<p>Multiple presumably-independent decipherments have been conducted by denizens of the internet (<a href="https://archive.moe/a/thread/128250341/#128296467" rel="nofollow noreferrer">>>128296467 on /a/</a>, <a href="https://archive.moe/a/thread/128250341/#128297371" rel="nofollow noreferrer">>>128297371 on /a/</a>, and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/3drik1/_/ct9oal3" rel="nofollow noreferrer">/u/justinlam3 on /r/anime</a>), all of which arrived at the same conclusion: the circle-script is a simple substitution cipher for the Latin script, and the underlying plaintext happens to be coherent English.</p>

<p>Adlet's letter reads:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/AIugW.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/AIugW.jpg" alt="Adlet&#39;s letter, deciphered, courtesy &gt;&gt;128297371"></a></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>TO NACHETANYA<br>
  I MET OUR<br>
  COLLEAGUE FROM<br>
  THE SIX FLOWER<br>
  IM GOING AFTER<br>
  HER SO YOU<br>
  JUST GO AHEAD<br>
  FOR YOUR<br>
  [...]  </p>
</blockquote>

<p>And indeed, this is essentially what Nachetanya says when she reads the letter out loud (in what sounds to us like Japanese). </p>

<p>The cipher appears to lack a majuscule/minuscule distinction, and also appears to lack punctuation. Adlet's letter didn't have enough text to allow us to identify the circle-script equivalents of all 26 English letters, but >>/a/128297371 did construct a partial substitution table based on Adlet's letter:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/i11kr.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/i11kr.jpg" alt="substitution table"></a></p>

<p>Luckily, we get more ciphertext to work with in episode 12:</p>

<blockquote class="spoiler">
  <p> The text on <a href="https://i.sstatic.net/jWNKn.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the tablet with the instructions for activating the temple</a> became marginally readable after I spent over 9000 hours in <s>Photoshop</s> GIMP enhancing it: <a href="https://i.sstatic.net/lPmIO.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">link</a> (you might like to try running it through <a href="http://waifu2x.udp.jp/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">waifu2x</a> for increased readability). It reads as follows:<br>
<br>
       TO ACTIVATE AGAIN THE<br>
       BORDER BETWEEN INNER<br>
       AND OUTER CLOSED AREAS<br>
       AS FUNCTION OF<br>
       SANCTUARY REPEAT THE<br>
       SAME OPERATIONAL<br>
       PROCEDURE AFTER REMOVING<br>
       THE TREASURED SWORD AND THE<br>
       BROKEN LITHOGRAPH THAT IS<br>
       GRASP THE TREASURED SWORD<br>
       AND LET THE BLOOD<br>
       PASS THROUGH IT AND DESTROY<br>
       INTONING FIXED WORDS<br>
<br>
 This accords what Hans tells the rest of the group.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Using this information, we can decipher a few more letters. </p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/GYPG2.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GYPG2.png" alt="B, K, P, V, W ciphers"></a></p>

<p>Alas, there is no information available to us beyond Adlet's letter from episode 3 and the ciphertext from episode 12. While there are other ciphertexts large enough to be readable (mostly close-up shots of the map of the continent, which has labels on it), none of them give us any letters that we don't already have from these two sources, meaning that we will never know what the circle-script equivalents of "Q" and "Z" are. And <em>that</em>, my friends, is the <em>real</em> mystery of <em>Rokka no Yuusha</em>.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-09-20T11:26:53.707Z
What is the source for the episode 12 information?
giraffesyo
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-09-20T14:54:21.220Z
@Michael I unciphered it using the translation table and then filled in the remaining blanks (unknown letters) by deduction.
senshin
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-10-31T01:37:50.147Z
And another ciphertext is deciphers:[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/WksuX.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/WksuX.jpg)
user29012
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-07-24T01:19:37.537Z
2015-09-20T05:33:22.320Z
2015-09-20T05:33:22.320Z
senshin
<p>In <em>Rokka no Yuusha</em>, we see a number of instances of a fictional script consisting of glyphs inside circles. For example, from the introductory narration:</p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/0bdim.jpg" alt="">
<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/DTvFG.jpg" alt="">
<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Recjj.jpg" alt=""></p>

