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Connection Established. Finally… (Destiny)

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, August 17, 2013, 01:55 (4114 days ago)
edited by Ragashingo, Saturday, August 17, 2013, 01:59

I have pretty much all the official Destiny images rotating on my Desktop all day long and every time I see this:

[image]

I immediately think of this:

[image]

Commonalities are blue beams, clouds, and Mars. That's never been good enough for me to say in my mind that the two are related. Believe me, I've searched those clouds in the first image over and over for some sliver of a pyramid only to be disappointed. Then, for some reason, I noticed this for the first time tonight:

[image]

There's a pyramid with a beam right there in the center of the flag. Finally, I have my connection, as minor as it is. Maybe this has been seen before but it was new to me. :)

Nice find!

by Claude Errera @, Saturday, August 17, 2013, 04:51 (4114 days ago) @ Ragashingo

- No text -

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Connection Established. Finally…

by stabbim @, Des Moines, IA, USA, Saturday, August 17, 2013, 20:44 (4114 days ago) @ Ragashingo

It's new to me as well. This is the phase I love - little pieces coming together. :)

Looks Familiar

by zoojoo ⌂ @, Iowa, Sunday, August 18, 2013, 08:58 (4113 days ago) @ Ragashingo
edited by zoojoo, Sunday, August 18, 2013, 09:02

That second picture reminds me of Ra's pyramid ship from Stargate.

[image]

Also, pyramids? Mars?

PYRAMIDS OF MARS?!?!?!?!

[image]

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Yep

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Sunday, August 18, 2013, 13:03 (4113 days ago) @ zoojoo

And... A group of aliens using ancient myths or being the basis of ancient cultures who go around and crush and enslave doesn't sound too far off from something that could fit within Destiny. Why not also give them pyramidal ships too? Halo 1 was Aliens, maybe Destiny is Stargate?

Bungie, take all my money

by zoojoo ⌂ @, Iowa, Sunday, August 18, 2013, 13:35 (4113 days ago) @ Ragashingo

And... A group of aliens using ancient myths or being the basis of ancient cultures who go around and crush and enslave doesn't sound too far off from something that could fit within Destiny. Why not also give them pyramidal ships too? Halo 1 was Aliens, maybe Destiny is Stargate?

[image]

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Fallen alphabet?

by Pyromancy @, discovering fire every week, Sunday, August 18, 2013, 13:11 (4113 days ago) @ Ragashingo

Long ago what caught my eye about that banner was the color palette and angular ship picture. It reminds me alot of the "Destiny Ship Poster". (Thanks again to Xenos/DBO for the image/host) But it wasn't a close enough match to formulate a standalone post about.

[image]

With a little free time this weekend, I am catching up on the recent Bungie News stories. I noticed in the news image header from the recent story "Do You Speak Bungie" there is what appears to be a clear translation of the word 'Welcome' into the Fallen character alphabet? (at least I think it is the real translate and not just fluff. Their 'E' appears pretty obvious)

[image]

I was trying to think of where else we have seen any Fallen text so far and recalled this E3 shirt with the "House of the Fallen Glyph" and some angled, faded, watermarked, style text behind it. Image borrowed from the Bungie Store. I found two examples on eBay with a slightly bigger zoomable image but not clear enough.

[image]

Anybody out there have this shirt on hand with a better look at it?
With a few more exactly translated words might we be able to begin to decipher Fallen text?
Anyone think of any other places we have seen Fallen text? (besides just the glyphs)

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Nice catch!

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Sunday, August 18, 2013, 17:04 (4113 days ago) @ Pyromancy

Welcome probably isn't enough to start translating yet, but its an exciting start! I'm gonna poke around a bit for other stuff.

Fallen alphabet?

by PerseusSpartacus, G'rndl Prime, Sunday, August 18, 2013, 17:25 (4113 days ago) @ Pyromancy

[image]

Note that it looks like there is an equal number of characters, though what appears to be the 'M' does hang over the top of what seems to be the 'O'. It sure is a decent start, in any case!

Vale,
Perseus

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"The Fallen" Translated?

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Sunday, August 18, 2013, 17:55 (4113 days ago) @ Pyromancy
edited by Ragashingo, Sunday, August 18, 2013, 18:06

Ok, this is half evidence, half speculation, but I think I have "The Fallen" from Bungie's website.

First start with your Welcome image:
[image]

The letters we know at this point are:

W: [image] E: [image] L: [image] C: [image] O: [image] M: [image] E: [image]

Now, look here:
[image]

We have two words, one small in the upper left, and one larger in the center. This is the same configuration as:
[image] more or less..

I submit that:
T: [image] H: [image] E:[image]

Now Fallen would be:

F: [image] A: [image] L: [image] E: [image] N: [image]

Of course that leaves us with only one L. Perhaps the L is understood to occur twice, or maybe it can be flipped for aesthetics which would change things a bit.

Alt F: [image] Alt A: [image] Flipped L:[image] L: [image] E [image] N: [image]

Thoughts?

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Speaking of that red shirt

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Sunday, August 18, 2013, 18:25 (4113 days ago) @ Ragashingo
edited by Ragashingo, Sunday, August 18, 2013, 18:33

[image]

THE: [image] vs "THE" : [image]

We could REALLY use a high quality pic!

