Namakan Runecasting¶
"All will serve us, in either this life or the next." — unofficial motto of House Vesulias, a house of runebinders (S322)
Namakan runecasting is the Sancturi discipline of Rune Magic. "Namaka has made considerable gains against Khardas and has developer her own forms of Rune Magic" (S250, S132), and the runes of Namaka became an instrument of the Sancturi Imperium: its priests sanctify with them, its magistrates question with them, its houses raise the dead with them and its clergy bind the souls of witches with them. Like the older Khardic discipline it writes runewords and empowers them with divine energy; unlike it, its practitioners draw that energy as ordained members of Namaka's clergy (S249).
The rune tongue¶
A Namakan rune is spoken in short syllables. "These forms are combined with Primary Forms to create a Namakan Rune. Each Primary Form is usually combined with two Secondary Forms which alter the effects of the Rune" (S248). Each secondary form has three grades of the same root: PHA, PHAS, PHASI for spirit; COR, CORP, CORPU for the corpse; MAN, MANU, MANUS for energy; PER, PERD, PERDO for destruction; CRU, CRUC, CRUCI for "Torment or Hate"; UNI, UNIS, UNISC for "Combine, Bind or Join" (S248). The primary forms have their own roots: NIL for Oblivion, HOR for Dread, VIV for Animate, INS for Ascension (S255, S257, S253, S256). A rune's name is its formula: Animate Lich is PHA VIV PER, "Spirit Animate Destroy"; Animate Ghoul is PHA VIV CRU, "Spirit Animate Torment"; Zone of Dread is DUC HOR POS, "Pull Dread Place" (S253, S257). Sigils, the tertiary forms, "also referred to as Sigils or amplification and augmentation Forms", modify range, area and duration (S248).
Gap
The syllables are Latin-like (SENTENTIA, POSITURA, SERVO), but S248 names no liturgical language for them, and no source says whether they are spoken in worship or only in runecraft.
Ordination¶
"This is the divine energy feat that is required for the majority of Namakan Divine Spellcasters. It makes you an ordained member of the Namakan clergy" (S249). The Namakan runecaster is therefore a cleric of sorts, gathering and holding divine energy through Namaka, and the most devout are granted more: "Your extreme devotion and piety pay off with extra energy that you are able to procure from Namaka" (S249). Many Sancturi runecasters "are an extension of the Sancturi Clergy" and "enjoy considerable support, respect and political influence across the empire" (S132); the Sancturi Clergy are Factions'.
The classes¶
The notes divide the discipline into five classes by the forms they may read, write and empower (S250, S249):
| Class | Runes | Forms |
|---|---|---|
| Runemage | Elemental runes | Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Light, Darkness |
| Runepriest | Divine runes, "Sanctification Runes (Divine magic, focused on alteration)" | Healing, Consecration, Retribution, Ordination, Purification; Bane, Blood, Inquest |
| Runekeeper | Mind runes, "Dominion Runes (Divine magic, focused on psychic magic)" | Imperius, Inquisition, Holding, Deception, Perdition; Command, Deceit, Ascension |
| Runebinder | Spirit runes, "Spirit Runes (Divine magic, focused on necromancy and spirit magic)" | Animate, Ascension, Oblivion, Death, Blood, Dark |
| Runeblade | Blade runes | Any blade rune or channelled rune |
Several forms are shared between classes: Ascension between binder and keeper, Blood between binder and priest, Inquest between priest and keeper (S249, S256, S265). The Runeblade is a warrior: the design notes want the class "combo-driven", its Power Word blade runes giving "buffs, but not serious damage (those are reserved for Strike activation)" in the Bladesong (S252). Kaito Tadaheik, a convicted Namakan Runeblade "once a member of House Vinceris and a First Sword in the 6th Strike of the Obsidian Legion", is Figures' (S138).
The forms¶
Animate¶
The Animate forms raise the dead and give the undead a working ecology. Animate Corpse makes skeletons and zombies from bones or a "fairly intact corpse", provided "the soul residue must still be present (~10 years)" (S253). Its grades are the Sancturi's labour force: the Drone, which "is only capable of performing tasks that a toddler is capable of understanding (2-3 word commands). Things like lift rock, push cart, dig hole, walk to barn"; the Drudge, which "can perform several tasks in a specific order" and whose "compulsions from its former life" drive it to familiar work when idle; and the Slave, whose "simple decision making skills make this version very common as servants and assistants. They are also often put in charge of commanding drudges and drones as part of a Herd" (S253). Animate Ghoul raises ghouls, "constantly driven by its insatiable hunger for flesh", and wights, whose "minds are twisted with paranoia and hatred" yet keep "many of the same reasoning abilities that they had in life"; Animate Lich requires the body "restored to full health" and the soul "fully present"; Animate Parasite is "Spirit Animate Decay"; Lure Undead draws all idle undead to a pen (S253). The undead are Creatures'.
Great House Vesulias is "well known for their runebinders and extensive use of undead minions as laborers and warriors. They revere Namaka as their patron goddess", under the motto "Truth in Death" (S322). The Necrolord, the highest runebinder, can grant the animated dead its own skills: "Note that this can be used to create undead clerics and runecasters" (S249).
Death and Oblivion¶
The Death forms harvest and sever. Mortal Collector "collects energy from the moment of death nearby" and in its strongest form raises those corpses as zombies under the bearer's control; Spirit Cleave "attempts to kill a target by severing its spirit from its body" (S254, S251). The Oblivion forms, written with NIL, spend life itself: Necrotic Healing "restores health by consuming max health. Unlike most radiant-based healing, this will heal undead and demons"; Collapsing Soul turns its host into a source of necrotic energy; Transfer Lifeforce moves vitality between bodies (S255). An uncommon Oblivion rune, Hungering Dark, turns "a bound soul over which the runecaster has dominion" into a darkness that "searches out and destroys light"; when it expires "the soul is released into the afterlife" (S231).
