Runecraft

General

Runes are a written system of using magic. They are either tied to the magic user's personal magic and energy or to an outside source of magic, like a crystal or gem. Runes are a way of locking magic down onto an item, location, or person. They also open up new possibilities for combining magic and making unique spells that could be outside of the usual capabilities of a caster. Runecrafting is a means of using runes to harness magic and put it into a more solid and tangible form.

Creatures with a natural proficiency for runecrafting tend to have personal preferences in what they craft. They still have strengths and weaknesses, usually tied to what their blood relatives are good at crafting together. Someone with a parent who has a good handle on channeling light will be better at manipulating light with runes. Usually, it's divided up into schools of runecrafting that guide what a person focuses on.

Runecrafting requires a lot of memorization, an understanding of how things work, a magical power source, and knowledge of how to manipulate the magic contained in the source. It's a combination of knowledge and desire sealed together by language. The knowledge needed varies from school to school. This leads to good runecrafters being knowledgeable in their given fields and able to keep up with scientists and scholars in discussions of how things work and the nature of the physical world. You could say you need a high intelligence score to get good with runes.

Schools of Runecrafting

• • Elemental- Control of elements and concepts, raw energy manipulation

  • Cognizant- Changing how things appear, protection from mental harm, emotion balancing

  • Dimethyn- Shields, location based magic, protection from physical harm, things dealing with physical space

  • Unothnic- Body modification, suppression of forms

External Magic Sources

External magic sources can be used to help humans who wish to learn runecrafting or to supplement a person's natural magic levels. They are most commonly crystals or orbs imbued with magic by another, or, in rarer cases, naturally occurring magic stones. Manufactured stones and orbs are, in general, more reliable. There is a strong market for them in Lith. Naturally occurring stones are riskier for runecrafting since some stones and crystals have their own energies and benefits they lean towards. Since runecrafting is a very controlled form of magic, this chance for variation in the crystals is viewed as a big disadvantage. (MEMO: Write about crystals and their powers)

Internal Magic Sources

Internal sources come from the magical capabilities of the person writing the runes.

The Runes

• • Reveal- Light, truth

  • Mouth- Secret, darkness, shadows, untold

  • River- Water, progression, flow

  • Plane- Ground, stable

  • Plant- Life, growth

  • Breeze- Air, modify, change

  • Sunrise- Fire, color, new opportunities

  • Coin- Luck, chance, money

  • Self- Mind, emotions, introspection

  • Force- Strength, power, direction

  • Ice- Delay, cold, challenge

  • Storm- Quicken, haste, lightning

  • Word- Insight, communication

  • Hand- Take, control

  • Eye- Chaos, twists, binding

  • Cup- Fortune, happiness, celebration

Common Uses

Elemental

Cognizant

Dimethyn

Unothnic

Proficient Species