Scarred Trailing Language in Barenae | World Anvil

Scarred Trailing

Prompt 14 of WA SummerCamp2020: Write about a secret code or cipher in your world: who uses it, and for what purpose?
Finding a small jigsaw puzzle, like the ones used by children from the start of time, is a common occurrence in Barenae. Its rings twist and turn until the pieces fall right into place, revealing an intricate image or activating a small mechanism, which plays an infantile song, as a depiction of the victory of the mind over the material, a tune of nostalgia.

Not so often one of these puzzles is inscribed with weird signs, unrecognizable by the average viewer. Its normally straightforward fragments become much more abstract and confusing, requiring a much longer time to match. The tune becomes eerie and overall, the machine could be easily mistaken as defective or useless.

But those who know what they're looking for know that there's much more to what meets the eye now. As the puzzle is solved and the key is understood, strings of numbers unfold before the keen mind of the Adelvoan members, who take this challenge with playful eyes. Such numbers can then be twisted and ordered, looking for an artifact capable of locating a position defined by these parameters. But it's not sufficient to stumble upon a point in space, it's also necessary to get a point in time, a glimpse of a single letter or a word, even a prophetic visage. And in that case, the viewer can then make out the vital message, sent by their colleague.
"Oh...Heikori. You beautiful mastermind, you twisted beautiful mastermind..."

Drien slipped the mechanical ball between his fingers as the vision portal remained opened before his eyes. The static moment in time Heikori had signaled as the main part of her statement showed a baby, wrapped in a pristine blanket, falling out of a window. A perfect allegory of how he himself was falling into an abyss, created by his ambition, pulled down by all the ignorance she saw in him.

"I better get working on a reply just now."
 
The Adelvoan need their activities to be of utmost secrecy, while still communicating and reaching each other effectively all over the plane. As these messages are only sent in cases of extreme importance, they deserve a method of equal worth and complexity. The most employed cipher by the Society comes from the conversion of children's puzzles into series of numbers, a code to observe moments in time, to reunite letters and compose a warning, an invitation, or progress report, between many other possible ideas.

Writing System

The form the cipher is created is always through number and letter series, which describe two things: a location and a moment in time. The coordinates for the location follow the generally accepted format: number of Splinter, the face of Splinter and the arch and point if it's an exterior section or the triangular position if it's an Inner Section. The time is conveyed through a Year, Month, Day, Hour, Minute, Second format.

While sometimes there's a small margin for error, if the person who confections the message is careful and meticulous, the receptor should be able to stitch the pieces back together and receive the code.

In addition, the key for unscrambling is one of many, based on the symbols shared by the Adelvo, such as the various interpretations of the Ky'ore Skulls, the letters of the most Ancient language ever written after the First War or passages from primordial tales, incomprehensible for those who haven't lived for a long time or who aren't familiar with extremely ancient secrets.

Category
Cipher
Spoken by

The Adelvo Society for the Unrestful
My... ske... le... t... on... puns...
"Ah, ah, where is this...?"

a... re ve... ry... hume... ro... us...
"My skeleton puns are very humerous"

And you had me scroll through a 100 years of history just to play a prank on me?

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