Names of the Runes

Jah - JSP automatically hoards

I’ve also wondered this, but that’s mainly my linguistics interest coming through… so, I have a slightly more serious answer for you. What kind of syllabary is this? We have rune WORDS, we know how to spell them and thus have some definitions available, but how to pronounce them? How do they work as a language?

Some, like Exile, actually spell things: Void if you take the first letter of each rune ( Vex Ohm Ist Dol). Which is the real reason it’s always been one of my favourites. That’s Just Neat.

Tolkien’s languages, Skyrim’s Dragon tongue, Klingon, and others have always been a special interest of mine. I’ve long considered taking a proper crack at using the d2 runes as the basis for one myself, since it doesn’t ACTUALLY appear to be one already… it’s part of why I’m hand-writing my runeword chronicle as I go! It’s a way to look for patterns and sort of meditate on the runes themselves. I find that manually transferring something to a different medium is often much more helpful than just copy-pasting or printing when it comes to spotting things I’d otherwise miss and thinking about the material in different ways.

Well, that and it helps to force myself to take a bit more of a break from the computer for artistic endeavours…

It's not that deep, boys.
The rune "language" comes from the same company that gifted us with names like Treehead Woodfist or rares like Puke Eater the Quick (@AlphaJackal)

mikelessar wrote: 13 hours ago

It's not that deep, boys.
The rune "language" comes from the same company that gifted us with names like Treehead Woodfist or rares like Puke Eater the Quick (@AlphaJackal)

It may not be that deep, but I’ve got a shovel and I’m prepared to dig. I mean come on, who HASN’T dug a hole to nowhere for fun before?

The sun is a deadly laser and it’s too dang hot outside to do that now though, so I’ll take a hole to nowhere that can be dug indoors with paper and ink and too much free time, please.

Now, how would one write Puke Eater the Quick with runes…

EmaTheVampire wrote: 14 hours ago

I’ve also wondered this, but that’s mainly my linguistics interest coming through… so, I have a slightly more serious answer for you. What kind of syllabary is this? We have rune WORDS, we know how to spell them and thus have some definitions available, but how to pronounce them? How do they work as a language?

Some, like Exile, actually spell things: Void if you take the first letter of each rune ( Vex Ohm Ist Dol). Which is the real reason it’s always been one of my favourites. That’s Just Neat.

Tolkien’s languages, Skyrim’s Dragon tongue, Klingon, and others have always been a special interest of mine. I’ve long considered taking a proper crack at using the d2 runes as the basis for one myself, since it doesn’t ACTUALLY appear to be one already… it’s part of why I’m hand-writing my runeword chronicle as I go! It’s a way to look for patterns and sort of meditate on the runes themselves. I find that manually transferring something to a different medium is often much more helpful than just copy-pasting or printing when it comes to spotting things I’d otherwise miss and thinking about the material in different ways.

Well, that and it helps to force myself to take a bit more of a break from the computer for artistic endeavours…

I figure its supposed to be less a language and more like logographic / symbolic glyphs that convey a concept by themselves. Ofc, i doubt blizzard thought about it much during the inception of the runes lol. So my take is that they are each words / concepts, and together they can convey something different, i imagine something between runes of germanic/ nordic/ etc and the japanese logographic alphabet Kanji.

So I dont think theyre supposed to be letters, or used in any meaningful language, but more an occult "keys" that can shape or change reality.

AardvarksAdvance wrote: 2 hours ago

Valnerios wrote: 2 hours ago

EmaTheVampire wrote: 14 hours ago

I’ve also wondered this, but that’s mainly my linguistics interest coming through… so, I have a slightly more serious answer for you. What kind of syllabary is this? We have rune WORDS, we know how to spell them and thus have some definitions available, but how to pronounce them? How do they work as a language?

Some, like Exile, actually spell things: Void if you take the first letter of each rune ( Vex Ohm Ist Dol). Which is the real reason it’s always been one of my favourites. That’s Just Neat.

Tolkien’s languages, Skyrim’s Dragon tongue, Klingon, and others have always been a special interest of mine. I’ve long considered taking a proper crack at using the d2 runes as the basis for one myself, since it doesn’t ACTUALLY appear to be one already… it’s part of why I’m hand-writing my runeword chronicle as I go! It’s a way to look for patterns and sort of meditate on the runes themselves. I find that manually transferring something to a different medium is often much more helpful than just copy-pasting or printing when it comes to spotting things I’d otherwise miss and thinking about the material in different ways.

Well, that and it helps to force myself to take a bit more of a break from the computer for artistic endeavours…

I figure its supposed to be less a language and more like logographic / symbolic glyphs that convey a concept by themselves. Ofc, i doubt blizzard thought about it much during the inception of the runes lol. So my take is that they are each words / concepts, and together they can convey something different, i imagine something between runes of germanic/ nordic/ etc and the japanese logographic alphabet Kanji.

So I dont think theyre supposed to be letters, or used in any meaningful language, but more an occult "keys" that can shape or change reality.

Also, are we assuming here that the game has consistently had the same team of thinkers behind the rune / rw naming system?

Let’s not forget the runes were first introduced around patch1.10?? (Someone will correct me) and they have gradually increased in number.

There’s nothing I’ve seen which would suggest that the same people/creatives came up with all the rune names following the same sets of naming conventions.

Certainly, there were several years that passed between the Ancient’s Pledge rw making its appearance and the most recent ones such as Mania and Void. Different creatives, different naming system?

Oh ofc. My speculation is sheerly Lore-wise, and to be honest, I dont think the runewords correspond to the runes themselves that make them. I guess for that part, gameplay and mechanics are more important than keeping a consistent alchemical/occult symbolism that is mostly arbitrary. And iirc, runes were added with LoD itself. Though its been so long since i played without the expansion, I might be wrong.

Tal - Like Tal Rasha? Before I had internet (and all the guides at my fingertips), I genuinely thought runewords are supposed to be words. But there are no runes "Ra" and "Sha", so maybe Tal Ral Shael?
AFAIR one of the old mods went this was and created a runeword Ko Cham ("kocham" - "I love" in Polish).