Rune Bear

The Rune Bears are guides and guardians. They are sent by the Ancients to guide young travelers. The Rune Bears have the ability to change their shape and appearance; however, they are traditionally comprable in size to polar bears with a bluish white fur covered in pure white symbols and runes (hence the name).

They primarily guide lost travelers in snowstorms to safety. The following is an excerpt from Garl Thur’s diary In Winter’s Grip, where he mentions, only briefly, his interaction with a Rune Bear.

With the blizzard finally gone, I ventured out with the bow in hopes of finding small game. The snow thatI saw two weeks earlier had frozen, drifted, piled, and blown into new shapes. I barely recognized any of the trees and the small wood-shed to the East of the cabin had been miraculously freed from snow. (Before I had had to dig a good four feet deep just to reach the outlying pieces of wood.)

After travelling for two hours with nothing in sight but snow and trees, I decided to return to the cabin. Halfway back I saw movement in a clearing to my left. I crept closer, wary of mountain lions. There I saw a beast like none other. It looked like a bear but was far to big. It knew I was there, I am sure of it, but it made no movement towards me and I did not approach it. After a short pause, it moved on. I have no knowledge of what that creature was, nor have I seen anything like it since.

Of the few people I have told this too, many assume I never left the cabin at all that winter and was simply delirious with fever. I know I was not.