Incredible day. This whole time during my apprenticeship I've been contented knowing I was learning the secrets to restoring humanity's health. My chest has been inflated with pride, aware that I was learning the secrets of nature and how we could bend it to our will through science. After years of training I felt I was no loner susceptible to surprise, every new lesson was merely expanding on the strong foundation my Levelers had built in my mind.
Today I feel as though my apprenticeship is coming to an end, because Leveler Esther has begun confiding in me that she and the other grandmasters of this profession communicate in a secret code, known only to Levelers. No other member of the church knows how to decipher these texts. She called me into her office and handed me a slip of paper and on it were scribbles of numerical digits and geometric shapes. I asked Esther if this was some sort of puzzle, or equation. She laughed at my ignorance and said that in a way it was. She told me it was time to teach me of Saluscript, a secret shorthand between Levelers. The secrets of nature that we've unlocked can be very dangerous in the hands of the layman. It is of utmost importance that we maintain this language's secrecy for the benefit of all of humanity. I haven't begun to understand its nuances, but I feel that once I master it, I will finally find myself a peer in the fraternity of Levelers.
-an entry from the diary of Leveler Walter
Saluscript is a secret written language used between the Structuralist church's medical class known as Levelers. The language is comprised of geometric shapes and numerical digits which stand in for the names of ingredients and processes known only to Levelers.
The code was devised by Leveler Tamra at the behest of Framer Conroy. Conroy believed that the Levelers were dealing with dark and complicated subjects that could only be mastered by proper training and the resolute disposition of Structurlist mind, educated in the ways of The Articulation. Conroy felt this language could only be known the the Levelers and that it was paramount to keep the methods to decoding it a highly classified secret.
Some within the church point to this secret code as a way in which the Levelers have expanded their power within the church. By being able to keep such important knowledge a secret, Levelers have a certain sway over the church and the community at large. There is also concern that because they must work extensively with the natural world that they are more susceptible to Nature's corruption. As Framer Ewen put it, "Perhaps too much power, and too much responsibility is given to a group of people who must stare into the Chaos of Nature on a day to day basis. If we lose the Levelers then we may lose the wellness of humanity. And if that goes... what have we left?"
Over the years the secret language has expanded beyond just a cipher of ingredients and what to do with them, but these additions are known to only to the senior-most Levelers. It is with these codes that they are able to express concerns to one another about the efficacy of their work, without prying eyes to scrutinize their process. To gain such trust and knowledge to these advanced ciphers, one would have to work as a Leveler for decades.
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