One of the tools used by the Old Gods during the First Era were their Runes, magical symbols they brought with them from the Far Realms. Each Rune is connected at a deep metaphysical level to two universal concepts, one an active “verb” and the other a more passive state of being or Plane of existence. When combined with other Runes, together they can be used to cause a magical effect to occur or imbue an item with power.
Rune mages cast spells by either drawing the appropriate Rune(s) in the air or invoking a rune marked on a surface, often either embroidered on their clothes or a carved or painted onto a spellcasting implement or focus. Rituals are cast by writing more complicated phrases of Runes out, either by arranging runestones bearing them in a particular order or actually writing the Runes onto a surface such as the ground, a wooden block, or a piece of paper, and repeatedly chanting their names to invoke their properties. This often involves some other form of magical tradition as a support (such as prayer, singing, or using Osteomantic iconography), and Runes are similarly used as a symbolic framework to support rituals performed in other magical traditions.
The trappings of a Rune mage usually include a collection of Rune stones, small flat tokens fashioned out of either wood, ceramic, or stone, each with one of the Runes marked or engraved on it. These can be used to cast spells or rituals on the fly, as well as to perform the titular Rune Kenning that gives the tradition its name. Kenning is a form of divinatory ritual, cast by asking a question and pulling out a series of Runes at random from a full set of Rune stones and then interpreting the results, similar to Astromantic card divination.
A full set of Rune stones usually includes two copies of each rune. Some sets have one copy of each on a circular stone and the other copy on square ones, allowing for easier kenning between the noun and verb forms of the Runes. Others simply have the sides of each stone marked to denote whether it is the verb or noun form, which leads to more complicated kennings.