Runes

Runes are a useful little sub-type of magic, used even by people who wouldn't otherwise use magic, runes can perform basic, repetitive tasks. The fundamental idea of a rune is such: one writes down what one wants, magically, and it happens. There is much more to work with from there.

Writing Magically
Basically one has to already have some grasp of how either Kabbalism or Name Magic works. While Kabbalists or Gypsies are typically called to do this, they each have different approaches to it. Both work. One binds a command or idea to the very fabric of this object, creature, or person's being. This is not bound to the soul or actual Name or Value, rather it is similar to a tattoo: permanent (barring extraordinary circumstances) and only done on the surface (unless one knows ways to safely access the innards). Due to the amount of Gypsies and Kabbalists, and how easy it is to make a living with rune upkeep, inscribing, and improvement, most everyone knows at least a few Names or Values.

Typical Uses
Most creatures are similar to humans in one regard: a potent dislike of boring, repetitive tasks. Consequently, most runes are used for just that: boring, repetitive tasks. The Names and Values of various kinds of dirt and grime, along with something akin to "away" are known by basically every housewife, and inscribed on nearly every surface of a house and most cloth or leather items. Mixing and washing are taken up by runes, and a few Kabbalists came up with a device that uses runes to perform the multiple, repetitive steps involved in spinning thread and making cloth. Considering that this was just a larger-scale version of what already was on the spinning wheels and looms of more magically-inclined households, cloth prices were not cut down enormously. Still, cloth is now more common than leather as a clothing option. In short, if it's boring, there's a rune for it.

With Elemental Magic
Many users of Elemental Magic find themselves easily able to inscribe spells they already know or can perform onto objects. As one progresses into the "-mancy" and "-ism" stages, the runes capable of being drawn increase in power. Elemental runes are a tradeoff between power and flexibility, however. An Aneomage's X-dirt rune will generally clean a desk or cabinet more thoroughly than a typicaly rune, but will not be able to prevent grime from building up, or clearing specific types of dirt or sand, nor will it be subtle.

Elemental Runes are often used as Ward spells as a consequence, and walking into a prepared field or building to duel a sneaky mage will generally be the death of any thieves or foolish heroes.

There is some competition between self-starting magic users and established rune-workers, but this has generaly resulted only in epic battles and very advanced runes.

With Name Magic or Kabbalism
The difference between a person who doesn't know magic runing a chest and a Name Mage or Kabbalist runing a chest is the difference between: "dirt away." and "Cast in the name or the writer, this object will now remove all dirt, grime, sand, and liquid (here named refuse) from itself at every use, in such a way as to float a ball of the refuse one finger up and one finger to the right of the object in question."

While Elemental runes can be more powerful as wards, the sheer precision of Name or Kabbalic runes makes them the most professional runes in use.

Programming
If one happens to be in a sacred or very old spot with a professional rune-maker, and spots a symbol that the rune-maker cannot identify despite being certain it is a rune, beware! There are ways to fold sentence commands within other sentence commands to create a single sentence with incredible power and precision. Certain places posess these runes as a single character made up by the writer, and can be assumed to be far too important to mess with lightly.

Some professional rune-makers have made headway into not only deciphering these runes, but making similar types of commands. Using these techniques they were able to run several rune-based cloth-makers at once on a very efficient schedule.

It is rumored that there was once a fortress inhabited by such devout rune-makers that all portions of the fortress were in constant contact with all others, despite being a vast structure. It is said that this fortress was unassailable and housed many wonders. Surely this is just Fey Gossip, though..?