The Runes in #841

[Fitzclowningham]

If you can read it, the writing on the wall is upsidedown Japanese.

While I don't know enough whether to believe this or not (leaning towards not), there are a number of reasons I think it is very possible there is information contained in them:

1) This is the last of the Kickstarter series of strips. Rich has a *lot* of work to do in the coming days/weeks, and likely won't be updating the comic for a while. Perhaps he included the runes as something for us to decipher/puzzle over/discuss while we wait.

2) He has put decipherable runes in the comic before in #635 (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0635.html), discussed here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106283)

3) Although I can't find any pattern or consistency among the 'large' runes running around the dining room (they all seem to be unique as far as I can tell - would love to be wrong, though) or in the hall leading to it, the smaller ones on the wall do seem to be regular and several of the characters repeat in different sequences.

I slogged allll the way through the main 841 thread up to this point, and did several searches to make sure, and it appears this has not been discussed apart from the quote above. Anyone else thinking along these lines/trying to translate?

[Mutant Sheep]

So why couldn't you ask this in the discussion thread? :smallconfused: Its kinda only related to 841, this thread'll get merged as soon as a mod looks at the title.

If it is decipherable, Rich did a damn lota work in one day. :smallcool:

[Fitzclowningham]

So why couldn't you ask this in the discussion thread? :smallconfused: Its kinda only related to 841, this thread'll get merged as soon as a mod looks at the title.

Fine by me, wasn't really thinking, I guess.

[Fitzclowningham]

Never mind. After drawing them out, I realized they're all unique, and the repetition is due to the same thing being on each side of the doorway. Darn it.

[Somewhere]

The smaller writing around the doorway is kana, but not upside down.
From what I can see, the larger writing on the wall includes some kana (not upside down, but mirrored). And I think I see the (possibly mirrored?) kanji for 'exit' a few times.

[BlackHumor]

Hmm? The smaller writing around the doorway definitely doesn't seem to be kana. Now, I can pick out one or two characters from it but because of all the ones that aren't recognizable as kana I think they're just coincidences.

That said I wouldn't be surprised if the writing is potentially translatable, I just don't think it's in Japanese.

I should say, though, that there seems to be the bottom half of a drawing of a dragon above the small writing. It's a big thing with a tail, two relatively short legs, and what look like wings, especially because it kind of has to be flying to be in the position that it's in.

[ella ventic]

So if they are indeed kana, the next question becomes: is there anyone here who can read them? I could work on getting a bigger/clearer version if it would help.

And if someone can read them, and there's more to say on this topic, I'd like to please request (if such a request can make any difference at all) that this thread remain separate from the main #841 thread. Reading the runes here (like in #635, and the cryptograms) is really interesting to me, unlike most of what is in the... *goes and checks*... currently 33 pages of the main thread. Not to mention all the unspoilered speculation there that is not just uninteresting to me but is something that I actively try to avoid.

It's just my opinion as to what is fun and what isn't, of course, but if I did have a vote, well, that's how I'd cast it.

...Thanks for listening. :smallredface:

Edit: Oops, BlackHumor beat me to the punch with his not-kana analysis. What's it called when a ninja not only gets there first but disproves your argument when he does?

[BaronOfHell]

And if someone can read them, and there's more to say on this topic, I'd like to please request (if such a request can make any difference at all) that this thread remain separate from the main #841 thread.
I too would really really appreciate that as well. Unlike the theories and guesses we can come up at, a self-consistent translation of the runes, should such exist, would be much more interesting in that aspect it'd be extra material from the Giant.


...Thanks for listening. :smallredface:
You're welcome! Thanks for sharing.:smallsmile:

[Anarion]

I too would really really appreciate that as well. Unlike the theories and guesses we can come up at, a self-consistent translation of the runes, should such exist, would be much more interesting in that aspect it'd be extra material from the Giant.


You're welcome! Thanks for sharing.:smallsmile:

The larger character that looks like this 出 means to exit or go out. The other kana looks to me like き which could be part of the conjugation of the verb, in which case my best guess at a translation is just someone writing "get out" or some variation thereof repeatedly on the walls. Most ominous.

[Savil]

I think that the long trail of symbols on the bottom of the wall is a component of some illusion spell cast on the whole pyramid (which may or may not be a "we are dead" illusion spell).
Symbols on both sides of the door remind me of some sort of genealogy tree (note the large dragon symbol on top), with each symbol corresponding to a tattoo on one of the Draketooth family members. This kinda supports the familicide theory, though I couldn't find any symbols that are identical on the wall and on one of the dead people.

Edit: Also, it could be the Pyramid of Mysterious Runes (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0094.html) :smallbiggrin:

[Purgatorius]

But I'm afraid the Giant don't know any asian writing (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9341936#post9341936).

I would rather like to compare the runes shown i both panel 3 and 4. It shows that the runes are more than simple lines, but quite elaborate, when you look at them closer.
I think the runes look more like pictographs of some kind.
For example, the rune below Belkar's speech balloon could be some kind of flower, or a neothelid (http://images.wikia.com/pathfinder/images/6/6c/Neothelid.jpg). The image partly covered by Elan's arm looks like some kind of worm with bat wings, the wings hidden behind Elan's head in panel 4 but visible in panel 3.

If the pictograph hypothesis is correct, it means it is difficult to find any meaning of the runes without a closer look at them.

On another note, I think the style of the runes resemble the "tattoos" in the faces of the Draketooths. Someone thought those marks are "dragonmarks", which "are physical manifestations of the Draconic Prophecy (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Dragonmarks)", at least in the Eberron campaign setting. I am not a D&D player myself, so I don't know what significance this could have.

[Jodwin]

There's certainly no Japanese in those runes. Two runes are pretty close, but that's most likely accidental: In the last panel of the first page one rune looks like ち ('chi', the bottom is shorter on the rune though), and in the second page there's a rune below the first window which looks a little like the kanji for child, 子. Of course, that same rune also looks like the number seven... :smalltongue:

[rrgg]

Never mind. After drawing them out, I realized they're all unique, and the repetition is due to the same thing being on each side of the doorway. Darn it.

A couple do appear to match some of the tattoos, so perhaps it's a list of every Draketooth? (Why they would keep a list of everyone in the clan on the wall is beyond me, but I'm still not sure why they're all marked with visible tattoos in the first place.

[ellindsey]

I suspect the marks on the dead people are Dragonmarks, or something like them, as Dragonmarks aren't part of the standard D&D setting as far as I know. It seems to match how the one child we can see doesn't have any mark, young post-adolescents have simple marks, and the oldest-looking people have the most complex marks.

I suspect that the pyramid of marks on the far wall only lists deceased members, going back to the founders of the clan.

[Caivs]

It's also worth noting the runes of the tatoos are very similar in shape AND color to the self destruct rune in Dorukan's castle (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0118.htm) . Probably some kind of arcane writing