Runes

The term "Runes" may refer to a number of different things within Gaea and Earth. It most commonly refers to a number of alphabetical writing systems with sharply angular characters designed to be easily etched or engraved in hard surfaces like wood, stone, bone, crystal, and metal, and are found primarily in Thule, Hyperborea, and Meropis (and their neighboring continents and subcontinents) on Gaea, and northern and coastal Europe on Earth.

These writing systems are associated with, and derived from, magically-significant glyphs associated strongly with the Aesir and Vanir in both worlds, and more profoundly, with the metaphysical framework devised by the Demiurge and which underpins the entire multiverse. The exact number of distinct Runes is unknown, even to Divinities, and is highly likely to be variable between realities. However, their nature as part of superstructure of all realities makes them one of the few magic systems discovered, and functional, in all worlds.

## Runes as Metaphysical Superstructure

When the Demiurge created the multiverse, it did so by building a complicated framework of Concepts, metaphysical units that produced desirable results through their subsequent emanations and interactions. These Concepts assumed natural forms akin to the traces found on a circuit board as they served as channels for the Demiurge's own Mythic Power, their shapes tied directly to their products. These were the first of their kind, the Primordial Runes, upon which all of the spiritual and physical structures of the multiverse were generated. They are, in essence, the "hardware" that runs the "software" that is the multiverse.

There are an unknown number of these Primordial Runes as it's likely that only certain ones are active or significant in a given reality. Some are very common throughout the multiverse, while others are exceedingly rare, only appearing in realities that follow certain uncommon rules. Others are harder to identify in a given reality as their influence is muted compared to their strength in others. For example, a world where supernatural powers are consistent through bloodlines and always manifest is likely subject to greater influence from the Blood and Inheritance Runes than one where such abilities occur at random through spontaneous mutations.

Each of these Primordial Runes interacts with the others in strange ways and to varying degrees, resulting in complex structures. In essence, it is as if they are pieces of code used by the Creator to write reality into existence. The ways in which the interact and conflict are often obtuse and inexplicable to mortals, and even Divinities, who are themselves all products of the design.

## Runes as Language

Runes are, or were, widely used as a form of written language on both Earth and Gaea. The Primordial Runes themselves serve as a conceptual source for all written languages, though the way they manifest, are distorted, and are interpreted is wildly different between both worlds and the cultures that occupy them. In truth, written languages are little more than an attempt at emulating the function of the Primordial Runes; manifesting, containing, and representing ideas. As language, they lack almost all of their magical power... but they *are* still functional and effective.

### On Earth

Beyond the Primordial Runes' spiritual role in inspiring the initial creation of written language in the first place, they were actually discovered quite late in Earth's history and were only employed in a significant capacity as a written language for a small portion of human history. The earliest *known* uses of the script appeared in the 1st Century AD, though there are unverifiable reports of earlier use. The script has uncertain origins, outside of its own mythology, which claims that it was handed down to mortals from the God Odin. Regardless, the script was used primarily by the Nordic and Germanic cultures that dominated northern Europe in a few distinct permutations (the Elder Futhark, Younger Futhark, Futhorc, and Futhork being the most common, though others, such as the Dalecarlian Runes, existed). However, this refers *only* to the use of Runes under that name.

The symbols themselves have earlier origins in script use, usually in less polished or inexact forms. From the Old Italic scripts, especially Rhaetic, to the Euboean scripts, back to ancient Phoenician and earlier Proto-Sinaitic scripts. Over time, the came to be closer to their Primordial counterparts in appearance as successive users refined them with their own insights. This process is technically ongoing, but is largely limited to would-be practitioners of magic that are effectively nonfunctional on Earth due to that reality's metaphysics. As such, any further improvements, refinements, and discoveries are functionally untestable to them. As a script, it has been relegated to a font or style, with no current society employing it as a regular writing system, being replaced by a range of different systems that are usually further removed from the Primordial Runes in appearance, meaning, and function.

### On Gaea

As on Earth, Gaea saw extensive use of Runes in Thule, Meropis, Kogaionon, and regions settled by the natives thereof. Unlike on Earth, the Runes themselves never fell out of use as a written language, and continue to be employed as a writing system throughout these regions, in northern Vinland, and elsewhere. Common application of Runes are nonmagical, and are frequently used as a system for writing Koiné, but may be used as a conduit for magic easily enough by one who knows the metaphysical properties of each Rune. Gaea possesses a number of Runes not found on Earth for this purpose, aligning with additional phonemes (and subsequent metaphysical meanings) that were not initially relevant to Earth's corresponding cultures. Runes are a commonly used alphabet that is at least partially intelligible to most natives of Meropis and is usually mapped phonetically to other writing systems as a means of translation, though this can result in a loss of nuance when translating from texts originally written in Runes due to the conceptual meaning of each character... a problem that persists in many Eastern languages as well.

Most modern Runic texts employ a variant of Medieval Runes that incorporates a number of additional Runes to represent additional sounds, such as /v/ and /j/.

## Runes as Magic

### On Gaea

#### High Runes

These powerful runes are embodied in specific objects, places, and creatures, including people.