Blood¶
The Blood forms "collect energy from blood (health) and transform it into energy", transfer health, and send a creature "into a blood-fueled raging fury" that works on the living and on "corporeal undead that has flesh" (S261). A Bloodfire rune burns any blood into "a faint blood red fire that restores health to all those touching it" (S231).
Ascension¶
The Ascension forms, shared by Runebinder and Runekeeper, work on the spirit: Energy Seeking "seeks out energies and ethereal auras", including Runic, Hollowing, Abyssal, Fae and Mithis energies; Spiritual Fortress "constructs a spiritual wall around an individual's spirit"; Spirit Seeking finds "spirits, spirit bonds and spirit fragments" through "an existing spiritual connection to the target"; Memory and Spirit Communion reach into the soul itself (S256).
Dread¶
The Dread forms are the most dangerous. Zone of Dread "aligns the area with the Yawning Void, allowing The Dread to partially cross through"; a Dread Gate "summons Dread Horrors"; Dreadborne "merges the subject with a Dread"; a Soulforged Abomination "merges the souls of several creatures" (S257). What crosses is the Dread: Cthuls "strongly attuned to Domination typed Psionics", insect-like Umbars, beholder-like Tyrax and the ancient Abols, who "claim to have living memory of the birth of almost every race in the universe" (S257). The Yawning Void is Cosmology's. Beneath the Khardic temple at Kilmarn lies a ruined Namakan temple where a priest left a "Book of Dread Runes" and a note sending acolytes "for experimentation. Any who are unwilling should be transformed as practice for perfecting your art with the runes that I have shown you" (S164).
Dark and Chaos¶
The Dark forms extinguish light, hide their subject from scrying, raise one-way walls of darkness that defeat "even magical vision such as True Sight", and tether creatures with "a dark rope" (S260). The Chaos forms ground magic, make spellcasting "unpredictable", and at their height open "a rift which attracts and drains energy from all nearby creatures. Acts like a black hole that sucks in magical effects and energy" (S259).
Inquest and Perdition¶
These are the forms of the clergy's justice. The Inquest forms "deal with investigation and confession": tracking, augury, Inquisition for "truth & compulsion", the Pyre of Truth, "fire that usually only hurts those that lie", Mindwipe and the Beacon of Truth (S265). "Many magisters are Namakan Runekeepers" (S321). The Perdition forms "deal with pain, punishment and retribution": Shackle, Pain, Execution, Gentled ("cant fight"), Feebled ("cant hold energy"), and beacons of pain and retribution, one of which strikes "all heathens who look" (S264). The convicted Runeblade Kaito Tadaheik is held both Gentled and Feebled (S138).
Minor forms¶
The notes sketch further forms (S271, S273, S272, S263, S270, S269):
- Bane forms "react violently with specific energies or turn energies against themselves", mostly as weapon runes: Lightbane, Faebane, Lifebane, Deadbane, Demonbane, Darkbane, Magicbane, Exorcism and Clostroc, the rune "anti-Hollow/Mithis".
- Unholy forms "deal with creation of Negative divine energy and the destruction of Holy (Positive) divine energy": Consecration, Desecration, Unholy Blade, Rebuke, Beacon and Command.
- Decay forms deal "with the conversion of Order towards Chaos": Decay and Fleshrot.
- Deceit forms "deal with Illusions and Phantasms": masks, mirages, invisibility, phantasms and dreams.
- The Deep form "interacts with the deep earth, the core domain of Namaka": Bones of the Earth and Magma Geyser.
- The Light runes include Praedaem, which "absorbs hollowing energies"; see Hollow Magic.
Namakan Runebinding and the Danar Campaign¶
Runebinding was born of war with the dead. On the island of Danar, settled by the Sancturi from 614 SM, "it was the enmity of the Wights and their armies of corporeal and incorporeal undead, as well as undead plagues, blights and roaming monsters that lead to the eventual abandonment of both provinces on the island in 652 SM (Pesh) and 674 SM (Southern Danar). One result of this campaign was the development of Namakan Runebinding" (S326). The campaign is History's.
Souls and the Vigils¶
The Namakan runecasters keep the dead from walking. "Witches are burned at the stake by the Sancturi, but under the supervision of Namakan Runecasters, which entrap their souls to ensure that they are never reincarnated (these are added to Vigils). Also, all executions are performed under the supervision of the Sancturi Clergy and they are careful to mark heathens so that they will transition instead of turn" (S318). Where that fails the clergy sends for them: if hanged heretics' spirits "decide to remain and haunt the place, then we will have to bring in some Runebinders or Priests to deal with it" (S144). The Vigils are Artifacts'; the doctrine of the restless dead is told with the Undead.
Their skill also makes them dangerous to the Imperium. The Brotherhood of the Sun once found "a willing Namakan Runecaster to sabotage the runes" of a port town's Vigil, at the price of freeing his family from slavery (S131), and the Sancturi campaign's plotting proposes to "subvert Namakan Runecasters" in the name of Fae deliverance (S202).
Earlier accounts¶
The first design notes list the classes' forms differently: the Runepriest with "Healing, Consecration, Retribution, Ordination, Purification (Dispels & Cleanses), Perdition (keeper?)", the Runekeeper with "Imperius, Inquisition, Holding, Deception", the Runebinder with "Animate (Death??), Seeking, Ascension, Oblivion, Death, Blood" (S250). The common sigils reference, which its author marked "GET RID OF THIS", was not integrated (S258).
Rune lists, sigil tables and stat blocks: Namakan Runecasting.