Legends:Runes

In Legends, nearly all matches begin with players having runes. With few exceptions, matches begin with each player having a rune that corresponds to 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 health, with each rune being 'broken' each time a health threshold is reached. Runes take the form of a glyph from the Elder Alphabet, and they are blue in appearance.^{[verification needed — Maybe add a picture?]} When a rune is broken, a card is drawn, and thus will generate card advantage for the defending player. When the drawn card has Prophecy, it will be highlighted and can be summoned for free. This punishes players that attack the opponent's health without consideration of the runes.

While runes generally cannot be restored even if a player's health rises back over its threshold, they can be restored by specific cards. If a player does not have any runes left while another rune is forced to be broken, for example with Lyris Titanborn, they will lose all their health instead and lose the game. Additionally, Nords have a theme of benefiting from broken runes and Werewolves usually activate their Beast Form upon breaking a one.

Cards associated with Runes

Cards with Rune break effects

	Name	Type (Subtype)	Attribute/Class					Text
	Burn and Pillage	Action	Strength	5	–	–	3 Epic	Deal 1 damage to all enemy creatures in a lane for each destroyed enemy rune.
	Cadwell the Soul Shriven	Creature (Imperial)	Neutral	1	0	1	4 Legendary	Immune to Shackle. When a rune is destroyed, Cadwell the Soul Shriven gains +1/+0.
	Dark Guardian	Creature (Skeleton)	Endurance	3	2	5	1 Common	Guard When your opponent draws a Prophecy from a rune being destroyed, draw a card.
	Dawnstar Healer	Creature (Nord)	Willpower	3	3	3	3 Epic	After an enemy rune is destroyed, you gain 3 health.
	Eastmarch Crusader	Creature (Nord)	Willpower	3	4	2	2 Rare	Summon: Draw a card if an enemy rune has been destroyed this game.
	Haafingar Marauder	Creature (Nord)	Willpower	5	5	3	4 Legendary	When a friendly creature destroys an enemy rune, equip it with a random item.
	Lyris Titanborn	Creature (Nord, Giant)	Strength	6	5	5	4 Legendary	At the start of your turn, deal damage to your opponent destroying their front rune.
	Morthal Executioner	Creature (Nord)	Willpower	3	2	4	2 Rare	When an enemy rune is destroyed, Morthal Executioner gains +2/+0.
	Phalanx Exemplar	Creature (Imperial)	Willpower	5	5	6	2 Rare	Guard When your opponent draws a Prophecy from a rune being destroyed, put a 1/2 Septim Guardsman with Guard into your hand.
	Relentless Raider	Creature (Nord)	Strength	1	2	1	4 Legendary	When an enemy rune is destroyed, deal 1 damage to your opponent.
	Riften Pillager	Creature (Nord)	Strength	3	2	3	1 Common	Summon: +1/+1 for each destroyed enemy rune.
	The Ultimate Heist	Action	Agility	12	–	–	3 Epic	Costs 3 less for each time you've Pilfered or Drained this turn. Deal damage to your opponent destroying their front rune. Steal the card drawn from the rune. If it's a Prophecy, you may play it for free.
	Ulfric's Housecarl	Creature (Nord)	Crusader	4	3	3	3 Epic	When an enemy rune is destroyed, draw a card.
	Varen Aquilarios	Creature (Imperial)	Willpower	4	4	6	4 Legendary	When one of your runes breaks, you gain 5 health instead of drawing a card.
	Widow Daedra	Creature (Daedra)	Strength	4	5	3	1 Common	When an enemy rune is destroyed, Invade.
	Wilds Incarnate	Creature (Beast)	Neutral	7	5	6	4 Legendary	Guard Summon: Draw a card if you have 4 runes. Draw an additional card if you have 5 runes.

Cards that restore Runes

	Name	Type (Subtype)	Attribute/Class					Text
	Morokei, the Deathless	Creature (Skeleton)	Neutral	5	5	5	4 Legendary	Summon: If you started the game with no duplicate cards in your deck, you gain 5 health and restore a rune.
	The Mechanical Heart	Support	Willpower	6	–	–	4 Legendary	Ongoing When you have 0 or less health, sacrifice The Mechanical Heart, set your health to 10, and restore a rune.