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RHUNRIKKI STROLLAR (Warhammer Fantasy Golden Age Dwarf Runelord Quest)

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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On Thread Etiquette:
I'm not going to weigh in on the logic of either side's arguments, but I will ask that everyone read over what they write and really consider if the words they used are polite and won't be inflammatory intentionally or not. You cant account for people's tolerances perfectly but at least try to say your piece without saying things that can be easily construed as overly dismissive of the other side of the argument, thank you.

Please endeavour to be cordial. :^)
 
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soulcake said:
Man oh man this is a fantastic take on the contemporary runesmith's dilemma. You're getting parts down pat for sure, you and cuttlefish both have gotten pieces of the puzzle, but if this makes sense, you're putting them together in different, but not incorrect ways ya know?

Snorri's beard is exactly five and a third dwarf lengths long. Only now in his fifth century has the hair started to slow down, which is a shame.

You guys already got the bonus but I can put another plus 5 on the next set of background rolls I do. Also, I might as well give a hint, though in comparison to your analysis it may seem a bit mundane.

Think of it like this. There is an ever-increasing demand for your work, but your profession is centred around very foundational cultural and religious traditions that basically demand you treat your work as an art form because it's a very literal divine gift. So your stuck thinking, Im supposed to use this to help my people, but at the same time, I'm supposed to strive to be a craftsman and artisan par excellence. There aren't that many of you(relatively speaking), but runes are now so useful that your society as it is right now basically needs you to crank out runes like a factory produces nails. The issue of the Rule of Pride is now far less literal because practicality demands you make those runes and you dont have the excuse of there not being enough of you to do so, but doing so means you basically treat something sacred as a commodity to be done on demand.

This is compounded by the fact that the literal person who gave you that gift is active and so are his students. So now its an even bigger issue. A battle for the very soul of your profession.

Its a very dwarfen problem, "Dont treat my labour like its less than it actually is."
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Particularly compounded by the fact that if a Runesmith treats his labor as less than it actually is in the eyes of his fellows that can be construed as giving offence to Thungni. Who is right there. And as Snorri noted, being embarrassed in front of elders is a time honored tradition. Being embarrassed in front of Ancestors? Perish the bloody thought.

Snorri's beard is exactly five and a third dwarf lengths long. Only now in his fifth century has the hair started to slow down, which is a shame.
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A flowing train fit for a proper smith!

(I am now imagining Snorri getting up in the morning and bumbling around his room trailing this enormous fluffy white tail until he arduously gathers it up, braids it and threads rings through it and then winds it around his belt half a dozen times to corral the thing)
 
tri2 said:
just train more apprentices? and make sure they swear to train a equal amount of apprentices later?
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A very human answer to a very dwarf problem
Finding a dwarf capable of being a runesmith is difficult, there are more of you compared to the dying days of the Karaz Ankor, but there are also more dwarfs overall. They're having just enough of a manpower problem for this issue to not be terrible. The gift is more common than in the latter days of the empire, but conversely, there are fewer clans capable of producing the gift because no one from a runesmith clan has married into it.

Where do you think the impetus for runesmiths and runelords to have kids came from?
 
soulcake said:
Think of it like this. There is an ever-increasing demand for your work, but your profession is centred around very foundational cultural and religious traditions that basically demand you treat your work as an art form because it's a very literal divine gift.
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So in a way the rise of the Engineers Guild actually helps the Runesmiths. With their inventions being able to take the place of things the smiths previous had to do a fair amount of 'menial' work for, the Smiths can now work on more vital things that only they can do.
 
jwolfe_beta said:
So in a way the rise of the Engineers Guild actually helps the Runesmiths. With their inventions being able to take the place of things the smiths previous had to do a fair amount of 'menial' work for, the Smiths can now work on more vital things that only they can do.
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In some ways, yes, in others not so much. There are things runes can do that engineers can't. Also, I must ask you, if you can have a well-engineered bridge that's ALSO runed to withstand the ravages of time, why wouldn't you?
 
soulcake said:
A very human answer to a very dwarf problem
Finding a dwarf capable of being a runesmith is difficult, there are more of you compared to the dying days of the Karaz Ankor, but there are also more dwarfs overall. They're having just enough of a manpower problem for this issue to not be terrible. The gift is more common than in the latter days of the empire, but conversely, there are fewer clans capable of producing the gift because no one from a runesmith clan has married into it.

