I'm not sure if I'm on the right place to talk about RoP..

I guess I'm the only one who think that Rune of Punishment shouldn't be called Rune of Punishment.
Why? Well, I guess I have to explain right.. I'm not good at explaining.. FYI...

Not called RoP? Then what??
First of, I believe, in my opinion, RoP should be called Rune of Judgement (RoJ) instead of RoP.
When I look at it, the term for 'punishment' is a bad thing-mostly. RoP have two phases like the rest.
In this case, it is atonement and forgiveness. I just thought that forgiveness is not a bad thing.

Why 'Judgement'?
Well, it is like the RoP is the judge and the rune will pass the verdict, guilty(atonement) or not guilty(forgiveness).
Get the idea? The rune is passing judgement. That why I thought it should be called RoJ instead of RoP.

I'm not sure if I manage to explain it right. This is just something like feedback. Just thinking.. so I thought maybe I would
share it...

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"I DeRivE mY hApPineSs fr0m mY pAsT. . .
MaNy taLes HavE yEt t0 bE toLd. . ."

I disagree. It's not a guilty/not guilty verdict. First you atone, then you're forgiven. You can't be forgiven until you atone.

And I don't think judgment would be right. Punishment kinda fits because as punishment you must atone and then be forgiven. It doesn't fit perfectly but fits enough, especially since the first stage (atonement) was never passed except by the assumed current bearer, Lazlo. He's the first to get to forgiveness...that we know of.

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"You got whacked because you're weak." - Magus

All runes have Duality, but not all of them are named for their duality. Theres the Rune of Life and death, obviously it represents both, and is named thus. However the Blue Moon Rune has absolutely nothing to do with its name (aside from the connection with vampires to night, but still, it sounds more of a werewolf thing) anyway it represents compassion and bloodlust. Half of the Rune of Punishment is infact punishment, by taking your life force for the use of its power. The other half is atonement, where you are forgiven your transgressions against it.

The rune of the beginning is more associated with judgment. The rune is supposed to allow the bearer to 'judge war'.

Just like in our world, objects don't actually have any names--people name it based on what they know. almost all the runes end up being called "THE cursed rune" by some group of people. It seems like Lazlo was one of the only or few to achieve the forgiveness phase, and it's very possible that Leknaat was one of the few whole knew that would even be possible.... in the overall world it was seen as a devastating rune that "punished" the user for taking the lives of others.

Punishment is a result of judgement. It can be varying levels of severity, but people only relate the word to extreme circumstances. After deciding that I dont like some, telling them to leave me alone is a form of punishment after I've judged them.

That is the point of the rune, for the bearer to inflict punishment on the judgements he's already made. If it were called RoJ, that'd make less sense , as half the acts the rune has committed wouldn't be allowed, as the victim were usually judged improperly. But punishment simply acts out whatever biased decision the bearer chooses.

This also could be a double entendre for punishment toward the bearer himself for using said rune. And in Lazlo's case, the 'Punishment must be less severe!' Granted the rune is kind of judging you, but calling it judgement for when you use it on others would make it a completely different animal completely. It's meant to be a tool of destruction, not fairness.