The History of the Rune Keeper

[Waxe]

Is there a place, aside from the general tab under the lore book, that goes into details about the background of the Rune Keeper?

[takimeta]

http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Class:Rune-keeper

[Waxe]

That is the exact article I was talking about. I want something more in depth that that.

[PerfectApproach]

Are you talking about the timeline of the Rune-Keeper since it was released with the Mines of Moria expansion, or the lore-based history of Rune-Keepers since the days of Celebrimbor?

[Waxe]

Whatever lore based history there is, if any. I've done some research with the Tolkein or books about Tolkein that I have, but not getting much luck, well any. I'd like a little more detail than the paragraph briefly explaining them in the link above. Also should I repost this in either RP or Tolkein lore? I wasn't sure which, simply because I think the Rune Keeper is more of a turbine thing and less of a Tolkein thing.

[BBSoonerOU]

Information on runes themselves can be found here:

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Dwarf_Runes

Runes having power over objects (and creatures for that matter) was likely inspired (as far as to my knowledge) from the Doors of Durin. Since Arda was created by song, it isn't a large leap of faith that words hold power over the world created by them. As far as controlling the elements of fire/ice/electricity go, that is strictly a matter of game mechanics as far as I can tell. Turbine needed a way to visualize the different ways our runes effected our environment.

[Berephon]

Whatever lore based history there is, if any. I've done some research with the Tolkein or books about Tolkein that I have, but not getting much luck, well any. I'd like a little more detail than the paragraph briefly explaining them in the link above. Also should I repost this in either RP or Tolkein lore? I wasn't sure which, simply because I think the Rune Keeper is more of a turbine thing and less of a Tolkein thing.

You are correct. The Rune-keeper is a Turbine thing. It was inspired by the use of runes in LotR (and other Middle-earth works) for "magical" purposes, the concept of words having power; however, there are certainly not any actual Rune-keepers in the works of Tolkien. As part of the effort to conform to some degree to the mythos of Middle-earth, only dwarves and Elves can be Rune-keepers, as they are the only player-races that have any innate power, as defined by Tolkien.

[Snowlock]

only dwarves and Elves can be Rune-keepers, as they are the only player-races that have any innate power, as defined by Tolkien.

Not quite... You are forgetting Orcses, precious.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

And thus Defilers.

[Waxe]

Thank you, that is quite a bit that I didn't know before.

[Afuna]

RK's are lots of fun to play, but you won't find them anywhere in LOTR or Tolkien; having said that, I think there may be some mention of true-naming in Tolkien (but I may be mixing and morphing my fantasy literature). True-naming is commented on the description in the link above, which is why I mentioned it. There was some (occsasionally heated) debate about the creation of RK's by Turbine since they are not a part of Tolkien-lore. There you have it.

[Hurin]

Dwarf Rune-Keepers, like Hobbit Guardians. . . are an abomination.

(I'm not seriously upset. I just like to say that Hobbit GRDs are an abomination.)

[Elyske]

I absolutely love Hobbit guards, and completely despise fat, obnoxious Dwarf runekeepers who wave their chubby arms around and lightning comes out of them. :/

[R-Danneskjold]

Is there a place, aside from the general tab under the lore book, that goes into details about the background of the Rune Keeper?

The initial dev diary on the class: http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/devdia...he-rune-keeper

And thus Defilers.

Defilers don't use innate power or "magic". They use the equivalent of Lore-master abilities. Alchemy, science, archaic medicine, and curses.

[aleczander]

The elves that saw Valinor, live thus in both worlds, shadow and light..
From the beginning they were blessed with eternal life..

Anyone have a line or two from tolkien's works that states where exactly the dwarves (a mortal race) supposedly get this "innate power"?

I do remember Treebeard's words about having power over something if you knew its true name...thus RK's must know the "true names" of fire, ice, lightning etc.?

[Quavosh]

You are correct. The Rune-keeper is a Turbine thing. It was inspired by the use of runes in LotR (and other Middle-earth works) for "magical" purposes, the concept of words having power; however, there are certainly not any actual Rune-keepers in the works of Tolkien. As part of the effort to conform to some degree to the mythos of Middle-earth, only dwarves and Elves can be Rune-keepers, as they are the only player-races that have any innate power, as defined by Tolkien.

Knowing what I know of Tolkien & Middle-earth, I believe he would approve of the Rune-keeper class

[PerfectApproach]

You are correct. The Rune-keeper is a Turbine thing. It was inspired by the use of runes in LotR (and other Middle-earth works) for "magical" purposes, the concept of words having power; however, there are certainly not any actual Rune-keepers in the works of Tolkien. As part of the effort to conform to some degree to the mythos of Middle-earth, only dwarves and Elves can be Rune-keepers, as they are the only player-races that have any innate power, as defined by Tolkien.

To expand on this a little bit, I recall an interview somewhere where Steefel (High-Up Turbine Muckety-Muck at the time) said that in the lore, there was NO magic use in the Tolkein universe except by the Istari Wizards. However, as an MMO, the game needed to have a "caster" class, and the Lore-Master didn't quite fit the bill.

What Turbine did was draw on the lore of "runes" from excerpts from the Hobbit. In this book, runes were somehow involved with Dwarves and Men of Dale speaking with birds. A bird told Bard the Bowman the secret of Smaug's weak spot. Turbine also drew inspiration from Celebrimbor, who crafted the Rings of Power using incantations and skills taught to him by Sauron (disguised as Annatar).

