing, runes on the weapon, but healing, life, birth, would most likely not work. Runes with an opposite resonance will fail if placed on an object. (So placing a fire rune on an block of ice would fail, as would placing healing on an arrow.) Bear in mind things are not always cut and dry as to what their resonance is. If the sword from the example above was the possession of a great healer than perhaps a healing rune could be placed on the sword.
Also keep in mind that decay and natural processes are not opposites. If a Rune Crafter was looking to dull a sword they could place a Rune of dullness on the blade, and the blade would dull, as it is natural for the sword to dull over time in addition to being sharp at the current time, on the same token, while a fire rune could not be placed on ice, it is possible that a melting rune could be.
Only objects with Resonance can be used as Substrait. If Runes are placed on an object with no resonance either the Rune Structure will completely fail, or in some cases the Runes will burn though and destroy the object without Resonance. Objects gain Resonance in one of a few ways.
The first and most simple is that when things are crafted, the craftsman places some degree of Resonance into the object. Their blood, sweat and tears that they expend creating the item imbues it with Resonance. In general things made by hand, with love and passion will have a Resonance. Mass produced objects, things we create and throw away generally do not. So for example a master gunsmiths private gun would have resonance, but the mass produced weapons from Smith and Wesson would not. The more work went into the object, more powerful and plentiful the Resonance is.
The second is through use, when objects are used, especially in labors of love, imbue the objects with Resonance. The painters favorite brush, the fencers favorite foil, the blacksmiths hammer. All of these objects gain a resonance though their repeated use towards a task. The more they are used, the more they are focused on by their user the more resonance they gain.
The third way objects gain Resonance is though being in the thoughts and desires of other living beings. The very act of seeking after, dreaming about, and thinking about these objects grants them Resonance, again the more thought is focused on the object the more powerful the Resonance.
As you can see with these first three ways objects gain Resonance will often end up stacking on top of each other. The master craftsman dreams of a beautiful hammer he can make, he then spends his lifetime crafting this hammer, which he then gives to his brother the master blacksmith, who loves and cares for it as it is a gift, and uses it every day to create many master objects. While people admire his skill and his hammer, and his rivals dream of stealing the hammer from him. All these things lead to the hammer having quite a bit of Resonance as an object. Resonance given in this way will never decay and only continues to stack. If the craftsman handed down the hammer from generation to generation it would only gain lifetime after lifetime of Resonance.
Sometimes Resonance can come in great bursts. The True Cross, for example, was simple wood, and maybe had a tiny amount of Resonance if any when made, but the moment Jesus was placed on it, it as an object gained a massive amount of Resonance, that only increased as it became an object that lives in the hearts and prayers of millions of Christians. A gun used at a great battle or to kill a great man, would instantly gain massive amounts of Resonance.
The fourth and final way that objects gain Resonance is being touched by a metahumans power. Every time a meta reaches out with their power and affects the world around them, they leave a small bit of Resonance on everything they effect. This resonance is tiny, and usually worthless in terms of Rune Craft, fading minutes after the power stops affecting the object. This "meta" Resonance is only important for creating sympathy (see below), and it is what allows metas who create objects with their power a slight leg up in leaning Rune Crafting. The fact that they can produce, however fleeting objects with a tiny amount of Resonance allows them to create Runes much more "on the fly" than metas who cannot create objects.
Cold Steel has a notable exception here as a substrait. All Cold Steel will hold onto this meta resonance forever, never letting it fade like normal objects. This is one of the unique properties of Cold Steel and one of the reasons Rune Objects made of Cold Steel are the most powerful of the bunch, especially cold steel that has been exposed to many meta powers before being forged. Unforged Cold Steel does not even need to be acted upon by the power, simply being in the area of a meta with the power the unforged Cold Steel will leach some of the Resonance from that meta. However, unforged Cold Steel can easily be "tainted" since it never releases Resonance it can often acquire conflicting Resonances nullifying each other. For example being exposed to a light power and a darkness power would gain the Cold Steel next to nothing where Resonance is concerned. Once forged Cold Steel will no longer simply pick up Resonance by simply being around. The power has to act directly on the Cold Steel for it to pick up the power. The most powerful Cold Steel artifacts will usually have Runes placed on them to prevent Resonance from being added to the object by conflicting powers, to keep the Cold Steel "pure".
