With Spirit Magic wouldn't the character's personal runes play a very important part. Surely a shaman will find it easier to capture and control spirits with similar runic affiliations to his own (and if possession of an "opposing" rune is enough to cause [mild] insanity within a character, then surely possession of an "opposing" rune will make it more difficult to control/capture/plead/invoke spirits). To do otherwise negates the very personal interaction with the spirit world common to real-life shamanism. [Theism on the other hand seems more remote since intercession to magic from a theist is through integration of the god persona -- third hand access to magical power, so to speak.]
Or is this simply handled as the standard augmentation bonus for having a personal rune. Seems rather inadequate to me, although it is a reason why a shaman would want to increase their personal runic affiliations with favoured spirits. Or will possession of the fire rune increase the possibility of finding a friendly fire spirit or hostile dark spirit.
Similarly, if runes determine one's personality then surely they will affect the way a Wizard thinks, and thus the ability to learn certain rune spells. Although this could be handled readily as the standard augmentation bonus as the wizard tries to rise above his personal quirks seeking pure intellectualism.
(B) the Man Rune
I really like the Man rune being representative of ancestors in theistic practices. It seems to fit well with most of the mythology. Not that this is distinct from the idea of ancestors as ghosts and spirits, although in application there is considerable overlap. It is something that is much more akin to the idea that Fritz Leiber expressed in his Change Wars series, that "man is the time-binder": we remember, and that remembering makes us what we are.
Integrating a Man rune would make one more sure of oneself and one's place in the cosmos.
YGWV Ian
-- Ian Borchardt (iborchar_at_...) Philosoph, Fool, and Magician "That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange Ians, even death may die."
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