Rune Crafting

Rune crafting is a skill which utilises primal letters and symbols of power to imbue physical object with abilities.

## **History**

The primal letters and symbols of power, more commonly called runes, were originally a closely guarded secret within a primordial sect of Bricca. Only since the early part of the Third Era has it been known that the discovery of runes originate from Seers of the living roots. Seers have a deep connection with runes, they are born with knowledge as to how to write them and have the intrinsic ability to write them upon thin air, a trait only seen in some species of dragons, and devoid.

Rune crafting was a skill passed down verbally within the church of the merciful Earth Mother. This secrecy was partly due to the potential danger for abuse and the nature of the medium, as speaking the words have no effect on the world.

By 13AT rune crafting a skill taught to the members of the royal court to produce objects of protection and indulgence for the royal and upper class. In 26AT rune crafting was made available to the public through the purchasing a licence, and committing several years of learning in the royal court, this decision to make rune crafting more widespread was unpopular to devout Bricca as the runes were seen as the manifestation of the Earth Mother’s will.

Runed objects saw a surge in popularity across the kingdom and were commonly associated with wealth. As a consequence of its growing popularity forgeries, and faulty inscriptions were also commonplace, causing many injuries. In an attempt to quell the injuries any individuals selling runed objects are required to have a permit from a licenced rune crafter in 28AT.

More modern techniques in teaching the associations of runes focus on displaying said symbols in a safe way, this is achieved suspending rune symbols made of glass in an alchemical solution which prevents a reaction.

## **Enchanting**

Using rune symbols and letters in a sequence to produce a specific effect is referred to as enchanting, and application said runes to a physical object is done through the process of inscribing.

If inscribed, or written incorrectly runes can have a negative, or even volatile effect on the object being enchanted, this inherent danger makes enchanting difficult to learn.

### **Fundamentals**

A rune symbol by itself when inscribed will always begin to degrade the material it is written upon. The safest method of inscribing a rune involves the deliberate carving of parts of a rune so it does not become a true word of power until it is safely contained by the remainder of the rune sentence.

Rune symbols can be written as a word to give meaning and create a potential enchantment effect, however rune words must be written in pairs to be considered complete. These rune pairs are referred to as powered runes.

The use of multiple powered runes make up a rune sentence. Rune sentences create the desired effect that make up the enchantment. A large amount of rune sentences involve refinement into improving stability, and increasing its effectiveness, meaning that longer sentences will often be more stable than shorter ones, but this is not guaranteed.

Sentence construction often requires pre-planning through the strategic placement of dots as spacial or structural references.

The stronger the effect of an enchantment, the higher potential it will have to unstable. Instability most commonly presents as accelerated rune rot. The most well-known method of increasing the strength of an enchantment is the repetition of a rune sentence, however overuse of the same rune sentence will plateau in its effectiveness.

### **Formatting**

The formatting of runes primarily involves four rune symbols;

* **Origin Rune** – Used to mark the beginning of an enchantment.
* **Pause Rune** – Used to separate powered runes.
* **Break Rune** – Used to mark the end of a sentence and lead to the next sentence.
* **Jump Rune** – Used to loop between two points on an object. Jump runes are always paired with a corresponding pattern.
* **Switch Rune** – Used to halt or progress to a part of a rune sentence if a written condition is met.
* **Closing Rune** – Used to mark the end of an enchantment.

An enchantment on an object may include multiple rune sentences as long as they are linked via rune formatting. An object may be considered linked if physical contact of a material of the same type is exposed to the enchantment, as such most enchantments must specify when, or where the effects must stop taking effect to prevent rune rot acceleration.

### **Rune Rot**

Rune rot is the process of an enchanted object degrading and self-destructing over a period. All enchanted objects eventually experience rune rot, although a few factors can accelerate or slow the process.

**The process itself presents in three distinct stages:**

* Stage one: Enchantment effects are drastically reduced, over time all effects are lost.
* Stage two: Enchanted object begins to physically degrade at a rapid pace.
* Stage three: If the material has not been destroyed the enchantments will have inverse effects to what was originally inscribed. This inversion potency will increase over time unless disposed by a specialist.

### **Core Materials**

When inscribing on an object there are two factors which can affect the resulting enchantment; the material the object is made of, and the material used to inscribe the enchantment itself.

Generally any material can be used as base for an enchantment so long as it is not dead. If a material base is dead or has died then any enchantment will accelerate it to the second stage of rune rot, then quickly to the third stage if it has not been destroyed.

**Common Inscription Materials**

**Common Enchanting Materials**

### **Disposal**

Due to the potential dangers involved in disrupting parts of a rune sentence the disposal of said runes is often given to the creator of the enchantment, or a disposal expert.

Disposal usually involves removing specific parts of an enchantment to render it inert or intentionally cause its self-destruction in a safe way. The times in which disposal is required is typically when an object reaches stage 2 rune rot, before the runes become volatile. However it is possible for the runes to be touched up during stage 1 and potentially stage 2 of rune rot, depending on the materials involved and how far the rune rot has progressed.

Touch ups should always be done by a professional rune crafter to avoid injury.

## **Trivia**

* Enchanting is used in multiple professions such as rune smithing, transmutation, golemancy, or automancy, each of which have developed their own runic language used to create enchantments specialized for their field.

* Topaz and Onyx are materials used frequently to aid in rune disposal in other objects.