Where do you think the impetus for runesmiths and runelords to have kids came from?
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Plus swearing those sorts of oaths has a very big fail state in that, what happens if your hold is isolated? It takes bloody ages to find enough of said apprentices, and it'd take even longer for them to find the same number. And so on and so on down the generations until you have more Runesmiths going nuts from being unable to fulfill the oath than sane ones, and then they implode as a group.
 
jwolfe_beta said:
That was the 'more vital things' I mentioned.
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Lighting, plumbing, air filtration? Engineered, but you can pay for runes that are quieter, and less maintenance heavy.
But a well-engineered bridge (by dwarf standards) will last the couple of decades until the Runesmith has time to come by and enhance it.
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But the runesmith still has to Enhance it you see, like he has the past 20 bridges with the same set of runes with very little possible variation. It's a net-zero equation right now, the potential work engineers save a runesmith from doing is counteracted by the work the engineer is asking the runesmith to now also do.

The advances of the Engineer's Guild during the War of Vengeance and Time of Woes stopped the Karaz Ankor from suffering as bad a reduction in the standard of living as they would have. Like for example, Cannons? Literal battalions of Runed Bolt Throwers capable of launching steel or wooden spikes at the same speed as a cannonball, but that could also be imbued with a variety of effects depending on the situation.

Firedrakes? How about entire legions of dwarfs decked out in runic armour capable of holding back enchanted blades, daemon claws and strengthened the user to a ridiculous degree?

Theres a reason those stunty bois could fight back fucking elves and dragons and eventually kick them off the continent.

The loss the Runesmiths suffered hurt more than just the guild.

This isnt meant to downplay the Engineers or their achievements, its just that. Better Engineering + Less runes only evens against "Worse" engineering + more runes. Ya know?
 
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tri2 said:
work on a rune of fertility so all dawi women give birth to triplets?
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The IC response is that this is the realm of Valaya and most people will have a rune or shrine to Valaya they pray to for children. Also the embarrassment of asking a runesmith, for what is basically an aphrodisiac. No mention on the feelings of the runesmith who was being asked, let alone why or how a runesmith would ever discover a rune about such things.

the OOC response is, Im not opening this can of worms. Toilets? Sure. Literal demon guts? Fine by me. But dear god I dont want to deal with whatever this could and will unleash.
 
soulcake said:
The IC response is that this is the realm of Valaya and most people will have a rune or shrine to Valaya they pray to for children. Also the embarrassment of asking a runesmith, for what is basically an aphrodisiac. No mention on the feelings of the runesmith who was being asked, let alone why or how a runesmith would ever discover a rune about such things.

the OOC response is, Im not opening this can of worms. Toilets? Sure. Literal demon guts? Fine by me. But dear god I dont want to deal with whatever this could and will unleash.
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darn, thought our odd rune ability would be enough to go down this path :p
 
Speaking of Daemon guts. Hows the idea of Master Rune of True Death? Something you make special for a specific grater daemon or Daemon prince and it permanently ends them. Like a Grudge Rune taken to the extreme.

I figure in the age when the Dwarves were actually thriving Runelords honestly could take the time to make one of those for every greater Daemon or prince or named Daemon than sparks a grudgeoning.
 
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Abhishek M said:
Speaking of Daemon guts. Hows the idea of Master Rune of True Death? Something you make special for a specific grater daemon or Daemon prince and it permanently ends them. Like a Grudge Rune taken to the extreme.

I figure in the age when the Dwarves were actually thriving Runelords honestly could take the time to make one of those for every greater Daemon or prince or named Daemon than sparks a grudgeoning.
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The Rune of Unbinding can inflict True Death.

Though, I hardly believe its creation is something easy let alone widely known and it can kill the person that tries to use it.

It's possible that the Ancestor Gods are the only ones that can create the Rune.
 
