Well I was expecting to write this while the vote was still open but lol I guess not
Anyway! I've been thinking about how we might advance Runecraft as a craftsman and an artist under some relatively unusual, by way of their restrictions, rules and what tools we have to advance the craft therein.
The obvious out of the way first. By way of every Research option we can increase our knowledge of various parts of the craft, because three of them have to do with directly futzing about with runes and the other two are possibilities that illuminate parts of the craft, however just increasing our knowledge is only the first step. Not sitting on insights is the next step, with a couple of stages ranging from making works with the new knowledge to raising apprentices and journeymen with it and there's not a lot of room overall in what Snorri would actually accept to do as sensible which is fine. Apprentices and journeymen are one of the most effective ways of transmitting this insight anyway.
Related to this but which I'll organize at a bit of a remove since its something of a different sort is one of the three Research options that have to do with runes directly which is modifying a Master Rune. In general it highlights that modifying runes as we've learned is one of the primary methods that "new" Runes are made. They're derivative runes put to a new use and this applies just as much to Master Runes. We have a good number of known Master Runes and from each of them we essentially have four variants we could make to use them in other categories as defined by the Rule of Form. That's four new Master Runes for each Master Rune if we wanted to devote the time and effort to making them. Still requires we at least make things with them to tell other runesmiths its possible. And as a connected thing to this I'm relatively sure we don't know all of the currently extant Master Runes, which is likely because some of the Burudin and other Masters have probably come up with their own. We're not really in a position to learn those though so we're left with simply taking the opportunity if it presents itself.
Also related to this I've been pondering a project where we take the Master Rune of Gromril and change it into a Banner Rune and then make a standard for Kraka Drakk out of interlocking sheets of Pure Gromril and possibly some form of magic fabric. There's a variety out there. Inscribe it with the altered Master Rune of Gromril, the Rune of Sanctuary (which has to do with magnifying the anti-magic nature of Dwarfs, thus resisting Chaotic influence so it has some mystical similarity to Gromril itself), and the Rune of Determination or the Rune of Stoicism. The Rune of Determination would be about bolstering the stubborn spirit of Dwarfs to never concede defeat, and the Rune of Stoicism's fluff text from the wiki (which I take with a grain of salt) is about reminding Dwarfs about their ancestors and how they are never really alone. I'm not sure which would be better, but either is good.
Another is Runic Combos. There's some facets to this one which I'll get into. Overall first though it is something which provides regularity and codification almost as rituals or distinct widgets which we can look at, understand, and then take apart. And from what soulcake has already told us, even runes which are disharmonious may have unusual results though I'm not entirely sure if they'd be an outright Combo. Something to keep in mind but moving on. The first facet of Runic Combos is that each Combo is in many ways I think, the root of a small tree of possibly related variant Combos by way of us knowing a certain Combo works and exists, then coming up with another similar Combo and concept. Like swapping the Rune of Warding in the Conversion Combo for the Master Rune of Spite, which
might be another combo along the same lines of Conversion but a bit different, we haven't had the opportunity to check and won't for a little while at least. So every Combo we know is a potential gateway into new Combos. Which also highlights the value finding new Combos, because with each new one found the design and possibility space of Combos becomes better defined. When we get the opportunity we should try to find new ones or learn ones others have discovered.
Personally I expect Combos to be the rarer knowledge commodity amongst Runesmiths when compared to modifications to individual runes but of similar value. Additionally Runic Combos have a testing/seeking them out cycle that involves the creation of lots of vaguely similar magic items with unusual variations given the Rule of Pride. Especially with Master Runes in any Combo.
Though speaking of runic material, I can see a big limitation for the Dwarf runes (aside from needing Gromril). Namely that some very vital runic arrays use ingredients from very rare creatures like dragons.
I mean, there aren't that many of the things and we certainly aren't farming them. So over time it'll be harder and harder to make various runes as the dwarfs can't get the needed reagents.
And here's an idea that skipped my mind. So on top of the above ideas I've mentioned going along with this one you're suggesting, I think another way to improve Runecraft is to find alternate ingredients which can act in place of others. Mechanically we don't have the tools to do this, and I'm honestly not sure if we ever
will or even should but as it stands we know older Runesmiths get better at the craft and it stands as a good possibility to represent Runelords older and better than us.
Of course there's also a final and lonely path which doesn't improve the craft much, but is pretty inevitable if we live long enough, is watch Snorri get skilled enough that he might not need some ingredients like how he doesn't need the Chant for every Rune. Its basically stated that ingredients are crutches. More important than the Chants are, but still crutches.
In a Tl;DR teaching people what we know is definitely a Thing that needs doing, though I expect that many apprentices won't actually meet even the quest thread's standards because once we're done training up Fjolla and Dolgi I expect that an option along the lines of "Go find a new apprentice(s)" will show up in the General tap of options and sometimes the options presented just won't make the cut.
