Fragment of the Rune Epitaph

The Fragment of the Rune Epitaph (ルーン碑文の欠片), also known as The Alaskan Rune or The Rune Epitaph is a stone discovered in Alaska, with a previously undiscovered type of runes inscribed on it.

Appearance
The epitaph is a small gray stone about 2 cm across with a portion of a string of runes on the surface, meaning not even a magician experienced with runes like Stiyl could not tell what it was supposed to mean with just that piece.

Principles
The epitaph's runes are an undiscovered derived branch of runes that was discovered in Alaska. Just like most languages, they changed day by day depending on the era or the location. The standard number of runes was 24, but some sets used 16 and some places used 33. The fragmentary data needed to decode the Alaskan runes are already gathered within the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. As of the incident a group was working on it even now in London (most likely working with Richard Brave), but at the current rate with out using Index's help it seems it would take a few more years before they could find even a single clue.

Of course, the effects of rune magic changed depending on the type of runes being used. Few records mentioned runes being used in Alaska. If there was a distinctive deviation in the runes, previously unusable magic could be activated. It was essentially the same as having a completely new set of spells different from those of normal rune magic. That was a rune epitaph that indicated an unknown new set of runes. The maintenance of the seal and the release of the seal were both reliant on that stone.

Rune Epitaph rune data in general was carelessly being erected in places like Sweden. Such things could be called the world’s most generally neglected Grimoires are carelessly neglected out in the middle of plains where they were daily worn away by the effects of things such as acid rain. No matter how hard a normal person worked, they would never be able to reach a stone monument with an Original level epitaph that held great power. That was just how they were made. However, with an Original a true grimoire will not disappear naturally, as the Original had the power to not be destroyed no matter what method was used. And even if it was destroyed, it could restore itself as many times as necessary. Making it odd that the epitaph of the Alaskan runes, for the small stone to still be broken off like that it had not been restored yet. This is due in part to the seal Dawn-Colored Sunlight applied to the fragment of the epitaph, but is not enough to acquire the Alaskan Runes the movements of a special heavenly body called Donati’s Comet are needed for the restoration spell to check the rules of its motion, and the Donati's Horoscope from when the comet last arrived is needed as well.

Toaru Majutsu no Index SS: Stiyl
The epitaph was the focus of an incident that was instigated by a rogue member of the Anglican Church, Richard Brave. Richard Brave believed that the runes are nothing more than the key to the secrets of Dvergr's skill to create exceedingly powerful spiritual items. His objective was the annihilation of the Anglican Church in revenge for banning his Lævateinn. In doing so, he would use the techniques of the Dvergr and pursue Lævateinn even further using that knowledge. Later Stiyl confronted Leivinia Birdway as to what they would do with the Epitaph and the Horoscope, she responded saying that they had no interest in Norse mythology at all, and the techniques of the Dvergr would be of no use to us even if we had them and did not want the techniques of the Dvergr to bring chaos to society.