Is there an archaeologist in the house?

[soothsayer]

Seriously, there are so many runes and cryptic images in the games, but I can't make any sense of most of it. So if anyone has a degree in dead languages, or knows anyone who does, please take a look at these games and tell me what it all means!

[Gabriel Edson]

im probably posting well-known information here, but the nosgoth blood script in BO1 is nearly identical to Quenya, J.R.R. Tolkien's elven written language from the hobbit, etc.

as for the rest of the games... <shrugs>

[soothsayer]

blood script is based on futhark runes.

[Gabriel Edson]

futhark? dont think ive ever heard of it (not that i claim to be familiar with ancient languages). maybe Quenya is based on it as well; as i said, Blood Script and Quenya are nearly identical.

[card]

Try this and this for some info on runes. Here's the article on Quenya. I'm not a fan of Tolkien, so I don't know that much about it.

[Gabriel Edson]

well, its definitely not Quenya, then. thats what the name of the runes in the maps in "the hobbit" was, according to one of my english teachers. it seems she was wrong, and now i am too.

so, to set the record straight, nosgoth's blood script is nearly identical to the runic alphabet from j.r.r. tolkien's the hobbit. and both may or may not have been influenced by futhark. whatever that is.

EDIT: k, i went back and checked out the other 2 links card provided, and i agree that blood script and "hobbit" runes are futhark-inspired.

[Smoke_Z]

I've got a a copy of "Buckland's Blue Book" around here somewhere.... It's good for the Futhark, but it also has a couple other alphabets.

Seems to me that I have trouble with the Tolkien runes even though I used to know futhark well enough to actually have written some stories and bad poetry with it.

Hey, maybe that other design I'm interested in is Melachim or Passing the River. There's a triangular symbol I keep seeing, and I somehow associate it with fire, I might've seen it in SR2 fire shrine. (The clearest image is in Vorador's fountain room, but it's also elsewhere.)

[card]

Well, now that we've got the alphabet for the Futhark runes, is anyone be patient enough to try and decipher the texts?

[Binky24]

Eh? The Futhark-like runes?
For those in Blood Omen 1, I'd advise visiting Ardeth Silvereni's site. Everything explained there.
For the inscription in SR2, in the Time-Streaming Device, it's nonsensical. There was a suggestion that it was supposed to mean "Wendler's Monument", after some or other artist who worked on that game.
In Defiance, the Blood Script is used in two places in the cemetery. Just after the exit from the Underworld there is something which reads, more or less, "rest in peace" - I couldn't decipher all the letters, though, but it's a reasonable assumption, I guess. And in Kain's tomb it's written - again more or less - "here is Kain". Guess that's how Raziel knew where he was.

But that's the Blood Script. The runes of the Ancients would be much more interesting, if they weren't nonsensical. Unless, that is, they wrote "how-to-use" manuals on the walls of the temples, that is...

Edit: Oh, and there is an THE BOOK IS THE KEY TO THE ULTIMATE KNOWLEDGE inscription on the floor in Avernus, in the Lovecraft's Diary font. There was a thread here about it - here .

[Binky24]

OK - sorry about the double-posting, but I'd like to up this thread so that I'd get an answer -
Does anyone know any site where all the Defiance Lovecraft-Diary font inscriptions are listed/translated? I've tried a search on these forums, and on the Nosgothic Realm forums, and came up with nothing, and not even the Dark Chronicle has anything.

Right now, apart from the above Avernus inscription, I've seen "Stronghold" at the very beginning of the first chapter and "Crime et chatiment" (French for "crime and punishment") above the holding cells. There are a couple of lines in Moebius's chamber under the fortress, a (different, I think) couple of lines on the slab where Raziel starts; also - I think - around the futhark "rest in peace" inscription?

