Northgard became Northgard: Definitive Edition on 4 December 2025, a free update that gave every owner the Valhalla biome and the Cross of Vidar campaign, and its first anniversary in that form is five weeks away. A new wave of clan leaders has since landed on the continent, scouted their first tiles and found one marked with a tall grey stone. You can put a Loremaster on it. Then comes the question.
No. The runestones in Northgard are lore mines, not texts. You never read one: you staff it, and it pays out research.
That is what makes Northgard worth its own answer. Most games either invent signs or borrow letters. Northgard borrows the stone and reverses what it was for. In Northgard you take knowledge out of a runestone. In the Viking Age you put a name into one, so that others would read it.
What is a runestone in Northgard?
A runestone in Northgard is a special tile feature that lets you assign a Loremaster. Runestones appear on random tiles. Colonise the tile, send a villager to the stone, and that villager becomes a Loremaster, a civilian unit the game describes as a master of ancient Lore who can "study runestones, increasing your knowledge".
Lore is Northgard's research currency. You spend it in the Lore tree, three branches of knowledges (Production, Military and Economy) with names like Sharp Axes, Shipbuilding, Coinage and Erudition. Unlock enough and you can win outright: the Wisdom victory needs all four blessings of the gods, and the fourth, Ancestral Knowledge, arrives with your fifteenth knowledge.
So a runestone in this game is not something you look at. It is a workplace. Its value is a number, and the number is about +3 Lore per Loremaster.
What does a Loremaster study at a runestone?
Nothing the game ever shows you. A Loremaster at a runestone produces the same Lore as a Loremaster at any other study site, and the sites differ only by their multipliers and their rules.
| Lore site | How you get it | What makes it different |
|---|---|---|
| Runestone | Found on random tiles | The basic natural site |
| Circle of Stones | Found on random tiles | Two Loremasters, +10% Lore |
| Carved Stone | Built: 10 stone, 27 Kröwns a year | Cannot burn or be pillaged |
| Ancient Graveyard | Found on random tiles | Two Loremasters; summons two Spectral Warriors |
| Sword of the Gods | Wisdom maps only | Three Loremasters, +100% Lore, guarded by four Fallen Valkyries |
Read down the right-hand column and notice what is missing. No site is better because of what is written on it. A Circle of Stones beats a runestone by 10% because of its shape on the map, and the Sword of the Gods doubles your output because it is hard to take. The inscription, which was the entire point of a real runestone, plays no part in the maths.
The one stone you can raise yourself makes this plainest. A Carved Stone costs 10 stone, needs a Woodcutter's Lodge first and holds a Loremaster. A patch on 29 May 2020 stopped players building it on a Circle of Stones to collect that tile's bonus. In Northgard, carving a stone is a way to make research, so it was balanced like research.
What did real runestones actually say?
Very little, and almost always the same thing. Of the roughly 3,000 runestones in Scandinavia, the large majority follow one formula: who raised the stone, who it remembers, and how they were related. "X raised this stone in memory of Y, his father." Many add a prayer, a bridge built for the soul of the dead, or a line about a voyage east.
That is a few seconds of reading, and it was meant to be. A runestone was a public text. It stood by a road, a ford or an assembly place, it was painted in red and black when new, and it addressed everyone who walked past. It did not hold secret knowledge for a scholar to extract. It held a family's claim, out loud, for the parish.
Northgard turns that around completely:
- Real stone: the carver knows something (a death, an inheritance) and puts it into the stone for strangers to take out.
- Northgard stone: the stone already holds something, and your Loremaster takes it out for your clan alone.
- Real stone: the reward was memory. The dead man's name stayed in the landscape.
- Northgard stone: the reward is a bonus. Sharp Axes, faster ships, a step towards Wisdom.
The game's Owl clan pushes the idea further still: its Norns can sit at a runestone in neutral territory and study it for Lore. A real Viking runestone in someone else's land would have told a Norn exactly one thing: whose land it was.
Which real runestone would a Loremaster study?
The Rök runestone. It is the single real stone that fits Northgard's idea of a runestone as a store of lore, and it is the exception that shows how rare that was.