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Okay.

by ncsuDuncan @, Sunday, August 18, 2013, 19:55 (4113 days ago) @ Ragashingo

Gallery: http://imgur.com/a/8nEzU

Not the best quality, but my DSLR battery is still recharging after a busy weekend. The shirt has already been through quite a few washes, so the design is a little fuzzier than when it was brand new. Still, this should be better than that low-res pic from the Bungie store! :)

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Awesome!

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Sunday, August 18, 2013, 20:02 (4113 days ago) @ ncsuDuncan

Already I can see what is almost certainly "The Fallen" in the first image:

[image]

It looks as if the flipping of the L's and the combining of the FA and EN were stylistically done but the shirt is using the characters as simple uncombined letters, perhaps because the printer couldn't do combinations?

Awesome!

by petetheduck, Monday, August 19, 2013, 03:48 (4112 days ago) @ Ragashingo

Already I can see what is almost certainly "The Fallen" in the first image:

[image]

It looks as if the flipping of the L's and the combining of the FA and EN were stylistically done but the shirt is using the characters as simple uncombined letters, perhaps because the printer couldn't do combinations?

It's strange--The Fallen in the background of the shirt lacks stylization, but the word under "The" has stylization (the combination of the E with the second-to-last character).

Perhaps no one was supposed to look so closely. ;)

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Awesome!

by Stephen Laughlin ⌂ @, Long Beach, CA, Monday, August 19, 2013, 05:02 (4112 days ago) @ petetheduck
edited by Stephen Laughlin, Monday, August 19, 2013, 05:06

It's strange--The Fallen in the background of the shirt lacks stylization, but the word under "The" has stylization (the combination of the E with the second-to-last character).

Perhaps no one was supposed to look so closely. ;)

Yeah, there are some curious discrepancies. It seems like the "A" in the shirt uses a slightly tilted backwards C shape with a small gap, but in the poster image it looks just like a little parenthesis after the F.

I tried matching some letters up with characters from the shirt but didn't have much luck making sense of anything. Oh well.

At least a couple of the lines look like they're tilted 90 degrees CW. It's hard to tell.
[image]
[image]

Possible matches so far...

[image]

Awesome!

by xgeua, Monday, August 19, 2013, 05:20 (4112 days ago) @ Stephen Laughlin

I made an account just to post this. I figured out one of the codes, the one with 'M-OLAN' I'll give you a big hint. Find out the artist behind this picture:

[image]

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Garrett Morlan?

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Monday, August 19, 2013, 06:50 (4112 days ago) @ xgeua
edited by Ragashingo, Monday, August 19, 2013, 07:35

You may be right! The answer to your riddle is Garrett Morlan.

[image]

That would give us:

G: [image]
R?: [image]
RR?: [image] - The thing next to the "R" really looks like the symbol for A from the stylized version of FALLEN…
TT?: [image] - Again a modified symbol for double letters?

I think it would be great if doubled letters get their own symbols, but if so why didn't the L's in Fallen get flipped in their cool fashion? :(

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Marty?

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Monday, August 19, 2013, 07:07 (4112 days ago) @ Ragashingo
edited by Ragashingo, Monday, August 19, 2013, 07:35

[image]

Which would give us:

Y: [image]

and would mean my search for nouns last night didn't go well because I should have been looking for names. :)

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Jason Jones!

by Stephen Laughlin ⌂ @, Long Beach, CA, Monday, August 19, 2013, 13:04 (4112 days ago) @ Ragashingo
edited by Stephen Laughlin, Monday, August 19, 2013, 13:21

[image]

Looks like that could possibly give us a couple new letters to work with. :D

Strange about the Y in Marty using what looks to be the same symbol as H in The Fallen. It's a little obscured at the lower right though. Perhaps there's more to it.

I love crossword puzzles. At least now we have a subject, haha...Names!

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Jason Jones!

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Monday, August 19, 2013, 14:05 (4112 days ago) @ Stephen Laughlin
edited by Ragashingo, Monday, August 19, 2013, 14:15

Or I got mixed up on h vs y... I'm still a bit confused about the symbol for A as well... I think we're onto something, but I still consider the alphabet a tentative work in progress. Feel free to challenge or correct anything I've done. (Most of it was done early am anyhow!) :p

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Lorraine McLees

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Monday, August 19, 2013, 14:27 (4112 days ago) @ Ragashingo

[image]

I: [image]

This is also the second time we've seen RR, the first being in Garrett: [image]

Lorraine McLees

by xgeua, Monday, August 19, 2013, 15:32 (4112 days ago) @ Ragashingo

I think I found another for the one on the right that says ??A???A?E?WE??E. I used control find on the Halo Reach credits page and searched for 'we' and found a guy named Ryan Klaverweide, who is the third artist/graphic designer so far.

It does line up, so it must be correct.

by PerseusSpartacus, G'rndl Prime, Monday, August 19, 2013, 15:42 (4112 days ago) @ xgeua

- No text -

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Urk McGurk

by Pyromancy @, discovering fire every week, Monday, August 19, 2013, 18:24 (4112 days ago) @ xgeua
edited by Pyromancy, Monday, August 19, 2013, 18:36

Directly below the Fallen Glyph, situated horizontally, looks like Eric Osborne would fit nicely.

