A thin weasel-faced man of average height walks in the door dressed in flowing dark brown robes. He stops halfway down the aisle and looks at everyone intently. Luckily, having been warned beforehand everyone in the room smartly hid anything they had even remotely magical or magical looking. As such the man continues down the aisle to the front of the room slightly disappointed.
"Hello gentleman. My name is Parawn and I shall be answering all of your questions on runic magic. It is a truly wonderful thing to follow the path of a magus, we are always looking for new apprentices and if power, fame and traveling in style are what you're looking for... then this is the profession for you. But enough about that, we shall start with a little magic theory then I shall take your questions."
"What most people call magic, is actually the arcane study and application of rune flows. These rune flows permeate everything from the smallest insect to the tallest mountain to the sun and the moon and all the stars! Magi manipulate the rune flows in certain ways to achieve a desired result. Because we mortal beings tend to use symbolism to represent things we magi over the course of many years developed the rune system. The rune system is what we use to represent our interpretation of what our manipulation of the rune flows looks like to perform a specific action. The runes themselves are nothing but drawings, however they represent the mental manipulation of energy flows to our desired ends. The design of the runes is not completely arbitrary as a change in the design of a rune drastically changes it effect."
"If any one person looks at a rune used to manipulate the flows, it will seem to be the same color. But when a magus concentration is at its peak and his conscious mind shuts off to the outside world, his subconscious mind tunes itself into what can only consciously been seen with a detect magic spell. He will discover that each flow has it's own distinct look and feel to it. It takes a long time for an apprentice to tune his subconscious to this level, which is why at the beginning many apprentices find that their runes were physically accurate but just pretty drawings on paper."
"Once your mind has reached the state where it can do the drawings by rote and it tunes itself into the rune flows, your hands move along tracing the physical rune, and your mind begins to manipulate the flows forcing them to take form on the paper.""You can not actually see the flows when you look at a rune, magi have to actually study them. The type of studying I am talking about requires absolute and complete concentration. That is when they reach the state of mind where the rest of the universe ceases to exist and their conscious mind takes a vacation. Which, incidentally, is why magi can study in the middle of a heated battle."
Parawn frowns at a large man dressed in leather armor with a wicked looking halberd on the ground beside him, who seems to be sleeping. He walks over to the man and continues his speech, "That is when they are at their most vulnerable..."
In one swift motion, Parawn picks up one end of the weapon and drops it on top of the man's head. He wakes with start and looks up only to see Parawn walking away, "...and their most dangerous. The act of memorizing a rune is the act of mentally creating the rune, not on paper but in your mind and holding it there. As you go on your daily duties your subconscious struggles to keep hold of the rune. Over time you get better at it, which is why you can memorize more. Once you speak the rune, that is a key to your subconscious to release the power of the combined flows, which your mind gladly does because then it doesn't have to struggle any more. Of course this also explains why you get headaches if you try and study a rune too complex or more runes than you can handle, your mental muscles just aren't ready for it."
"When reading/activating a rune, there is always a brief moment when the mind and the flows meet. The magus subconscious mind forces the flow energy to activate in the preset way. If the rune is relatively simple or known to the caster or even a rune which is unknown to the magus but one he can learn, the latent mental strength of the magi is more than sufficient to force the flows to activate and have the necessary effects. Should however the rune be too complex for the magus, the flow energy will collapse back into its latent form. A side effect of this is that the magus suddenly experiences an apparent loss of energy. This feeling of exhaustion is purely mental and has no physical reality. The feeling will pass within a short time. This is only of consequence when reading/activating a scribed rune. It will never happen with a memorized rune as the magus simple won't be able to memorize it."
Half of the room has zoned out by the time he finishes his monologue, the other half is split between those who are thinking of killing themselves, those who want to kill him and the small minority who actually found it interesting.
Parawn finishes, "Now for those of you who weren't paying attention, are there any questions for me?"
