Runesmith

First, the rules for dwarfs that exist.

1. The thing they are named after has to physically exist, and can't be the same as another thing, just used for another purpose, it has to be both visually and definably different. It has to be manmade.

2. It HAS to be a THING, no concepts (for example, Love, Death and Home would not be dwarves as those are vague nonphysical concepts. You can't hold a home, and nobody invented it either.) It also cannot be something that was harnessed like fire or heat.

3. At some point new inventions are just repurposed concepts that already exist, a shack and a shed are effectively the same thing the only difference is how it is used, as my brother worded it, "a hair brush and a shit brush both could theoretically be used for the same thing, you probably wouldn't want to though".

It's in the title, comment on this and I'll tell you whether or not it is a dwarf, I'll also add it to

THE LIST

Dwarfs that exist

Wedge

Axle

Pulley

Wheel

Screw

Plane

Blade (cranky bastard)

Sword

Katana

Longsword

Shortsword

Halberd

Spear

Axe

Hammer

House

Cottage

Mansion

Shack

Tavern (very popular among the dwarves)

Beer (also very popular)

Stout (lives in the desert)

Whiskey

Wine

Slave (the other dwarves don't like him, not because he owns slaves, but because he has other people do work he could do himself.)

First, the rules for dwarfs that exist.

1. The thing they are named after has to physically exist, and can't be the same as another thing, just used for another purpose, it has to be both visually and definably different. It has to be manmade.

2. It HAS to be a THING, no concepts (for example, Love, Death and Home would not be dwarves as those are vague nonphysical concepts. You can't hold a home, and nobody invented it either.) It also cannot be something that was harnessed like fire or heat.

3. At some point new inventions are just repurposed concepts that already exist, a shack and a shed are effectively the same thing the only difference is how it is used, as my brother worded it, "a hair brush and a shit brush both could theoretically be used for the same thing, you probably wouldn't want to though".

It's in the title, comment on this and I'll tell you whether or not it is a dwarf, I'll also add it to

THE LIST

Dwarfs that exist

Wedge

Axle

Pulley

Wheel

Screw

Plane

Blade (cranky bastard)

Sword

Katana

Longsword

Shortsword

Halberd

Spear

Axe

Hammer

House

Cottage

Mansion

Shack

Tavern (very popular among the dwarves)

Beer (also very popular)

Stout (lives in the desert)

Whiskey

Wine

Slave (the other dwarves don't like him, not because he owns slaves, but because he has other people do work he could do himself.)

First, the rules for dwarfs that exist.

1. The thing they are named after has to physically exist, and can't be the same as another thing, just used for another purpose, it has to be both visually and definably different. It has to be manmade.

2. It HAS to be a THING, no concepts (for example, Love, Death and Home would not be dwarves as those are vague nonphysical concepts. You can't hold a home, and nobody invented it either.) It also cannot be something that was harnessed like fire or heat.

3. At some point new inventions are just repurposed concepts that already exist, a shack and a shed are effectively the same thing the only difference is how it is used, as my brother worded it, "a hair brush and a shit brush both could theoretically be used for the same thing, you probably wouldn't want to though".

It's in the title, comment on this and I'll tell you whether or not it is a dwarf, I'll also add it to

THE LIST

Dwarfs that exist

Wedge

Axle

Pulley

Wheel

Screw

Plane

Blade (cranky bastard)

Sword

Katana

Longsword

Shortsword

Halberd

Spear

Axe

Hammer

House

Cottage

Mansion

Shack

Tavern (very popular among the dwarves)

Beer (also very popular)

Stout (lives in the desert)

Whiskey

Wine

Slave (the other dwarves don't like him, not because he owns slaves, but because he has other people do work he could do himself.)

Magic Symbols (or runes as they shall be known from here on), are typically signs or writing inscribed or otherwise written on an object to invoke their power. They are also incredibly easy to damage or destroy if the inscriber doesn't take proper precautions! Allow me to summarize that there is a BLOODY REASON I TELL YOU NOT TO TOUCH ANYTHING! UNPROTECTED RUNES CAN AND WILL DO TERRIBLE, AWFUL THINGS TO ANYONE WHO DARES BREATHE AT THEM WRONG! I've watched entire guildhalls go up in flames because someone got where they weren't supposed to be and ran their finger over the top of an active experiment!

With the safety demonstration lecture over, a few guidelines to recognizing and not killing yourself with these things:

If it's magic writing, I count it as rune work. No, the surface doesn't matter if it even has one. No, the material doesn't matter. The barest requirement is that it has to be a written format and channel magical energies, whatever that means for the setting.

Ritual circles and similar diagrams ARE rune work and are usually more unstable than any other format short of drawing them out in the air. They are also my personal favorite method of chaining multiples runes together, along with incorporating them into structures.

When runes go wrong (and they so often do around Protagonist-y types) the effects can... vary. If you're lucky, they'll simply shut down, releasing their power like so much methane from a troll's arse. Far more often, they'll detonate because most of the rune's design is containment to keep exactly that from happening. On rare occasion, they might fire off and do something magical BESIDES exploding! Usually it has little to do with their original function but I've seen it happen.

A good rule of thumb is that complexity, count, or luminosity indicate more powerful runes. Basically, if a rune has a lot of lines in it, there are a lot of runes, or those runes glow very bright and that's not their primary purpose, Run.

In some worlds though, the true form of a rune is obscured behind generations of traditions and embellishments, in which case simple, elegant, and otherwise straightforward runes are the most powerful of their class.

Crafting competition at the Dwarf county fair

Ah well, here's what my home culture and all its neighbors do:

All dwarves have facial hair and a similar body plan, making them... difficult to differentiate genders for outsiders.

Masculine Dwarves cultivate their sideburns more than their other hair.