This is fun. Thanks all, Especially Duncan for the pictures. Sorry for the thread-jack Ragashingo. :)

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John Stvan?

by Pyromancy @, discovering fire every week, Monday, August 19, 2013, 18:43 (4112 days ago) @ Pyromancy
edited by Pyromancy, Monday, August 19, 2013, 18:47

Halcylon sighting below Lorraine McLees and to the right? Above Klaverweide

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DeeJ is that you?

by Pyromancy @, discovering fire every week, Monday, August 19, 2013, 19:29 (4112 days ago) @ Pyromancy

David Dague, below the glyph and to the right next to the strange "C" inside a box ? (running horizontal)

Besides being Bungie Employees, what could be the common thread with all these folks? The work group that helped develop and create The Fallen? All part of the same internal clan? Folks who appeared during E3? Are these folks themselves "The Fallen"? Voice actors that were used to vocalize The Fallen?

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Commonality: They're all on that shirt! :p

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Monday, August 19, 2013, 20:21 (4112 days ago) @ Pyromancy

- No text -

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Bungie Fish Tank collaborators/contributors?

by Pyromancy @, discovering fire every week, Thursday, August 29, 2013, 20:51 (4102 days ago) @ Pyromancy
edited by Pyromancy, Thursday, August 29, 2013, 21:08

Besides being Bungie Employees, what could be the common thread with all these folks? The work group that helped develop and create The Fallen? All part of the same internal clan? Folks who appeared during E3? Are these folks themselves "The Fallen"? Voice actors that were used to vocalize The Fallen?

So the Fish Tank has been around for a few years, but could there possibly be some kind of tie to the Fish Tank?

Marty retweeted this image from Jim McQuillan:
"#fish_tank [First] Update: We create fun stories here that we hope U enjoy."
[img]

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Urk McGurk

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Monday, August 19, 2013, 19:17 (4112 days ago) @ Pyromancy

Sorry for the thread-jack Ragashingo. :)

Ha! Any time you want to bust open our understanding of Destiny you go right ahead! :)

Awesome!

by petetheduck, Monday, August 19, 2013, 18:55 (4112 days ago) @ xgeua

This thread is so fun.

Now that we're getting some traction, I'm wondering if we might start to be able to make sense of some other instances of Fallen text:

[image]

[image]

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Awesome!

by ZackDark @, Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Monday, August 19, 2013, 18:57 (4112 days ago) @ petetheduck

The first one is clearly a nod to DBO.

:p

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I'm seeing nothing. :(

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Monday, August 19, 2013, 19:23 (4112 days ago) @ petetheduck

You'd think we'd be able to at least translate the main Fallen symbol. I'm fairly sure we've been told that its not the symbol or the fallen in general but belongs to "The House of Devils" but I'm not seeing anything really...

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Puzzle is almost complete...

by Stephen Laughlin ⌂ @, Long Beach, CA, Tuesday, August 20, 2013, 02:03 (4111 days ago) @ xgeua
edited by Stephen Laughlin, Tuesday, August 20, 2013, 02:13

I filled in the names we found and whatever else I could work out from my photo, Duncan's closeups, the Halo Reach credits and old Breaking In articles. This ought to give us enough of an alphabet to have a go at translating other Fallen text. The big Fallen symbol is still a mystery to me though. I can see an R or T, C, M or S, possibly an I? I don't know.

Letters in parenthesis are ones I'm not 100% sure about either because they're obscured or they look different from other iterations we've seen of the same letters (eg. the IM in JIM, the Y in Marty, and the R in GRAY). I think it looks mostly right.

I haven't been able to come up with anything for the letters colored red. One begins with something like "ONDARI" in the upper right corner and the other ends with "NT" in the lower right. Any ideas?

[image]

So far from left to right:

Marty
Lorraine Mclees
The Fallen
Jim McQuillan
Pat Jandro
Drew Smith
John Stvan
Ryan Klaverweide
Garrett Morlan
Jason Jones
Christine Edwards
Eric Osborne
Elliott Gray
David Dague

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Nice work!

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, August 20, 2013, 05:31 (4111 days ago) @ Stephen Laughlin

I was afraid I'd have to do this myself this afternoon! :p

I'll take a look and see if I can't help puzzle out what we have left once I get off work.

But again, nice work! :)

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Nice work!

by Pyromancy @, discovering fire every week, Tuesday, August 20, 2013, 17:42 (4111 days ago) @ Ragashingo

I was afraid I'd have to do this myself this afternoon! :p

I'll take a look and see if I can't help puzzle out what we have left once I get off work.

But again, nice work! :)

I was afraid I would have to as well, and nobody wants that, as my image editing skills are horrendous. :) If possible I'd love to see an updated alphabet key, that shows our alphabet and what we think to be their symbolic counterparts (plus different forms) It might be a nice tool to refer back to later. I wish I had the skill. We should only be missing a few letters X, Z, etc.

From the top down vertically there is the string beginning Ond... I have been trying to get Ondraus Jenkins to fit. You've confirmed my translate, that it is close but the way we see the letters in the photo is not fitting exactly. Maybe the shirt designer did not know how to spell his name?

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Fallen alphabet key

by Stephen Laughlin ⌂ @, Long Beach, CA, Wednesday, August 21, 2013, 22:14 (4109 days ago) @ Pyromancy

I was afraid I would have to as well, and nobody wants that, as my image editing skills are horrendous. :) If possible I'd love to see an updated alphabet key, that shows our alphabet and what we think to be their symbolic counterparts (plus different forms) It might be a nice tool to refer back to later. I wish I had the skill. We should only be missing a few letters X, Z, etc.

Sure thing. Here's an updated one I just threw together. Let me know if you notice any mistakes. The only letters it looks like we're missing are K, X, and Z. I put a few unusual symbols for letter combinations we've come across on the right.