Rök stands by the church in Rök, Östergötland, in Sweden. It is 2.4 metres tall, weighs about 5 tonnes, and was carved in the early 9th century by Varinn for his dead son Vémóðr. That part is the usual formula. Then Varinn kept going. About 760 characters cover every face, the longest surviving pre-Christian runic inscription. The text switches from the 16-letter Younger Futhark into the older 24-letter Elder Futhark, and then into cipher runes built to be solved. One strophe names Theodoric, a king who had been dead for nearly three centuries.
In 2020, researchers from the universities of Gothenburg, Uppsala and Stockholm read Rök as a stone about fear of a great winter: the Fimbulwinter that comes before Ragnarök, linked to real climate disasters such as the cold years of 536.
Northgard players will recognise that plot. In Rig's Saga, the game's 11-chapter campaign, the heroes cross Jötunnheim to reach the Runestone of Asgard, kill Hrimgandr, a frost wyrm that feeds on rimesteel, and let the sage Svarn read the stone. The harsh winter ends. It is the one runestone in the game that someone actually reads, and its subject is the same one scholars now see on Rök.
So a Loremaster at Rök would have had a lifetime of study. A Loremaster at almost any other real stone would have finished before lunch.
Northgard runes vs. the Elder Futhark
| Feature | Northgard (2018) | Elder Futhark |
|---|---|---|
| What one sign is | A stone on a tile, worth about +3 Lore | A letter with a sound, a name and a meaning |
| How many | As many runestone tiles as the map rolls | 24 |
| Who uses it | A Loremaster studying for one clan | Anyone who can read, passing by |
| What it holds | Research points | Words: names, kin, deeds, prayers |
| Can it be read? | No, the game never shows a text | Yes, once you learn the letters |
| In use | Since 7 March 2018 | Roughly 150 to 800 CE |
The real runes, briefly
A rune is first a letter. The Elder Futhark has 24 of them, each a sound, a name and a word: Fehu is cattle and wealth, Ansuz a god, Uruz the wild ox. Around 800 CE Scandinavian carvers cut the row to the 16-letter Younger Futhark, and that shorter row fills nearly every Viking runestone. The great runestone boom peaked between 950 and 1100, mostly in Sweden. Rök, carved just after the change, uses both.
The Crusader Kings III guide covers what those memorials meant politically, and the Assassin's Creed Valhalla guide shows the Younger Futhark at work.
Beyond writing, the runes carried belief. In Norse tradition, Odin wins them by hanging nine nights on Yggdrasil, pierced by his own spear. That myth is the closer source for Northgard's idea: the runes as knowledge won from outside, not text written by a neighbour. From there the runes served as charms and protections, combined into bindrunes and sigils and read for guidance.
Why Northgard keeps the stone and loses the text
Northgard is a real-time strategy game seen from above, where a whole clan is a few dozen villagers and every tile is a job. At that height a runestone has to do something every month, so Shiro Games kept the stone, kept the mythic air of hidden wisdom from the Odin story, and turned it into an economy.
It is a sensible design, and it fits the setting. Northgard is an invented continent with Valkyries, draugr and a Seed of Yggdrasil, ruled by clans named after the animals of the myths: Stag, Wolf, Raven, Boar, Owl. Nobody in it needs to read a memorial to a neighbour's father. They need Lore before winter.
What the game drops is the human part. Valheim gives you real futhark letters to decode, and God of War carves its realms in the 24-letter row. Northgard gives you the stone and the scholar, and leaves the words off.
Want runes you can actually read?
Northgard will tell you how much a runestone is worth. The Elder Futhark will tell you what one says.
The easiest way in is to draw one. You can cast a free rune reading in your browser right now, using the genuine Elder Futhark and their traditional meanings, with a quick single draw for a fast question or a fuller spread for something weightier. If you would rather build the habit slowly, pull a rune of the day each morning and learn the futhark one sign at a time, or read how online rune readings work first. The rest of the series is on the runes in games hub, including Crusader Kings III, the other strategy game where you raise a runestone.
Your Loremaster can study a stone for twenty years and learn Sharp Axes. Varinn carved one for his son, and twelve centuries later people are still studying what it says. , free on iOS, Android, and the web, in English and Russian.
Frequently asked questions
Are the runes in Northgard real runes?
No. A runestone in Northgard is a special map tile that lets you assign a Loremaster, who then produces Lore, the game's research resource. The game never asks you to read an inscription, and nothing on the stone works as an alphabet. Real runestones were the opposite: short public texts in the Younger Futhark, written to be read aloud by anyone passing.
