PATRYN RUNE MAGIC: THEORY AND PRACTICE

Patryns altering any part of the world about them, first attempt to “name” an object fully. An object’s true name is far more than a convenient description. In Patryn magic, an object’s name defines precisely the state of the object relative to the underlying Wave of Possibility. Naming an object completely is critical to the level of success that the Patryn will have in later “renaming” the object into an alternate state or form.

Runes provide a set of symbols by which we can name (understand) and rename (change) any object. The student of Patryn magic is a student of the rune, for it is only through the runes that an object can be most fully named.

Theory and Concept

Runes give formal structure to our magic. Our runes generally form magic in the following ways:

1. Naming of the object. Any rune of power first identifies the object being changed to its true extent—in other words, names the original object fully.
2. Calling on the Sympathetic Name. In this, we build (1) the power runes required to alter the state of the present object and (2) state-of-being runes that define the position on the Wave of Probability where such a state would be expressed. These two combined—power and position—form the Sympathetic Name.
3. The object is renamed. By applying the Sympathetic Name to the object, the object’s state changes and the object is renamed. This new name becomes the object’s name for as long as the magic dictates. Powerful Sympathetic Names can be permanent, while those that are not so powerful may last only a moment.

The Laws of Rethis

While the principles of rune magic had been known many epochs before the Sundering of Worlds, abnormalities and inconsistencies still existed in the shaping of magic. One of the great thrusts in magical research was the defining of these abnormalities.

However, in our Year of Exile 1391, Sage Rethis of the Vortex[30] structured several basic laws of rune magic, which endeavored to encompass the anomalies that had been experienced since time began. Although his works were initially greeted with such skepticism as to result in his eventual death at the decree of the Lords in Exile, they were later accepted by that supreme body and are now the standard foundation of our understanding of magic.

THE BALANCE IN ALL NATURE. Rethis began with the understanding that all things must have balance to exist. The full name of an object has balance for it defines the state of harmonious existence in the Wave of Possibility. While this principle was well known among rune magicians, Rethis placed it as the foundation of his reasoning—and thus the First Law of Rethis:

An Object’s Name Has Balance

EQUILIBRIUM FACTOR. One of the greatest puzzles in magic was its tendency to occasionally go awry. The precise intent of the wizard’s rune structure would work to specifications on any number of similar objects only to suddenly, and for no obvious reason, behave differently on an object that was for all intents and purposes identical to those previously renamed.

This effect, noted Rethis, is similar to those seen constantly in apprentices who are first learning to master the runes and often structure runes that are not balanced. Such unbalanced runes still functioned but often with bizarre results.

Rethis reasoned that such poor structures still functioned because the magic itself sought its own balance when the rune did not supply it. This became the Second Law of Rethis:

An Unbalanced Name Will Tend to Balance Itself

RUNIC IMBALANCE. Having established his first two rules, Rethis addressed directly the problem of the master wizards who still, on rare occasion, found their spells going awry.

Since the apprentices’ spells obviously had odd results due to imbalance and since the master wizards’ spells showed similar failures (although far less often), Rethis reasoned that they must somehow be related. He asked himself, What could account for imbalance in a master wizard’s spells?

GRAIN OF MAGIC AND VARIABILITY. As Rethis worked on these problems, he came across an obscure monograph submitted to the Lyceum where he studied. It had been written by Sendric Klausten, a Nexus runner of great reputation in the Labyrinth but little known in the Vortex itself. It had apparently been penned on a rare return through the First Gate based on the runner’s experience in the Labyrinth.

Nexus runners were attempting to break through the Labyrinth to the legendary Nexus on the far side. In those early days, the effort was still in its infancy and many centuries would pass before the runners would prove successful.

There was no greater testing ground for runes than the Labyrinth because it required greater complexity and finesse than did common use in the Vortex. Klausten, in his adventures in the Labyrinth, discovered that there was an actual limit to the detail to which a rune could be constructed.

Balance in the magic and ultimate definition of the probability being woven are crucial to the user of rune magic. Unless the weave of magic is infinitely precise, the effect will be different in detail from that originally envisioned by the magician. All rune theory seeks to define the balance of the rune as a Sympathetic Name to the object that exists.

Rune structures may, as you know, contain other rune structures. This seemingly endless progression of smaller and smaller levels of detail attempts to redefine the balanced and ordered state of objects into another state. Each level of detail more intimately defines the object until—in theory—the object is fully defined and, therefore, stable.

Klausten discovered, however, that as the rune grew more and more detailed, the presence of the rune itself affected the state of the object. A rune could be crafted into such detail that its own detail in turn affected the object the magician intended to affect. Thus the object’s name would be subtly changed. The rune—balanced for the object before the change—would then be unbalanced. Further balancing of the rune would then continue to change the object, again forcing the rune to be unbalanced. Thus, Klausten explained, there was a limit to how detailed a rune could be created toward its effect. Klausten called this the Barrier of Uncertainty.

The Barrier of Uncertainty is a level of definition beyond which the runes cannot penetrate. This limit to a rune’s detail is apparently related to the ancient Empirical Constant (6.547E27 or h)—although why this is so remains a mystery.

Beyond the Barrier of Uncertainty, rune structures fail to have their anticipated effects. No further rebalancing seems evident in magics that attempt such artful subtlety.

This bottom level of detail in rune structures (which has been proven to hold true in both Sartan and Patryn magic) is referred to as the Grain of Runes. It is the most detailed structure that can be constructed from runes without the presence of the runes themselves changing the magic being attempted.

THIRD LAW OF RETHIS. Rethis found in Klausten’s writings the key to why even the most detailed magic occasionally fails. Rethis theorized that if the object being renamed was balanced beyond the Barrier of Uncertainty, then no rune could produce a Sympathetic Name with sufficient detail to rename the object with balance. His own Second Law would then take effect with occasionally random results for even the most advanced wizard.

So it was that Rethis penned this third—and most controversial—law:

No Rune Has Infinite Balance

When a rune structure approximates a new state, the Wave of Probability produces a phenomenon called Stasis Reflex. This, basically, is nature’s way of correcting for the small imbalances in all magic rune structures that may evidence themselves through the Barrier of Uncertainty.

The Third Law of Rethis has also been occasionally rephrased as “no rune is perfect,” The Barrier of Uncertainty seems to condemn rune structures to a most elemental imperfection when dealing with magic at its most delicate base.

While this may prove to be rather disturbing from a philosophical standpoint, in everyday use it is of little value. Because the Second Law of Rethis tells us that even an unbalanced object will tend to seek its own balance, rune magic continues to operate as the great force in our destiny.

It was, however, the philosophical ramifications that caught up with Rethis. The Lords in Exile successfully prosecuted him for anarchistic heresy and his life was forfeit. Today, songs are sung in his praise, although he never had the opportunity to hear them.

Dimensional Magic and Future Development

All our current rune structures are based around patterns in two dimensions. New research by the Master Cryptographers of the Vortex would suggest that stable rune structures might be assembled along three-dimensional lines as well. Such runes might be crudely thought of as boxes, spheres, multihedrons, and a variety of linking conduits for power transference and effect definition.

While such structures might introduce a revolution in rune structures and power, such structures have not yet been developed that retain stability as well as our traditional structures. Dimensional structures also appear to be subject to the same Barrier of Uncertainty as standard runes. Perhaps, in time, such runes will be a part of our society and our purpose.