One thing I noticed while putting this together was that the "IM" from "Jim McQuillan" looks like the same symbol as the weird "C in a box" just to the left of David Dague (but rotated clockwise 90 degrees). That might give us a clue to completing the vertical line ending in "NT" at the lower right.

[image]

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Fallen alphabet key

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Thursday, August 22, 2013, 08:08 (4109 days ago) @ Stephen Laughlin

Nice work.

This afternoon I'm going to puzzle over "Marty" since that Y is pretty clearly an H... Maybe it's actually "Martin" with the N obscured but it really doesn't look like an I either... :(

Fallen alphabet key

by DJenser, Thursday, August 22, 2013, 13:21 (4109 days ago) @ Stephen Laughlin

[image]

Here's one that I had worked on in my spare time. Hope it helps some.

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Very nice. Saved for lots of future use!

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Thursday, August 22, 2013, 13:46 (4109 days ago) @ DJenser

- No text -

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Fallen alphabet key

by Stephen Laughlin ⌂ @, Long Beach, CA, Friday, August 23, 2013, 02:04 (4108 days ago) @ DJenser

[image]

Here's one that I had worked on in my spare time. Hope it helps some.

Damn, that looks nice! Great job. Hopefully we can make use of it down the road.

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Found a new letter combination

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, September 07, 2013, 22:19 (4092 days ago) @ DJenser

Just an amusing aside from making this week's Speculation Saturday. The "The Fallen" image I took a screenshot of when we were first figuring this all out. Turns out taking a screenshot was stupid since the image Bungie was hosting was a good bit larger than it seemed. They were scaling it down! Here it is full size:

[image]

And now we can clearly see the new letter combination HE: [image]

Not a major find, for sure, but always fun to keep things going. :)

Puzzle is almost complete...

by DJenser, Thursday, August 22, 2013, 17:52 (4109 days ago) @ Stephen Laughlin

[image]

So it looks like "-IM ~ FONT", but I can't be sure.

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Puzzle is almost complete...

by Stephen Laughlin ⌂ @, Long Beach, CA, Friday, August 23, 2013, 02:44 (4108 days ago) @ DJenser

[image]

So it looks like "-IM ~ FONT", but I can't be sure.

That looks plausible. Maybe it's the name of the font. Since the lower part of the "O" is missing I was thinking it was two separate letters, like "D" and something, but I'm not really finding any names that fit either way. :/

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Puzzle is almost complete...

by Pyromancy @, discovering fire every week, Tuesday, August 27, 2013, 18:25 (4104 days ago) @ DJenser

I've been ruminating on this one for a little while. The only name I've been coming up with in my brain as far as 'ONT' is Jonty Barnes.

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Cheers, ya'll

by Stephen Laughlin ⌂ @, Long Beach, CA, Friday, August 23, 2013, 02:16 (4108 days ago) @ xgeua
edited by Stephen Laughlin, Friday, August 23, 2013, 02:21

I made an account just to post this. I figured out one of the codes, the one with 'M-OLAN' I'll give you a big hint. Find out the artist behind this picture:

[image]

Hey xgeua, I just wanted to give you props. Welcome to DBO, and thanks for joining in. I know I probably would've been spinning my wheels for a while looking for words where there were none to find if you and Ragashingo hadn't figured out the Garrett Morlan connection.

This was a really fun community project. I hope we get the opportunity to conquer some more puzzles like this in the future. High fives all around. :)

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Awesome!

by General Vagueness @, The Vault of Sass, Tuesday, August 27, 2013, 09:51 (4104 days ago) @ Stephen Laughlin
edited by General Vagueness, Tuesday, August 27, 2013, 09:58

I knew I'd be kicking myself for not getting in on this sooner.

[image]

Where did you get that picture, and why does it look like that?

As a general question, has anyone figured out what the deal is with the H/Y thing in the upper left (Marty)? Does Bungie have anyone named Martha working for them?
theory: the symbols for U and Y are related (just like in out alphabet)-- edit: I meant U and W, but I can see some resemblance with the symbol for Y also, and that looks similar to the symbol for I
oh, and my mom would hate this alphabet, so many letters that are so similar

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Awesome!

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, August 27, 2013, 10:12 (4104 days ago) @ General Vagueness

The picture is an inverted version of pictures of the shirt ncsuDuncan took for us here.

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Awesome!

by General Vagueness @, The Vault of Sass, Tuesday, August 27, 2013, 11:57 (4104 days ago) @ Ragashingo

The picture is an inverted version of pictures of the shirt ncsuDuncan took for us here.

I don't think so, those didn't look like they would fit together that seamlessly (no pun intended) and none of them show the collar.

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Awesome!

by Stephen Laughlin ⌂ @, Long Beach, CA, Wednesday, August 28, 2013, 01:01 (4103 days ago) @ General Vagueness
edited by Stephen Laughlin, Wednesday, August 28, 2013, 01:13

The picture is an inverted version of pictures of the shirt ncsuDuncan took for us here.


I don't think so, those didn't look like they would fit together that seamlessly (no pun intended) and none of them show the collar.

You're right. It's a photo I took of my own shirt and experimented with in Photoshop. I would've been more successful at making it easier to see if my original photo wasn't out of focus in a lot of areas. It's practical to have a view of the whole shirt but Duncan's closeups are clearer in most cases.

I may have inverted it but I think I mostly just dicked around with Color Balance until I ended up with something I liked. The big Fallen symbol was overexposed so I used Replace Color to replace any pure white in the photo with black.

