Rune Quest

From: Julian Lord <julian.lord_at_hol.fr>
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 13:15:51 +0200


Alex Ferguson:

> David Dunham notes of the recent argy-bargy about writing systems:
> > There was more hash than beef -- I don't recall any consensus (though a few
> > people agreed with each other). My personal opinion is that Western is
> > logographic
>
> Lots of people agree to disagree with this, certainly. ;-) My
> objection that a purely logographic script makes it impossible to
> render Foreign proper names was never at all convincingly dealt with,
> IMPO, and we _know_ that the God Learners did this by the bucketload,
> one assumes in Western. (Unless they used the even-more-controversial
> Tradetalk.)

Well, I don't think that there is such a thing as purely logographic script in RW. I think all such scripts have systems for representing the sounds of language, whether letters or syllables, and not just for writing down foreign stuff, but also for writing down words when they've forgotten or don't know the proper character for them.

Actually, I think that the whole Western Script debate would be well served by a debate on the God Learner Runes, and what they actually represent in language. I think we can safely assume that these Runes are actual signs used in Western script?

At first glance, they look like ideograms, and that is certainly how they are used magically, the Fire Rune conveying the concept of "Fire". If so, then there are hundreds and hundreds of these Runes, and there must be then Runes for such things as Bread, Books, Hamsters, Meteors, Eating, and Haircuts. While wondering what the Haircut Rune might look like, it appears that such Runic proliferation is not forthcoming, despite Jean-Paul Lhuillier's impressively brave effort.

The Runes, then, appear to represent the basic forces of Glorantha as conceived in Western thought, and are then a closed list for the number of basic forces, in a Western conception, is small (although we might not know all of them ourselves, yet). If the writing system discussed exists in harmony with these ideas, then the number of Runes is small, and the system of writing used will mirror that philosophy. AFAICS.

This appears to point away from Western script being logographic, doesn't it?

We don't know enough Runes to make a syllabary, though.

And Oliver Jovanovic has of course proved, conclusively, with his Rune Font, that the Runes can be used alphabetically.

I think that there are three possibilities for Western script.

  1. Alphabetic
  2. Syllabic (unlikely IMO)
  3. Anacephalic (blame Jean-Paul) A system of Runes blended together, such as the Combined Element Runes, Steve's Prax Rune, and Jean-Paul's (unpublished : sorry, folks) book of Runes stuff. There would be Runes then for Haircuts and Hamsters which would be particular combinations of the basic God Learner Runes, as determined by the True Nature of Glorantha as understood by the God Learners and by the Ancient Brithini who designed/discovered the Runes. The Haircut Rune would, in this system, be a necessary derivation, in a perfectly deterministic manner, of the basic Runes of Glorantha, building blocks of the universe. The Haircut Rune would be inevitable in its anacephalic form, and no two signs could ever designate any single reality.

The anacephalic view is a fascinating one, but I think it's more wrong than right.

IMO, the only serious candidates (provided the theory that Westerners use the Runes in their writing system is correct) are alphabetic and syllabic scripts for the West, and my personal preference is for a mainly alphabetic system, probably incorporating some anacephalic elements for MGF purposes. So, when a Western sorceror does some magic trick, one could imagine him Questing for the proper Rune to make the effect? Not my preferred game mechanic, though ...


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