Akaviri Script

[The Old Ye Bard]

Does the mod have a usable akaviri script? I know there's some Akaviri characters in OB, but not a whole lot, and the translation isn't exact, has something more usable been developed for the mod? It would come in handy for the development of Rimmen over at Elsweyr

Cheers,
TOYB

[Deeza]

An attempt was started here:

[ART] Tsaesci letters.

I think that it was meant to be a much more "formal" version of the text than the scribbled pages in-game. But I do not think it was ever completed. There may, however, have been earlier attempts that are now in the archive...

[Ysne]

Good question. I am not sure there are any examples in the archive.

[The Old Ye Bard]

Well I'm currently unemployed, so I might spend some time developing one directly based off of the Akaviri Diary (which I would imagine is still the major script) if there isn't anything else that's been done.
Also of note, there seems to be some sort of numeral/date characters at the top right of the diary, so might develop that too.

Sound good?

[Deeza]

It sounds excellent to me, and I'm sure it would make a big different to Akavir too. I was wondering, is there a way to add additional fonts to the CS? Because there is a free modder's resource that has Aldmeris fonts in it for MS Word based on the script in the Ayleid Ruins.

[The Old Ye Bard]

Originally posted by Deeza
It sounds excellent to me, and I'm sure it would make a big different to Akavir too. I was wondering, is there a way to add additional fonts to the CS? Because there is a free modder's resource that has Aldmeris fonts in it for MS Word based on the script in the Ayleid Ruins.

Not easily, it has to be made into a certain format, then it has to be added to the Oblivion .ini, which all players of the mod would have to do, so isn't very practical, the easier way of doing it is to make a font for Photoshop/Gimp and create the image with your text on it, and have that image in a book ingame, not ideal, but it's the better way of going about it.

[Ysne]

Originally posted by The Old Ye Bard
Well I'm currently unemployed, so I might spend some time developing one directly based off of the Akaviri Diary (which I would imagine is still the major script) if there isn't anything else that's been done.
Also of note, there seems to be some sort of numeral/date characters at the top right of the diary, so might develop that too.

Sound good?

Sounds like an excellent idea. I'm sorry you are unemployed. It is hell on earth at times.

[The Old Ye Bard]

Well looking at the oringinal diary, and it's translation, it would seem that they are both excerpts of a longer diary (an obvious thing really, like most other journals featured in Oblivion and Morrowind), however they don't correspond with eachother.
Obviously the "t...|||" is the date, the "t" most likely representing the year, the "..." representing the month, and the "|||" representing the day (given it's the only one that changes), given this the only feasible pages we can use to translate from is "t...|||"/Day Three -so a place to begin anyway.

So on counting, "t...|||" has 90 characters, excluding the date, and the line of characters on the other side of the collum (which I assume is for notations and footnotes, etc), and 'Day Three' has about 215 words.

Now let's break it down, if you look at the diary entry you'll notice that everything is broken down into short sentances, nothing is a long paragraph:

It is with a heavy heart and a trembling hand that I pen this latest entry.
It has been several days since I have seen anyone else on the road from our garrison at Grey Ridge.
The road is lonely and treacherous.
I am rationing my supplies to prepare for a tough path ahead.
As long as Reman Cyrodiil's army hasn't located our headquarters at Pale Pass, the journey should be fairly uneventful.
I admit, I am nervous.
It is an honor to be selected to carry these orders to our fort, but sending me alone is a calculated risk.
While it is not my own life I am worried about, it is the importance of the contents of the orders that aggrieves me.
If they are somehow lost, the fort will not know that their supplies are going to be delayed by a month.
Without that knowledge, the fort may choose to press the attacks on the front line as their supplies dwindle.
They are counting on those supplies to be there sooner.
I must not fail getting this message there.
The slate rock that the orders have been carved upon for safety weighs me down; it is a constant reminder of the more than physical burden that I carry.


Will continue the exact translation later... feel free to post your own thoughts/revelations on the translation. I have some experience with developing/translating langauges from my work the Ayleid Langauge a couple years back, but the given the differnt Syntax, the differnt characters, the fact we don't know which way the page is orientated, and so forth, will make the translation all the harder, so help would be appreicated!

Edit: Oh and then notablly, it'll still be gibberish, because while we may eventually work out (or close enough to working out) what the characters mean, we won't know their english-pronouncible equivilents are, which adds more difficulty to the process.

[Ysne]

Originally posted by The Old Ye Bard

Edit: Oh and then notablly, it'll still be gibberish, because while we may eventually work out (or close enough to working out) what the characters mean, we won't know their english-pronouncible equivilents are, which adds more difficulty to the process.

Figuring out how to make what looks impossible, possible. Impressive.

[Auryga]

Won't his script consist of 'word' signs as for instance the chinese one? Tranlating that into a character alphabet wouldn't make sense ...