Dishonored turned 14 on 9 October 2026. Every player remembers the same first night: Corvo wakes in the Void, the Outsider burns his Mark into the back of Corvo's hand, and on a little altar sits a carved piece of bone, humming. Pick it up, open the powers menu, and Blink gets stronger. So the question comes up: is that a real rune?
No. The runes in Dishonored are whale-bone tokens that buy powers, not letters. Every one carries the same sigil, so none of them can say anything.
But Dishonored is worth its own answer, because it gets one thing exactly right. Most games on this site make a rune a stone, a spell or a coin. Arkane made it a piece of carved bone that people fear, hoard, trade and burn, and the real runes were carved into whale bone too. Dishonored got the material right and the writing wrong.
What is a rune in Dishonored?
A rune in Dishonored is a piece of whale bone carved with the Outsider's Mark, and only people who bear that Mark can use one. Spend runes in the powers menu and you unlock or upgrade abilities such as Blink, Possession and Bend Time. A spent rune is gone, and the more powerful the ability, the more runes it costs.
The game explains where they come from in one line. Talk to the Outsider at a shrine and he says: "A thousand years ago there was another city on this spot. The people carved the bones of whales into runes and inscribed them with my Mark."
You find them with the Heart, a mechanical human heart that points towards the nearest rune or bone charm. Most runes rest on Outsider shrines in abandoned flats and sewers: one per shrine in Dishonored, two per shrine in Dishonored 2. Others sit in safes, in a torture chamber, in a High Overseer's secret room, and one is sold over the counter by the inventor Piero Joplin.
How many runes are in Dishonored?
Fewer than you need, on purpose. Dishonored holds 39 runes in a single playthrough, and upgrading every power to its second tier costs 58. Every Dishonored game is built on that shortfall, because it forces you to choose a style of play and spend accordingly. A rune works like a budget, not a word.
| Game | Runes you can collect | Runes needed for every power |
|---|---|---|
| Dishonored (2012) | 39 | 58 |
| The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches (2013) | 30 | 46 |
| Dishonored 2 (2016) | 47 from the maps, more by crafting | 111 |
| Death of the Outsider (2017) | None | Powers are not bought |
The prices tell you how the system thinks. Blink costs nothing, because you need it from the first minute. Dark Vision I costs 1. Possession II, which lets you take over a person, costs 5. Bend Time II, which stops time completely, costs 8, the most expensive upgrade in the game. Price follows power, the way it does in a shop.
Why are Dishonored's runes made of bone?
Because the whole Empire of the Isles runs on whales. Dunwall's industry burns refined whale oil, and the bones of the same animals carry the Void. That gives the runes a price, a black market and a police force. Dishonored builds an occult economy of bone, and runes are its highest denomination.
Follow a rune through the two main games and it behaves exactly like money:
- It can be bought. Piero sells one in Dishonored. In Dishonored 2 black market shops stock them behind the counter.
- It can be sold. Refuse the Outsider's Mark in Dishonored 2 and Emily or Corvo sell every rune they find to the black market for 200 coin.
- It can be melted down and minted. With Bonecharm Crafting, a rune breaks down into 8 pieces of raw whalebone, and 9 pieces carve a new one.
- It can be counterfeited. The witch Delilah makes corrupt runes from dried kelp, flower pigment and the bones of a person who died in terror.
And like any currency outside the law, it has enforcers. The Abbey of the Everyman bans bone charms as witchery, and the Office of the High Overseer keeps a workshop just for breaking them. A note on the bench asks for more tools: they broke "over a dozen last month", and more keep coming in from all over Gristol. High Overseer Gerard's report calls runes "more complex occult" objects than charms. The game never lets you forget that carrying one is a crime.
Real runes on whale bone: the Franks Casket
Real runes were carved into whale bone, and the best example says so in its own text. The Franks Casket is a small box made of whale's bone in Northumbria in the first half of the 8th century. Its front panel carries an Old English riddle in Anglo-Saxon runes, and the riddle ends with the words "whale's bone".
The riddle reads, in translation: "The flood cast up the fish on the mountain-cliff. The terror-king became sad where he swam on the shingle. Whale's bone." The last word, hronæsban, names the material the riddle is cut into. The box describes itself.