Female Dwarves cultivate their mustaches more than their other hair.

Only nobles bother to grow and maintain long beards. Commondwarves are working with fire, hazardous environments, and tools like lathes, grinding wheels, and large machinery. As any of your own kind would tell you, beards are more hazardous than anything for such work.

So to answer your question, a femboy dwarf looks like this:

The runic circle looks right, barring the color and the stabilizing candles. Those should be equidistant around the circle to perform their function properly. And drawing the entire thing in pink is just ASK- nay, BEGGING for Fae intervention.

The robes of the coven are the right pattern, if with some bizarre color choices (do you have any idea how hard it is to get ash and ectoplasm out of fabric? just embrace it and use black.) Not sure what they're doing with the sticks though, it might be some sort of focus for newer spell casters?

A lot of witches will tell new witches (baby witches) that they should start by learning and using protection magic. However, I've started to see a lot of witches say that protection magic is not as important as other witches claim it to be. Saying that they don't have anyone coming after them or an enemy in real life to warrant a spell of protection.

I think this may also be due to how I've not personally come across anyone really explaining why a witch may want to use protection magic all the time.

Now, it is true that there's no need to be paranoid all the time and have protection up 24/7. But here's a list where you may use it, find it useful, or haven't thought protection magic could be included.

An actual person -- This one is obvious, you have an enemy in real life or on the internet and you need protection magic to protect you from their curses.

A malevolant spirit -- They can come from your windows, mirrors (including tv screens, computer screens, and other reflective surfaces maybe), they seep through floor cracks, hanging onto your coats from outside, etc. Just like how you'd use garden gloves to avoid dirt up your nails being trapped there. Protection magic is just like putting on those gloves.

An energy -- Say you have a neighbour who's arguing with someone. They're yelling and screaming and it can be heard through the apartment walls. That negative energy is seeping into your home and your energy. So it may be worth protecting your home and energy from that sour neighbour's energy. (ever been scolded by your mother and your mood is sour? it's kind of like the same here.)

Your own spell -- Now a self-love spell is probably not something you should protect yourself from. But let's say you're doing a curse. It would be a smart idea to make sure you're protected before beginning such a spell. Much like how you'd wear an apron to protect your clothes from stains when cooking food. You may not always spill your food when cooking, but damn it is it annoying when you do and the stain won't wash off. It's the same with a spell.

Unintentionally -- Sometimes things can happen that's out of our control and it's a good idea to be a little prepared. A black cat suddenly running across the street? Bad luck. Someone got jealous when you told them something good? Evil Eye. Think of it as going to the store with an extra bag for your groceries. You may not need it, but isn't it handy when you at one point do need it?

Protection magic doesn't have to be elaborate or grand or be convoluted. Protection magic is powerful but also extremely simple. All you need is a horseshoe above the door, a little talisman in your pocket, a sigil for your car, etc.

So

My DND group, which is also my close friend group is angry at me because i made another dwarf again

Besties, you are friends with the "i love dwarfs way too much" guy

Ofc I'm making a dwarf my guys

In some univereses, runes are standalone pieces of magic. You can only imbue one rune into an object or spell effect to get one specific effect from it, and adding more is either outright impossible, spells disaster, or both.

We will not be talking about these universes today.

Most universes that feature rune magic allow them to be combined in some fashion, ranging from ritual circles to music to runic circuits. This enables a lot of extra complexity and depth to be explored, and often these universes will feature so called "guile" or "scientist" heroes that prosper in such conditions.

The most common implementation are so called "modifier" runes. Modifier runes, as their name implies, serve no function besides changing the attributes of other runes and as such can only exist in universes that allow the combining of runes. Usually they exist as timers, inverters, attribute controllers, and other such utilities. A rune that projects a cone of energy might be modified with an elemental rune (say fire,) and a distance rune. The elemental rune changes the type of energy, and the distance rune affects either where the cone originates, or how far it travels/stretches.

There are a host of other such examples, but for now we'll move on to how these runes are actually chained together.

The simplest fashion of chaining runes is sequence casting, as the name implies, sequence casting involves creating runes in a specific order to achieve the desired effect. It typically also involves a large dollop of The Power Of Intent (POI) to ensure that the magic functions as the caster intended, given that a chain of runes may have many interpretations. This is what causes the same combination of runes in the same order to produce a blizzard for one caster and a high velocity icicle for another. The circle of eight based system found in The Magitech Chronicles and Shattered Gods (Chris Fox) is a fantastic example of this for individual spells.

One of the more complicated methods is what I call "Runic Circuits", otherwise known as Matrixes. These circuits are the result of placing multiples runes on a surface (usually an expressly made tablet or flat space on an object) and connecting them like... well... a circuit board. Take caution around these, as damaging them tends to have much more drastic consequences than most other forms of rune magic, due to their typically high containment requirements. This is a very common system for enchanting specifically, due to it's permanence, but it doesn't have to be. I am writing this late at night and can't come up with a good example right now, feel free to reblog if you have one.

The final example I would like to discuss today is the Ritual Circle, a natural evolution from sequence casting and runic circuits both. True to their name, their form is often a circle (grounded or otherwise) compose of runes meant to accomplish a goal. These circles vary in permanence, from a single shot of the effect to a consistently maintained magical machine that lasts for centuries. The uniting factor is that, again, damaging the higher ends of these things is a death wish and they take serious study, practice, and preparation time to use properly. CAL's interpretation found within his game of Eternium (Completionist Chronicles, Dakota Krout) is an unusually loose, but effective example of these.

So, yeah, to summarize:

Runes are very powerful on their own, but their true magic shines when combined in innovative ways.

So called "guile heroes" or "scientist heroes" THRIVE in universes with such systems.