Sygaldry

Like sympathy made solid.

– Kvothe

Sygaldry is the science of carving runes into materials for artificing. Runes affect the materials they are carved on, and act as permanent sympathetic bindings. There are 197 runes, some of which come in pairs (Ule and Doch, Gea and Teh, Reh and Kel) while some only bind to certain materials (Pesin for water, Resin for rock, Aru for clay, Fehr for iron). Cammar, Kilvin's giller, teaches new students in Introduction to Sygaldry. Kvothe learns sygaldry quickly by setting the runes to the lyrics of Ten Tap Tim.

Examples

Many useful items can be made with sygaldry.

• Sympathy lamps, lamps powered by the heat of your hand
• Synchronized bells, paired bells where one rings when the other does
• The Bloodless, a device invented by Kvothe to stop arrows