From the introduction: The runecaster is a manipulator of powerful magic that take the form of runes—written sigils which serve as containers for magic energies—rather than spells. Runes existed before the first languages were created, and act as the programming language of the universe—change the runes that are present at a given place, and you can change reality itself. Scholars debate whether runes are a natural part of the fabric of the universe, or if they represent a kind of quantum code added after the fact, perhaps by some alien machine god.