Runes

A Word about Runes

In addition to their classification by age or alignment, the runes are also classed by gender, with four distinct types. These are Male, Female, Hermaphroditic, and Neuter.

These genders delineate how the Runes (and, to a degree, the Deities associated with them) interact.

A Word about Glyphs

A Glyph is similar to a Rune, except that while Runes act as powerful conduits of a primeval force or concept, Glyphs are more tied to the physical plane and lesser manifestations. Therefore, there are Glyphs representing Man, Digijelm, Dawn, Dusk, Tree, River, etc.

While Glyphs seldom (if at all) have any corresponding Power within them by their own natural ability, they can still be potent foci of magical or religious working.

Runic Pairings

Runes need only be aligned by the following simple formula, with regard to cults, persons, and the like:

A grouping cannot be all male or all female.

A neuter rune may be added, but it will not and does not affect the pairing requirements for the remaining runes.

A grouping cannot be all neuter.

Mythic Coupling

As regards the dieties involved with certain of the runes (excepting the Deific runes), similar rules of protocol are also involved.

A male and a female rune may couple.

A male and a hermaphroditic rune may couple.

A female and a hermaphroditic rune may couple.

A hermaphroditic and a hermaphroditic rune may couple.

A male cannot couple with a male, as cannot a female with a female, or a neuter with anything.

A rune cannot mate with an offspring, nor a sibling. The exception to this are those of the Elder Council, who often follow different rules due to their stature.

A Deific rune cannot and does not couple with any other runes, either their own caste of a lower caste.

With regards to the gender of the offspring, it too has to follow certain rules. Incidentally, a 'caste' is referred to as a grouping, either within a Council or between two different Councils.

Different Castes: If a higher caste mates with a lower caste, the offspring is the opposite of the higher in gender (hermaphrodites being opposed to neuter).

Same Caste: If two non-hermaphroditic runes of the same caste couple, the offspring is neuter.

Same Caste: If a gender rune and a hermaphroditic rune of the same caste couple, the offspring is opposite that of the gendered parent.

Same Caste: If two hermaphroditic runes of the same caste couple, the offspring is hermaphroditic as well.

The Deific Council Runes and Deities

Each of these runes is based on one of the original dieties. As all but Adhamelev and Logos are dead, they are used only as qualifier runes, denoting a particular affinity.

8 Infinity (hermaphroditic) Logos
! Luck (male) Alpha
* Fate (female) Omega
V Movement (male) Briyan
U Stasis (female) Kara
t Death (male) Osyrys
X Life (female) Dyanan
Y Truth (male) Mestopholys
i Illusion (female) Eista
j Disorder (male) Abaddon
h Harmony (female) Lilith
W Mastery (neuter) Adhamelev

Infinity - The infinity Rune is a hard one to grasp for most sentients. It encompasses the totality of existence, and the completeness of the Cosmos at large. Fittingly, this Rune is associated with Logos, the Creator of all.

Luck - The Luck Rune, embodied first by Alpha, and now inherited by Nik-El, epitomizes the random unpredictability of forces we cannot even think of controlling for we have no way of knowing their outcome.

Fate - Similar, yet opposed to the Luck Rune, Fate (now owned by XXX) denotes those forces that sentientkind cannot even hope to alter, despite being able to confront them.

Movement - Now possessed by XXX, Movement symbolizes the constant motion of the world; the unstoppable variations of the Cosmos.

Stasis - Opposed to Movement, Stasis provides the rigid foundation upon which all things must rest. It is now embodied by XXX.

Death - One of the Mortal Pair, Death is now borne by Ceris, God of War. All living things must eventually come to their end, and Death is the End and the Way.

Life - Even as all mortal things must eventually die, all living things must also strive to build themselves up against impending death, whether that means is by healing, growth or procreation. XXX is now the avatar for Fertility.

Truth - The shining beacon before which falsehoods and untruths must ultimately fall. Once symbolized by Mestopholys, it is now Lhankor Mhy who is in possession of pure Truth.

Illusion - The insidious Illusion, that which purports to be true yet ultimately is not, is now owned by XXX.

Disorder - The father of Chaos, in a very literal sense, Disorder embodies those elements of creation that fail to work with one another.

Harmony - Often thought to be an odd choice as mother of Chaos, Harmony was once embodied by Lilith. However, it now belongs to XXX.

Mastery - Adhamelev proved himself to own this Rune when he Mastered his own abilities and was able to reach Logos despite the formidable curse of Eden.

The Elder Council Runes and Deities

The Elder Runes are so named because they were created by the original dieties: Logos, his Children, and his Grandchildren. The Elder Runes are:

The Five Realms of Creation

? The God Plane (neuter) - no affiliated deity -
? The Dreamtime (neuter) - no affiliated deity -
? The Mundane (neuter) - no affiliated deity -
? The Underworld (neuter) - no affiliated deity -
? The Nine Hells (neuter) - no affiliated deity -

The Four Elemental Runes

e Earth (female) The Earth Goddess
A Air (male) The Air God
f Fire (female) The Fire Goddess
Z Water (male) The Water God

The Three Low Runes

B Beast (male) First of Animals
P Plant (female) First of Plants
S Spirit (neuter) - no affiliated deity -

The Two High Runes

M Sapience (hermaphroditic) Sage to the Gods
r Magic (neuter) - no affiliated deity -

The Single Damned Rune

C Chaos (hermaphroditic) Mindless Change

The Single Blessed Rune

? Being (neuter) - no affiliated deity -

The Second Council Runes and Deities

These runes (and their affiliated gods) grew from the varied interactions of the Elder Runes with each other.

