Names of the Runes

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…

mikelessar wrote: 1 day 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: 1 day 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: 21 hours ago

Valnerios wrote: 21 hours ago

EmaTheVampire wrote: 1 day 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.

AardvarksAdvance wrote: 21 hours ago

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?

ACTUALLY, this got me thinking! I remembered reading about them in the Ultimate Strategy Guide that came with the box set way back in the day when I was a wee little fiend, and that basically all of that info was WILDLY out of date by the time I actually got to play the game. Like, runewords that don't exist, runes that used to go by different names, and so on.

So I dug mine out of the closet to look... and then the photo files were too big, so I had to scrounge up my pdf. But interestingly, the pdfs I have do NOT have the rune tables! so that was pointless, and we're back to hoping these images insert correctly.

SPOILER

Notably we have Shae/ Shael, Po/ Io, and Jo/Cho which ultimately became the Jah we now know and love. And we also have a disclaimer that these are the pre-patch items! So they only exist if you're operating in v1.07 single-player expansion, presumably. The one I'm most interested in is the one I was crushing the poor book's spine trying to get a good look at: Authority, a helmet runeword including Zod.

I'm more interested in the symbols on the runes themselves.

Ber amuses me because it looks like a poorly drawn stick figure about to unleash a Karate kick.

Some of my brain's interpretations include:
Tir - Goofy arrow
Tal - Hour glass
Ral - Flame sword
Amn - Question mark
Sol - Wyvern
Shael - Hat rack
Hel - Storm eye
Pul - Torch
Um - Headless stick figure
Ohm - Snake jaw
Cham - Teeth

Also for being the rarest rune in the game... Zod looks so lame...

Pul, Ohm, and Ber are some of my personal favorites.