Runes

Runes & Runecrafting

What Are Runes?

Runes are powerful words of power that, when shaped into a proper combination, give extremely potent effects to the blood who happens to make (or buy) them. They can shape the way one approaches combat, empower already existing powers, twist one's capabilities into a new form, or something entirely strange or unseen. Runes are very difficult to research, requiring banks of jink, warehouses of arcane dust and a proper greybeard bonebox to fit them all together into a good combination, as it's not just randomly fitting runes onto an item... or is it? Very rarely, some lone, barmy, grimy rich enchanter begins their journey to discover the runes, but most are discovered and researched by crafting guilds, pouring resources and jink into finding the latest, bleeding edge rune before the others.

Remember, berk, knowledge is power.

What are Runes Mechanically?

Runes and runecrafting are a two-sided crafting system: research of runes and actual crafting of runic gear. You make rune words (namely in the Tower of Mysticism (colloquially known as Tabor's Tower or the Wizard's Tower) in Tradegate) on the Runes crafting bench, which you then slot into suitable gear with rune slots. While seemingly simple, the system has many hidden complexities. The system is very resource and gold intensive and is meant for a lategame progression.

Research of Runes

Runes are made from 39 possible individual rune words, arranged in a combination. However, not every rune word combination gives a rune that has a mechanical effect, in fact, many of them lack an actual effect. Runes can be made out of 2, 3 or 4 word combinations. Runes from 4 words are currently not implemented. Rune researchers individually test out all possible combinations, spending resources to try to discover actual runes which have a mechanical effect. Due to the cost and resource effort, as well as sheer number of possible combinations, rune research is usually done as a collaborative effort via in-character crafting guilds. The system doesn't memorize anything mechanically, you learn the actual combinations through trial and error, which you can repeat, keep to yourself, share or even sell. If you are dedicated to the research, it is heavily advised that you write down both your successes and failures in eg. a spreadsheet so you know where your research is headed. In fact, for 3 rune slots with 39 rune words, there are 59319 possible combinations, which is a very difficult (and expensive) task for a single person.

You will know you succeeded when the item you slot in the rune words has the rune name and the effect written in its description... but how does one even research the runes in practice?

Crafting of Runic Gear

When you either know of a guaranteed combination or you wish to research a rune combination, you must first craft an item from any of the crafting professions (Enchanting, Leatherworking, Platemail, Tailoring or Weaponsmithing. The material chosen must be Rune for as many rune slots you wish to have, eg. for a three rune slot item, you cannot have any other property other than the rune slots themselves as the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary material is Rune. Then, you use the rune words you had made and you slot them into the crafted item. If the combination is suitable, the rune will have an effect. If not, the trial and error continues. Rune words can be removed and reused up to a point where they are "stuck".

Quick Run-down (TL;DR)

• Make an Item with Slots for Runes (Material is Rune)
• Make Rune Words in Tower of Mysticism
• Slot Runes into the Item
• If Researching, Write Down Success or Failure
• Repeat as Necessary

List of Runes

TBA