seriously, my best guess is that 27 runes would help prolong the series.

_________________
‎"...Or else, it is the dream that haunts you. You wait with the promise of the next dream...when the act of waiting is dependent on remembering."

22 tarot cards + 5 elements. it makes a little sense at least, but yes, it's most likely just a random number.

27 is 3 times 9, both of which are traditionally important numbers. it's the same reason why there is 108 stars (27 x 4). If you read a lot of ancient texts, regardless of source, there tends to be certain numbers that will pop up all the time, for various reasons. At this point the meaning is often lost, or devalued, but there are still examples of it, for instance, buildings in china often have no 4th floor because the character for 4 also means death, similar to how there is occasionally no 13th floor in a western building. It all comes down to various forms of astrology and mysticism.

I think some of you are getting western and eastern lore mixed up.

eldrasidar, it is true that 3 is an important number in the west, but I have seen no evidence that the same is true in the east.

_________________
Yes I am writing a fanfic. How did you guess?

In Hinduism, there are several divine trinities. In buddhism, there are the three jewels, the three bodhi, as well as the three bodies of the buddha. In Chinese, three is a sign of good luck, because it sounds like life. There is also a Taoist trinity of gods, the three pure ones. There's a few examples of three being an important number in eastern culture.

Early in the devlopment of Suikoden 1, Konami said there's 36 true runes. In fact, one advertisement from 1994 in a Japanese magazine says "36 true runes." Thus, there's probably no real deep reason behind the number.

_________________
http://www.infidels.org/ -- A place for information on atheism and secular free thinking.

If it originally was supposed to be 36 of them, maybe they were planning to base them on the 36 Heavenly stars that are within the 108 stars.

_________________
- I've got a warrior's sword with your name on it.

- Of Course I Know Chinchirorin!

Do you have a scan of this? Sounds fascinating

_________________
||Suikoversum.de - The German Suikoden-portal||

I did see a scan years ago, but I don't have a copy right now. Maybe I can find it somewhere floating in the net.

_________________
http://www.infidels.org/ -- A place for information on atheism and secular free thinking.