Runes

Runes for the four elements, drawn in a notebook with breaks in the traingles to prevent them from activating.

Runes are sigils that are used for magic, calling upon the spirits to perform certain actions. Generally used by Shamans and Dabblers.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":2" />

Usage

The basic theory is that one uses a rune to communicate your desire to the smallest, ambient spirits, and they perform the specified task.<ref name=":1" /> A rune can be used on it's own, in combination with other runes, or as part of a complex magical diagram,<ref>[1.8 Spoilers Inventories]</ref> as long as the symbolism communicates your wishes to the spirits in accordance with tradition.

A rune might be "powered" by drawing it in blood<ref name=":2" /> or food. It would also draw on one's reputation with the local spirits; if a rune is overused, the relationship could worsen to the point where the relevant spirits direct their focus against you.<ref name=":1" /> Breaking the connection between a rune and the person powering it could break the effect.<ref name=":3" />

Some shamans would make a habit of making a larger offering later after using a rune, establishing a pattern of rewarding the spirits for cooperation.<ref name=":1" />

Known Runes

Air/Wind

An upward-facing equilateral triangle with a line through it, underlined.<ref>[1.4 Spoilers Notes on the Practices #1]</ref>

Calls upon spirits of the element of air. One of the four classic elemental runes.

Drawn on clothing, imparts the lightness of air to give the wearer some enhanced agility<ref name=":3">I wasn’t interested in a direct confrontation. I took a moment, touching my sliced right arm, raised my shirt, and drew a symbol on my chest.
I hoped I had it right.
I got a running start, one hand on the wall for balance, and I jumped.
Tired as I was, the jump still gave me enough air that I could clear the row of jagged glass points at the bottom of the frame.
I didn’t touch the glass, but I didn’t land on the row of parked cars beneath the window, either.
The wind rune I’d inscribed on my chest was one part of it.
The other rune Duncan had drawn on the windowframe, hidden, was the other.
The same kind of rune, apparently, that connected one part of the stairwell to the other.
The sun flashed in my eyes, and I was back in the stairwell, ten feet above the ground.
Ten feet above stairs, rather.
My landing was a rough one. I was lighter, but not so much that I made it past the entire flight of stairs.
[...]
With my bloody hand, I reached over to the window, planted my hand down on the second rune, smeared until I broke the connection, and vaulted over.
This time I made it through.
- excerpt from Conviction 5.3 </ref> and wind surrounding them.<ref>He lunged, taser in hand, and I threw myself back. Weak as I was, I moved a little too far, a little too fast, and I hit the wall hard enough that it hurt, cracking my head on it.
My hair was waving like I was in the midst of a strong breeze.
The wind rune.
[...]
My exit was followed by an spray of glass, bloodstained feathers, and

dust.  The wind rune’s wake, perhaps, or the change in pressure that

came with the breaking of the effect in the stairwell, releasing the pent up energy and whatever else.
I hit the ground. I was lighter, buoyed by the wind, but it still wasn’t the most graceful landing.
- excerpt from Conviction 5.3 </ref>

Applied to a firearm, it makes the weapon a little lighter and a little more powerful. It's the only elemental rune that won't risk disrupting the firing mechanism.<ref>He showed me the shotgun. The butt-end of the weapon had a symbol inscribed in the wood, so it sprawled all over the wooden surface, curving around to the other side. I turned to look, but my view was obscured as he pushed it closer to me. Against my chest, into my hands.
[...]
He nodded, letting go.

“That symbol is one for wind.” - excerpt from Collateral 4.10</ref>

Alarm

Warns the user when someone approaches the rune. Employed by Duncan Behaim.<ref>As I set foot on the landing, I saw golden diagrams spiral out from scribbles on the wall. I’d mistaken them for gang tags, but they were runes.
One connection fixated on me, all the more noticeable because my connections to everything else were so thin.
An alarm. Duncan Behaim was on his way to intercept me.
- excerpt from Conviction 5.3 </ref>

Durability

A rune that enhances durability, familiar to Blake Thorburn. Used on a window by Duncan Behaim to make it more durable.<ref name=":0">A connection. Between him and the window?
Of course. It was an obvious way out. I hopped up to search the surface. There. On the surface of the window, a rune. I recognized it as one that enhanced durability.
This was the Behaim style, apparently. Big chronomancy, using the family and the circle, bits of shamanism, enchantment and other tools here and there. Binding, augmenting, distracting…
I scratched at it. Permanent marker.
Nothing in the stairwell to scratch at it, my pockets had been cleaned out.
- excerpt from Conviction 5.3</ref>

Electricity

A rune that electrifies whatever touches it.<ref>A sticky note with a rune on it.

The goblin managed to activate it.

