Plains Runestones
The 13 runestones the Plains holds, about 803 words of them, in the order the game numbers them. Read together rather than one at a time in the dark, they stop being flavour and start being an account.
Runestone 1
Where no rain falls
And no crops will grow
Still the ground can give up treasures.
Runestone 2
This place was too hot for Ulf, a man used to brushing snow from his beard. He carved this stone and moved on.
Runestone 3
Still your mind, traveller. Oden speaks to those who listen. Here in this barren land, one of the Forsaken Ones dwells. He is an ancient sorcerer twisted by bitterness, dragging what remains of his broken body across the sands. Surely Oden will smile upon the warrior who can vanquish this abhorrence.
Runestone 4
In a land far from here I once saw a star come unfastened from the great curtain of night and fall into the sand. It glowed red when I approached but by morning was cool. Blessed sword-flesh, furnace-food, a gift of strong metal from the Gods!
Runestone 5
Good friend, lay your hand on this stone and remember Harald, who carved it. In Midgard I lost my life on the battlefield but in Valheim it was restored to me. Yet still my battles continued.
In the green meadows I fought Eikthyr the Great Stag and lost an eye to his horns.
In the deep woods I gave my shield hand to the Old Man of the Forest, and took a draugr arrow below my ribs that my fingers can still feel.
On the mountainside I fought the Mother Drake and she bit off my leg at the knee so that I must walk always with a staff.
Now my last battle must be at hand. When I sleep this time, where will I wake?
Runestone 6
In my dream, Oden came to me as an old man leaning on a stick, a wide-brimmed traveller’s hat on his head. He told me to trust the ravens who carry his words under their tongues and to carve this stone that others might know his will. We must kill the Forsaken to find our places in his hall at Valhalla.
Runestone 7
Beneath the ground are the halls of men and women long since gone, ancient tribes who lived in Valheim even before the Allfather turned his eye upon this place. Delve deep to find their treasures but beware, some amongst them do not yet know they are dead.
Runestone 8
From the mountaintop, this plains looked peaceful and pleasant. But I have found it worse than anywhere else. I always hear the buzzing of those thrice-damned insects. My beard has turned as white as snow. I will build a boat.
Runestone 9
What joy it is to roam abroad
With the wind in your hair
And a blue sky before you.
And what joy it is
To stand tall against your foes
And speak plainly to the world.
And then, what joy it is
To come home from your travels
And find the fire still bright in the hearth.
Runestone 10
On these plains, only the greatest survive to read my words and heed my advice. So heed me now.
Great Oden is not a loving father, kind and gentle, speaking honeyed words. Nor is he a stern liege-lord, arms banded with gold, commanding his thralls on pain of death.
He did not send you here to fight his foes for love or fear of him, but because his foes are your foes. His joy and honour are yours also. You will fight and win just as he once did.
Sons and daughters of Oden, rejoice!
Runestone 11
Here on the plains you will find the dwellings of the Fuling, that ancient race who once built towers and cities to rival those of men until Oden punished them for their pride. He trampled the Fuling armies, their armour cracking like snail shells beneath his feet, and tore down their cities.
Only Yagluth, the great sorcerer, would not bend or break before his fury. So Oden tore his body in half and cast the remains into Valheim, where he bled into the earth and crumbled to dust, wept over by the last of his people.
Now the Fuling rule over the plains of Valheim, savage and wild with only hatred and fear in their hearts. But Yagluth is with them still, an unseen force that the Fuling shamans draw upon for their crooked magic, growing again in strength as his people spread across the world...
Runestone 12
The lox are mighty creatures, great earth-shakers who roamed the plains of Valheim long before the Forsaken were banished to this realm. They are quick to anger and will crush any who are foolish enough to approach them unguarded, but they have known the hand of man and can be taught to love it again.
Runestone 13
Know, traveler, that while you cannot die in the world of Valheim, yet you can cease to be reborn. Many are those who have come before you to work the will of Oden, only to find their own will failing...
These 13 stones are what Valheim chose to write down about the Plains, and reading them in one sitting is not something the game lets you do — they are scattered by the world generator, so your world shows them to you in whatever order you happen to walk. The text is Iron Gate's own, in your language, reproduced in full rather than summarised.
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Plains lore
Where do you find runestones in the Plains?
They are placed by the world generator, so there is no fixed spot — but every one of the 13 the Plains holds is reproduced above, so you do not have to find them to read them.
Do runestones do anything besides tell a story?
No. Reading one records it in your compendium and nothing else — no buff, no unlock, no map marker. They exist to be read, which is why having them all on one page costs you nothing in the game.
How many runestones are there in the Plains?
13 here, running to roughly 803 words of text. That is the whole of what the game says about this place in its own voice, gathered into one page rather than scattered across a map you would have to re-walk to read.
Are the runestones translated?
Yes — Iron Gate wrote them and ships them in 9 languages, and this page reproduces whichever one you are reading in rather than paraphrasing the English. A summary of a runestone would be strictly worse than the runestone, so nothing here is rewritten.
Do runestones have to be read in order?
No, and in play you will not find them in one. They are placed by the world generator, so the 13 in the Plains arrive one at a time and usually at a bad moment. Read together they make a continuous account of the people who were here before you, which is the order this page puts them in.