Hypotheses Developed Around the Campfire 5 - Adjectives

 A language with parts of speech.  Now we're getting somewhere.

Hypotheses Developed Around the Campfire 4 - More notes on the map

Returning to the map and the labels of where we have been, we now can add the symbol for "danger" and, we presume, "dragon."  We re-label the symbol previously identified as "cave" to mean "shelter," based on our inference that the symbol must be associated in some way with Alirria.

We will need to verify our theory by visiting other places:  We have inferred but not confirmed, for example, that one can find birds on the lower right mountain near the Sheh cave; and that whatever is to the right of it that mountain is dangerous.

Hypotheses Developed Around the Campfire 3 - Animals

Having encountered a fishing hole and a set of deer's hoofprints associated with the symbols above, we identified the symbols for "fish" and "deer."  We infer the symbol for "bird" but have yet to confirm it.  What an "Ehktian animal" would be we can only imagine.  (A phoenix?)  We think perhaps it might mean "predator," which to our delight would mean that there are no known predators' dens in the immediate vicinity--or at least none identified on the map.

Hypotheses Developed Around The Campfire 2 - Gods

We reason that the language must be based on the Gods and the traits associated with them, as follows:

Hypotheses Developed Around The Campfire 1 - "Danger"

The symbol with all of the Xs must mean "danger."

Cave Drawing with Notes

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3. Cave Drawing

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Our initial impressions are below.  Based on our wanderings, we inferred that each diamond-shaped area was a hill or mountain, and we were on the Northwest side of the lower one, located roughly at the symbol we identified as "cave."   Having encountered and walked along the bed of the stream at the foot of the hill, we inferred that the repeated symbol traced the path of the stream. 

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2. Trail Markers

1. Signpost

Welcome to the art of the Sheh symbolic language

Hello!  This blog is a companion to the EN World Story Hour "A Rose in the Wind:  A Saga of the Halmae." 

One of the more ambitious (read:  crazy) things that Fajitas has done as part of the Rose in the Wind game has been to invent an entire symbolic language.

Let that sink in for a minute.

He introduced that language to us -- the players -- in gradual installments over months of gaming as a puzzle for us to decipher.  At first, we players perhaps assumed that Fajitas was merely making up symbols on the spot for a little added color.  But slowly the truth sank in.  He'd not only made a language (again, wow), but he'd made one that we would need to learn to understand and even communicate in, in order to solve the problems the party was facing.  Ilex & I wanted to give you, our dedicated readers, a chance to enjoy the puzzle as we did, so whenever a piece of the language appears in the story hour, we'll be linking to here so you can see the same hints that Fajitas gave us. 

If you don't want to work on the puzzle, never fear, you'll figure it out at the pace the party did as we tell the story.  But if you want to try your hand at the same partial-information clues we had, we'll post them here so you can play around with it. 

Feel free to discuss your theories in the comments! We'll join in the discussion if you'd like.

- ellinor