Editing Rune Priest (section)

==Warp vs Fenris==

The major difference between Rune Priests and most other Librarians is that they do not believe their psychic abilities are derived from the Warp, but rather from the animistic spirits of their homeworld, Fenris; which is channeled through totems and [[Runic Armour|runes on their armour.]]

There does seem to be an element of in-universe discrepancy on this: In ''Thousand Sons'' Ohthere Wyrdmake and [[Leman Russ]] say repeatedly that the Rune Priests did not use the power of the warp, even while accusing the [[Thousand Sons]] of corruption at the [[Council of Nikaea]]. However, in ''Prospero Burns'' Helwintr and Russ don't even mention this bullshit. The Space Wolves are not the savage ignoramuses that they want everyone to believe they are and seem to have a perfect grasp of the situation and can clearly differentiate between psyker and sorcerer, which is conveniently compatible with what will happen after the heresy. But the Thousands Sons seem to fall for it, so in their eyes, that fact that the Wolves would utter this kind of stupid nonsense is somewhat believable. None of which changes the fact the Space Wolves have either deluded themselves or are lying to everyone else about where their own psychic powers come from, making them either idiots or hypocrites respectively or most likely both. Especially since Rune Priests blatantly rely on sorcery over normal warpcraft, which is far worse of an offense.

The discrepancy between the depictions of "ignorant savage" vs "lying hypocrite" is addressed somewhat in ''Wolfsblade''. The Rune Priest traditions were descended from the shamanistic rituals of Fenris's native tribes, and have remained unchanged for countless centuries. Russ claims that his Rune Seers do not draw on the warp; that they ''(along with the Stormseers of the [[White Scars]])'' use "older" traditions which shield themselves from corruption from the warp by limiting the power they can draw from it directly; they acknowledge both the power of Fenris and the Warp side-by-side, essentially making their culture a lens through which the Warp can be viewed ''comparatively'' safely. They seem to just be using Fenris ''as'' a totem for channeling the Warp.

At the very least, shamanism is by far older than any psyker tradition (real psykers appeared during M24, at the begining of the Age of Strife) or the artificial creation of ''Homo Navigo'' (during M21): ''Realms of Chaos : The Lost and the Damned'' flatly states that some of the ancient Shamans of Terra could remember having lived as ''Homo Australopithecus'' and ''Homo Habilis'', and even if they went extinct to give birth to the Emperor, shamanism is well documented as existing in Asia, America, and Africa, and especially in Siberia. So, it is very possible that the combination of sheer [[awesome]] and Leman's stubborn attitude persuaded the Emperor to just let be his old colleagues from many other lives. But on the other hand, a shaman is first and foremost defined as a practitioner of ecstasy and as a healer: other aspects such as commanding to the elements (which is what the Rune Priests' Tempestas disciples does) is generally considered as secondary to these two aspect; hilariously, the Horus Heresy Legions' card game has a more faithful portrayal of shamans through its take on Ohthere Wyrdmake, Ahriman's arch enemy, than the Space Wolves codex. And as for the claims of safety made by the Rune Priests and Stormseers, well, the exaggerated Grimdark sometimes has wild psykers cause a giant demonic invasion - since Fenris and Chogoris did just fine with their own psykers as integrated members of primitive societies instead of persecuting them with murder cults, their claims are actually believable.

Because of Russ' stance on his Rune Priests, he is flat out called a hypocrite by [[Rogal Dorn]] ''(who coincidentally was the only Primarch who still adhered to the Edict of Nikaea at that point)'' who points out that there are no limits on power, no matter how you slice it. Later Russ begins to wonder if he really was a hypocrite, and privately resolves to examine his Rune Priests' relationship with the warp on another day. Whether he actually did this or not is anyone's guess.

===Underverse===
Russ himself takes a jaunt into the '''Underverse''' ''(essentially a sanitised version of the Warp)'' to entreat with the [[Daemon|Wights]] to provide a means for wounding [[Horus]]. He succeeded because he understood and respected the symbolism of the realm. One might say that the Underverse is exactly the same as the Warp, but the Underverse comes with rules and conditions to prevent travelers from wandering astray ''("Drink, but don't eat the [[Meatbread|meat]]" etc)'' and the wights left him alone at least until he addressed them. It is not the first non-Chaos sub-realm to appear. In the alternative, if he had travelled [[Kaldor Draigo|directly into the warp]] he would have been subject to all of the crazed logic of Chaos and likely would have had a considerably more violent experience; while his exposure to the Underverse was fraught with threat and difficulty, he passed through relatively unmolested.


{{Space Wolves}}

[[Category:Space Wolves]]