Put that next to a Dishonored rune and the difference is plain. Both are whale bone, both are carved, both were made by people who took the object seriously. But the casket's runes are letters: each one is a sound, and together they make a sentence any reader of Old English can still follow 1,300 years later. A Dishonored rune carries one sigil, the same on every rune, plus a few faint zodiac signs. It has a value, not a meaning.
The casket is in the British Museum in London. Its missing right end panel was identified in 1890 in the Bargello Museum in Florence, where it remains.
Dishonored runes vs. the Elder Futhark
They differ in every way that matters for reading. A Dishonored rune is one of 39 identical tokens, carved with the same sigil and spent the moment you use it. An Elder Futhark rune is one of 24 different letters, each with its own sound, and it can be read again and again.
| Feature | Dishonored (2012) | Elder Futhark |
|---|---|---|
| What one sign is | A token that buys a power | A letter with a sound, a name and a meaning |
| How many | 39 per playthrough, all with the same mark | 24, each one different |
| Can it be read? | No, every rune shows the same sigil | Yes, once you learn the letters |
| Made from | Whale bone | Wood, bone, antler, stone, metal |
| Who may use it | Only bearers of the Outsider's Mark | Anyone who learns the letters |
| What happens when you use it | It is spent | It stays, and can be read again |
| In use | Since 9 October 2012 | Roughly 150 to 800 CE |
The real runes, briefly
The Elder Futhark is the oldest runic alphabet: 24 letters in three rows of eight, used by Germanic peoples from roughly 150 to 800 CE and cut into wood, bone, stone and metal. Each rune is a sound, a name and a word. The name futhark comes from its first six letters.
Fehu is f and means cattle and wealth. That is the one real rune Dishonored would recognise, because the Vikings' first letter was already about money. Elden Ring built a whole currency on the same idea. In the Viking Age, Scandinavians cut the row down to the 16-letter Younger Futhark; in England it grew into the futhorc carved on the Franks Casket.
The belief grew on top of the writing. In Norse tradition Odin wins the runes by hanging nine nights on Yggdrasil, pierced by his own spear. They served as charms and protections, were combined into bindrunes and sigils to hold a focused intent, and are still read for guidance today.
Why the Empire of the Isles has no room for real runes
Because nothing in the setting is Norse. Dishonored takes place in the Empire of the Isles, an invented industrial world of whale-oil engines, a state church called the Abbey of the Everyman, and a single god-like figure, the Outsider. There is no Odin, no Yggdrasil and no Germanic alphabet. The word "rune" is the only thing borrowed.
That was the right call for the fiction. A rune here has to be scarce, valuable and dangerous to own, and a single repeated sigil does that job better than a letter would. A letter is useful because everyone can copy it. A Dishonored rune is useful because almost no one has one: the Outsider tells Daud that only eight people in the world bear his Mark.
The same pattern runs through the series. RuneScape spends its runes as spell ammunition, and the gear runes of Guild Wars 2 and Lost Ark are stat stones. Bloodborne comes closest to Dishonored's mood: occult signs that change the person who carries them. The full list is on the runes in games hub.
Want runes you can actually read?
Dishonored gives you 39 bone tokens and asks you to spend them. The Elder Futhark gives you 24 letters and asks you to read them, and nothing is used up when you do. You learn them once, a few at a time, and every one of them already appears on objects carved more than 1,500 years ago.
The easiest way in is to draw one. A free rune reading in your browser uses the genuine Elder Futhark and their traditional meanings, with a single draw for a quick question or a fuller spread for something weightier. If you prefer to learn slowly, pull a rune of the day each morning, or read how online rune readings work first.
The Outsider's runes buy you a power and then disappear. The real ones have been waiting on bone for 1,300 years, and they still say what they were carved to say. , free on iOS, Android, and the web, in English and Russian.
Frequently asked questions
Are the runes in Dishonored real runes?
No. The runes in Dishonored are carved pieces of whale bone that you spend to unlock and upgrade the Outsider's powers. Each one carries the same sigil, the Outsider's Mark, with faint zodiac signs around it. None of them carries a letter or a sound, so there is nothing on them to read. They are a currency, not an alphabet.
What are the runes in Dishonored made of?
