An Introduction to Enchantments
Enchantments are effects paladins can produce by activating sequences of runes they draw into different items to create elemental effects.
Runes are complex drawings possessing simple meanings and magical abilities, for instance, you can write down a rune for each element, a rune for “Delay”, one for “Create”, “Power”, “Defend”, “Release”, “Restore”, “Spread”, etc1. The more runes you are able to chain together, the more detailed instructions you will be able to give to an enchantment, so, for instance, while “Fire” would only create a small flames, “Fire | Fire” would make a proper fire, and “Fire | Fire | Fire” would make a flame powerful enough to burn bones. Every rune in a sequence has to be attached to every other rune in the same sequence, meaning that they get exponentially harder to create since one wrong detail in a sequence will end up breaking and entire sequence. Runes function by absorbing the magic in the air around them, and their capacity to do so is proportional to how detailed they are, in other words, their power is dependant on the experience of whoever drew them. There are two types of runes: elemental runes, which give an enchantment its power, and effect runes, which define what an enchantment does. Effect runes are things like “Power”, which make an enchantment increase the damage of whatever it is attached to, “Defend”, which increases defense, “Protect”, which give elemental immunity and protect the enchantment’s user its effects, “Restore”, which heals and repairs, “Spread”, which makes the elemental magic affect a larger area, these can be stacked with each other to create result like turning an entire city’s ground into an electric floor with enchantments like “Spread | Spread | Spread | Thunder | Thunder | Thunder”. Runes and rune sequences can be activated in two ways, the first one being after a few seconds of losing direct contact with whoever drew them unless a “Delay” rune is part of the sequence, or when whoever drew them wants to activate them2.
Scripts are pieces of paper-thin soft wood on which paladins draw sequences of runes, they are commonly used by paladins because of a few special attributes they possess which make them specially potent for making enchantments. First of all, since they are made of softened wood, they are quite light, durable, and they allow for the precise carving of runes. Their thinness and elasticity also makes it so that they can easily be attached or stuck onto other items, which will cause them to share the effects of the enchantments they contain with whatever they are attached to, this characteristic is particularly useful, since what is technically being enchanted (and thus limited to only having one sequence of runes drawn on it) is the script paper, and not what it is attached to, meaning that scripts allow paladins to enchant the same item multiple times and to attach multiple different enchantments on the same items at the same time.