"Right. It's about what I ought to do with the Rune. It was my intent to make it something of a specialty among my family. I would still teach any apprentices I would have, and any close friends or those whom I trusted like yourself, but with the stipulation that the latter could not share it themselves," Your student admits, clasping and unclasping his fingers.
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Think this means Dolgi would be willing to teach, for example, Snerra and Fjolla.
So there still
is a "trial"; that trial is just "become a close friend or extremely trusted by me." (Well, or, "marry into the clan" as DragonParadox said, heh.)
The first fallacy here is that Dolgi seeks to be doing something exceptional here. The great majority of runes don't appear to be the exclusive property of specific families. If that were the case then Dolgi would currently know an awful lot fewer runes, and so would his descendants. He basically wants to take out without putting back in to the community bank of knowledge.
MSpellspite, Rune of Strongarm (and presumably the Master Rune of Gotri Hammerspite); both have a "do not share" clause. Both of them appear to be runes that are only learnable by going to the Runelord and undertaking their test or challenge and proving worthy of the knowledge. (Though IIRC MSpellspite I think had a "When you yourself are a Runelord..." clause or something like that.) So no, this is not actually utterly exceptional or unknown of or unthinkable of amongst Runesmiths.
The other thing is that this isn't a niche rune like the other restricted distribution runes we've seen. Brana lives being saved is only the least of the Rune of Featherweight's potential. Part of the problem of keeping it to Dolgi's family is that potential may never be realised. The true benefit would be developing an engineering variant that can be applied to wagons, as that would revolutionise travel and logistics across the increasingly thinly spread dwarven realms, and make campaigning much easier.
Ah yes, so; 'Congratulations! You have discovered something that has been determined to be useful or valuable or foundational by us. Therefore we demand that you share it and not be selfish.' That'll go great with everybody. (To exaggerate for effect.)
This sort of thing you're talking about here -- "potential may never be realized" "The true benefit" -- is going against an individual Runesmith's conception of his art and deciding for him.
You've decided that Dolgi's creation is both too precious as it is now -- as an armor rune --
and as it might potentially be, as an Engineering variant, and that this potential value
cannot be left in the hands of Dolgi and his family. A pretty damning indictment of Dolgi and his entire lineage of Runesmiths. "You can't be trusted to make the decision on what to do with this knowledge."
(Or maybe it can just be more blunt than that. Should we just outright wonder about selfishness and altruism? "Should people be allowed to choose to be selfish?" To which the answer is "Yes, yes they should be." Because people should be able to decide about the things they've created and invented and own those things. Charity and altruism should not be mandated and people shouldn't be browbeaten into doing so. Aside from that though, this whole thing has had my skeptic hackles be up a lot, as I'd said somewhere on the previous page.)
And "He basically wants to take out without putting back in to the community bank of knowledge", as if Dolgi
isn't being productive by making Brana armor and teaching his descendants and his descendants making armor and experimenting with it. Or just... You realize that this sort of behavior or activity isn't exactly out of line with Dwarf values and beliefs, right? Which means that this is casting judgment on
every Dwarf who acts like this? (... Also, if you didn't want some amount of secrecy, maybe you shouldn't be dealing with the most secretive and mysterious of Dwarfs; the Runesmith.) Are
they all being failures and ungrateful churls?
Dolgi isn't doing things according to
your demands and expectations of Runesmiths but, y'know what, that's fine. Because Runesmiths should be free to do what they want -- including being secretive or mysterious or with extreme standards or other stereotypically Dwarfy or stereotypically Runesmithy things -- rather than being commanded or controlled or herded by any one smith other than the Ancestor God himself. But sufficiently exalted Runesmiths can have a
shitload of sway over things, and if they're not careful can make others march to the beat of their drums. So it's important to be careful about that. As we saw Alric Thungnisson and Yorri talk about.
"What he's also asking is if he'd be allowed to figure it out for himself," your Master clarifies.
Alric looks at Yorri quizzically.
"..so long as he maintained proper discretion I see no reason why he could not?"
"Thungnisson, I hope you realize you've effectively given the lad Carte Blanche to go mad over this mystery," Yorri comments, taking a long swig from his mug.
"He is a Runesmith, a Runelord, the only orders we follow are when we are apprentices and after that, only the ones we swear to. We lead ourselves, we follow at our discretion, and only Thungni can claim either right or worthiness to lead us all," Alric retorts.
Yorri snorts.
"Just because the order is phrased as a request Thungnisson doesn't mean it isn't an order. You refuse to see the sort of power you wield, as ever," he snipes back, though without any heat.
So why is it that Dolgi can make oaths of his family and expect them to be followed? Without it being centralizing and authoritarian and etc?
Because it's HIS direct family and clan.
Because there's a difference there, and that difference matters.
And because it's not the kind of command or oath that can spread throughout the Karaz Ankor and compel other Runesmiths; it only holds for Dolgi's family. ... Also, it's an oath that is meant
to increase the prestige/value/rarity/whatever of Dolgi's family. I don't think most families would object to that kind of thing. 'Oh no. Pull my arm why don't you.' It's not something against the family's best interests, basically.
And yes I'm aware that it does, in fact, bind other Runesmiths because they're asked not to pass it down. -_- That's because I was comparing it to a Runelord trying to make other Runesmiths act the way he wants or follow his values or political goals. Versus a family patriarch deciding for his family and descendants, and making a decision that impacts their wealth and prestige and also sets a course of what they will be specializing in. (Because let's also consider the fact that Dolgi isn't just making the decision to keep something secret to his family. He's also making the decision of "having his family specialize in <thing>." That, too, is a decision and one with a point. It means that Dolgi's family branch will have a family specialization to excel at and standards to meet. There'll be the weight of expectation and of a Longbeard's/Living Ancestor's expectations. This too is a commitment.)
Merely keeping a secret and respecting an oath is different then trying to get Runelords and Runesmiths to follow along with your agenda or goals or politics.
On another note though... This goes into values differences between humans and dwarfs, but...
While I believe it was said in Divided Loyalties, I think it still holds true here? Dwarfs believe that if there is nobody worthy to know a secret...
then that secret should be lost. Dwarfs also value secrecy and privacy and oaths and stubbornness. They...
value it. Somebody pursuing an oath or showing stubbornness or refusing to give up a secret no matter what, is somebody acting alongside Dwarf values and virtues.
Secrecy and exclusivity and extremely high standards (and strong views on ownership/wealth/gold and grudges and oaths) is part of Dwarf values, psychology, culture, and so on.
Playing into that can be cool. Playing against type, conversely, shouldn't be free and automatically assumed to be a good and the right thing to do.
And part of what this means is that arguing against secrecy or exclusivity on the grounds of it automatically being more virtuous... well, it might be true for humans, but not necessarily so for Dwarfs.