Another notable exception as a substrait is living flesh. Living material is in many ways ideal substrait. All living things have resonance, they are the source of the resonance that applies to the non living objects in the world. As such they are always valid targets for Rune Structures, in addition they provide ideal medium (blood), a link to fuel (the life of the person) as well as strong sympathtic links. All in all an ideal case. However, the art of crafting runes on living flesh looked upon by Rune Crafters as "black magic, most foul" for, like all other substrait, the Rune Structures draw energy and strength from their substrait. In the case of Rune Structures on flesh, the rune shave years off the life of their target, and can literally instantly kill, if a complex enough structure is applied. In practical terms if a person would have lived to be 100, and a rune was placed on them, they might die at 50, or 25 depending on the strength of the rune. If they were already 51 when the rune was placed. They would instantly die.
Even more insidious, Runes on flesh can play havoc with the resonance of the person, changing their personality, literally altering their soul. Not all Runes do this, in fact most do not, but the mere existence of this link made the art of "Flesh Crafting", or "Blood Runes", black magic from the start. Evil Rune Crafters such as Zaizen Tamari have used this to their advantage, using some Runes as a form of mind control. There are no known practitioners of this black art of Runic control. But rumors abound that there are still masters of it alive and well today. This being the case though respectable Rune Crafters will not ever apply runes to flesh, even their own.
The last notable unique sub strait are thresholds. Thresholds exist as invisible pockets of space (see Threshold for more info), and while they cannot be seen by any of the five senses are objects as far as Runes are concerned. Because an expenditure of will is needed to create a Threshold, all thresholds, weather naturally occurring or created by a willful individual carry with them a Resonance, and are valid targets for Runes. Created Thresholds make particularly good targets, as do to their nature as creations of pure will, if more resonance is required, the Rune Crafter can increase the resonance of the threshold by investing more will into it, meaning that very powerful runes can be applied to a threshold, especially one created by multiple Rune Crafters. The Seal, would be an example of one such Rune Empowered Threshold.
While to the uninitiated observer the Rune Crafter may appear to be working their runes on the air, or on a circle of chalk, they are actually applying the runes to the threshold itself, which can in turn effect the things inside the threshold, outside the threshold, or things passing though the threshold.
Back to Resonance in general, the best way to stack this Resonance with the others is that if they use their power over and over with the object they create layers of the more pure resonance and the meta resonance, the resulting layered Resonance can create some of the most powerful objects. So for example if the blacksmith from our earlier example was a meta with the power of metal, made the hammer head with his power, and tied it off, and then used the hammer all his life to create more objects he would only add to the resonance of the object.
Now once an object has Resonance, it can be used as a Substrait for Runes. As said earlier, if Runes are placed on something without Resonance, the Rune Strucutres will either fail, or in some cases consume the object simply grinding it into dust. Rune Structures place a huge amount of strain on the objects that they are acting on. The amount of Resonance an object determines how many Runes, and what strength they can be, the more Resonance an object has, the more Runes it can take without breaking. Because of this Runes Objects are often built up in stages. The master blacksmith's hammer gets a simple Rune to prevent decay, then after its used for another ten generations it gets a Rune to make better crafts, and so on. Built up over generations of Resonance. If the Rune Crafter pushes too many Runes on an object they can create massive backlash, killing themselves, destroying earlier Rune Structures or other catastrophic effects. However determining what, and how many Runes an object can take is a simple matter of Rune Sight, so accidents like this are rare, and usually only involve a very inexperienced Rune Crafter.
There is a way around this restriction. More Runes with specific triggers can be placed on the object than the object could normally contain, as long as more Runes than the maximum limit are not active at the same time. If more than the max are activated at once, all the Rune Structures will fail instantly, rendering the object useless and often destroying it. However, overloading an object like this is dangerous. The overloaded item is taxed whenever any Rune Structure is activated. Activating any of the Runes will break down the Substrait massively with each use. Objects with activated Runes of this type will quickly break down with use, but can often be very flashy and impressive power wise...while they last.
The last point to be made about Resonance is sympathy and use. As said previously, Runes that are opposed to the Resonance of the object will fail. Runes that match the Resonance will be stronger, and more powerful. Runes that are neither matching nor opposite can be placed on the object, and often will create objects that can move well beyond their original purpose. (Say putting a rune of flight on a hammer). However to place these Runes on an object the object must have sympathy with the Rune.