XX Earth + Air (neuter) - no affiliated deity -
XX Earth + Water (neuter) - no affiliated deity -
XX Earth + Beast (male) The Dinosaur God
XX Earth + Sapience (male) Gnome
XX Earth + Chaos (male) ?
XX Air + Fire (neuter) - no affiliated deity -
XX Air + Plant (female) ?
XX Air + Sapience (female) Sylph
XX Air + Chaos (female) ?
XX Fire + Beast (male) Dragon
XX Fire + Sapience (male) Salamander
XX Fire + Chaos
XX Water + Plant (female) (The First Algae?)
XX Water + Sapience (female) Undine
XX Beast + Plant (neuter) - no affiliated deity -
XX Beast + Sapience (female) The First Hybrasilian
XX Plant + Sapience (male) The First PlantCreature
XX Sapience + Chaos (neuter) The First Broo

It is assumed that Chaos combined with Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Beast and Plant either soon killed themselves off or were destroyed by other forces of the fledgling world, for no pure examples of them exist today, and are only included in a few runic treatises for the purposes of being complete. Note however, that while Chaotic mud, or man-eating plants have been found, they are not archetypically represented. Likewise, the progeny of some of the more antagonistic pairings (Air and Earth, Water and Fire, for example) are thought to have extinguished themselves in a fit of self-destruction.

In a similar vein, the fabled Cloud Gardens of Hilme (originally represented by the pairing of Air and Plant) has since past into the realm of the Dreamtime, presumably to escape the full impact of the coming of Night.

Glyphs

Glyphs are similar to runes, yet not as powerful. They generally represent more recent additions to the world, an offspring of the higher runes, and do not generally epitomize a powerful facet of the world. As a rule, if a symbol has one or two ancestors in it's lineage, it is a Rune; three or more constitutes a glyph. More often than not, however, a Glyph's ancestry is either untraceable, or it has none: many glyphs were the result of spontaneous creation, as opposed to mythic pairing.

In addition, while the Runes are held to the rather strict rules of Coupling and pairing, Glyphs are not so restricted. Most hold to the higher laws, but there have been exceptions.

XX Greater Moon
XX Lesser Moon
XX Light
XX Heat
XX Travel
XX Ogre
XX Giant
XX Duck
XX Centaur
XX Dragonnewt
XX Halfling
XX Orc
XX Wind Children
XX Sage Dragons
XX Elves
XX Dwarves
XX Pixies
XX Humankind

The UnderRunes

There are a handful of Runes extant in Rüne today that scholars believe were introduced directly as a result of the Invasion of Night into the upper world. Some of the more outlandish scholars even goes as far as to suggest that there exists a distinct and opposite UnderRune to correspond to each and every known Rune, and that the upper races simply have not found them yet. Considering the highly dualistic nature of the world of Rüne, this is not so far off a theory.

Incidentally, there are no known UnderRunes that are analogous to the Deific Runes.

Known UnderRunes

XXX Metal opposes Earth (male) A long-known addition
XXX Ice opposes Fire (male) Often compared to Night as well
XXX Mercury opposes Water (female) A solid that flows like a liquid
XXX Insect opposes Beast (female) Including spiders and worms
XXX Crystal opposes Plant (male) A growing non-vegetation

Known UnderGlyphs

XXX Cold opposes Heat (female) Often paired with Ice and Darkness
XXX Darkness opposes Light (female) Often paired with Ice and Cold

Some UnderRunes, such as Metal and Crystal (and their corresponding physical constructs) were known to the Upper World long before the definitive breaking of the Firmament by Lord Tetrimonicus. Dredged up from the shadowy depths where the Underworld and the mundane caverns meet, they had been used and admired for millennia without knowledge of their true origins.

On the other hand, there are also a number of conjectured UnderRunes that have either not been discovered yet or are simply not thought to exist anymore. The UnderRunic opposition to Air, for example, is often hypothesized to be Vacuum, and was displaced by Air when the seal between the two worlds was broken. Unfortunately, many of these suppositions become suspect after a while. Why, for example, if a Vacuum was the normal state of affairs before the Breach, do Digijelm have lungs? 

The symbol of Undead is known to exist, and many scholars consider it to be an UnderRune, and yet if so there is no clear-cut correlation for it. Some people consider it the opposite of Life, while others consider it to opposed to Being or Spirit.

There are also a few known examples of UnderRunic correlations with the Second Council. Digijelm are the best known samples, being the assumed result of a mating between Sapience and Darkness.

Links to sites about Runes

Runes as an Oracle
Runes Info
The Runic Page
Beginning Runes
Rune-Gild
Futhark
Freya Runestones - History and Mythology
Runes