#saeko posts

For any of you interested, I will attempt to participate in @kinktober2017.

You can find a (tentative) list of the prompts I intend to use on my Livejournal account , along with the rest of my work if you want something to read while I try to catch up.

The Ancient Angelic alphabet (also known as Old Aselian or Renegade Runes) is based on Elder Futhark and contains 24 runes associated with a Latin equivalent and one or several symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The proposed rules were elaborated based on my observations of the Renegade runes in context and my knowledge of Elder Futhark. (Please refer to my post on The Ancient Angelic Language for more details on the origins of the Renegade runes.) Words are transcribed phonetically, relying heavily on the IPA system - many online dictionaries, such as The Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, include phonetic transcriptions. As the widely accepted way of transcribing words using Elder Futhark is approximative, some liberties can be taken if a different rune than the one proposed represents a particular sound more accurately, as long as the transcription remains consistent throughout the text. Double and silent letters are skipped, there is no punctuation marks and hyphenated or apostrophized words are written as a single word; for example, Derris-Kharlan becomes [ᛞᛖᚱᛁᛋᚲᚨᚱᛚᚨᚾ] d-e-r-i-s-k-a-r-l-a-n and Tethe'alla becomes [ᛏᛖᛏᛖᚨᛚᚨ] t-e-t-e-a-l-a. Line breaks separate quotes from the rest of the text. Note that the runes used in this post are the closest match found in the Runic Unicode block, refer to the chart below for the correct way of drawing the Renegade runes.

The 24 basic runes are as follow: [ rune ] -Latin equivalent- (corresponding IPA symbols) notes and examples [ ᚨ ] -a- (ɑ:/æ) a as in cat [ ᛒ ] -b- (b) b as in book [ ᛞ ] -d- (d/ð) d as in dog, th as in the, never th as in throne [ ᛖ ] -e- (e/ɜ:) e as in end, a as in a/an, ea as in learn [ ᛓ ] -f- (f) f as in fate [ ᚷ ] -g- (g) hard g as in get [ ᚺ ] -h- (h) h as in hall [ ᛁ ] -i- (ɪ/i:/ɪə) short i as in sit, ee as in sleep, ea as in seal [ ᛃ ] -j- (j/dʒ) j as in journey, soft g as in angel, consonant y as in year, never vowel y as in myth + only [ᛃ] -j- is used, never written as [ᛞᛃ] -d-j- [ ᚲ ] -k- (k) hard c as in cave, k as in kill [ ᛚ ] -l- (l) l as in life [ ᛗ ] -m- (m) m as in man [ ᚾ ] -n- (n) n as in name [ ᛟ ] -o- (ɒ/aʊ/oʊ) o as in old [ ᛈ ] -p- (p) p as in pair [ ᛝ ] -(ng)- (ŋ) seamless ng as in singer, king, never written as [ᚾᚷ] -n-g- + broken ng as in finger would be written [ᛝᚷ] -(ng)-g- ([ᛓᛁᛝᚷᛖᛉ] f-i-(ng)-g-e-z) [ ᚱ ] -r- (r/ʳ) r as in red, never a final r as in war [ ᛋ ] -s- (s) s as in sun [ ᛏ ] -t- (t) t as in tale [ ᚢ ] -u- (ʌ/ʊ/u:/ʊə) u as in fun, oo as in food, ou as in ground [ ᚹ ] -w- (v/w) v as in very, w as in war [ ᚦ ] -(th)- (θ) unvoiced th as in throne, never th as in the [ ᛇ ] -(ei)- (aɪ) i as in life, y as in my, ei as in height [ ᛉ ] -z- (z/ʒ/-r/-ʳ) z as in zone, s as in was, final r as in war + the final r rule is disregarded in plural or possessive forms, for example, tower becomes [ᛏᛟᚹᛖᛉ] t-o-w-e-z but towers or tower's becomes [ᛏᛟᚹᛖᚱᛉ] t-o-w-e-r-z * (ə), (ɔ:) and (ʊə) vary too much in pronunciation to be associate to a single rune, the vowel closest to the required sound should be used Some useful rune combinations includes: [ ᛖᛁ ] -e-i- (eɪ/eə) ei as in weight, ea as in great, a as in gate, ay as in day, ai as in air, said [ ᛟᛁ ] -o-i- (ɔɪ) oy as in boy, oi as in choice [ ᛋᚺ ] -s-h- (ʃ) sh as in share, ch as in chef, t as in nation [ ᚲᛃ ] -k-j- (tʃ) ch as in church, tch as in kitchen, never written as [ᛏᚲᛃ] -t-k-j- [ ᚲᛋ ] -k-s- (ks) x as in taxing [ ᚲᛉ ] -k-z- (kz/gz) x as in exist [ ᛃᚢ ] -j-u- (ju:) u as in unicorn, human (the h remains [ᚺᛃᚢᛗᚨᚾ] h-j-u-m-a-n) And finally, an example of the runes in context, using the Tales of Symphonia prologue:

As a follow-up to my post on the Ancient Angelic language and in answer to SoryuAleksi's comment, I explored the different reasons that could explain why the Renegade bases are covered in Ancient Angelic/Old Aselian runes.

The first explanation that came to mind was that the bases were built before the transition to Modern Aselian was complete and the language of the core systems was never updated. This doesn't make much sense as the organisation was created far too late in the timeline for Old Aselian to still be in use. It also poses another problem, the Renegades are supposed to be an underground, and we can confidently say under-funded, organisation opposing Cruxis. How could Yuan gather the resources to secretly build two large military bases, including one carved into a mountain, without attracting attention? He simply did not have the luxury to build the bases himself and this fact lead me to what I believe is the most plausible explanation.

The Renegade bases were built before the transition to Modern Aselian, only much, much earlier, because the Renegade bases are in fact ancient military buildings dating back to the Kharlan War, which also further supports my theory that Ancient Angelic is nothing more than Kharlan-era Aselian.

As Soryu previously mentioned, the Renegade bases look old and worn out, with technology seen nowhere else, technology that could even seem antiquated compared to Cruxis' installations. While a lot of remodelling must have been necessary to transform the abandoned buildings into habitable bases and could explain the similar architectures, the layouts and what seems to be the original functions of the bases are extremely different. The Sylvaranti base is filled with shiny apparatuses and computers, it looks clean, even sterile, and has an overall scientific appearance, giving the impression of a building dedicated to research or experiments. In contrast, the Tethe'allan base looks rough and industrial, filled with freight elevators and large, empty rooms, just like an old warehouse. Building two large secret bases right under Yggdrasill's nose using two completely different set of plans seems counter-productive and highly dangerous, unless the bases were pre-existing and not originally designed to hide a rebel organisation.

...What could be the common language in Aselia and what about this Ancient Angelic language?

We know from the signs in Iselia and Lloyd's wanted poster that they use a stylised Latin script in everyday life. The common, modern day language seems to be close to English if we take said signs and everyone's names into account, Irving, Wilder, Bryant, Brunel, Sage, Combatir, it's all European in origin (English, French and Spanish respectively). Why not Japanese? Apart from the fact that all signs appear to be written in English, Sheena is the only main character with a Japanese name and is from a secluded village of Japanese inspiration, with it's own culture and probably it's own language, let's call it Japanese Mizuhan. Cruxis ensured that the language evolved similarly in both worlds, with only slightly different accents and slang easily mistaken for regional dialects. So far, we have a Medieval/Renaissance setting of European influence, surprisingly lacking in Norse references for something so heavily based on Norse mythology; unless we look at the organisation lead by a 4,000 years old guy who grew up in the period during which what we know as Ancient Angelic was the common language. Thanks to Arredoval on Tales of Reservia, we know that the Renegade bases are covered in Elder Futhark runes, Elder Futhark being the Proto-Norse alphabet. Nice touch to add in something based on Norse mythology, right? Except that Heimdall, Yggdrasill, Ymir, Niflheim, everything that has to do with the Elves, the first society to inhabit the land, is Norse in origin. Not Sylvarant, Yuan Ka-Fai is Chinese. Not Tethe'alla, Kratos Aurion is Greek. Only the Elves, the culture most likely to be at the origin of written language and to have transmitted language to the early humans, are Norse. Those evidences lead me to believe that the Ancient Angelic language or Old Aselian, the original language of the Elves spoken at the time of the Kharlan War, is Proto-Norse, complete with it's own little twist on the Elder Futhark.

I made this chart based on Arredoval's screenshots and my knowledge of Elder Futhark, each runes were drawn to match the ones seen in the Renegade bases as closely as possible. You're free to use the chart as a reference for fanart and such, all I ask is that you credit me and don't repost it.