Gotterunes

Excerpted from Letters as Spells (Sister What-God-Tell, Conservation. Edition 3, 683 CE) as found in the library of the Eidolon Witnesses. Marginal notes incorporated with lines indicated by subscript, footnotes by superscript.

Gotterunes should first and foremost be examined in their original context, that is, a means of conveying information no different than the simple writing of letters. In this context, Gotterunes provide a far more efficient method of transferring tone, context, and detail. The Gotterune at Lebuck for Emperor Esric III of Kalvos, for example, is able to not only convey his name, but his parents' names, his building of the North-South Highway, his marriage to Empress Linivia, and the circumstances of his death. In addition, the Gotterune is also able to convey the opinions of the writer (or in this case, carver), and we can see that Esric III was relatively popular but also distrusted, likely due to his mother's foreign birth. All of this information can be conveyed in a space no larger than an inch square and additional carvings afterward provide the same level of detail. 
Given the limited pool of people able to fully interpret them, all Veneficans, they have fallen out of favour in this capacity in Mondova.¹
This brings us to the modern usage of the Gotterune as a matter of ritual magic. 
Writing of any sort holds obvious power, but the layers of the Gotterunes allows for the conveyance of simple and complex "spells" via relatively miniscule written text. Take for example the Rune of Bond, common on contracts a simple Rune of Bond introduces an element of requirement to follow the procedures laid out in a document. This makes the contract binding in a way which cannot be easily shaken off. The effect of the Rune may even supersede one's belief in it, an unusual outcome in magic. As the runes get more complex their impact grows ever more significant. The same Rune of Bond which is used to ensure adherence to a contract is used to bind Peer Successors to their swords, though in this case the Rune is of a greater depth, incorporating over a hundred unique elements compared to 30 present in an ordinary contract Rune. 
These additional elements strengthen the bond and ensure it cannot be broken while also conveying certain abilities onto the bearer, such as a keen awareness of the placement of the blade at all times. 
Of course, the question always arises: What happens to people who fail to uphold a Rune of Bond?
The simple answer, it seems, is that this is effectively impossible and it is here that we come to the nature of magic and the nature, in particular, of the Gotterunes. It would not be inaccurate to say that a Gotterune of sufficient complexity is able to affect reality around it, effectively changing the actions and outcomes around it. A properly conceived and written Gotterune, therefore, is both affected by interpretation and affects interpretation.

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1 The use of Gotterunes by the Kalvosians is, as a matter of fact, the best evidence we have that Veneficans have been settled on Im far longer than the written records suggest, though there are some arguments to suggest that the Kalvosians may have had another means of reading and interpreting Gotterunes.