This time there was an arc of electricity. - Excerpt from Subordination 6.12</ref>

Privacy

Almost half of a typical ‘sun’, as a child might draw it, with the rays fanning outward, and a dot in the middle. - excerpt from Bonds 1.5

A rune that wards off people. Employed by Laird, drawing on his reputation with spirits of the Jacob's Bell community.<ref name=":1">He’d grabbed three little paper packets of sugar, and tore two open. I watched as he tore them open, then emptied them. They missed his drink entirely, forming a little dune onto the table, with grains dancing across the slick, not-quite washed surface.

He moved his cup, placing it onto the pile, and sliding it across the table. When he lifted it, the sugar was left in a crescent shape where it had been dragged by the underside of the cup. He emptied the remaining packet, a smaller pile in the center of the crescent, and then three lines, fanning outward, on the other side. The edge of the paper packet helped give the three lines form.

Almost half of a typical ‘sun’, as a child might draw it, with the rays fanning outward, and a dot in the middle.
[...]
“That should provide a bit of privacy,” Laird said. He sipped his coffee. “We tend to learn a few tricks, because it’s expedient. This one is a bit of shamanism. Many of the circles here and there will look down on someone for dabbling. [...] I make a meager food offering, create a sign to indicate what I want,

and draw from the reputation I maintain with local community spirits.  A
bonus of my position.  The spirits play along, because they know it

keeps people safer and helps to keep the community safe, and because they know I’ll make a better offering later, a habit I’ve established. The end result? They turn people away before they sit nearby, and we can talk without fear of eavesdroppers.”
“And these benign spirits can turn on you.”
“Always a concern, with any Other. If something goes wrong, if I allow too many people to go out into the cold instead of sitting here and someone gets hurt, or if the business starts to suffer here due to a

lack of customers, my credit with these same spirits might become

strained, and they might take issue. At the very least, I’d get less free coffees. At worst, I might find events conspiring to take my position from me, or I might even get drawn and quartered in the streets.” - Excerpt from Bonds 1.5 </ref>

Movement

A spiral, drawn from the outside in, then a triangle, with one point at the center, all as one motion. - excerpt from Bonds 1.7

A rune that moves objects. Featured in Essentials.<ref name=":4">I walked over to the desk to put the book down, stepping over the dagger. I flipped through it. One page with an image dominating half of it. A symbol was outlined, with arrows suggesting directions for drawing it. A spiral, drawn from the outside in, then a triangle, with one point at the center, all as one motion.
“First workings?”
I heard her flipping through pages as well. “Yeah.”
“Shamanism, movement,” I said.
[...]
I gestured, a flick of my hand, and they reacted. The cup jerked about two inches and crashed to the floor. - excerpt from Bonds 1.7 </ref>

Unlocking

An hourglass shape with a circle in the middle. - excerpt from Damages 2.5

A rune that unlocks locks.<ref>Can you open locks?”

“Not a trick I know,” I said.

She drew a small notebook from her pocket. She drew out an image. An hourglass shape with a circle in the middle. She drew a small pad of sticky notes from another inside pocket. “Draw something like this, put it on the doorknob, and empower it.” - Excerpt from Damages 2.5</ref>

Quiet

A rune that muffles sounds.<ref name=":2">“What do you know about shamanism?” Shotgun asked me.
“I know… maybe three symbols, off the top of my head. Dealing with the smallest spirits.”
“I’m going to show you two more. One for quiet, for the chain.”
“Quiet is good,” I said. “And the other one?”
He showed me the shotgun. The butt-end of the weapon had a symbol inscribed in the wood, so it sprawled all over the wooden surface, curving around to the other side. I turned to look, but my view was obscured as he pushed it closer to me. Against my chest, into my hands.
[...]
“That symbol is one for wind.”
“Wind?”
He shrugged. “Mess with other elemental forces, and you risk disrupting the mechanism. Weapon is maybe a little lighter, pushes a little harder.”
[...]
I’d inscribed my boots with quieting runes, and the crunching of snow and branches were muted. More blood spent.
[...]
With the quiet the runes afforded, I could move reasonably quickly. Not running, but not walking either. - excerpt from Collateral 4.10 </ref>

Looping

A hidden rune that looped a staircase in an Escher style, employed by Duncan Behaim.<ref>One section of stairwell, connected Escher style, top to bottom.

“Find-” I winced at the pain in my arms. That pain joined my hearing and eyesight among the things that were getting muddled, hard to compartmentalize or stop focusing on. “Find the rune.”
...“There,” Rose said. “On the other side of the wall. It’s… glowing in the darkness, kind of.”
I pressed my hand against the wall.
Unreachable.
[...]
I could theoretically break the rune by taking the most direct route. Rather than walk around to the other side, I could try attacking

it from here.

Punch through the wall until I could break the section of wall the rune was painted on?
- excerpt from Conviction 5.3 </ref> He used another copy of the same rune to cause anything that escaped through a window to appear above the stairwell.<ref name=":3" />

References