Verbs and Thungrian Rift-Script
In the discussion of other Kazrin magics, I have mentioned adjective and noun characters as they pertain to Thungrian Rift-Script. However, there is a third type of rift-script character, that being the verb. Traditionally, verb characters only exist within the thoughts and manifested action of living creatures. Zruntus, specifically, deals with breaking this standard. More directly, Zruntus is the imbuement of runic characters denoting action upon non-living things. Most well known by those outside the Kazrin as "runecraft", use of this magic involves the incription of a rune of a shape denoting the function, and often of a particular material as well. For example, the magic negation rune as weilded commonly by the Akli's End involves the character for "to shield" and "to protect" with the addition of morkine to focus the rune for protection from magic specifically. Runes require a further cost beyond this to function, however, as some who may have fought the Akli's End may know. The activation of runes - of the action inscribed within them - requires a sufficient emotional or thought-based input from a living, thinking entity. The non-living material itself does not have the capacity to manifest action, as it is not a living thing bound to life and time, from where action is derived. So, for runes to take their action, they require the input of a weilder who can apply their will to the rune, giving it the necessary energy to execute its function. A specific thought is not needed in this regard, as the rune is already calibrated to do as it needs. Really, all that is needed is sufficient rift energy to execute the action, as energy is required to execute a verb based command, and energy to do so is not naturally stored within material things. This is why warriors of the Akli's End commonly lean into rage and anger. The fuel of their emotion causes their morkine runes to flare with power - even becoming overcharged in cases, and lasting long beyond their normal duration.
Overcharging of Runes
Many Zruntus weilders of the past have experimented with overcharging runes through other means, such as by the conduction of a Shikik mage, or by other means of the transfer of rift-born material energy (to be clear, material energy in this case is simply reffering to the energy which forms Thungrian Rift-Script). When a material becomes overcharged with material energy, it usually tries to assimilate it unto itself, and in doing so realeases excess energy as Rift-Script in it's physical form. Shikik mages are familiar with this overcharging, as it is a common result of their conduction magic. Runes, however, unlike materials, do not expell excess energy. Since runes have the capacity to use energy through the doing of an action, they will not expell any energy as all of it is seen as useful. Instead of being expelled dangerously as Shikik energy, the material energy is converted to action as it exceeds the capacity of the rune. This often produces a flare of light, as I described earlier in morkine runes, and a greatly enhanced effect.
The overcharging of runes does have its weaknesses however, mainly that the strain of action drains the runes associated material over time. As energy is transferred through the rune, some of the original material code denoting the morkine's details is lost, and so over a prolonged period of usage, the rune will be devoid of standard morkine, left with an altered, grey husk. The Akli's End are capable of using overcharging without fear of this weakness because of their monopoly over morkine on the Xlandian continent. However, for most other users of runes, this quickened loss of runic material is more than enough of a reason not to overcharge their runes. I would like to make note of the "quickened" in that last sentence. All runes lose charge in this manner; overcharging just makes it faster.
Runic Constructs
An emerging, more and more common use of Zruntus is the production of Runic constructs. Obviously, with the capability to inbue action, it is natural to desire a humanoid construct which can perform all variety of manual labor. However, the process of making a runic construct is not so simple. Runes, as I have covered, require an input of energy to function. So, the construct would require at least one (though most likely a great amount more due to the sheer volume of runes upon your average construct) Kazrin to monitor it, defeating the point of the autonomy, to a degree. Still, some runesmiths would build themselves constructs which served as suits for them to inhabit, functioning off of the energies produced by them, but this was rare, and while powerful, also incredibly difficult. For the most part, Runic constructs ceased as an idea upon the minds of average Kazrin until the complete industrialization of altrine.
