Runes on totems will not fire if the totem is not bonded to a person.
This also applies to unbonded statues with runes (though that's a pretty
unlikely occurrence). What this means for Serenwilde is that those with
the Stag totem will probably want to be more strategic on which totems
to bond. The design for totems and statues was actually always meant to
work like this but it was only recently that it was discovered by the
designers (as everyone thought this was how it was supposed to work).

Penned by my hand on the 2nd of Klangiary, in the year 106 CE.