Whale bone. The Outsider tells Corvo that a city stood on the site of Dunwall a thousand years ago, and that its people carved the bones of whales into runes and inscribed them with his Mark. Dishonored 2 keeps the material: with the right upgrade you can break a rune down into raw whalebone, or carve a new one from it.
How many runes are in Dishonored?
Thirty-nine can be collected in a single playthrough of the 2012 game, most of them on Outsider shrines and one sold by Piero Joplin. Upgrading every power to its second tier costs 58. The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches hold 30 runes between them, while Daud needs 46 to max out his own powers.
Can you upgrade every power in Dishonored?
Not in one run. Dishonored offers 39 runes and charges 58 for every ability at tier two, so at least 19 runes of power stay locked. Bend Time II alone costs 8, more than any other upgrade. The shortfall is deliberate: Arkane makes you choose between stealth, combat and mobility, and the runes are how it enforces that choice.
How many runes are in Dishonored 2?
Forty-seven can be picked up across the maps of Dishonored 2, including two on every Outsider shrine and a few sold in black market shops. Fully upgrading a protagonist's powers costs 111, far more than the maps hold. The gap is closed partly by Bonecharm Crafting, which can turn 9 pieces of raw whalebone into a new rune.
What happens to runes if you refuse the Outsider's Mark?
They become money. In Dishonored 2 you can refuse the Mark and play with no powers at all. Emily or Corvo still find runes, but they sell each one to the black market for 200 coin instead of spending it. Black market shops also stop stocking runes in that mode. It is the clearest proof that a rune here is a currency.
How do you find runes in Dishonored?
With the Heart, a mechanical human heart the Outsider gives you. Raise it and it points towards the nearest rune or bone charm. Most runes sit on Outsider shrines in abandoned rooms, others are locked in safes, hidden in sewers or held by targets. In Dishonored each shrine holds one rune; in Dishonored 2 each shrine holds two.
What symbol is carved on Dishonored runes?
The Outsider's Mark, the same sign burned into the back of Corvo's hand. Around it run faint etchings of the zodiac, with Cancer, Scorpio and Libra among the signs that can be made out. That is the whole inscription. No rune has a different sign from any other, which is why one rune can never be told apart from the next.
What is the difference between runes and bone charms in Dishonored?
Runes buy and upgrade the supernatural powers granted by the Outsider's Mark, and only marked people can use them. Bone charms are smaller carved bones that give passive perks, such as faster climbing or more mana, and anyone can carry them. Dishonored has 40 bone charms, with three slots at the start and up to six after upgrades.
What are corrupt runes in Dishonored 2?
Runes made by the witch Delilah Copperspoon for her great painting. Her note lists the ingredients: dried kelp and algae, flowers ground into pigment, and human bones from someone who died in terror and regret. She warns they must be balanced two against two with pure runes, or the spell will twist and fail. You cannot spend them on powers.
Does Death of the Outsider have runes?
No rune economy survives into Death of the Outsider, released on 15 September 2017. Billie Lurk's powers come from an artifact and recharge after use instead of being bought, and none of the game's black market shops sells a rune. Bone charms remain. It is the only Dishonored game where you never count runes.
Are there real runes carved on whale bone?
Yes. The Franks Casket, a small box carved from whale's bone in Northumbria in the first half of the 8th century, carries an Old English riddle in Anglo-Saxon runes. The riddle describes a whale stranded on the shingle and ends with the words for whale's bone. The casket is in the British Museum in London.
Is Dishonored based on Norse mythology?
No. Dishonored is set in the Empire of the Isles, an invented industrial world powered by whale oil, with its own religion, the Abbey of the Everyman, and its own god-like figure, the Outsider. There is no Odin, no Yggdrasil and no futhark anywhere in it. The runes borrow a Norse word for an invented object.
Where can I try a real rune reading online?
You can cast a free rune reading in your browser with the Way of the Runes rune-reading tool. It uses the genuine 24 Elder Futhark runes and their traditional meanings, with quick single draws for a fast question and fuller spreads for something weightier, and a full description for every rune. It works on any device, in English and Russian.
Which rune are you?
Seven questions, about a minute, and you get one of the 24 Elder Futhark runes. The scoring is shown as you answer. Free, no signup.