So, say you, as a Rune Crafter wanted to create a flaming spear. Now you have a spear made by a master craftsman, that has enough Resonance for all the Runes you want to use. However you cannot simply slap flame runes on the spear, the spear must have "experienced" the effect that you want to recreate, its Resonance must have sympathy to the Runes you want to place on it. So following the example you would have to bathe the spear in flame, to get it to be able to take you flaming Rune. This also means that to get a Rune Object to simulate a metahuman power, you need to have a sympathetic link between the object and the meta. The easiest, and weakest of these links would be to get the meta in question to use their power on the object. Other ways are using an object that meta synchronized with, bled on, cried on, etc. There must be a link between the two, the stronger the link the easier the Rune Structure is to build, and the more accurately the object can recreate that single use of their power.
Relics and Artifacts
Resonance has one final effect. If enough Resonance is built up in an object it can often start to have "magical" effects all on its own, without the need for any additional rune structures. For example, our well loved blacksmith hammer, after centuries of use it would get to the point where it has so much resonance that it beings to bleed into the world around it. So in this example crafts made with the hammer would simply be better than those made without. It would hit harder and last longer, simply be a better hammer.
Rune Crafters use this distinction to separate objects with Resonance into two basic categories. A object with some amount of Resonance so that it can take runes is called a Relic. Something with so much natural resonance that it affects the world around it without Runes needed is called an Artifact. While Relics can be intentionally created, Artifacts are rare, and as such, highly prized. The most powerful and complex runes can only be realistically placed on Artifacts.
Medium
The next step to understand Rune Structures is the Medium. The Medium is what the Rune Drawing is made out of, and it acts as the link between the Substrait and the Rune Structure. The Medium, carries the message of the Rune to the Substrait and, much like the Substrait, is battered by the Rune, and if it does not stand up to the power being pushed though it, will cause the Rune Structure to falter and fail. If the Medium fails, either in the process of creating the Rune Drawing, or at a later time. The Rune Structure will break down and fail, no amount of bolstering can save a Rune Structure whose Medium has failed, so many Rune Crafter's first step will be to create Structures that make the medium permanent, or unneeded. (See transferring, below)
The simplest Medium is none at all, simply carving into the Substrait directly. In this case, the Substrait acts as the Rune Crafter's medium. This has the advantage that once applied, the Rune Structure will not fail because of a failure of the Medium and removes the need for transferring later. However creating in this way has several negatives.
First of all sometimes it is not practical to carve into the object. If the Rune Crafter is creating a Rune Structure that is very temporary, a tracking rune for example. It would not be practical to carve to create them when something more simple will do. In other cases the very nature of the Substrait does not allow it, either by being very fragile, not holding carvings, or simply being very hard. (A paper, wine, a threshold, or a diamond, for example).
Next, with no medium, there is no link inherent in the Rune, making fueling impractical, or impossible. The need for fuel will often drive Rune Crafters who would prefer not to use a medium to seek one out to use.
Lastly, and perhaps most important is that Rune Structures when first created strain both the medium and the Substrait that is equal to one thousand times the strain of the Rune Activating or merely existing on the object. If working close to the limit of an object in terms of what Runes that Substrait can take, using it as both the medium and the Substrait, by carving the Rune Drawing can destroy the Substrait. Using a medium allows for much more powerful Runes to be created that could normally be created by taking the initial strain on the medium, instead of on the Substrait.
Anything that can be used to make a drawing can be used as a medium. However as explained in the Rune Drawing section, doing the Rune Drawing the same way each time helps the Rune Crafter create the Complex Rune Structure. As such though valid, mediums like, soda cans, yaks, or other non practical drawing materials are usually not used. There is one other thing to think about when selecting a medium, purity.
Purity -
The most important thing when selecting a medium other than carving directly into the substrait is the purity of the medium. The more singular the medium is, the stronger the runes that can be drawn with it. So for example, ink, while a great drawing medium is generally a weaker medium than chalk or water. (Ink being a mix of the two objects). If ink is used, some of the "message" of the rune drawing is transmitted via the water, and some via the pigment. Where in the case of water, all of the message would be transmitted thought the water. (Though if it was possible to draw in pure hydrogen, or pure oxygen, it would again be a step better than water.)
In most cases this is hardly an issue. Doing simple rune craft (tracking runes for example) or instant runes, as long as the rune drawing is created, the rune structure is the most important thing, and the medium hardly matters. But in the case where a very powerful Rune Structure, or a Rune Structure in which an error was made is being applied the medium will sometimes start to break down, usually this simply means the rune will fail, but a skilled Rune Crafter can invest more will at this point and try to save the structure.