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Awesome!

by General Vagueness @, The Vault of Sass, Tuesday, August 27, 2013, 11:50 (4104 days ago) @ General Vagueness

The Fallen/House of Devils symbol(s) look(s) like "RCS" to me... does that ring any bells for anyone?
Another theory: you can double any or almost any letter/symbol/glyph with a diagonal stroke by putting another stroke next to it, and you can double almost any letter made of circle segments by putting a curve (that looks like this --> ) to the right of it (very close to the character). It also looks like most of the symbols made of two lines can be joined to each other. As for the letter combinations, I suspect it has something to do with how they're drawn/written, which I think is starting from the left center.
Looking closely at the shirt pictures, I can see that "ondari" (in the upper right) has a U symbol after it, so it's "ondariu". Also looking where the "nt" was noticed, in the lower central area, here's what I think that symbols could represent:

  • "imfdnt"
  • "imfddnt", per the letter doubling by adding a stroke
  • "impdnt"
  • "impddnt"
  • "imf?nt"
  • "imp?nt"

where ? stands for a character we're not familiar with yet. The character (characters?) before the one that represents N looks like the one that represents O, but one of the lines, the upright one, doesn't actually touch the others; there's a noticeable gap and every other showing of the O symbol so far has the three lines solidly connected.
Also, did anyone else notice the symbol for J looks like a G and the symbol for G looks kind of like a J?

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"IN"

by Stephen Laughlin ⌂ @, Long Beach, CA, Wednesday, August 28, 2013, 12:00 (4103 days ago) @ General Vagueness
edited by Stephen Laughlin, Wednesday, August 28, 2013, 12:04

The Fallen/House of Devils symbol(s) look(s) like "RCS" to me... does that ring any bells for anyone?

The Fallen symbol definitely looks like RCS or RCM on top with an H underneath. RCSH? HRCS? House R___ C___ S___? The diagonal slashes of paint could transform the symbols into something else though.

Another theory: you can double any or almost any letter/symbol/glyph with a diagonal stroke by putting another stroke next to it, and you can double almost any letter made of circle segments by putting a curve (that looks like this --> ) to the right of it (very close to the character). It also looks like most of the symbols made of two lines can be joined to each other. As for the letter combinations, I suspect it has something to do with how they're drawn/written, which I think is starting from the left center.

Sounds about right.

Looking closely at the shirt pictures, I can see that "ondari" (in the upper right) has a U symbol after it, so it's "ondariu".

Good call on the "U". Definitely looks plausible. Still makes no sense!

Also looking where the "nt" was noticed, in the lower central area, here's what I think that symbols could represent:

  • "imfdnt"
  • "imfddnt", per the letter doubling by adding a stroke
  • "impdnt"
  • "impddnt"
  • "imf?nt"
  • "imp?nt"

where ? stands for a character we're not familiar with yet. The character (characters?) before the one that represents N looks like the one that represents O, but one of the lines, the upright one, doesn't actually touch the others; there's a noticeable gap and every other showing of the O symbol so far has the three lines solidly connected.

Man, these last two words are really tricky. I've had no luck matching them up with any names and as words they just look like gibberish. I think it's going to be tough to solve this one without knowing what's behind the Fallen logo.

I just noticed that it looks like we may have another unique symbol for a letter combination.

"IN"
[image]

It looks kind of like the "U" symbol flipped and reversed. You can see it in "CHRISTINE" but that area looks pretty messy and I can't be sure about it since there's no duplicate. It could just as easily be part of a typographical error. And it still doesn't help us with the remaining words. :(

"IN"

by DJenser, Thursday, August 29, 2013, 07:57 (4102 days ago) @ Stephen Laughlin

"Ondariu" appears to be "ONDARIUS"... A nickname?

The only reference I get from that name is a user ID on BNET, who signed up on 09/15/2010 & has had zero activity since that time.

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"IN"

by Beorn @, <End of Failed Timeline>, Thursday, August 29, 2013, 08:10 (4102 days ago) @ DJenser

"Ondariu" appears to be "ONDARIUS"... A nickname?

The only reference I get from that name is a user ID on BNET, who signed up on 09/15/2010 & has had zero activity since that time.

Not an exact match, but could it be Ondraus Jenkins?

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"IN"

by Stephen Laughlin ⌂ @, Long Beach, CA, Thursday, August 29, 2013, 14:05 (4102 days ago) @ Beorn

"Ondariu" appears to be "ONDARIUS"... A nickname?

The only reference I get from that name is a user ID on BNET, who signed up on 09/15/2010 & has had zero activity since that time.


Not an exact match, but could it be Ondraus Jenkins?

Oh yeah, Pyromancy mentioned him earlier in the thread but that's a definite possibility, especially now with a "U" in there. Ondarius could be Ondraus' nickname, or it's just a typo.

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Ondarius

by Xenos @, Shores of Time, Saturday, August 31, 2013, 09:51 (4100 days ago) @ Beorn

"Ondariu" appears to be "ONDARIUS"... A nickname?

The only reference I get from that name is a user ID on BNET, who signed up on 09/15/2010 & has had zero activity since that time.


Not an exact match, but could it be Ondraus Jenkins?