What does a runestone do in Northgard?
It gives you a place to put a Loremaster. Runestones appear on random tiles, and once the tile is yours a villager can work there as a Loremaster, adding about +3 Lore to your production. Lore unlocks knowledges in the Lore tree, such as Sharp Axes or Shipbuilding, and enough of them can win the game through a Wisdom victory.
What is a Loremaster in Northgard?
A civilian unit described in game as a master of ancient Lore who can study runestones. Loremasters are recruited at Runestones, Circles of Stones, Carved Stones, Ancient Graveyards and the Sword of the Gods. Each adds roughly +3 Lore, and the special sites multiply it: +10% at a Circle of Stones and +100% at the Sword of the Gods.
How do you build a runestone in Northgard?
You build a Carved Stone, the only runestone you can make yourself. It costs 10 stone, needs a Woodcutter's Lodge first, carries a yearly upkeep of 27 Kröwns and holds a Loremaster. It cannot catch fire or be pillaged. The Erudition knowledge in the Lore tree gives you one free Carved Stone, which is why Wisdom players often take it early.
How do you win a Wisdom victory in Northgard?
By producing enough Lore to unlock the four blessings of the gods in the Lore tree. The fourth blessing, Ancestral Knowledge, arrives with your fifteenth knowledge, and each knowledge costs more Lore than the one before. The fastest route stacks Loremasters on Runestones, Carved Stones and, if the map has one, the Sword of the Gods, which doubles their output.
What is the Runestone of Asgard in Northgard?
The goal of the late chapters of Rig's Saga, the game's 11-chapter story campaign. It lies past Jötunnheim and is guarded by Hrimgandr, a frost wyrm that feeds on rimesteel. Rig's companions forge a rimesteel blade to kill it so that Svarn, the sage of the Boar clan, can read the stone, and the harsh winter ends with the beast.
Can you read the runes in Northgard?
No, and the game never asks you to. Runestones in Northgard are scored by how much Lore they produce, not by what they say, and the player never sees a transcription or a translation. If you want a real runestone you can read, the Elder Futhark pages on this site take you through all 24 letters, one sign at a time.
What did real Viking runestones say?
Mostly one sentence. The standard formula names who raised the stone, who it remembers and how they were related, as in X raised this stone in memory of Y, his father. Many add a prayer or a deed abroad. Of roughly 3,000 Scandinavian runestones, the large majority are memorials of this kind, not stores of ancient wisdom.
Is there a real runestone full of lore, like the ones in Northgard?
One comes close: the Rök runestone in Östergötland, Sweden, carved in the early 9th century. Varinn raised it for his dead son Vémóðr, and its roughly 760 characters make it the longest surviving pre-Christian runic inscription. It mixes Younger Futhark, Elder Futhark and cipher runes, and scholars still argue about what its riddles mean.
Is Northgard based on Norse mythology?
Yes, loosely. Shiro Games, a studio in Bordeaux, France, built a Viking clan game around Norse names and creatures: Valkyries, draugr, jötnar, Yggdrasil and Asgard. The clans are named after animals from the myths, and the map is an invented continent called Northgard. The mythology is decoration and story; the systems underneath are a real-time strategy economy.
When did Northgard come out?
Northgard entered Steam Early Access on 22 February 2017 and launched in full on 7 March 2018. It reached Xbox One, Switch and PlayStation 4 in autumn 2019, iOS on 13 April 2021 and Android in August 2021. On 4 December 2025 it became Northgard: Definitive Edition, a free update for owners that added the Valhalla biome.
Which runic alphabet did real runestones use?
Almost always the 16-letter Younger Futhark. Scandinavian carvers cut the 24-letter Elder Futhark down to 16 letters around 800 CE, and the great runestone boom came later, peaking between 950 and 1100. So a Viking settler in Northgard would have carved Younger Futhark, while the older 24 letters survive on earlier objects and on a few stones like Rök.
What are Norns in Northgard?
The Owl clan's scouts. Female villagers are trained as Norns at the Seed of Yggdrasil, and besides scouting they can study at a Runestone or Circle of Stones in neutral territory to produce extra Lore. In Norse myth the Norns are the three women who spin fate at the foot of Yggdrasil, which the game turns into a research bonus.
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.