For some minor background, altrine is a crystal which grows of mana-infused obsidian. Its unique capability is that of most Shikik mages, being the ability to absorb, contain, and expell Shikik energy, which is the physical form of Thungrian Rift-Script. By the early colonization of Xlandia, and the harvesting of the Altrine Mountains, there would be a surplus of altrine available causing its price to significantly drop in the Kazrin homeland of Kolkakla, and so engineers and scholars were made more able to study the material for its uses. The Altrin family was the foremost in this regard, creating the Grower's Suit for farming altrine, and establishing a mining clan within Xlandia to keep hold upon the material. Soon, altrine energy extrusion was discovered - a way of extracting the energy from altrine crystals without risking danger or wasting the energy in a Shikik explosion. Now, altrine-based energy could be harvested and stored within altrine batteries, and furthermore transferred by means of altrine-copper alloy, which naturally both desires and expells energy, being perfect for use as wire. All of this eventually led to the realization that the Shykik power of altrine is ultimately born of the same energy which powers runes. Engineers and runesmiths of the School of Magic and Engineering worked tirelessly to create a construct capable of true autonomy through atrine powered runes.
An altrine generator was first needed, alongside a massive battery to store the required energy for all runic actions. This was an issue, as the chief limitation of altrine at the time was the inability to make more energy. Aside from a Shikik mage, or the extrusion of fresh altrine crystals, new energy was never made, only recycled amongst the system. Altrine naturally absorbs mana in the form of Shikik energy during its growth; this process would need to be recreated for a construct to be possible. The answer was, in reality, quite simple.
To this point, Shikik mages (those weilding the fourth Kazrin element of Shikus) were the chief battle-mages of Kazrin society, and were trained heavily for war, being viewed as most useful in only the context of battle. It was by Kilgir Lozrun, one of the few scholarly Shikik mages of the School of Magic and Engineering deemed too weak to serve as a battle mage, that the true nature of Shikus would be discovered. Prior to this point, Shikik magic was seen as an energy entirely seperate from that of Thungrian Rift-Script, manifested through some other means outside of the code to material things. Kilgir would find that Shikik energy is that of Thungrian Rift-Script still, simply expelled as a physical force. With this simple knowledge, it was now known that Shikik mages could recharge altrine crystals with energy harvested from any material thing, and a runic construct was born soon after. Now, it was by the combination of Zruntusan and Shikik mages that they functioned, taking action by means of Zruntusan runes, and requiring regular recharges to their massive altrine battery by means of a Shikik mage.
Subsects of Zruntusan Runes
Where as other magics are divided due to the fact that mages can only learn so much, Zruntus is divided by the purpose of runes and how their function triggers. This is mainly because Zruntus is less complicated to master in most aspects, so mages need not specialize to the degree of Erekus. Rather, the categories simply aid in understanding the runes themselves, rather than being born of groups with similar rift-script characters, such as Erekian material schools. The categories are as follows:
- Passive Runes - runes which have a passive effect which is always triggering to some extent, requiring a constant flow of energy to support
- Active Runes - runes which have an effect requiring manual activation by means of a thought or emotional surge
- Reactive Runes - runes which have an effect which triggers in the presence of other effects
- Living Runes - runes born upon Kazrin flesh which can imbue excess action upon a living being
Most of these are pretty self-explanatory. Passive runes could be a rune exerting a constant force, say to levitate a platform. An active rune could, say, expell a fiery blast upon sufficient input from the user. An example of a reactive rune is that of morkine runes, triggering exclusively when magic impacts the anti-magic aura. Living runes, of these groups, are probably the most rare. Usually, in conversations of Zruntus, living runes arent even mentioned. The creation of a living rune requires the subject be a Kazrin, as each Kazrin contains within their physical structure the same energy which makes non-living materials, and so Zruntusan mages can shape runes unto themselves, incribing them with action which they themselves can fuel. Of course, the carving of a rune into oneself requires the infusion of the runic material into ones body. This process is at it sounds. Incredibly painful and difficult beyond measure. Yet, if successful, living runes prove incredibly powerful.
Comments