I talked to a Bungie graphic designer yesterday about this (while I'm here at PAX). It turns that is the name of the house of the Fallen. He is the one that designed the shirt and pretty much accidentally let us decipher the Fallen language :)

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Ondarius

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, August 31, 2013, 10:34 (4100 days ago) @ Xenos

Was he surprised that we figured it out, or delighted? I want to hear more. :)

Also ask him for k, x, and y! And about Marty. :p

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Ondarius

by Xenos @, Shores of Time, Saturday, August 31, 2013, 10:37 (4100 days ago) @ Ragashingo

Was he surprised that we figured it out, or delighted? I want to hear more. :)

Also ask him for k, x, and y! And about Marty. :p

A little bit of both! It was actually completely coincidental, I introduced myself and he said he was a graphic designer at Bungie, and he talked about HBO/DBO because I was wearing a shirt and how amazing we are at figuring things out and brought up the Fallen shirt. He was definitely stating it as a compliment. Unfortunately because we were talking about other things I forgot to ask about the missing characters!

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Elliott Gray is the designer

by Kermit @, Raleigh, NC, Thursday, September 05, 2013, 07:52 (4095 days ago) @ Xenos

Very nice guy. I talked to him a bit about the decoding, and it was in the middle of much gushing about bungie.org in general. They like us. They really like us. :)

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Elliott Gray is the designer

by ncsuDuncan @, Thursday, September 05, 2013, 22:05 (4095 days ago) @ Kermit

Very nice guy. I talked to him a bit about the decoding, and it was in the middle of much gushing about bungie.org in general. They like us. They really like us. :)

Elliott was indeed a cool dude. I'm glad I got the chance (well, multiple chances) to talk with him.

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Ondarius

by General Vagueness @, The Vault of Sass, Saturday, August 31, 2013, 14:50 (4100 days ago) @ Xenos

"Ondariu" appears to be "ONDARIUS"... A nickname?

The only reference I get from that name is a user ID on BNET, who signed up on 09/15/2010 & has had zero activity since that time.


Not an exact match, but could it be Ondraus Jenkins?


I talked to a Bungie graphic designer yesterday about this (while I'm here at PAX). It turns that is the name of the house of the Fallen. He is the one that designed the shirt and pretty much accidentally let us decipher the Fallen language :)

It's just "ondariu", huh? Is that what the House of Devils calls themselves or is it another house? Did he say anything about the other string of characters we haven't figured out? (how about anyone else that anyone talked to?) thanks

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Ondarius

by Xenos @, Shores of Time, Saturday, August 31, 2013, 17:57 (4100 days ago) @ General Vagueness

"Ondariu" appears to be "ONDARIUS"... A nickname?

The only reference I get from that name is a user ID on BNET, who signed up on 09/15/2010 & has had zero activity since that time.


Not an exact match, but could it be Ondraus Jenkins?


I talked to a Bungie graphic designer yesterday about this (while I'm here at PAX). It turns that is the name of the house of the Fallen. He is the one that designed the shirt and pretty much accidentally let us decipher the Fallen language :)


It's just "ondariu", huh? Is that what the House of Devils calls themselves or is it another house? Did he say anything about the other string of characters we haven't figured out? (how about anyone else that anyone talked to?) thanks

From my short conversation I had with him I believe it means what the House of Devils call themselves, though I could've just misunderstood the way he said it. He didn't say anything about the other string of characters, just that he had made the phrases in the background devlopers' names "for fun" and then was surprised by how quickly we figured it out.

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Ondarius

by Stephen Laughlin ⌂ @, Long Beach, CA, Sunday, September 01, 2013, 01:50 (4099 days ago) @ Xenos
edited by Stephen Laughlin, Sunday, September 01, 2013, 01:55

From my short conversation I had with him I believe it means what the House of Devils call themselves, though I could've just misunderstood the way he said it. He didn't say anything about the other string of characters, just that he had made the phrases in the background devlopers' names "for fun" and then was surprised by how quickly we figured it out.

Haha, that's great. He should've just gone all the way and thrown in some office insults.

"Jason Jones EATS BABIES FOR BREAKFAST"

Funny...we may never have gotten off the ground with the alphabet if all the text on the shirt had been random words instead of names, or we were missing either "Welcome" or "The Fallen" to get us started. Just a few happy accidents, tedious internet detective work and some really clever suppositions!

Updated the overview pic with recent happenings. Maybe we can get the last phrase from Bungie or the artist, as long as it isn't a massive spoiler for the ending of the game or something? :)

[image]

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FA LL EN

by Pyromancy @, discovering fire every week, Sunday, August 18, 2013, 19:06 (4113 days ago) @ Ragashingo

[image]
Alt F: [image] Alt A: [image] Flipped L:[image] L: [image] E [image] N: [image]

Thoughts?

Yes! This is one of the images I was thinking of. I knew some more brains would be helpful. There is one other image I'm thinking of but cannot find... Good stuff you've got there. I think this ^ above is most accurate.

For a while I've wondered why they stylized and staggered the text "Fallen" on the pre-order double sided poster. Maybe it is a small tip as to how they group or conjugate letters/symbols into words? Or maybe how the letters can be assembled into a glyph? Not sure about the underlining though...maybe it means that the letter has a pair or can be conjoined/dependent?
FA
    LL
      EN

[image]

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FA LL EN

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Sunday, August 18, 2013, 19:57 (4113 days ago) @ Pyromancy

I'm not sure about the underlines, but I'd say you may be onto something with the FA LL EN split. Those three sets seem to fit together… at least in the word Fallen… in the one place we've found it used so far.

