Runic Magic



Runic magic is a system of spell casting which employs mystically charged rune stones rather than traditional reagents. It appears in the Ultima Underworld series.

Description
Although runic magic is a common arcane system on a number of worlds, it only functions in Britannia at places where the inter-dimensional barriers are worn thin, allowing the etheric properties of other planes to bleed through. Unlike traditional Britannian magic, it does not require reagents or a spellbook, drawing its power instead from the innate powers of rune stones and the precise gestures performed by its caster. While runic magic requires no disposable materials and offers a flexible system of devising incantations, the reliance on gesturing makes it at times unpredictable, and inexperienced mages may be injured should they botch the casting of a runic spell.

History
Runic Magic first came to the attention of Britannians when Sir Cabirus attempted to establish a colony in the Stygian Abyss. As they explored the chasm, the mages of the settler group encountered a number of specially-prepared rune stones which had been imbued with magical energy, and from them they were able to infer the workings of runic magic. Later, this obscure art would become a topic studied in depth by the magician Nystul, who would deduce that the success of runic spellweaving was related to the relative strength of inter-dimensional barriers.

It appears that runic magic has long been the standard method of spellcraft on other worlds. Tarna, Rhiannon, Talorus and the realms which house Killorn Keep, Scintillus Academy and the Pits of Carnage all appear to use rune-based casting as their primary magical system.

Rune Stones
Rune stones lie at the core of runic magic, as its very name already shows. Each of these potentized stones has a rune carved on one of its faces, corresponding to one of twenty-four traditional Words of Power. (There were no Xen or Zu stones available to the Avatar at least.) In runic magic, these runes are positioned in appropriate combinations of up to three characters between the fingers of the hand, such as that they spell out the words of power needed to invoke a spell.

Prodection of such stones, at least the simpler ones, does not need a mage, as shown by their industrial production on Talorus. The more powerful ones, especially the FLAM and VAS stones, are treated as highly valuable however.

Rune Bag
In order to utilize the powers of rune stones, however, they must be stored in an appropriately prepared receptacle. These rune bags will hold only such stones, and cannot be used as containers in any other capacity. Of note is that a rune stone can not be permanently removed from the bag once inside it, and that duplicate rune stones are lost to the caster as they merge with stones of the same word of power. Thus if a spare rune stone is needed for another task, it should not be put into the rune bag.

Game Mechanics
In order to cast a runic spell, the players needs selects the correct combination of runes for a particular spell and clicks on the rune panel. So long as the spell is of a circle the player is able to cast from (equal to one half of the character's current level rounded up), success is then determined by their character's "Casting" skill. Spellcasting can either succeed, fail or backfire. A backfired spell means that the mana required for the spell is drained, but instead of the desired effect taking place, the player is physically injured.

Spells
Below are listed the known runic spells which feature in Ultima Underworld  and Ultima Underworld II: