No, the God Learners adopted a runic system, designed to work with
one set of magic, and adopted it to work with all sets of magic, including
those that had never heard of runes or had their own independent set. Its
not like Zorak Zorani, Humakti, and Wachaza all had minor variants of the
same Death Rune
before the God Learners and they systematised them. Its more like the God
Learners had a rune called Death that symbolised a particular Power, and
they recognised the same power at work in a wide variety of pagan deities.
Except it was never a very good fit.
Similarly, the God Learners had a few myths that they came to recognise as similar across cultures. They gave these myths names, probably based on their own myths, and used these simplified models to try and understand what was going on.
The difference between the Humakti and the Yanafali Death runes is a particularly poor example. First, the God Learners were all gone before Yanafals Tarnils birth. Secondly, the Yanafals Tarnils cult is more or less directly descended from the Carmanian Humakt cult - it did not evolve independently. And differences between the way they represent the runes are a conscious rebellion, and any similarities are a result of a direct cultural connection.
Of course, we now know that both the runes and the simplified God Learner mythology are not things you should rely upon. Both work up to a point, though.
David
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