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Mail Sack

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, August 27, 2013, 11:05 (4104 days ago) @ Pyromancy

I stuffed a request into this week's mail sack. Maybe, if we're lucky, we'll get some Bungie help on solving the rest of the puzzle

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Mail Sack

by Pyromancy @, discovering fire every week, Tuesday, August 27, 2013, 18:19 (4104 days ago) @ Ragashingo
edited by Pyromancy, Tuesday, August 27, 2013, 18:35

I stuffed a request into this week's mail sack. Maybe, if we're lucky, we'll get some Bungie help on solving the rest of the puzzle

Thinking aloud here (rhetorical ramblings of a mad man);
Lately, I've strangely been regretting bringing up my findings in this thread right away.
Sure, this could be a localized "puzzle" with absolutely no use beyond the shirt. And maybe I just followed the bread crumbs exactly as they wanted and planned somebody to, but I've been worrying about the possibility that there was going to be more future uses in game that have since been changed/removed as the lead has been discovered? Maybe this could have developed further if it wasn't noticed/"solved" so early?

I love getting confirmation from the sources. It is always nice to have the certainty. But at the same time I've always hated the idea of "crossing the fourth wall". It has always felt like cheating in a way to me.

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Mail Sack

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, August 27, 2013, 19:40 (4104 days ago) @ Pyromancy

I stuffed a request into this week's mail sack. Maybe, if we're lucky, we'll get some Bungie help on solving the rest of the puzzle


Thinking aloud here (rhetorical ramblings of a mad man);
Lately, I've strangely been regretting bringing up my findings in this thread right away.
Sure, this could be a localized "puzzle" with absolutely no use beyond the shirt. And maybe I just followed the bread crumbs exactly as they wanted and planned somebody to, but I've been worrying about the possibility that there was going to be more future uses in game that have since been changed/removed as the lead has been discovered? Maybe this could have developed further if it wasn't noticed/"solved" so early?

I love getting confirmation from the sources. It is always nice to have the certainty. But at the same time I've always hated the idea of "crossing the fourth wall". It has always felt like cheating in a way to me.

I don't think Bungie is the kind to punish our finding things that they intentionally hide. I'm sure they knew we'd latch on to Welcome when they put it on their site. If anything I bet they figured we'd get it quicker. I remember seeing it, thinking "Oh! Fallen writing" and then getting busy and forgetting about it.

Anyway you're not allowed to feel bad about it because then I'd feel bad and we can't have that. :p

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The hive mind finds a way

by Stephen Laughlin ⌂ @, Long Beach, CA, Wednesday, August 28, 2013, 04:41 (4103 days ago) @ Pyromancy
edited by Stephen Laughlin, Wednesday, August 28, 2013, 04:56

I stuffed a request into this week's mail sack. Maybe, if we're lucky, we'll get some Bungie help on solving the rest of the puzzle


Thinking aloud here (rhetorical ramblings of a mad man);
Lately, I've strangely been regretting bringing up my findings in this thread right away.
Sure, this could be a localized "puzzle" with absolutely no use beyond the shirt. And maybe I just followed the bread crumbs exactly as they wanted and planned somebody to, but I've been worrying about the possibility that there was going to be more future uses in game that have since been changed/removed as the lead has been discovered? Maybe this could have developed further if it wasn't noticed/"solved" so early?

I love getting confirmation from the sources. It is always nice to have the certainty. But at the same time I've always hated the idea of "crossing the fourth wall". It has always felt like cheating in a way to me.

I wouldn't worry about it. Puzzles are meant to be solved. We're talking about the same company who had final say on the I Love Bees scripts and was able to witness firsthand how that whole phenomenon unfolded, not to mention the Marathon story page, HBO and such. I would be very surprised if Bungie didn't have a grasp by now on what absurd feats the hive mind can achieve when given the correct stimulus. They ought to know how to react in a constructive and collaborative way.

I'm reminded of the ILB aftermath when it became clear how much work the developers had put into creating new material interactively in a sort of call-and-response with the huge collective intelligence that had arisen and was suddenly churning out its own unique content and problem solving systems. There was a positive feedback loop between designers and players that resulted in a really compelling experience for everyone involved.

This is a good read if you have some time to kill. It's a paper from one of the ILB puppet masters.

Regardless, someone definitely knew what they were doing when that "Welcome" image was posted. It would have been decoded sooner or later. If anything, this should encourage Bungie to throw more challenging puzzles at us, so don't be disappointed.

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The hive mind finds a way

by General Vagueness @, The Vault of Sass, Saturday, August 31, 2013, 07:09 (4100 days ago) @ Stephen Laughlin

I wouldn't worry about it. Puzzles are meant to be solved. We're talking about the same company who had final say on the I Love Bees scripts

really? I don't think I've heard that before

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The hive mind finds a way

by Stephen Laughlin ⌂ @, Long Beach, CA, Saturday, August 31, 2013, 20:14 (4100 days ago) @ General Vagueness

I wouldn't worry about it. Puzzles are meant to be solved. We're talking about the same company who had final say on the I Love Bees scripts


really? I don't think I've heard that before

In the ILB puppet master chat they mentioned that someone from Bungie had to sign off on each of the scripts to make sure everything lined up with the universe.

http://rampancy.net/ilbpmchat

[04:58] sean So here's how it worked:...

[04:59] sean we went in with a story idea and went over it with some Bungie folks. They made some pertinent suggestions (e.g. the use of the Forerunner artifact as the McGuffin to create the slipstream malfunction...

