Curse

Amantis · Dec 10, 2008, 12:23 AM // 00:23

Intro:
So I was browsing around the wiki looking at the images for the written language of Ascalon to see if any runes matched with the Elonian alphabet when I stumbled upon a lead language creators page. Mr Matthew Medina.
Here's the specific excerpt that caught my eye.

Quote:

As Guild Wars has evolved so have the languages - so far I haven't seen that anyone has translated the 100 or so Canthan symbols. One word of caution though - not EVERY language in the original Guild Wars universe actually translates into anything - I believe I was the only artist on the team that actually made readable languages, so some of the runes, glyphs and scripts you see in the game will be just for "show"

So in an effort to find out if the work of me and two of my guild mates and fellow loreites Gmr Leon and Konig Des Todes was all in vain I asked if he could provide a list of which languages were nonsensical. His reply was

Quote:

As far as I have seen, all of the languages that CAN be translated HAVE been translated. Ascalonian has it's own page here on the wiki, as does Canthan. The other languages you see will most likely be untranslatable. The specific example you cited is just such a prop - the scriptures of those banners and pillars are not developed languages, but simply aesthetic choices.
There is only one "language" that has escaped detection thus far, which I can understand being that it only appears on ONE particular prop in Eye of the North. And honestly, if anyone can find this prop, and decipher the text just based on that single piece of art, I might just have to send them something ultra-cool!

So with our current researched dashed it seems we have a whole new thing that has been brought to our attention. While this doesn't mean mean there is definitely only ONE left (Matthew is only human and he could be mistaken or misinformed) this IS a confirmation that there is a prop in EoTN just laying around waiting to be deciphered! In my opinion the first order of business should be likely places this prop could be. While exploring have YOU seen anything that would be a candidate? What places would you suggest. After we have a list of suggested places I think we should discuss organizing an expedition to scour Eye of the North. What say you?

KZaske · Dec 10, 2008, 12:49 AM // 00:49

Sounds interesting. There are so many different ruins out in the explorables this is gonna be quite a task to find the right prop with runes one it.

razerbeak · Dec 10, 2008, 01:07 AM // 01:07

Hmm, I have some ideas, but I can't check anything until I get home to my computer.

LordScro · Dec 10, 2008, 01:10 AM // 01:10

Hmm. Maybe its in the Shards of Orr.

I will be vanquishing the EoTN area soon, so if you want I could pm you in-game if I find anything unusual.

Konig Des Todes · Dec 10, 2008, 01:30 AM // 01:30

Razerbeak, you can just say where you think it is, no need for individual checking, nothing bad with teams going to look around.

I personally think it is in a dungeon that is quickly passed, such as Shards of Orr and Sepulchur of Dragrimmar.

Afterall, many people just go in, kill, and do what they need to do nowadays, especially in the more annoying areas like Shards of Orr.

Since there is only one prop, that means that it is not in an area with repeated designs, which rules out most of the dungeons, but still leave individual rooms of certain dungeons.

Amantis · Dec 10, 2008, 01:41 AM // 01:41

Actually Azazel, I'm thinking maybe we might be misunderstanding. Only one prop doesn't have to mean only one place. Maybe he was just mentioning one prop to tell us its the only small piece where this language exists, it there could be multiple copies of this one prop.

Daisuko · Dec 10, 2008, 01:42 AM // 01:42

Or it could just be the end quest NPC from tarnished haven (The spirit at the end which speaks gibberish)

Amantis · Dec 10, 2008, 01:56 AM // 01:56

That's not a language its a cipher and we have deciphered it. That's also not on a prop.

razerbeak · Dec 10, 2008, 02:15 AM // 02:15

Ok, so my idea was the statue/alter just in front of where you start on level 3 of CoF, its textured like the bloodstone and has the same small series of markings found throughout the Underworld. (when they are placed on top of each other it looks like an eye if that helps) Its not a full language by any means but perhahs a message regardless. Ill post screenshots as soon as I can. If that fails there might be something hidden in the bloodstone caves.

