Rune

A rune is a single generally square-shaped symbol or character that contains all the information required to cast a a functioning spell. More complex runes may reference scripts, allowing them to accomplish more in a single spell. The study of rune creation is called mereology.

## Types of Rune

There are two types of rune: glyphs and complex runes. As hedge magic falls out of style, rune is generally taken to mean a spell grown in the spiral and glyph, a spell grown by a hedge witch on her body. Unlike complex runes, glyphs must also be self contained because they cannot reference any outside scripts. This greatly limits their power.

While triggers or targets are sometimes referred to as runes, this is incorrect. They are properly called pointers.

## Rune Growth

Runes need to grow before they can be cast. Some powerful hedge witches may have cast weak glyphs without any growth time, but the evidence in these cases is circumstantial and it has never been replicated in a controlled environment. The amount of growing time depends on the rune and the place of growth. In general, runes grow more slowly in the spiral than on the body of a hedge witch.

The same rune in the spiral always takes the same amount of time to grow, though more powerful witches will grow glyphs faster than weaker ones. Casting a rune with too little power is generally inconsequential—the rune will disappear and no effects will occur. Skilled script writers can design runes that are cast-able in weak states, but this is not the norm.

Casting a rune with too much power can be devastating to the spiromancer. In most cases, it simply results in death. In rare cases, it can also cause an explosion, and during the invasion of Diao, some spiromancers intentionally cast old runes to kill themselves and the invading Kuan. Defusing an old rune is a difficult task, generally undertaken only by experts. The vizier of magic in Makkada and silver hand in Seprum are both responsible for handling dangerous runes in the spiral. In Ju, Kuan-occupied Diao, and Kuan proper, Kuan spiromancers handle the task, and Dhi mages or sometimes even hedge witches defuse them in safe locations.

Glyphs can never absorb more power than they require to cast. However, hedge witches can kill themselves by drawing too many glyphs on their body at a time.

## Casting Runes

A rune's life starts when it is planted in the spiral or drawn on the body. It starts growing immediately, requiring a constant supply of energy. As a rune grows, it physically grows in size in the spiral and becomes brighter. Glyphs drawn on the skin remain the same size but change from invisible to the color of ink or dye used to draw them. Generally, mages prefer to only cast runes when they are ready. Most modern runes have a 'window' of readiness, spanning from minutes, to hours, to days or even weeks, depending on the rune.

Only one person can cast a glyph—the person whose body it is drawn on. However, anyone with access to the spiral can cast any runes there. It is impossible to 'lock' a rune such that only the person to plant it can cast it. Most modern armies separate spiromancers into planters and casters, each focused on a specific role before, during, and after a battle. Although falling out of style since the spiral towers were created, large armies, including the forces of both Kuan and Seprum before the formation of the Spiral Empire, also included dodos, people who cast enemy runes, often before they were fully grown.

Planting runes is a mentally strenuous task, far more than simply drawing runes with ink on parchment. Casting them, however, is generally considered costless, though it requires between five seconds and a minute of consciousness, depending on the rune. Exhausted, injured, and in other ways incapacitated mages can cast runes without difficulty. Mages can only cast one rune at a time. Casting runes long-distance tasks the mage, however, and results in weaker runes. In rare cases, casting too many runes at too far a distances has resulted in death.

## Construction

Runes need to be a single, contained symbol to cast. Most are square-shaped. The box around the rune is optionally drawn, but useful for spiromancers because in busy areas, runes can overlap in the spiral and it can be hard to tell where each ends. While it is all but impossible to obfuscate the meaning of a rune because most symbols refer directly back to a script, scripts can be both enciphered and obfuscated.

## Common Runes

### War

While it is simple enough to kill, paralyze, knock out, or inflict pain upon someone with a known pointer drawn on their skin, the difficulty in battle magic is targeting spells against an enemy. Armor makes visual targeting challenging as does quick movement.

* Ésha, Gala, Lokh, Caeli, Bulla, Offoco: common runes designed to kill someone by depriving them of oxygen
* Sangui, Minuo, Lacuna, Khagarakh, Tsus, Khökhörsön: common runes designed to kill someone by causing them to bleed, internally or externally
* Butlakh, Adfligo: runes that project forward an invisible blunt force, three or four people wide
* Equos: causes the nearest horse to startle and usually throw its rider
* Nicrosil: kills the nearest horse
* Bökhiikh: an invisible arrow that strikes a visual target
* Bambai, Clypeus, Dhala, Pingbi: wide, thin shields that can block a single arrow or sword strike
* Huo, Gal: set fire to a location, determined by a visual target

Each kingdom also has specific runes designed to counter all of the above, though most need to be cast within seconds of the offensive rune.

### Healing

Dhi healing spells are incredibly specific to the type of injury. They are split into two categories: diagnosis and treatment. Common diagnosis spells measure pulse, blood pressure, and respiration rate. Others can check for pressure around internal organs or fluid build up. There are also dozens of spells designed to diagnose specific diseases and infections.

Treatment spells are often even more specifically tailored. Treatment generally also involves acupuncture, physical manipulation of limbs, and special diets. Often, runes are quite effective when the diagnosis is correct and so most learning focuses on diagnosis.

A new realm of healing spell tries to prevent injuries before they happen, especially against certain infections. More luck has been had with hedge magic than spiromancy.

### Information

Information runes are useful for scouting, navigating, science, and sometimes even long-distance communication. Some runes focus on extending senses either across distance or into less-than-ideal environments, such as seeing what is happening through a distant mirror or seeing in the dark. Perhaps the most famous information runes are the twelve runes of measurement, in close competition with runes that detect lies or the truth.

### Defense

Defensive runes often rely on tripwires, which activate at a specific change—crossing into a room, making a sound, touching an object, etc. The field of defensive rune design is forever changing as thieves and rebels design counters.

While setting tripwires itself is difficult, the true challenge is targeting the interloper afterwards. The easy way out is to design the spell to call a guard or wake someone up. It's also much simpler to cause something physical to happen, such as locking a door or dropping something heavy into the area.

Defensive runes also include all runes that bolster locks or defend against fire, water damage, blunt attacks, cutting, dropping, and so on. To provide maximum protection, spiromancers use sponge runes, which can grow almost indefinitely in the spiral. The longer they grow, the longer they remain active. This is to compensate for the fact that, without rune self-cycling, items like chests or wallets cannot re-cast spells when they run out.

Counters are a special class of defensive rune. They act specifically against a single type of attack rune. Some can be cast in advance and activate when attacked—these are far more secure but also take longer to grow. Many also have dangerous quasis because the specific rune tripwire invocation resembles many attack invocations. Simpler counters must be cast within seconds of the attack. When Emperor Fenix travels, his silver hand organizes a retinue of spiromancers to watch for attack runes in the spiral and cast counters within moments of an attack rune disappearing.

### Security

Most pointer-focused spells fall under defense because suspected criminals and arrested convicts can have pointers drawn or tattooed on them. Thus, a lot of police work involves keeping track of how many people are marked with certain pointers. If a mage attempts to target more than a dozen or so people with the same pointer drawn on them, spells require weeks or decans to grow. In Seprum, tattoos for the convicted are rotated by month to ensure few people have any single pointer. It is of vital importance to keep track of which pointers have already been used.

Security also involves non-lethal attacks, some targeted, like sleepers, some not, like bright lights or loud noises. In Kuan and Seprum, active duty military also serve as local police forces, which gives them an edge against well-funded and prepared rebels.