I really should be going to sleep rather than letting my thoughts run wild at such a late time, but still...
Thinking about 3 statements, one mine (well, mine but it was connected to stuff said in the posts) and 2 of Boney's.
*Human wizards possibly becoming Wind Elementals, or otherwise their Soul turning into Wind; or partly turning into Wind at max
*The Underearth/Glittering Realm was made properly part of the physical world, and the Gods retreating from walking the world after the Great Vortex
*The general mentioning of how "Runecraft is using only what was taught by the Ancestor Gods. It's not... making up new-stuff-that-is-still-just-Runecraft. Everything that can be made in Runecraft, is something that stemmed from teachings or principles passed down by the Ancestor Gods."
And... ... I think that third bit might be literally true?
As in, I think the Ancestor Gods became the Gods of the Underearth or in a sense became the "system" of Runecrafting itself. I think that to enter into the Underearth is to become part of the Underearth, similarly-ish to how one dying and becoming part of the Aethyr would be for a human. I don't think they're like AIs or static beings or cosmic principles or anything though. I think they're still people, that they're... still just Dwarfs. Just, very heavily awesome and of-the-Underearth-Dwarfs.
I had a post or two that mused about Rituals and the nature of magic a while back, and it talked about how much effort stuff took, but also that expended effort and time and sheer-fuck-you-do-what-I-say could echo on in the Aethyr or become part of the Aethyr or etc. And how maybe some Gods were humans who simply did big enough and important enough and magical enough things, they they shaped the Aethyr. ((Also, there'd be other ways than just that way to become a god; for instance, instead of doing it "the hard way" or the "with your own two hands" way you could, of course, be familiar enough with the rules and laws of Aethyr-physics that you'd be able to take advantage of the rules and laws to become a spirit or god. Or, of course, you could have a patron; you could partake of their essence, and do the fuedal equivalent of be given a fief to rule in their stead. Along with other possible things, etc.))
I'd wondered whether the Dwarfs achieved Godhood via similar amounts of "effort" and "sheer fuck-you-do-what-I-say" at the Aethyr.
That is, I mused that "They repel the Aethyr, rather than interacting directly with it, sure... but maybe they could, like, cause big enough ripples in the Aethyr with their not-being-affected-by-the-Aethyr-ness that this would still create a God-shadow of themselves, and then they'd slowly merge with it? And because it was a Dwarf-made Aethyr-shadow, and Dwarfs are super stubborn and unchanging, these were very different Dwarfs. Maybe that's what they did with the Underearth." For for a better metaphor; they used magnetism to repel metal, whereas Wizards and Priests attract or manipulate metal.
But now I've had the thought that what happened was... So, they cut off the Underearth. And then they started shaping it and ordering it.
But the way they became Ancestor Gods was by... making themselves part of the Underearth, and the Underearth part of themselves. That is, they defined the Underearth by the definition of 'themselves' and 'themselves' were 'the set of rules and traditions and stuff of being Dwarfy and of Runecasting.'
So, anyway, back to my bullet point number three.
*The general mentioning of how "Runecraft is using only what was taught by the Ancestor Gods. It's not... making up new-stuff-that-is-still-just-Runecraft. Everything that can be made in Runecraft, is something that stemmed from teachings or principles passed down by the Ancestor Gods."
About how "Anything in Runecraft is ultimately sources from the Ancestors" and how it might be literally true.
It might be by having Runecraft be, in part... the manipulation of gods. Or, well, the gods' appendages. Or the application of the gods' rules.
In other words it's a bit like saying "There are only 26 letters in the English alphabet, so any English word you make up is going to be made up of only those 26 letters ultimately."
That's how it might be that every "new discovery" of Runecrafting is actually "an old discovery."
And also, that's how and why it would be super blasphemous for anybody else to use Runecrafting. Or for any Dwarf to use any non-Ancestor-God-derived runes. Because it's the very stuff of their Gods. Their afterlife. Their souls. Their culture and tradition and their dwarfiness.
Who would you trust with the gestalt collective soul-stuff of the Dwarf race? Very fucking few people! What foreign or questionably-sourced stuff would you risk using (like Frundar runes) when you, in your age where you've lost so much knowledge that you might not even know what you'd be risking by doing so, might be risking your race's soul and gods? You'd risk very fucking few things.
When you have a sense of "The possible consequences are enormous. I do not know enough to know what might cause mistakes or problems." the obvious conclusion to take, especially if you are Dwarfy, is "I'd better not risk it at all."
Add on top of that simple responsibility of "It's not just me at risk here; it's possibly my whole race" and also "It's not just the current people at risk; it might also be all the people of the past at risk. The legacy of all those who came before. ... And also, those people may be in the afterlife too, so it might not just be legacy either!"
And Dwarfs feel responsibility and safety and legacy stronger than humans do.
A human can afford to be reckless with magic because he is ultimately risking "just" his own soul, and the health of anybody in his vicinity, and the sorrow of anybody who knew him that he might leave behind.
A Runesmith is potentially playing around with his race's entire history or entire hoard of wealth or genetic code or whatnot. You don't mess around when the consequences are not just for you, but potentially for all of your race, too.
You mess around with stuff that might kill you, and only you or those nearby you. But you don't mess around with Runecraft.
A human giving away magic spells or rituals, is 'just' giving away potential military power or upgrades to somebody who may potentially be an enemy. Basically, it might just be technology theft or trade or etc. A Dwarf might be in a lot more hot water and with bigger stakes.
This might prompt a chicken or an egg question I suppose. Does the sense of responsibility and tradition and caution and need-for-certainty come first, and result in this kind of Runecraft and this kind of shaping of the Aethyr into the Underearth; because they're simply trying to make the best possible runecraft/realm and the most Dwarfy possible runecraft/realm. Or do the deeds come first, and Runesmiths simply get an extra helping of responsibility and caution and conservatism on top of regular Dwarf amounts of it, to instill best-practices.
