From the introduction: Before spells existed, before any world’s technology had advanced past the wheel and flint knife, there was a powerful magic that took the form of runes—written sigils which serve as containers for eldritch energies. Runes existed before the first languages were created, before the most ancient of races looked to the skies, and are a form of writing reality-changing energy. Also known as “true runes,” each of these ancient symbols describes a single concept so powerfully that the mere presence of the rune brings some element of that concept into existence.