The Lore of Forgotten Runes Souls

On All Hallow’s Eve, the Great Burning commenced. Over 400 Wizards have stepped to the Flame thus far, and we’ve seen all sorts of abominations return. Let’s go over some of the lore behind these new undead beings that have come to the Runiverse.

The new character classes we have seen thus far are Liches, Wraiths, Zombies, Revenants, Ghouls, Spectres, Phantasms, and Poltergeists. Below is some generalized lore about each class, but remember, your Forgotten Runes character is always your own. You decide their individual lore and you do not have to conform to what is written below. And you can inscribe their unique history into the Book of Lore.

This document is an covers the Lore of Forgotten Souls If you are unfamiliar with The Great Burning and want an overview, please read: The Great Burning, The Sacred Flames, and the Infinity Veil If you're a collector, you may enjoy A Collectors Guide to Forgotten Souls which covers rarity and provenance from a technical point of view

With that said, here are some of the new characters:

The Liches

The Aristocracy of the Undead, the gentry of the Nightmare Dominion. If evil exists, it is embodied in the Liches. They take great pride in their noble titles like Duke, Despot, Baron and Marquis. The Liches know how to take and hold power, and do so by any means necessary. If their more subtle methods of political intrigue and corruption do not suffice, they can always send forth their armies of Wraiths.

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The Wraiths

The Wraiths are the cursed warriors of the Undead Armies. They are Captains, Knights, Deacons, and Devouts. The Warriors of the living know of no method for killing wraiths.

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The Zombies

Mindless, rotting wanderers anchored to the earthly plane. Not dead, not alive, but forever hungry. Their endless journey has no meaning, unless the insatiable search to devour living flesh has meaning.

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The Revenants

Reanimated corpses, similar to zombies, but with more awareness. Some consider revenants nothing more than the lich underclass. They are beings of vice, enslaved to their gluttonous desire for blood and flesh.

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Ghouls

The bloodlust and hunger of revenants and zombies is great, but it is nothing compared to the Ghouls. They are beings of unparalleled debauchery. They engorge themselves with reckless abandon, drunk on impropriety and wanton ways. Ghouls are too vulgar even for places like Goblin Town, and are often exiled to Nasty Town.

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Spectres

As other Souls wander the earthly plane, there are some beings who occupy more amorphous dimensions. The Spectres come and go as they please, materializing wherever they wish. They are made of spiritual substances like Shade, Ectoplasm, and Ether. There is rumored to even be one made of fire itself.

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Phantasms

Like Specteres, Phantasms live on the immaterial plane. They are creatures of the Void itself, and seem totally unconcerned with the affairs of the Living.

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Poltergeists

Ghosts in the shell, beings that seem to live in the machine realm. Technology is often plagued by poltergeists, with glitches being referred to as “kissed by a Poltergeist”

We have also seen some transmutations on the familiars, for if a Wizard steps to a flame, so must they.

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Familiars

Many of the familiars that we were, ahem, familiar with, returned as ghosts, skeletons, and zombies.

But the Burn also returned some new familiars to the Runiverse. We’ve seen some resurrected beasts such as the dodo, a thylacine, and a smilodon kitten!

It also seems, to the delight of many, that Wizards who brought eggs through the fire returned with those eggs hatched. We’ve seen baby cockatrices, dragon hatchlings, and platypuses!

The Soul Rune

There is also the addition of a new Rune: The Rune of Souls. The power and significance of the Soul Rune has yet to be discovered...

Undesirables

We've seen some so-called “undesirable” outcomes in the Burn. Things like coffins, piles of ash, and flowers on graves. But perhaps the most peculiar are the jelly donuts?! If you decide you do not want to risk the chance of getting an undesirable outcome, you are free to hold or sell your flame. But it is worth remembering that if you get an “undesirable” outcome, these events are actually more rare…

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Names and Locations

The only thing that remains of a transmuted Wizard is their first name. Their titles and locations do not survive the burn, and through this we have learned of many new places in the Runiverse. Some of these new places exist on the current charting of the map, some will be revealed in the map expansion, and some do not belong on the earthly plane at all. Some of these places are of great and terrible power, like the Nightmare Dominion, the Dread Tower, and Torment Manor. Some are of plague and sickness, like the Bubonic Beaches, the Majestic Filth, the Slime Pits. And there are some places that merely house vulgar filth, like Nasty Town, Gross Gorge, and the Nether Regions.

Ultra Rares

There are still many hidden secrets in the Forgotten Souls collection, and many Sacred flames remaining with which to reveal them. The Grim Reaper himself has appeared, as well as the Glitch Poltergeist, Toru the Video Ghost, Marie Laveau, the Ghoul of Insatiable Bloodlust, and Bloody Mary. What other Ultra Rares are hiding in the flame? And who will be brave enough to find them? Take your Fire, your Wizard, and a prayer to the bowels of the Secret Tower... and may the flame burn favorably upon your soul.

Oh also, #pray4dotta