On Runes and identity
I wonder how many people who don't use magic never think about what Runes really are. I suppose I thought about them as little as anyone, despite my Harmonian education; a school of military strategy isn't a situation conducive to many people going about connected to the flow of all life, and I was never one to go out into the city much. But it's worth anyone's while, I think, to learn a little more about them; I am inestimably glad I know more of them these days.
Runes are conscious, beautiful, alien entities connected to one's own soul. They're not just embedded on the surface of one's body; they're attached to one's own self, to all of a bearer's identity. And while they are still discrete entities, removable and self-contained, all that they are is attached directly to all that their bearer is, and that is a closeness that cannot help but influence both of them. It seems to be usually a good thing, mind; people take care to select a Rune they get along with well, and the feeling of magic pouring through one's mind and body and soul is indescribably lovely. I wonder how many people really think about what it entails, though; outside of Harmonia, in some other countries where one can just walk into a Rune shop and have one attached with no preamble, do people really know what they are in for-- or what they have done? Do they even realise the change in themselves they may have wrought?
Such is the way even with the common Runes; but then one stops to consider a True Rune-- an entity far, far more vast than anything a human can imagine, its bearer so tiny and fragile by comparison, making of even the strongest, most vivid and wilful person a helpless mote of dust-- connected to a human's soul. It is meant to be that way, I am told, and yet it seems almost shocking that a thing of such proportion as a True Rune could need a tiny little human being. And to be connected to that surely must be the influence most overwhelming in all the world; to have something like that attached directly to one's own self is surely an experience of thorough change, whether immediate or gradual.
To shy away from that for fear that one will change is natural, yet what is it that one fears losing? One's current self? To preserve that eternally is to refuse all growth and change, to wish for time itself to stop. No, most people do wish for change; they are just anxious to insist on change that does not scare them. Are they afraid of a change that does not come from within? Yet all changes are influenced by external events. If they are afraid of losing their independent selves, they must only remember that whatever they will be is what they then are. They will always be, whether under Runic influence or no; it is just a question of what path they will take as they change over time. Why should Runic influence be worse than the influence of any other events? A sudden, uncontrollable change-- that is possible, is it not? That is frightening. Yet there is no objective reason why it should be any more frightening than the other changes in one's life. It is impossible to be other than what you are; as you change, what you are changes as well. You can never be unable to be yourself, because yourself is what you have become.
The only thing to fear, I think, is that one will become something that one does not approve of. At least the Runes don't intend to cause that; I am told they only ever mean well, even if sometimes they do not understand.
Runes are conscious, beautiful, alien entities connected to one's own soul. They're not just embedded on the surface of one's body; they're attached to one's own self, to all of a bearer's identity. And while they are still discrete entities, removable and self-contained, all that they are is attached directly to all that their bearer is, and that is a closeness that cannot help but influence both of them. It seems to be usually a good thing, mind; people take care to select a Rune they get along with well, and the feeling of magic pouring through one's mind and body and soul is indescribably lovely. I wonder how many people really think about what it entails, though; outside of Harmonia, in some other countries where one can just walk into a Rune shop and have one attached with no preamble, do people really know what they are in for-- or what they have done? Do they even realise the change in themselves they may have wrought?
Such is the way even with the common Runes; but then one stops to consider a True Rune-- an entity far, far more vast than anything a human can imagine, its bearer so tiny and fragile by comparison, making of even the strongest, most vivid and wilful person a helpless mote of dust-- connected to a human's soul. It is meant to be that way, I am told, and yet it seems almost shocking that a thing of such proportion as a True Rune could need a tiny little human being. And to be connected to that surely must be the influence most overwhelming in all the world; to have something like that attached directly to one's own self is surely an experience of thorough change, whether immediate or gradual.
To shy away from that for fear that one will change is natural, yet what is it that one fears losing? One's current self? To preserve that eternally is to refuse all growth and change, to wish for time itself to stop. No, most people do wish for change; they are just anxious to insist on change that does not scare them. Are they afraid of a change that does not come from within? Yet all changes are influenced by external events. If they are afraid of losing their independent selves, they must only remember that whatever they will be is what they then are. They will always be, whether under Runic influence or no; it is just a question of what path they will take as they change over time. Why should Runic influence be worse than the influence of any other events? A sudden, uncontrollable change-- that is possible, is it not? That is frightening. Yet there is no objective reason why it should be any more frightening than the other changes in one's life. It is impossible to be other than what you are; as you change, what you are changes as well. You can never be unable to be yourself, because yourself is what you have become.
The only thing to fear, I think, is that one will become something that one does not approve of. At least the Runes don't intend to cause that; I am told they only ever mean well, even if sometimes they do not understand.