Comment by Jeweleya

The vote incentive - pffft! Hahaha! Now I really want to see Esra wipe out! :D Nice visuals signifying Iavin's control - simple yet ominous. Question! Since different runewriters use different (personalized) runes, but each runewriter has a standard (personal) phrase they say each time, is there any correlation between the runes available to the runewriter and the phrase they say? Or is the phrase just the igniter that makes the rune take effect?

Reply by Shazzbaa

ESRA WOULD RATHER NOT HAVE THIS HAPPEN TO HIS LIMBS.

But re: your question -- that's getting into a point where it's kinda hard to say! As far as the runewriter himself knows, it's just the thing that makes the runes activate. If anyone actually wanted to sit down and study what runes different runewriters have figured out and what their magic word thing is and whether or not the two seem to be connected (and could find enough runewriters to make such a study useful), maybe it would turn out to be related! Jonan has a stupidly long magic phrase and also has control over every aspect of his magic, whereas Sev's is very short and his abilities are all very specialised. CONNECTION?? COINCIDENCE???

These people tend to treat magic as more of a rare art than a science, though, and it's not typically studied in depth. Long story short, neither runewriters nor mundanes really know how it works!

Reply by Glew

So it's more sorcery than wizardry, right?

And this also reminds me of something I wanted to ask for some time now. So Sev says runes can only be written on things that are magical. But what exactly does "magical" constitute in this world? Does it have to be enchanted, or is it more of an inherent property of the item somehow. Can something non-magical be made magical and/or vice-versa? And if something is magical, does it mean it has special properties, like magical stuff in games (gives you protection or grants abilities etc.)?
And what does Jonan cast his runes off? We saw Sev's earring and stones and Iavin probably uses those beads. But Jonan? Oh, so many questions :D Maybe you can do an other Q&A when you are out of idea for the incentive.

Reply by Shazzbaa

Aw, these are pretty simple ones, actually!

As to "what makes a thing magical" -- some things are just magical! Like how some things are just orange, or some things are just magnetic. It's a property of some creatures and objects. There is no runewriting (at least none I can think of off the top of my head) that could be used to "enchant" stuff, so that's not a thing.

The answer to your last question can actually be found on the page I linked to Jeweleya -- Jonan's runes are on that necklace he wears! (If you are randomly curious, the pieces are made of bone; probably bones of some magical creature. He is a necromancer through and through and won't drop the theme for one stupid minute.)

Reply by Glew

Wait, Jonan has a necklace? ... :o ^^"

Reply by Jeweleya

Hmmmmm! I like your answer - it's very real-life-ey. I'm sure that you'll be weaving in the things we need to know as we go along... It's just hard to wait when both the story and the world are so interesting. I think that some of the best fantasy writing out there is when the universe is big enough to NOT be fully explored and explained in a single story. I'm definitely hooked, and looking forward to further developments! :D

Reply by Shazzbaa

Oh gosh, thank you! And man, always feel free to ask! Sometimes I'll not answer if it's gonna be important later, but it's always REALLY interesting and cool to see what you guys are pondering about the world and magic! *u*

(that and I like talking about it

that might contribute)