With the introduction of the "pking triangle" for RS2 Jagex decided that as you could already make arrows and weapons it was only fair to give mages a skill to create runes. Therefore we have runecrafting
QED

To start Runecrafting you need to have completed the rune mysteries quest the quest guide to which is here

The next thing you need is essence; either regular or pure , you get this from the rune essence mines, it is extremly easy to get. There are two types of essence, Pure Essence and Rune essence, the first of which can craft all runes but can only be obtained by members with a mining level of over 30, and the latter of which is available to all and you need no specific mining level. Many people buy rune essence for stupidly huge amounts because they are too lazy to mine it for themselves (and they have the cash).
Next you need a talisman. You get your first as part of the quest reward for rune mysteries but just an air one won't last you for long. Look below to see where to get the others from and what level you need to use them. All of them can be got from caskets.

A recent addition to runecrafting are tiaras. These items which are crafted from silver using the mold can be taken to a runecrafting temple and embueded with its power. This allows you to left click on the altar instead of using the talisman and frees up one space in your inventory allowing you to take one extra essence, it may not seem like a lot but if your doing 2800 natures it would normally take you 104 trips but with a tiara it would only take 100 trips and each one would be that little bit faster to boot.

Free-to-Play Talismans and Tiaras

Talisman	Picture	Tiara	Level	Who drops it?
Air			1	Get from quest and Goblins
Mind			2	Imps, Blue Wizards
Water			5	Dark Wizard, Wizards
Earth			9	Warriors(male ones), Men, Women, Farmers, Guards
Fire			14	Guards, Skeletons, Dark Wizards
Body			20	Guards, Giants

Members Talismans

Talisman	Picture	Tiara	Level	Who drops it?
Elemental		Not Available	1	Abyssal leeches, Abyssal guardians, Abyssal walkers
Cosmic			27	Lesser Demons, Greater Demons, Fire Giants, Ice Giants, Moss Giants
Chaos			35	Lesser Demons, Greater Demons, Fire Giants, Ice Giants, Moss Giants, Dwarves
Nature			44	Lesser Demons, Greater Demons, Fire Giants, Ice Giants, Moss Giants, Black Knights
Law			54	Gained as quest reward from Troll Stronghold
Death			65	Dropped by Dark Beasts and a reward from Mourning's End Part 2
Blood		Not Available	Not Available	Not Available but is likely to be a quest reward
Soul		Not Available	Not Available	Not Available

In order to not spoil the surprise they are written in black. To see what they say highlight them and read away. I have given a comment on how it is best to craft each of the runes, whether straight from essence or stock up in the bank first then do in bulk.

Altars all look the same, a pile of broken rocks with a "Mysterious Stone" in the centre. Use your talisman on the altar to be transported to a restored version. In this form you can see the resembalance to the ruins outside, each ruin has it's theme based on the type of rune. eg. fire is a volcano, body is a heart and chaos is a 3 floor maze. To craft the runes click craft on the crafting stone in the centre. This will turn all of the essence on you into runes and if you are above the required level will make more than one per essence (Though not with extra XP). Now repeat this until you reach your required level or have all the runes you could ever want.

To use this you are required to do a small task for the Zamarok mage (located just NE of edgeville in lvl5 wilderness) in return you may use the abyss as a route to get to the runecrafting altars quicker than normal. He will ask you to go to the chaos temple in varrock (its the blood stained one near aubrey)

Pouches (members only)