Konig Des Todes · Dec 10, 2008, 02:27 AM // 02:27

I know what you mean, and I looked at it a while back. Unless I missed something, it has no new symbols and is just a re-use of the pillar design in the Hall of Grenth in the Underworld, but just as four pillars clumped together.

And Me and Gmr Leon pretty much cleaned out the Bloodstone Caves a while back and found nothing new in terms of runes, Except for the bloodstone itself, everything there that is not natural is either Mursaat *the inscription on the doors* or from Nightfall *the plinths and the broken Monoliths*.

Although I feel like going back to re-observe those objects, for no real purpose though. They're just cool.

razerbeak · Dec 10, 2008, 02:39 AM // 02:39

Any chance of something being in the ooze pit? I tend to fly through that one and it would be pretty easy to miss something.

Konig Des Todes · Dec 10, 2008, 03:20 AM // 03:20

As far as I remember, that entire level is a copy from HoS lvl 1, Volxen lvl 2, and a few others. So if there is something in Ooze Pits, it's probably in those other areas.

BTW, just remembered, Heart of the Shiverpeaks has an entire half that most people skip, easily gotten to via Bogroot Growths, might be something there.

LordScro · Dec 10, 2008, 01:45 PM // 13:45

Ok, so he said that Ascalonian and Canthan are decipherable and have been deciphered. Only one language has skipped detection. So to make this easy to figure out, which languages have you found that are decipherable and what languages are undecipherable. That will rule out a large portion of the possible languages and help narrow down the location of said 'prop'.

razerbeak · Dec 10, 2008, 09:18 PM // 21:18

Don't rule out a dungeon just because its made up of pieces from other dungeons, If wehat we're looking for is a prop it could be in any one of them.

LordScro · Dec 10, 2008, 11:39 PM // 23:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by razerbeak

Don't rule out a dungeon just because its made up of pieces from other dungeons, If wehat we're looking for is a prop it could be in any one of them.

If its made up of other dungeons, then the prop would also be in the dungeon in which the piece came from.

Free Runner · Dec 10, 2008, 11:52 PM // 23:52

It may not even be in a dungeon. I've been through them all tons of times and i always look around at the scenery. Usually when i find something with text on it i take a good look at it. If it is in a dungeon it must be very well hidden, however it could be inside one of the explorable areas. Perhaps even an outpost. He never says what it is - it could be a box, pot, banner or even a rock. Something that we could of passed hundreds of times.

My money is on it being in the Tarnished Coast area.

Scythe O F Glory · Dec 11, 2008, 02:32 AM // 02:32

I'm no expert on lore or anything, but has anyone examined closely the tree in Ventari's Sanctuary? Just seems like a good spot for an inscription if you ask me.

EDIT: This may also seem like a stretch, but on the wiki picture of the Asuran Beacon (bundle in GOLEM mission) there seems to be some text.

razerbeak · Dec 11, 2008, 02:33 AM // 02:33

Ya, I'm starting to think it belongs to the Asuras, ill do some snooping this weekend.

Konig Des Todes · Dec 11, 2008, 03:23 AM // 03:23

As I told Amantis in the guild, I believe that this untranslated language is the Charr symbols on the Charr decorder.

Iirc, no one has bothered with translating it, very little has been done with it at all actually. We are currently getting all three from a guildie on Amantis' non-Sanctum account. After that, I will put all three through the decoder, record the decoding for all three ways to decode for each plan (i.e., 9 times), and start doing work with that.

If that is the translatable language, I can have what is translatable soon - and anything I get confused about I will post up.

EDIT: Never mind, the aformentioned way to translate won't work, the dials on the decoder go to the same spots (although the middle dial goes to two spots). So if it were to be the Charr symbols to be translatable, we could only translate two.

Free Runner · Dec 11, 2008, 09:25 AM // 09:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scythe O F Glory

EDIT: This may also seem like a stretch, but on the wiki picture of the Asuran Beacon (bundle in GOLEM mission) there seems to be some text.

Continuing this:

This is the Asuran Beacons text.

And this is the banner found in the same mission. The face at the bottom is a inactive golem.