(In the case of applying powerful Rune this "failing" of the drawing is impossible to avoid, and the Rune Crafter has to "save" the structure, sometimes multiple times)
If a pure medium is being used, the drawing breaks down all at the same rate, resulting in a more stable process that the Rune Crafter can control, if an impure medium is used, the drawing breaks down at various speeds as the power courses though the different materials in the medium causing wild deviations and usually destroying the Rune Drawing, and the Rune Structure with it.
Blood, is, like cold steel, the exception. Blood as a medium will survive pressures that no other medium can survive though, and breaks down perfectly evenly, making mistakes and powerful runes much easier to create. Blood is roughly 10 times more stable than the next purest medium, pure filtered water. In various experiments over the years, Rune Crafters have learned that the Crafter's own blood will be able to take more abuse than the blood of others, and the younger the persons blood the more pure a medium it makes.
Other factors can affect the purity of blood, virginity, metahuman, carrier, etc, all these things contribute to the bloods purity. Evil Rune Crafters have been known to seek out the blood of innocents, (babies, virigins, etc) as its purity will be stronger than older peoples blood. Metahuman, and Carrier blood is, another step more pure. Drug use, and diseases of the blood (AIDS, Sickle Cell, etc) make the blood less pure.
Scholarly reports also suggest that the blood of the LifeSpark is of another level of purity all together, roughly 10,000 times more pure than the blood of a new born carrier, making it, by far the most powerful medium on earth. There are Rune Structures, such as the Seal, and the Weapons, that can only be crafted with the blood of the life spark as a medium.
In practical terms, a compound makes a weak medium, anything on the periodic table would be a more pure one, with the higher on the periodic table, being more pure again. If it were pratical to do, writing in pure hydrogen or helium would be a very pure medium, however both of these are put to shame by animal blood, which is again put to shame by human blood, then young blood, carrier blood, metahuman blood, with the blood of the Life Spark being top of the list.
(Compound < Element < Simple Element < Animal Blood < Human Blood < Babies Blood < Carriers Blood < Baby Carriers Blood < Metahuman blood < Baby Metahuman's Blood < Blood of the Life Spark)
Fuel
The final basic part of a Rune Structure is fuel. A Rune Structure exists without fuel, but to accomplish anything it must draw power from some source to become active. Like all the other things, the more complex and powerful the Rune Structure is, the more fuel it takes to activate. However unlike the other examples usually if not enough fuel is provided, the Rune Structure will remain dormant instead of breaking down or failing. Very Complex Rune Structures are more sensitive to lack of fuel or the wrong kind of fuel and will sometimes disintegrate if fueled improperly.
The key with Fuel is that the Rune must have a link to the fuel to accept it as a power source. The most basic link any Rune Structure has is between itself and the Crafter who made it. In this common case, the Rune draws the energy it needs to activate from the Rune Crafter. Very passive runes (durability on a piece of cloth, or sharpness on a blade will take their fuel in small amounts from the Rune Crafter, essentially wearing them out a bit, making them a bit tired as they draw energy away from the Crafter. Active Runes or Runes that preform actions outside of the Synchronization of the object (flaming spear for example) require an expenditure of will to activate from the Crafter. The more complex the active Rune the more it draws.
(In game terms an active rune can draw any amount of willpower out of the crafter that it needs to operate, if it draws more than the crafter has they experience backlash. See below)
Rune Structures set up to draw in this way can be dangerous, espcially if containing complex runes as they will draw power until they are fueled reguardless of the state of the Rune Crafter. If the Rune Structure draws more willpower than the Crafter has it will draw directly into their life force, damaging them, and killing them if it cannot get enough power.
(Game Example: So if for example you created an object that would draw 5 willpower and activated it with 1 willpower the object would pull you down to -4 willpower. A person at less than 0 willpower is experiencing backlash, backlash deals damage to the person until it has satisfied its drain or killed the person. The lower negative the person goes, the more damage backlash will deal before being satisfied.)
A Rune Structure will operate this way regardless of who activated it, meaning that another person activating your Rune Structure would draw from the Crafter, not the person activating it. So novice crafters be warned about letting your Rune Structures into the wrong hands. Someone wishing to kill you could simply activate the Rune Structure over and over again until the Structure gave out, or the draw of fuel killed you.
