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The Zexen "Alphabet" (Suikoden 3 spoilers)
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NichtWahr




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PostPosted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 6:33 am    Post subject: The Zexen "Alphabet" (Suikoden 3 spoilers) Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I searched for information on the subject mentioned in the, er, Subject, but I could only find brief references of someone else doing it. As there don't seem be any actual posts here talking about it, I figured I might as well add one, especially considering I'm supposed to be from Zexen, IC. :)
While playing the lottery in Suikoden III, I noticed that the prize numbers down the left side were followed by two extra characters. I simply glossed over this the first few times, but eventually it hit me -- what if they stood for something?
The obvious choice would be the common ordinal abbrieviations: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th -- and sure enough, they fit.
With that little bit of information, I went about decoding the other Zexen-ite scribbles I could find. The results were a little interesting.
First off was the other text on the lottery screen. The red words next to the top prize are 'SPECIAL PRIZE'; the fifth prize listed is titled 'EXTRA PRIZE'. Next, after the prize amounts are five characters. They read 'POCHI' -- I guess this was the intended transliteration, not 'potch'.
There's Zexen text elsewhere, incidentally. Notable is the deed for Budehuc; written boldly across the top is 'ZECSEN'. Intended translation? Lazy transliteration from 'zekusen'? Danged if I know.
There's some on the official Zexen shield -- which can be seen most clearly in the flashback during Thomas's first chapter -- but I forgot to scribble the text down. There's also text on top of the lottery board, but I haven't been able to decode it -- all I have so far is '?????T?' -- which certainly doesn't seem to fit the word 'lottery' or 'drawing'.
So, uh, there you go. Anyone else want to take a crack at the remaining words, or know of any others lurking about?
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 6:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

hm....i can't remeber much about Zexen writing....but i'll see if i can help.

The best i can make out with this Zexen alphabet is that it's a "Ye-Olde" spelling. You know, the archaic Old English we relate Shakespeare to. I remember trying to read the Canterbury Tales. The words written there was so altered, that i was pretty much like reading in a different language. The word "wife", for example, was written in there was "wyfe". There were these countless changes in spelling, it hurt my head. But the point is that is was the Old Zexen-esque English spelling, which was probably to add more culture to the Zexen area in Suikoden III....

Bah, what do i know?
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 7:16 am    Post subject: Re: The Zexen "Alphabet" (Suikoden 3 spoilers) Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

NichtWahr wrote:
There's also text on top of the lottery board, but I haven't been able to decode it -- all I have so far is '?????T?' -- which certainly doesn't seem to fit the word 'lottery' or 'drawing'.
So, uh, there you go. Anyone else want to take a crack at the remaining words, or know of any others lurking about?


Perhaps it is "TICKET", seemingly it would be where you get your lottery tickets, right? Perhaps, or perhaps I could be wrong. I'm just guessing here.
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NichtWahr




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PostPosted: Sun Jan 30, 2005 4:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I'm pretty sure it's not TICKET. The Zexen letter for T is very distinctive -- it looks like a lowercase typed 'a'.
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NichtWahr




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PostPosted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 6:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Another bit of Zexen text: Mamie's menu. Predictably enough, it reads "TODAY'S MENU" -- apostrophe included. Along the top is "RESTAURANT".
With the extra letters added in, here's what I've got so far:
a?cde?ghi??lmnop?rstu??xyz -- still missing are: bfjkqvw
Still no clue about what's across the top of the lottery board. "RESULTS" would seem to fit the best, but except for the T, none of the letters seem to fit. Earlier version of the font, maybe?
UPDATE: Arthur's newspaper. Along the top: GENSO TIMES. That's another letter found; found/missing list above edited as a result. (There's other text on the 'paper, but it's too tiny to make out.)


Last edited by NichtWahr on Fri Feb 04, 2005 1:35 am; edited 1 time in total
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 8:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Please can you edit your posts and not to double post.
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 09, 2005 2:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

This is some really good stuff, I can't believe I missed it the first time. I think it's kinda cool that some effort was put in to create a special script for the country, especially when 99.999 percent of the game players wouldn't notice or care. NichtWahr, if you're still around, I'd like to commend you on your efforts...also, have you discovered anything new? I had a theory a while ago that the Zexen people were immigrants from another continent...perhaps this could help me work on that theory again.
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 09, 2005 9:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

WIth just the "T" and "H" to begin with, how did you go about decoding the entire alphabet?
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I would guess that it's similar to a cryptoquote (where they take a famous quote and exchange the letters for other letters, successfully encrypting the message). You get a start and you can guess and check with different letters until they fit. I do them in the paper whenever I can.
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Lunarblade

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 11:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Isn't that similar to how they figured out Hieroglyphs using the Rosetta Stone? By figuring out one or two letters/symbols and with prior knowledge of the message (or in this case what is most likely is), you can figure out the rest of it.
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 4:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

There are also letters on the world map. Upon closer inspection, they are all the same words, though I don't know what those words are.

Similarly, the world map of Suikoden 4 also has a new language just like this one. If you look at the map from the booklet, it says "Kingdom of Obel" by Obel, and it says "Middleport" at Middleport. There are more words along the Gaien coastline but unfortunately I cannot see them; they are too small.
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PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I don't understand why Zexen has their own alphabet in the first place. Weren't they established from the Grasslands only 50 years ago? Ernie's ending confused me.
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Axiose

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PostPosted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 1:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

To be fair, the Sindar people could have been around for a month before having someone create their language.
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Admiral Ackbar

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PostPosted: Wed Jun 22, 2005 1:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

Just because Zexen was once part of the Grasslands lands does not mean that region would not have thier own language. After all, the Duck Clan has a language all thier own that I'm sure Lizard Men and Karayans don't use. Perhaps the people present before the founding of Vinay del Zexay helped establish thier language there.

Or the Zexen language is actually another language that was made official here. It could be the written language of Toran, Jowston, Highland, Falena, or even Harmonia for all we know.

I think that the honest truth is that the game makers just wanted Zexen to be more unique, like with every country they make. They gave them thier own language to make them more seperate from the Grasslands.
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 22, 2005 3:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Add User to Ignore List

I didn't really know that the letters represented any other letters. I just thought that the game makers just put them there for fun, like most game designers do now-a-days.

Of course, I don't really know for sure so I can't say yesw or no about anything.
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