[04:59] sean and the ship name Apocalypso.

[04:59] sean After that, they gave us the Halo bible, we had the three novels, and then a Bungie person read every script to make sure we didn't so something weird

[05:00] sean e.g. they felt that people wouldn't be hanged in their world, but given permanent coma

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Mail Sack

by General Vagueness @, The Vault of Sass, Saturday, August 31, 2013, 07:02 (4100 days ago) @ Pyromancy

I stuffed a request into this week's mail sack. Maybe, if we're lucky, we'll get some Bungie help on solving the rest of the puzzle


Thinking aloud here (rhetorical ramblings of a mad man);
Lately, I've strangely been regretting bringing up my findings in this thread right away.
Sure, this could be a localized "puzzle" with absolutely no use beyond the shirt. And maybe I just followed the bread crumbs exactly as they wanted and planned somebody to, but I've been worrying about the possibility that there was going to be more future uses in game that have since been changed/removed as the lead has been discovered? Maybe this could have developed further if it wasn't noticed/"solved" so early?

I love getting confirmation from the sources. It is always nice to have the certainty. But at the same time I've always hated the idea of "crossing the fourth wall". It has always felt like cheating in a way to me.

No way, they've said a bunch of times how surprised they were at how fast we figured something out, and for the last thing, the one with the geomantic figures and the globe and the Fourier transform, IIRC they said we got it an hour or two before (or after?) they predicted we would. I wasn't expecting this alphabet to (almost) map one-to-one with the Latin alphabet used in English, I was expecting it to be a little more convoluted, which might mean they made it simple on purpose.

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Good job people, smarter people than me on these forums

by Xenos @, Shores of Time, Sunday, August 18, 2013, 21:35 (4113 days ago) @ Ragashingo

- No text -

+1

by Oholiab @, Monday, August 19, 2013, 12:26 (4112 days ago) @ Xenos

- No text -

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But what about this image?

by TDSpiral ⌂ @, TDS Gaming Shack, WA, Tuesday, August 20, 2013, 22:13 (4110 days ago) @ Ragashingo
edited by TDSpiral, Tuesday, August 20, 2013, 22:17

[image]

Unless I'm totally confused, I think those towers are run by the Cabal- they seem to have control over Mars. So I'm not sure if you're saying either 1.) The Cabal are the ones using the pyramids, or 2.) The Cabal are occupying a space that was placed there by the unknown pyramid-race.

As you can see, there's that one last race on the far right that's represented by smoke, a mysterious figure, and the pyramids.

The way they talked about the pyramid image at GDC (you know, it's all secret and stuff) makes it seem like we still don't know the connection.

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But what about this image?

by Ragashingo ⌂, Official DBO Cryptarch, Tuesday, August 20, 2013, 23:31 (4110 days ago) @ TDSpiral
edited by Ragashingo, Wednesday, August 21, 2013, 00:08

[image]

Unless I'm totally confused, I think those towers are run by the Cabal- they seem to have control over Mars. So I'm not sure if you're saying either 1.) The Cabal are the ones using the pyramids, or 2.) The Cabal are occupying a space that was placed there by the unknown pyramid-race.

As you can see, there's that one last race on the far right that's represented by smoke, a mysterious figure, and the pyramids.

The way they talked about the pyramid image at GDC (you know, it's all secret and stuff) makes it seem like we still don't know the connection.

[image] [image]

Well, there really isn't any evidence as to who is running those towers. I think you're right in that all our information points to the Cabal being a major force on Mars, but that doesn't mean they are the only force there. We've only seen two Cabal vehicles so far, their super big "troop transports" and their drop ships and neither look much like those "beam towers" on the surface of Mars.

The beam towers and the pyramids are both made of black metal and have recessed gaps of fiddly-technology-y-bits. My best guess is the towers belong to Race 5 or at least were built by them initially. This is further reenforced by the towers each having a flag with a pyramid in the center of it.

But yeah, there's a lot of unknowns:

- What are those beam towers and who is operating them?
- If the Cabal are the primary race on Mars, why are there black beam towers on the surface that (to me) seem to belong to Race 5?
- Further why are what look like the beam towers on Race 3's panel but the space pyramids are with Race 5?
- Could the Cabal be Race 5's allies, or ground troops?
- Could the Cabal be a race that sells off Mars' resources to the highest bidder, including Race 5?
- Could the Cabal be the unwilling slave race of Race 5?

One final bit of speculation: Perhaps that Race 1 - 5 image is outdated by now? We seem to have structures belonging to Race 5 on Race 3's image. We have a member of The Hive (Race 4) releasing its soul like we've seen the Fallen (Race 2) do in game. As far as we know The Fallen don't use small spherical drones anymore either instead using Shanks.

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But what about this image?

by ZackDark @, Not behind you. NO! Don't look., Wednesday, August 21, 2013, 05:57 (4110 days ago) @ Ragashingo

Perhaps the hostile races (maybe not the Hive, though) are backed-up by a higher 'evil' mastermind that really likes blue pillars of light, or ,as ncsuDncan put it, 'pew-shew shew shew'.

IIRC, that scene within a Hive nest (?) with the big chained figure has some blue light beacons close-by, no?

But what about this image?

by PerseusSpartacus, G'rndl Prime, Wednesday, August 21, 2013, 10:37 (4110 days ago) @ Ragashingo

[image]

Have you noticed that there's something that looks like a heavily-altered Marathon logo on the dropship on the far left side of the image?

Vale,
Perseus

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