:D

As for the industrial revolution, that’s actually only happening in Ashul since they’ve started harnessing magic for use as a crude form of electricity – Imara’s still fairly behind, technology-wise. No grumbly TVs there.

The runes are given to brand a person as a mage – the more runes, the better a person is at using magic, and the more facets they have control over. New mages usually just have one rune – which side of the face it’s on and the style of rune depends on the source of the magic. Danil and Renshou have runes right down their face, which isn’t that common and means they’re pretty accomplished. But essentially, yes, it’s just a “rule of cool”. I mean, this is a visual medium, stuff has to look neat. :D The colours are fairly incidental depending on the colour scheme of the scene to be honest, but they’re sort of tied in to what kind of magic the person is doing.