Rune-Keepers are purely an invention of Turbine, and Turbine hasn't plainly fleshed out the origins of this class as well as the very obvious histories of other classes. However, as mentioned before, the world itself was created from woven song, the Rings of Power were crafted using the magic of Sauron, the One Ring has an incantation written on it, and the Doors of Durin have words of incantation chiseled into them. Celebrimbor crafted the Rings of Power as well as the Doors of Durin, so any Elven history you might be interested in crafting for your Rune-Keeper could incorporate some descendance from Celebrimbor. In addition, Dwarves began using runes as their alphabet from the time of Thingol, king of Doriath. Elves began using Tengwar writing, moving away from Cirth runes, when Feanor brought them to Middle Earth, but the Dwarves continued to use the runes. How this relates to the control of the elements of Fire, Lightning, Cold, and Inspiration, I do not know, but dwarven use of runes can be traced back the decendance of the dwarves of the time of Thingol.

With respect to Men and Hobbits, and why they are specifically denied being Rune-Keepers, you can look to the history of Dwarves and Elves themselves before the first age. Elves and Dwarves were created by the hand of Aule (right?) directly, so they will have had intrinsic "magical" essence in their make-up. The history of Humans themselves wasn't very well described in the lore, but they were "awakened" long after the elves and dwarves in the Beleriand area, I believe. As such, the way I keep it straight in my head is that, rather than being directly created by the "Hand of God," Humans came from beasts who already roamed Middle Earth and were granted sentience by Aule. Of course, I made that up myself, but since nothing else in the lore that I've researched contradicts it, I just assume that Humans were granted only sentience and no other magical essence. In-game, if you recall one of the class books that you have to collect pages for (Whispers in the Dark, I think), one of the few Human rune-keepers of history was driven insane by the magical essence of runes and their mastery, so it's not so far-fetched to think that Humans are simply not capable of understanding magical essences. Since Hobbits are descended from Humans, they will share Human limitations with respect to magic and rune mastery.

Berephon, does that sound about right?

[hallasan]

Elves and Dwarves were created by the hand of Aule (right?)

Partially. Elves were created by Eru and Dwarves by Aule and given 'free will' by Eru.

[FSH]

Actually Dwarves were the true 1st born but were put back to sleep until the Elves could be born.

[BBSoonerOU]

With respect to Men and Hobbits, and why they are specifically denied being Rune-Keepers, you can look to the history of Dwarves and Elves themselves before the first age. Elves and Dwarves were created by the hand of Aule (right?) directly, so they will have had intrinsic "magical" essence in their make-up. The history of Humans themselves wasn't very well described in the lore, but they were "awakened" long after the elves and dwarves in the Beleriand area, I believe. As such, the way I keep it straight in my head is that, rather than being directly created by the "Hand of God," Humans came from beasts who already roamed Middle Earth and were granted sentience by Aule. Of course, I made that up myself, but since nothing else in the lore that I've researched contradicts it, I just assume that Humans were granted only sentience and no other magical essence. In-game, if you recall one of the class books that you have to collect pages for (Whispers in the Dark, I think), one of the few Human rune-keepers of history was driven insane by the magical essence of runes and their mastery, so it's not so far-fetched to think that Humans are simply not capable of understanding magical essences. Since Hobbits are descended from Humans, they will share Human limitations with respect to magic and rune mastery.

Actually Man, like the Elves, were created by Illuvatar and were given a specific gift from Eru - mortality. They awoke in Hildorien, far to the east of Beleriand, near the place where elves awoke. As they started to form society the best of them(the edain) felt an urge to venture west. Also, unlike the men of the east, Numenorians were capable of magic (whatever developer said there was no magic in ME is mistaken). Tolkien writes that the Mouth of Sauron, a black numenorian, was taught sorcery and the ways of the "black arts" by Sauron. Arguably this ability to use magic may stem from the first numenorian Elros being a half-elf, but Numenorians were still considered of the race of Man.

[aleczander]

Elves and Men were created by Eru, and "awoke" in the east.
Dwarves where created by Aule, but awoke by command of Eru.
Hobbits...unclear

The only immortal race are the elves.

I still don't understand where dwarves could get some "innate power" that would allow them to use runes, where men could not. They live longer than men, yet are still mortal, and I don't remember reading anywhere about a power they possessed innately.

I do remember Gimli saying something along the lines of " Only in building have we surpassed the knowledge of our forefathers." Whereas, the knowledge of weapon-crafting and other things was more potent in the first age. How that translates to Third Age RK dwarves, I don't know.

[BBSoonerOU]

I don't know about an "innate power" in the dwarves, but the way I've been able to rationalize dwarven rune-keepers is that 1.) they are the only race to still use runes as their primary written language, and 2.) when the 7 fathers first awoke Aule taught them his lore and his crafts. I suppose Aule could have taught them the secrets of not only crafting, but of the power of true-names. So when elves were creating the runic alphabet and discovering the lore of true-names, dwarves could have already been familiar with the script and the matter of stonework to take part.

IMO the powers of the rune-keeper have nothing to do with racial characteristics, but they require more time than Man (and hobbits for that matter) have in middle earth to master.

This all, however, has no backing in the canon so your guess is as good as mine.

[Hurin]

If memory serves, one of the "Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien" is explicitly about "magic" and its place (or lack thereof) in middle-earth (and arda as a whole). It's basically an exercise in semantics (he was a linguist and philologist after all). . . but at one point, though he did dislike the word "magic" he does say that Elves and Dwarves are both possess some innate power that is lacking in Men (and presumably, Hobbits).

Sorry I can't be more specific than that. This was actually debated ad nauseum around the time RKs were introduced.

Aside from that one citation though, the preponderance of "evidence" would seem to come down heavily against the RK being considered at all "Lore-friendly". . . and Dwarf RKs being even less so.

But hey. . . they're here. And some of them are Dwarves. No use continuing to tear our shirts (or beards) over it.