Runes
Discovery of An Ancient Runic Alphabet A new game is coming out, and most people do not pay attention to the squiggling of useless letters on walls, pillars, and even signs. Most discard it as detail that has no relevant meaning. Well, this is not the case for Guild Wars, showing the detail and dedication put forth by ArenaNet, the Developers of the game Guild Wars which has recently gone "gold" going live on April 28th, 2005. The knowledge and idea of an obscure runic language came to me when Banegrivm, Guild Leader of the 1st Fist of Light posted a "strange map" he had found a screenshot that was on sign up north of the "Wall". I took one look at it and realized that indeed they for the most part they were Runes. Not any obscurely created runes, but in fact resembled those used in Gothic, Futhark, and Swedish-Norwegian runic alphabets, as the various I saw on the map included a mixture of all three. I did also find that the Devs. did ind eed change a few, perhaps to make them unique. The first thought that came to me was that they are using real world runes and the letters corresponding to them. At which point I began trying to translate the upper most set of runes which was believed to spell "Tyria". In the end of that process after combining a mixture of real life runes and t heir letters, I came to realize that in fact the runes are NOT using the same letters as used in real life. That in fact, the image of the runes were used, but the devs. designated their own letters to each rune. With this new insight, and the knowledge and of what the locations were representing, I soon was able to translate and document those areas, ending with a at least 3 groups translated. Those being Ascalon, Tyria, Kryta. You can say, "Well ok, you think you know what an area is representing, then you assumed those runes were letters?" Well I backed and continue to prove that the translations were correct because of cross-comparison. The "y" in Tyria uses the same "y" rune in Kryta. The rune for "a" is used all in the right places for all three of those groupings. This lead to the discovery of the letters A, S, C, L, O, N, T, Y, I, and K. Soon after I was able to decipher the south central set of runes where we see the Shiverpeaks. But, this was a mistake by me, as I originally thought that the first set is Shiver and the second set below is Peaks. This uncovered the letters, P, V, and H. I wondered why the words were separated. It was until I got a screenshot originally taken and submitted by "Fina" was I able to get a clearer written set of runes. The SW area by Linea and Androgial was mentioned to have been either the Ring of Fire or Fire Isle. After some close translating I was finally able translate and find the right runes for Ring of Fire, which revealed the letters G, F, and E. After some close observations I soon uncovered that my translation of "Shiver Peaks" was wrong. In fact, the first line DID spell out the complete Shiverpeaks, and surprise to me, as again the Alphabet proved itself, I translated _ o_ntns. Hmm, I wondered what that could mean. Then, out of the blue a realization came that hit me like a freight train. OF Course that is what it is, it was "mountns" This spelling does not include the ai when referring to the correct spelling of mountains, but it did give some insight as it revealed the letters M, O, and U. Soon after I began my translations of the set of runes in the South East. I originally translated the runes to Try_ _a_ Desert. This left me at a standstill as those missing letters I could not see clearly. It was not until "Linitas" mentioned that the first set could even be Crystal, did it hit me that he was right. I had miss translated the first letter as a T and not C. It was found that that location was the Crystal Desert, which just now as I was updating this article as I have been making changes, an blurb from the last Gaile Gray interview was submitted to me. "The Crystal Desert is a nexus of powerful mystical energies. For centuries entire cultures have made pilgrimages to the burning sands in search of spiritual atonement. Their bones litter the dunes, a testament to the dangers of this inhospitable environment. The only other evidence of their existence is the hollow, wind-torn buildings of their temporary civilizations." The one location that had bewildered me for the longest time was that set of runes to the West. Drytchnath and Androgial had mentioned that it could be Majesty's Rest or Maguuma Jungle. It was not until I realized those central two letters of the first set of runes was uu and not a c or v, did it come to me that the first letter of the second group wa s a J. A letter that had eluded any sort of translating. This revealed it to be Maguuma Jungle and the letters J, and a new rune for M and G. This completed the entire translation of the Map. It also completed the alphabet, save the translations for B, X, W, Q, and Z. I have come to see that map as a "Rosetta Stone" of sorts for this ancient runic language. That brings up another point, WHERE did this language come from, is it a language out of Ascalon, or perhaps a past fallen Kingdom? Banegrivm of the 1st Fist of Light soon revealed his idea: --------------------------I'm pretty certain that the text is old Orrian text. If you read the 5th installment of the Lore it talks about the ghostly hero as Lord Victo who was a champion of Orr. The Charr may have also been a contributing factor to the fall of the Orrian Kingdom. Notice that the Great Northern Wall was built to keep the Charr back. The area past that is now considered "Charr territory". I gleaned this from reading the first part of the lore called "The Wall". Also if you notice the banner only appears in that area and in a few other areas. You don't see it in either the Lion's Arch or Ascalon environs. I believe the later may be all that remains of a once glorious Kingdom. ----------------------What is left remaining with the information we have now is translating the runes found on the walls of the outside of the Tomb of the Kings, which won't happen until we uncover close and clear images of the wall. Adessia had also found the site of the 4 Obelisks in the Maguuna Jungle that revealed a set of runes or hieroglyphs not found in this Orrian Runic Alphabet. They are a more complex, pictorial type of runes that I currently have no translation for. As suggested by Bangrivm: I feel pretty confident that the runes on the standing stones are definitely something different, and could even possibly be inconsequential. ---------------Right now so far these runes are found only on these placards/sign maps North of the Wall, in the presumed Orrian Empire Ruins. Deciphering at least 18 individual runes with an average of 4-5 on each pillar, they could end up being the language of a Western Civilization completely separate from the East. We will just have to wait and see if we see any of these runes after release. Also suggested they could be a mixture of real world Greek Alphabet and the Tyrian Zodiac Calendar? From what is seem, you can see the Greek: Zeta, Theta, and Pi, and the Zodiac: Ares, Pisces, Libra, Ursa Major, and Gemini. Now again we can be presuming too much that they are using our real world zodiac as it would be different if they were that detailed for another sky. IE not the same constellations. But we can be right in saying the pillars could be a Calendar, each having 4-5 runes on each, possibly pertaining to the Zodiac's of each season or section of a year. But, this is still just speculation, but gives hint to the next project that the 1st Fist of Light shall undergo and eventually uncover. As to the inscriptions on the Tomb of Primeval Kings, they are presumed to be Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Like the Runes, they can just be using the symbols, designating their own letters to them. This will begin another project for the 1st Fist of Light. You can see already before going live, Guild Wars is a world that is full of mystery and intrigue and can spark the imagination and drive for Roleplayers and non-Roleplayers alike. It just shows you how much you can get into a game if the tools and supported content is there. That is what will make GuildWars successful. Will we see a fully working Astronomical System? We will see. I salute you ArenaNet!
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Rosetta Stone Map |
Rosetta Stone Map Translated |
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Obelisks in Maguuna Jungle |
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Inscription on Tomb of Kings |
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Ancient Orrian Runic Alphabet |
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