Q. What's the difference between a Charlatan and a Magi?
A. First of all a Charlatan can do no magic. All those fancy tricks you see them do are the result of nothing more than slight of hand, flash powder and other trickery. Some say that charlatans are more flexible in what they can do than magi. Bah. Let me see a charlatan fly! Or animate a rock golem! What? You're seen them do that? Bah you're just delusional!
Q. Do you require material components to cast spells?
A. No! That is a Charlatan! Well, let me amend that. Most runes have a verbal component and a somatic component. The somatic component or gesture is generally unnecessary but helps the magus concentrate when directing the rune flow. The important bit is that you speak the rune that you want. Material components may be used on certain spells to boost the chance of effectiveness a little bit. Like using a glittering crystal during a hypnosis spell.
Q. Which takes longer reading a rune or casting it from memory?
A. Casting it from memory is always faster because you can think much faster than the time it takes to look down at the written rune read it and say it.
Q. How do I get more runes in my spell book?
A. Two easy methods are to locate other runes that you see around you and scribe them onto your spell book once you realize you can understand it or you can approach another magus and if they are amiable, you can ask them to exchange spells. Most are magi are more than happy to do so.
Q. How can I cast more spells in a hurry when I run out of those in memory?
A. Easy! Once you are done memorizing your runes for the day, take a bottle of ink, quill, and parchment and scribe the runes from the spell book (you do have a spell book don't you?) or another scroll onto the parchment. I don't recommend scribing strange runes until after you know what they do. Once you have copies of the rune, you can either use the ones in your mind or take out the scroll and read it aloud.
Q. If I read a rune from a scroll that I also have memorized which one will be used?
A. The one from the scroll, of course. It's like saying a name. You can use your memory to speak the name of the person in front of you or you can read the name sewn into their shirtfront by their mommy! If you use the one in your memory then the scroll stays the same.
Q. So I can cast one rune many times by scribing it?
A. Only if you scribe it many times on a scroll. Each time you read the rune the power contain therein is released and the rune vanishes from the parchment much as the rune-construct vanishes from your mind when you use one you memorized.
Q. How many runes can I scribe on one sheet of parchment?
A. It depends on how complicated the rune is and how much experience you have with it. An apprentice copying a magic missile rune might be able to get two to a page. I however can easily put nearly a dozen on a page without error. Don't try to get more than you can easily fit on a page, problems can occur if the rune-construct isn't duplicated perfectly.
Q. What happens if the rune-construct is duplicated incorrectly and I use the defective rune?
A. That is the scary part. Almost anything can happen from the rune not working at all to it exploding in your face. But one thing for sure is that it won't work as you expected.
Q. Can anyone use a scroll that I scribed?
A. No, only one trained to read runes could read the scroll, in short another magus. To others it is just a strange picture.
Q. Can I read a rune from a scroll that I can't memorize?
A. If it is a rune that your mind can comfortably handle, yes. If it is too complex for you at that time then you will get an awful headache just trying.
Q. Why do magi get those headaches anyway?
A. Well the reason is that you are trying to comprehend something so complex and convoluted that you just don't have the understanding of certain concepts and without them instead of doing mental gymnastics you are just tying your brain into knots.
Q. So why can I suddenly comprehend runes that I couldn't a year ago?
A. The same way you can suddenly count to a hundred or read a sign the way you couldn't when you were a child. You know more and somewhere along the road to understanding, a basic concept became clear in your mind and then the other things behind it just fell into place.
Q. I heard that Orcs could use runes made by more powerful magi so an apprentice can summon monsters, is it true?
A. Bah! Such complete and utter tripe and nonsense. Go talk to Charon! He can dispel such stupid rumors.
Q. Are there such things as wild magic?
A. The so-called 'wild magic' is just the layman's term for the wild rune flow, which infests all runes. As an apprentice you learn to channel and use the wild flow much like any other flow. The better you get the more of the wild flow you include in your rune and the stronger the rune becomes. Those people whose magic is completely unpredictable have not completely mastered manipulating the rune flows and are, simply put... Inept.