Edit - nope. The thing in Moebius's cave and in the Underworld is everywhere the same. Oddly enough, in French again. (Unless I'm hallucinating seeing writing in a language I don't speak a word of, written in a really weird font. That's also a possibility.) This is what I have by now -
There are 12 lines:
1 LES ENFANTS (children)
2 DE LA TERREUR (of fear)
3 ENFOUIS SOUS (bury - as in 1st/2nd person sing present indicative, or 2nd imperative - under)
4 LES DE*M* (cracked line)
5 DE *UBLIS
6 ATTENDENT TOUS (a bit unclear - "they attend" - perhaps it's "tout", it'd be "they all attend")
7 LE SEIN BIENFAITEUR (the benevolent breast)
8 DU ELDER GOD (of the Elder God)
empty line
9-12 are unclear because I couldn't get a good screenshot:
9 *M*AMERE*
10 * TE *DE CONFO*TER
11 *MO*ILE
12 *SOUS*MOUS*

Help??? Please?

[Binky24]

Update -
I've asked the very nice people at nosgoth-fr.net about the French text, and they solved a lot and helped me solve a lot... Merci beaucoup, Zohar, Gibou, Naomi...!
The Underworld text is divided into two parts. One is relatively clear, it goes:
1 LES ENFANTS
2 DE LA TERREUR
3 ENFOUIS SOUS
4 LES DÉCOMBRE *
5 DE L'OUBLIS *
6 ATTENDENT TOUS
7 LE SEIN BIENFAITEUR **
8 DU ELDER GOD

Notes:
*= actually, according to Naomi from the nosgoth-fr.net boards, the S at the end of line 5 should be written at the end of line 4, otherwise it makes no sense.
**= this is a bit funny; it is written sein bienfaiteur, but this means "breast benefactor", and it can't even mean "benevolent breast", because "bienfaiteur" is a noun. So Naomi from the nosgoth-fr.net boards offered another version: "SAINT BIENFAITEUR" = "divine benefactor". I've seen that it isn't written this way, but perhaps it's another "mistake".

OK - all in all, this part means "Children of terror, buried under the ruins of oblivion, they all await the ?divine benefactor?//?breast benefactor? of the Elder God." Cryptic enough, .

The second part is worse.
It goes:
9 AM(E) AMERE
10 ENS TE DECONFORTER
11 SOUS MON AILE
12 E NOUS

9: Âme = soul; amère = bitter. So - "bitter soul"?
10: this part is horrible. Zohar offers: "deconforter" is old French, means more or less "discourage": "Ne laisse pas les gens de déconforter" is "don't let people dishearten you"; "ens" doesn't mean anything... and "te" is 2nd singular dative/accusative
11: under my wing
12: E - I have no idea about this; NOUS = us (which is a terrible shift of perspective: "my wing - us")

[goblin981]

Originally Posted by Smoke_Z

Seems to me that I have trouble with the Tolkien runes even though I used to know futhark well enough to actually have written some stories and bad poetry with it.

This is really unrelated (and unhelpful), but I thought I'd mention I used to be able to read and write in Aurebesh (the Star Wars written language) I can't write in it anymore but I can (slowly) read it still. What a nerd right? haha

[stanislav]

Okay, I know this thread is ancient but I'm a recent fan of the LOK games so I wasn't around back when it all started. But anyway, having seen the texts in the underworld myself and played the game, I have my own theory on them.

Firsty, the Breast Benefactor. This sounds ridiculous and sounds like a mistake but there might be something to it. At a young age, children are breast fed right? Its almost an essential part of the childs survival. So if the breast in this text is a metaphorical way of refering to giving life, then the Elder God could easily be associated because the vampires believed that he was their God, and source of life. But theres more to it than that.

If we choose to asociate breasts with feeding babies rather than eye candy, then breasts therefore become asociated with the reproductive system. The vampires, or children of fear, are sterile and cannot reproduce. And this text could possibly be some sort of prayer to the Elder God to remove the curse that the Hylden placed on them. Hence why they refer to the Elder God as the breast benefactor. They could have used other words that are more closly linked to the reproductive system but that probably wouldnt go down well, and "Breast" sounds more poetic, which suits the vampires noble and holy image far better than other words might.

My second point- The "Us" at the end of the little speech looks like a signature. And I can't see the "E" that is supposedly in front of it. So maybe the vampires signed their prayer "Us." Whoever read the prayer (Most likely the Elder God) was meant to know who the writers of the prayer were when they refered to themselves as Us. There was no need for actual names because the Elder God knew them, and suposedly loved them.

Just a thought.