- For other uses, see Runes (disambiguation).
Weapon runes can be applied to certain weapons to provide permanent bonuses to that weapon's effects.
Runes can be applied to (or removed from) equipment by Bodahn Feddic's son, Sandal at the party's camp in Dragon Age: Origins or Ambassador Cera at the Vigil's Keep in Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening. There is no cost associated with adding or removing runes, and runes can be reused after removal. This makes it easy to tailor equipment to meet particular challenges.
In Origins, runes of any grade except Grandmaster can also be used to enhance the Mages or Templars prior to The Final Battle, by placing them in the Allied Supply Crates in the party camp.
Each weapon has a certain number of rune slots, depending on the material from which it is made. For example, iron weapons have no slots while Dragonbone items offer 3. There are nine types of weapon runes, each of which provides a different effect, such as increased damage. Runes come in one of 5 tiers of power, from Novice to Grandmaster. Two additional tiers are available in the Awakening expansion, Masterpiece and Paragon.
Runes fire independently. Thus, multiple Runes of Paralysis will increase the Paralysis chance. While an effect like Paralysis or Slow is active, the same kind of effect cannot be triggered again (and the time of the effect is not extended).
Items increasing elemental damage will increase elemental damage from runes as well.
Weapons that already have an elemental damage enchantment will have said enchantment enhanced by each rune of the same element to the degree of the rune's power. For example, a Keening Blade enchanted with three Grandmaster Frost Runes will have its existing +3 cold damage enchantment increased to +18. This damage is dealt separately from the rune damage so each swing of the weapon will be able to deal up to 33 cold damage. This also works for silverite and cold iron runes.
| Bug! There is a bug with runes vs. creature type (Cold Iron, Silverite) and passive resistance (Dweomer, Hale) Masterpiece and Paragon tier weapon runes. They are erroneously flagged as Armor Runes in Dragon Age: Awakening. Cold Iron and Silverite do not trigger either with melee or ranged weapons when inserted into armor slots. However, both Dweomer and Hale grant the resistance bonuses normally. EDIT: this has been resolved with PC patch 1.04. Also resolved in the Ultimate Edition of the game. EDIT EDIT: Hale, Dweomer, & Cold Iron still flagged as armor runes in Ultimate Edition patch 1.05. |
List 
Edit
Cold Iron Edit
 | Effects:
+2 damage vs. undead |
 | Effects:
+4 Damage vs. Undead | This forms the Tevinter symbol for the Fade. |
 | Effects:
+6 Damage vs. Undead | This forms the Tevinter symbol for the Fade. |
 | Effects:
+8 Damage vs. Undead | This forms the Tevinter symbol for the Fade. |
 | Effects:
+10 Damage vs. Undead | This forms the Tevinter symbol for the Fade. |
 | Effects:
+12 damage vs undead | This forms the Tevinter symbol for the Fade. |
 | Effects:
+14 damage vs. undead | This forms the Tevinter symbol for the Fade. |
Dweomer Edit
 | Effects:
+2% spell resistance |
 | Effects:
+4% Spell Resistance |
 | Effects:
+6% Spell Resistance |
 | Effects:
+8% Spell Resistance |
 | Effects:
+10% Spell Resistance |
 | Effects:
+12% spell resistance |
 | Effects:
+14% spell resistance |
Flame Edit
 | Effects:
+1 Fire Damage |
 | Effects:
+2 fire damage | This lyrium rune is the ancient Tevinter symbol for Toth, god of fire. |
 | Effects:
+3 Fire Damage | This lyrium rune is the ancient Tevinter symbol for Toth, god of fire. |
 | Effects:
+4 Fire Damage | This lyrium rune is the ancient Tevinter symbol for Toth, god of fire. |
 | Effects:
+5 Fire Damage | This lyrium rune is the ancient Tevinter symbol for Toth, god of fire. |
 | Effects:
+6 Fire Damage | This lyrium rune is the ancient Tevinter symbol for Toth, god of fire. |
 | Effects:
+ 7 Fire Damage | This lyrium rune is the ancient Tevinter symbol for Toth, god of fire. |
Frost Edit
 | Effects:
+1 Frost Damage | This is the Tevinter rune for winter. |
 | Effects:
+2 Frost Damage | This is the Tevinter rune for winter. |
 | Effects:
+3 Frost Damage | This is the Tevinter rune for winter. |
 | Effects:
+4 Frost Damage | This is the Tevinter rune for winter. |
 | Effects:
+5 Frost Damage | This is the Tevinter rune for winter. |
 | Effects:
+6 Frost Damage | This is the Tevinter rune for winter. |
 | Effects:
+ 7 Frost Damage | This is the Tevinter rune for winter. |
Hale Edit
 | Effects:
+5% Physical Resistance | This is an old Tevinter symbol for endurance. |
 | Effects:
+10% Physical Resistance | This is an old Tevinter symbol for endurance. |
 | Effects:
+15% Physical Resistance | This is an old Tevinter symbol for endurance. |
 | Effects:
+20% physical resistance | This is an old Tevinter symbol for endurance. |
 | Effects:
+25 Physical Resistance | This is an old Tevinter symbol for endurance. |
 | Effects:
+30 Physical Resistance | This is an old Tevinter symbol for endurance. |
 | Effects:
+35 Physical Resistance | This is an old Tevinter symbol for endurance. |
Lightning Edit
 | Effects:
+1 Electrical Damage | This symbol is the old Tevinter rune for tempest. |
 | Effects:
+2 Electrical Damage | This symbol is the old Tevinter rune for tempest. |
 | Effects:
+3 Electrical Damage | This symbol is the old Tevinter rune for tempest. |
 | Effects:
+4 Electrical Damage | This symbol is the old Tevinter rune for tempest. |
 | Effects:
+5 Electrical Damage | This symbol is the old Tevinter rune for tempest. |
 | Effects:
+6 Electricity Damage | This symbol is the old Tevinter rune for tempest. |
 | Effects:
+7 electricity damage | This symbol is the old Tevinter rune for tempest. |
Paralyze Edit
 | Effects:
5% chance of paralysis for 4s |
 | Effects:
5% chance of paralysis for 5s |
 | Effects:
5% chance of paralysis for 6s |
 | Effects:
5% chance of paralysis for 7s |
 | Effects:
5% chance of paralysis for 8s |
 | Effects:
5% chance of paralysis for 9s |
 | Effects:
5% chance of paralysis for 10s |
Slow Edit
 | Effects:
Low chance to reduce movement speed | The ancient Tevinter symbol for sloth. |
 | Effects:
Low chance to reduce movement speed | The ancient Tevinter symbol for sloth. |
 | Effects:
Moderate chance to reduce movement speed | The ancient Tevinter symbol for sloth. |
 | Effects:
High chance to reduce movement speed | The ancient Tevinter symbol for sloth. |
 | Effects:
Highest chance to reduce movement speed | The ancient Tevinter symbol for sloth. |
 | Effects:
Chance to reduce movement speed. | The ancient Tevinter symbol for sloth.. |
 | Effects:
Chance to reduce movement speed. | The ancient Tevinter symbol for sloth. |
Silverite Edit
 | Effects:
+2 damage vs. darkspawn |
 | Effects:
+4 Damage vs. Darkspawn | The emblem of Dumat, the first archdemon, symbol of betrayal and the First Blight. |
 | Effects:
+6 Damage vs. Darkspawn | The emblem of Dumat, the first archdemon, symbol of betrayal and the First Blight. |
 | Effects:
+8 Damage vs. Darkspawn |
 | Effects:
+10 Damage vs. Darkspawn | The emblem of Dumat, the first archdemon, symbol of betrayal and the First Blight. |
 | Effects:
+12 damage vs. darkspawn | The emblem of Dumat, the first archdemon, symbol of betrayal and the First Blight. |
 | Effects:
+14 damage vs. darkspawn | The emblem of Dumat, the first archdemon, symbol of betrayal and the First Blight. |
Hybrid Edit
| Effects:
+2 damage from each element | The old Tevinter rune for the world itself. |
| Effects:
5% ranged critical chance 5% melee critical chance 20% critical/backstab damage | No word precisely captures the meaning of this rune, but it is something like "bigger". |
| Effects:
Increases Hostility | The Tevinters used this rune to mean anger. |
| Effects:
Increases Attack Speed | The Tevinter rune for speed. |
