Religion, Symbols or Languages

Post by **Crush** » 14 Feb 2006, 12:49

Modanung wrote:Well I just think we should think about religions, symbols and maybe even languages (either written or spoken). So hardcore players could read messages like "Trespassers will be castrated" engraved in the rockside of a mountainpass in some native language.

That sounds like a very cool idea to me. A group of npcs could have their own language that is represented by a writing system that is simply an alphabetic substitution (every letter is replaced by a corresponding symbol). this could be made by simply using an custom font. players could learn the language by a quest and after that all the npc texts are displayed in the normal font. but the special symbols would still stay the same on map tiles so the player has to decypher those texts himself. we could hide tons of easter eggs that way.

Gonzalo · Post by **Gonzalo** » 14 Feb 2006, 14:28

I think it's indeed an excellent idea.

Tenche · Post by **Tenche** » 14 Feb 2006, 14:39

Well in a past thread we were talking about this flag i made

something different since people dont want religion in anything (its understandable

Post by **Pajarico** » 14 Feb 2006, 14:41

Tenche wrote:Well in a past thread we were talking about this flag i made

something different since people dont want religion in anything (its understandable

Then why you post it again, troll?

Tenche · Post by **Tenche** » 14 Feb 2006, 14:52

TO tell everyone sort of how this started

Post by **Pajarico** » 14 Feb 2006, 15:15

It was a rethoric question, actually.

Crush quoted what gave origin to this, and in the thread where that quote comes from there is a link pointing here, so your post is prety much useless.
And please don't try to kid me, your only intention is a desperate search for attention so don't try to act like your all serious, it doesn't works when you have been acting basically like a troll since you have registered.
Don't take this wrongfully, I have nothing against you in a personal level, but you should take this forum a bit more serious and realize that is not your playground. All I'm asking you is to respect the forum and the time which its members take to read the threads.
Take this as an advance and you will be rewarded

.

Regards.

Post by **Modanung** » 14 Feb 2006, 15:33

I think it would be cool if we had a written language that builds up words using base single-character words.

Some examples... There's a symbol for water, let's say three wavy lines above eachother. Combine it with 'wood' and you have 'raft'. Combine 'raft' with 'control' and you have 'boat'.
Combine 'wood' with 'plant' and you have 'tree'. Combine 'water' with 'plant' and you have 'waterplant'.
Combine 'human' with 'control' and you have 'man in control'.
Maybe why could have a sign that means something like 'un-'. So 'human' and 'un-''control' would be 'slave'.
'human' and 'magic' would be 'mage'... 'Water' and 'magic' somthing like 'water spell'.

We have to see how these symbols would be combine... maybe into one symbol, or just in a row. Left-Right? Top-Down? Or left-right-left, like the egyptians?

I think this kind of language is very interesting for puzzles and short messages. Simply replacing characters sounds silly to me.

Post by **ElvenProgrammer** » 14 Feb 2006, 16:46

Something like that?

http://wiki.themanaworld.org/index.php/Picto-language

Post by **Crush** » 14 Feb 2006, 17:01

about religious symbols: i am not against religion, but because we are talking about a fantasy world we should come up with religions and religious symbols that aren't borrowed from our real world but come up with something original. even when religious cults in our world are inspired by real existing religious groups the reference shouldn't be that obvious.

the cross is not such a well known religious symbol in our world because it is so simple and concisely (although that has sure helped making it so successful) but because there is a story behind it. using the christian cross as a religious symbol in the mana world would implify that there has also been a messiha in the mana world who got crucified, too.

about the writing system: using a logographic writing system would be a lot of work because there would have to be thousands of different symbols and a complex ruleset how to combine and apply them.

Post by **Rotonen** » 14 Feb 2006, 17:15

We're not going to intentionally use any existing religious symbols since religious people could get offended.

Post by **Crush** » 14 Feb 2006, 17:28

i just remembered an adventure flashgame that is about learning a logographic language:
http://www.abc.net.au/gameon/tork/torkgame.htm

could be interesting for you (or maybe at least help you killing some time when you are bored)

Post by **Platyna** » 14 Feb 2006, 20:50

In this time of political correctness insanity (for example in UK or France where catholics in some towns were forbidden to put christmass trees in the office or schools because of muslim community feeling offended or the Jylland-Posten's Mahomet pictures battle) in my opinion it is best to stay away from the politics and religion.

Regards.

Post by **Modanung** » 14 Feb 2006, 21:18

ElvenProgrammer wrote:Something like that?

http://wiki.themanaworld.org/index.php/Picto-language

Yes, something like that. Only I was thinking more about symbols, not drawings.

And I think something like 'undead' should be 'death' combined with 'animate' (the golem) or the 'un-' symbol I mentioned before. In the example in the wiki one pictogram equals several word. I was thinking more about several pictograms making one word.

Here's a little example, just made something up:

Quite direct translation: "Humans look because at the time with no sun the undead walk and create dead"
Somewhat free translation: "People be warned for at night undead creatures roam and create casualties"

_ for plural, ^ for a verb, | for for/reason/explanation, the '=|' for addition/and.

"Create casualties" could also be written as "kill", a skull with a ^ on top.
An hour glass with a ^ would be "to wait"... oh well, you get the idea.

Post by **Modanung** » 14 Feb 2006, 21:38

On a side-note... I suppose we will use base-10 numeral system?
Supposing so, how do we write it down in the pictoral language? Using lines and dots, like the Maya for example?
[Maya numerals on wikipedia.org]
They were to first to have a symbol for 'zero', btw.

I think the Dn'i system is pretty cool too. Yet I prefer the Maya way.

Techsetsu · Post by **Techsetsu** » 15 Feb 2006, 02:32

Crush wrote:players could learn the language by a quest and after that all the npc texts are displayed in the normal font. but the special symbols would still stay the same on map tiles so the player has to decypher those texts himself. we could hide tons of easter eggs that way.

I like the FFX learning method better... Not by quests, by reading books. There'd be 26 books (one for each letter or w/e... maybe it's 24 letters LOL). To make it a little more original, you could make each book correspond to two letters, or something like that so it's not an obvious rip off...

Another neat idea would be to replace key particles with special symbols so it makes it a bit more challenging. =)

Modanung wrote:On a side-note... I suppose we will use base-10 numeral system?
Supposing so, how do we write it down in the pictoral language? Using lines and dots, like the Maya for example?
[Maya numerals on wikipedia.org]
They were to first to have a symbol for 'zero', btw.

I think the Dn'i system is pretty cool too.

Dontcha just love linguistics?