Q. Why do I go crazy with rage with someone interrupts my studies? I mean it makes sense at the time to beat them senseless but afterward I can't believe I over-reacted that badly.
A. Okay I'm going to answer a question with a question. Suppose you've just gone through a yearlong training course with only one test, the final one. It was a pretty nasty course, it had its good points but most of it was a pain. If you don't pass the final in the time allotted you have to take the course over again, no exceptions and it is something you don't think you can survive a second time. It has been determined (quite correctly mind you) that you can finish the exam in exactly 1 hour. At 55 min into the exam, you're nearly done and definitely going to beat the time limit. Then some idiot waltzes in and takes your parchment, tears it to shreds, sticks his jaw in your face and says, 'So what ya gonna to do about it!' Tell me... What are you going to do about it?
A. The rune flows tap into a magical source that permeates everything. It is not limited to any one dimension or plane. Like a fog where it is thicker in some places than others, the source of flow is stronger in some places than in others. Two adjacent planes may have one strong in the source and magic abounds, while its neighbor is weak in the source and magic is a rumor or a story told to children. It exists everywhere and it all depends upon the strength of the flow in the current plane as to its prevalence. Although it is a rare possibility there may be spots in each plane where the strength varies. It might be so weak as to be non-existent or so strong that a newborn considers it as natural as breathing. Of course that's all just magic theory, it's pretty hard to prove unless you've been plane hopping.
Q. What are the types of rune flows?
A. I'll simplify them for your understanding, there are many different types of flows but the basic types are:
The Elemental flows, which consist of water, earth, fire, and air. These are the basic building blocks for most spells.
The negative flows illusion, shadow, and necromancy. These are commonly used for making something out of nothing or nothing out of something. Also of note is the fact that nearly every rune will have either have a little bit of a negative flow or a positive flow in it.
The positive flows summon, conjure, and enchant. These are commonly used for bringing something (in/out/over/under) something/somewhere to something/somewhere. Also of note is the fact that nearly every rune will have either a little bit of a positive flow or a negative flow in it.
The energy flows abjure, divine, and invoke. These are used to bring forth that which will help or hinder. The progeny of these runes have no substance and the power it uses is neither created nor destroyed it is simply what was always there that is now being used.
The wild flows...these are a bit of an enigma to most. The wild flows can be neither learned nor scribed and technically they can only be theorized about. We do know that they infect all runes and affect the power of the rune, but no one knows how to harness one intentionally. Most magi harness them unconsciously and over time improve in their ability to use them. That is how the same old rune you used years ago is now more powerful than your remember.
Of all the flows, the elemental flows are the easiest to use. Of the negative flows only shadow and illusion comes relatively easy to distinguish (provided you have halfway decent eyes). But Necromancy takes real talent to discover its use in a rune. The flow can be copied but it takes quite a bit to understand and the knowledge gained from one rune does not necessarily lend itself to another. The positive flows are the most difficult to learn and use as often the rune can require much more than the caster has to give. The energy flows are difficult to comprehend but once comprehension is gained extremely easy to use.
There are other rune flows, but most of these tend to be a combination of two or more of the above flows, so it doesn't matter.
Q. So how does all this come together to become a rune?
A. Each rune-construct consists of a primary rune flow from which it takes the majority of its power. Then there are one or more major rune flows and/or one or more minor rune flows. To complete the rune-construct there is either a small undercurrent of positive/negative rune flow and the wild flow, which is controlled only by the subconscious.
Q. Can I do research to learn more runes?
A. Yes, as a matter of fact you can. After you have been an apprentice for a modest amount of time then you will understand all about them and can reliably be trusted to try and manipulate the flows into more rune-structures without killing yourself.
Q. So what’s the story behind all of the adventure and events that have been taking place?
A. I wouldn’t know I’m just a researcher, ask Charon he gets out more than I do.