Appendecies

Appendix: Runes
Runes are one of the backbones of the Suikoden world. They play a very important role in the mythos and lore, and are often catalysts of world events. For the purposes of this game, they are broken down into five categories:

Basic: Common, easy to find, most of the world has access to these (Fire, Lightning, etc.).

Advanced: Uncommon, more powerful than basic (Mother Earth, Flowing, etc.).

Master: Rare, requires great magical talent to appropriately harness, extremely powerful (Pale Gate, Darkness, etc.). Non-command or non-passive Master runes must be attached to the forehead slot.

Unique: As powerful as a master rune, but generally exclusive (Bright Shield, Dawn, etc.).

True: Twenty-seven true runes serve as the greatest power in the Suikoden world. The rarest of them all, and the most powerful. Many true runes choose their own bearers (Soul Eater, Sun Rune, etc.).

Notation:

[d10](#)+## [d10] means roll a number of d10s equal to your magic grade to roll. (#) represents the maximum dice rolled allowed – lack of a number means there is no maximum. +## represents a value to be added on after the roll. [d10](4)+10 means roll magic grade number of dice, maximum of four. Add ten to the roll. DRs given are rolled on a d12. Rune effects do not stack with other runes unless otherwise noted.

''Note from BigVanThunder: Some names have been edited from the original book, and customized runes have been added to this list to conform to my personal campaign. Feel free to use these, but understand there are mild differences between this information and the core book.''

Elemental Rune Magic
Elemental runic magic can be broken down into five separate categories, themselves the building blocks of the natural world: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, and Lightning. Each runic sphere has six different spells associated with it, but each rune in a family can only tap enough elemental power to command four of those spells. Each elemental family consists of three different Runes: the basic and most common version of the Rune (Earth, Fire, Lightning, Water, and Wind), the advanced and superior version of the Rune (Mother Earth, Cyclone, Rage, Flowing, and Thunder), and the unique, most powerful True Runes (True Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, and Lightning).

Elemental affinity goes in the following order: Lightning beats Water, Water beats Fire, Fire beats Wind, Wind beats Earth, and Earth beats Lightning. This affinity pertains to monsters/creatures that are of a specific element, not the Elemental Weakness(element) drawback.

Earth Magic
Earth magic is the art of manipulating subtle protective energies to defend and aid allies. While Earth Runes have some minor attack ability, their influence is primarily aimed at guarding and safekeeping the lives of the Earth magician’s allies. As such, it is a subtle, reactive Rune and sometimes difficult to use. Its attack magic is extremely damaging but is limited by its inability to damage enemies who fly, or have the ability to take to the skies.

Like Wind magic, Earth magic doesn’t loan itself well to dabbling and is often seen in the use of dedicated magicians rather than adepts. It is one of the more uncommon Runes in the Suikoden world, though many Earth magic users hold positions of power, such as Eileen, wife of Lepant, or Bishop Sasarai of Harmonia, who has the True Earth Rune.

Earth Rune (Basic)

Mother Earth Rune (Advanced)

True Earth Rune (True)

Fire Magic
In contrast to the subtler arts of Earth magic, Fire magic is singularly focused and devoted to chaos and destruction. Even an inexperienced Fire magician or adept is capable of summoning a torrent of fire down upon his or her enemies. What the Fire Rune lacks in subtlety, it compensates for in sheer destructive power, much like the Lightning Rune. Unlike the Lightning Rune, which deals precise and surgical damage to a single target, fire magic deals less damage but over a wide area, lacking the Lightning Rune’s capacity for precise targeting.

Since the Fire Rune is powerful and flashy even at low levels, it’s an extremely common Rune in the Suikoden world and seen as often in the hands of adepts as magicians; sometimes moreso. Cleo, McDohl’s guardian, was given a Fire Rune by Leknaat in recognition of the role she was to play in the fall of Scarlet Moon, and Wang of the Harmonian Frontier Defense Force Twelfth Unit was an experienced and respected Fire magician.

Fire Rune (Basic)

Rage Rune (Advanced)

True Fire Rune (True)

Lightning Magic
ffensively oriented Rune that is extremely common among both magicians and adepts. Where the Fire Rune makes use of wholesale destruction and calamity to dispatch its foes, cooler heads prevail when a Lightning Rune is at work: it deals more damage than a Fire Rune can, but strikes with incredible precision, directing its destructive energies at single opponents rather than entire enemy groups. Like the Fire Rune, it is unsubtle, but still potent.

The world of Suikoden is full of notable lightning magic users: Flik of the Warrior’s Village, who was active in the Liberation Army in Scarlet Moon and the mercenary army that toppled the Highland monarchy, used lightning magic, and when the Runemaster Jeane took the field of battle for Razril, she wielded a Lightning Rune.

Lightning Rune (Basic)

Thunder Rune (Advanced)

True Lightning Rune (True)

Water Magic
wherever he or she goes for the ability to heal virtually any injury, returning most people from death’s door to full health with as little as the expenditure of one level one MP. What Water magic lacks in destructive ability or versatility it makes up for in spades simply with its vast healing properties, enormously outstripping even the most potent medicine.

Because Water magic is so useful and lifesaving, it is also very common, and the world of Suikoden is full of distinguished people who made use of a Water Rune for healing or protection. Since Water magic has powerful spells even at low levels, it’s a favorite of tactically minded adepts such as the Duck Clan’s Sergeant Joe or the elven knight of Razril, Paula.

Water Rune (Basic)

Flowing Rune (Advanced)

True Water Rune (True)

Wind Magic
Wind magic is difficult to effectively pigeonhole like the other Runes. Rather than choosing a single thrust for its spells, Wind magic instead moves, zephyr-like, among the spheres of the other elemental Runes, claiming for its own the things that it favors and discarding the rest. As such, Wind magic requires effort and dedication to reveal its true power, which lays not in its high damage potential or exceptional defensive abilities, but instead in its ability to do many different things at once.

While uncommon among adepts, Wind Runes are familiar among magicians; the last bearer of the True Wind Rune, the deceased Harmonian Bishop Luc, was a gifted Wind magician, and the famous magician Crowley bore a Cyclone Rune into battle.

Wind Rune (Basic)

Cyclone Rune (Advanced)

True Wind Rune (True)