Breaking this basic link between Crafter and Rune is simple to do, and is one of the first skills most Rune Crafters master. Once this link is broken however the Rune cannot be Fueled without it being directed at another source of power. This new source of power can be almost anything, the substrait, the current user of the object, heat in the area, blood, are all popular fuels for Rune Structures.
Once a new source of power has been chosen the Rune Crafter must establish a link between the Rune Structure and that source of fuel. How that link is built varies depending on what they want the new source to be. Things that are tied to the object itself (the substrait, the person activating the rune, a person touching the object) are simple to establish and just take an expenditure of will by the Rune Crafter. Because these links are so easy to build, they are by far the most common.
The next easiest way to link to a fuel source is to use that source as the medium. There is already a natural bond existing between sub strait and structure though the medium, so if for example a Rune Crafter was building an Runed Object for someone else to use and they wanted only that person to be able to fuel it, they could accomplish this by using that users blood as the medium, and then building the link though that medium.
The third, and one of the reasons why metahumans with a Create skill tend to make very successful Rune Crafters is that if the medium or the substrait is made by their power, they can use their power as the fuel for the rune. Metahuman power is essentially an unlimited wellspring of power and can infinitely fuel runes. So while Runes Still take will to create, their continued operation can be fueled forever by tapping into this source. Though more complex, Rune Structures can be set up to draw their fuel out of any metahuman wielding them, not just the one who created them, but that is more complex, more likely to fail, and more difficult, so thus is much less common.
The final, and most complex way is to add an additional Rune Structure to the object that describes the source of the fuel, and connect the two Rune Structures with an expenditure of will. This is by far the most complex, and difficult to do, and only master rune crafters are able to link runes together in this way, but very powerful objects can be created with this process allowing Runes to feed off of their surroundings.
The Cold Steel exception.
Cold Steel, once again is the exception to the Rule. Cold Steel acts as its own Fuel, never drawing off anything but itself, it can infinitely power any Runes Applied to it. Thus making the cool gray metal extremely valued by Rune Crafters.
So what?
So what exactly are Runes? Runes share a lot in common with language, they describe the world. Each object that exists in the world is made up of hundreds of thousands of runes. Each describing an aspect of that object. So for example if you had a cup that you wanted to describe in Runes. The cup would have Runes for Glass, Container, Cylinder, Water, Sand (and many more) all intertwined and woven together to form the cup. It would also have Runes describing those Runes, (Heft, Transparent, Round, Tall) and still more Runes placing that object in the world, (Time, Weight, Size).
As you can see even a very simple object is made up of Hundreds of Runes interacting with each other to create the objects of our world. Because of the immense complexity of objects it is extremely difficult to get Rune Structures to "create" anything. They can alter the properties of the object but it is nearly impossible for a Rune Structure to create the nearly infinite complexity of another object.
Rune Craft at its base level is the art of learning just one of these Runes, then applying that Rune to a different object to fundamentally change the object that the Rune is acting on. Not only is the Rune that is drawn on the object important, but when the Rune Crafter is applying the Rune to the object they can influence the effect it has on the object by what they link to. In this way a single Rune "word" can effect an object in many different ways.
Lets say our Rune Crafter knows the Rune for Strength, and has a Sword that is a Relic. When building the Rune Structure and linking it to the blade they could effect it in various ways, (make the blade itself strong and resistant to breaking, make the blade make the wielder stronger, make the blade sharper against strong opponents, make the blades strikes make their target weaker, and so on.) The more removed from the base function of the object, and the more removed from the Rune "Word" that the Rune Crafter is using the more difficult the Rune is to create and the more complex runes they have to build.
However since Rune words are very multifunctional, many Rune Crafters will learn a very small vocabulary, (1 or 2 runes) and simply master their use by learning different ways to link them to objects and create different effects. Using the above example the Runecrafter could apply the same Rune 4 times to the same object and get all the effects. (Assuming the Substrait could take the strain of four runes). They could also reapply the same Rune over and over again adding to the same aspect and making that stronger. So if for example they wanted a truely unbreakable blade, they could apply strength over and over again to the blade, making it stronger each time the Rune was applied.
Often, because these links are tricky to master, Rune Crafters will alter their Rune Drawing for each different function they are trying to achieve, or add additional Rune Drawings that do not have structures linked to them but serve as points to focus their will in establishing the proper links and connections between the Substrait and their Rune Structure.
Learning Runes
Multiple Runes together.
NeedsWork - Kel should finish this.