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Okay
Analysis time
The canon dwarves, after the war of vengeance, entered a downward spiral, losing holds and lore that made it harder to safeguard holds that they then lost, which made it harder for them to safeguard holds and so on.
These dwarves, right now, are in an upward spiral. There are a lot of runelords, each knowing so many runes, that runelore is more akin to a respected craft than the reverence it had after the war of vengeance.
Instead of runes being treated as an art form, runesmiths are pressured to put the same runes on the same objects, because runes are seen as necessary on everything possible in the golden age, not treasures that are highly desired but not needed
There's no need for innovation or discovery, since the ancestor gods have laid out every rune needed.
Runelore is stagnant and repetitive, with master runelords hammering out the same things over and over, with no chance and also no need to do anything new or unique. It is also one hundred percent necessary, giving no time for anything else.
Or, using a modern analogy, it's basically treating an art form how you'd treat STEM
 
Kaboomatic said:
The canon dwarves, after the war of vengeance, entered a downward spiral, losing holds and lore that made it harder to safeguard holds that they then lost, which made it harder for them to safeguard holds and so on.
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It wasn't just the War. It was everything that happened to them while they were still recovering from the war as well.
 
Chief18753 said:
The Rune of Unbinding can inflict True Death.
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If you wouldnt mind pointing me towards the sourcebook for this one? I got a bunch of dwarf books but trawling through them for canonical runes is time consuming. Even if it wasnt in a sourcebook I'd probably say that rune does exist, up in the air if Snorri knows about it though.
 
soulcake said:
If you wouldnt mind pointing me towards the sourcebook for this one? I got a bunch of dwarf books but trawling through them for canonical runes is time consuming.
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It's from the Gotrek series.

"He had seen the dwarf, mad-eyed and bloated with muscle and hatred, stalk north. Tattoos that burned like blue fire had etched those swollen muscles, and his scalp was bare save for a bristling crest the colour of a dying sun. Daemons had died the true death in his wake, ripped from the bosom of the gods by the cruel curve of his axe." -Road of Skulls


'The Rune of Unbinding was crafted to slay the Chaos Gods,' said Grimnir, returning the reawakened axe to Gotrek's grip. 'You'll find it useful.' -Slayer.

"How did Valek invoke this Rune of Unbinding?" Gotrek asked.
"I know not. He was a runesmith and knew many secrets. I only know that he summoned its power and it killed him, consuming his life even as it banished the daemon. The axe you bear is old and potent beyond all reckoning. It passed from runesmith to runesmith from the most ancient times. Its full history was passed only from bearer to bearer, but with Valek's death the tale was lost. -Daemonslayer.
 
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Ah, that explains it. don't have Gotrek and Felix. thank ya kindly. no, you don't have that rune, but its given me ideas.
 
soulcake said:
Ah, that explains it. don't have Gotrek and Felix. thank ya kindly. no, you don't have that rune, but its given me ideas.
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What, we don't have the Rune that might kill the Chaos Gods out of the bat? Lame.:(

I can't imagine the implements required to even start on experimenting towards the Rune of Unbinding. The thing is crazy.

Though, given we're in the "cozy" north, there'll be plenty of test subjects soon
 
Chief18753 said:
It's from the Gotrek series.

"He had seen the dwarf, mad-eyed and bloated with muscle and hatred, stalk north. Tattoos that burned like blue fire had etched those swollen muscles, and his scalp was bare save for a bristling crest the colour of a dying sun. Daemons had died the true death in his wake, ripped from the bosom of the gods by the cruel curve of his axe." -Road of Skulls


'The Rune of Unbinding was crafted to slay the Chaos Gods,' said Grimnir, returning the reawakened axe to Gotrek's grip. 'You'll find it useful.' -Slayer.

"How did Valek invoke this Rune of Unbinding?" Gotrek asked.
"I know not. He was a runesmith and knew many secrets. I only know that he summoned its power and it killed him, consuming his life even as it banished the daemon. The axe you bear is old and potent beyond all reckoning. It passed from runesmith to runesmith from the most ancient times. Its full history was passed only from bearer to bearer, but with Valek's death the tale was lost. -Daemonslayer.
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OP please no nerf! But that's a bit too high level. I'd settle for a more targeted one that's a bit easier to make at the cost of being target specific. A weapon made to unmake a single specific Daemon. Or of we can get away with it any one generic demon type at all.

Like one specific Bloodthirster busted your Karak you have an axe, spear of ballistae bolt commissioned to kill that one in particular. Plus maybe other generic ones that kill one generic weaker Daemon each to use for those ones that piss you off in particular.
 
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Adhoc vote count started by BungieONI on Mar 18, 2020 at 1:15 AM, finished with 135 posts and 38 votes.
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