<p>These are probably too low-resolution to be readable. However, in episode 3, we get a suitably-high-resolution shot of Adlet's letter to the princess:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/eNvWE.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/eNvWE.jpg" alt="Adlet&#39;s letter to Nachetanya"></a></p>

<p>Fictional scripts in anime are often ciphers (a la <a href="http://altairandvega.net/2014/01/06/cracking-the-dandy-code/" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>Space Dandy</em></a>, <a href="https://anime.stackexchange.com/q/3418/">Suisei no Gargantia</a>, etc.). Is this one also a cipher of some sort? </p>

<rokka-no-yuusha>
Is the circle-script used in Rokka no Yuusha decipherable?
# Is the circle-script used in Rokka no Yuusha decipherable?
Posted by: username_0 on 2015-07-24
In *Rokka no Yuusha*, we see a number of instances of a fictional script consisting of glyphs inside circles. For example, from the introductory narration:

![](https://i.sstatic.net/0bdim.jpg)
![](https://i.sstatic.net/DTvFG.jpg)
![](https://i.sstatic.net/Recjj.jpg)

These are probably too low-resolution to be readable. However, in episode 3, we get a suitably-high-resolution shot of Adlet's letter to the princess:

[![Adlet's letter to Nachetanya](https://i.sstatic.net/eNvWE.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/eNvWE.jpg)

Fictional scripts in anime are often ciphers (a la [*Space Dandy*](http://altairandvega.net/2014/01/06/cracking-the-dandy-code/), [Suisei no Gargantia](https://anime.stackexchange.com/q/3418/), etc.). Is this one also a cipher of some sort?
**Tags:** rokka-no-yuusha
---
## 1 answers
### Answer by username_0 on 2015-07-24. Score: 13
Multiple presumably-independent decipherments have been conducted by denizens of the internet ([>>128296467 on /a/](https://archive.moe/a/thread/128250341/#128296467), [>>128297371 on /a/](https://archive.moe/a/thread/128250341/#128297371), and [/u/justinlam3 on /r/anime](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/3drik1/_/ct9oal3)), all of which arrived at the same conclusion: the circle-script is a simple substitution cipher for the Latin script, and the underlying plaintext happens to be coherent English.

Adlet's letter reads:

[![Adlet's letter, deciphered, courtesy >>128297371](https://i.sstatic.net/AIugW.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/AIugW.jpg)

> TO NACHETANYA  
> I MET OUR  
> COLLEAGUE FROM  
> THE SIX FLOWER  
> IM GOING AFTER  
> HER SO YOU  
> JUST GO AHEAD  
> FOR YOUR  
> [...]

And indeed, this is essentially what Nachetanya says when she reads the letter out loud (in what sounds to us like Japanese).

The cipher appears to lack a majuscule/minuscule distinction, and also appears to lack punctuation. Adlet's letter didn't have enough text to allow us to identify the circle-script equivalents of all 26 English letters, but >>/a/128297371 did construct a partial substitution table based on Adlet's letter:

[![substitution table](https://i.sstatic.net/i11kr.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/i11kr.jpg)

Luckily, we get more ciphertext to work with in episode 12:

> The text on [the tablet with the instructions for activating the temple](https://i.sstatic.net/jWNKn.jpg) became marginally readable after I spent over 9000 hours in ~~Photoshop~~ GIMP enhancing it: [link](https://i.sstatic.net/lPmIO.png) (you might like to try running it through [waifu2x](http://waifu2x.udp.jp/) for increased readability). It reads as follows:  
>   
> TO ACTIVATE AGAIN THE  
> BORDER BETWEEN INNER  
> AND OUTER CLOSED AREAS  
> AS FUNCTION OF  
> SANCTUARY REPEAT THE  
> SAME OPERATIONAL  
> PROCEDURE AFTER REMOVING  
> THE TREASURED SWORD AND THE  
> BROKEN LITHOGRAPH THAT IS  
> GRASP THE TREASURED SWORD  
> AND LET THE BLOOD  
> PASS THROUGH IT AND DESTROY  
> INTONING FIXED WORDS  
>   
> This accords what Hans tells the rest of the group.

Using this information, we can decipher a few more letters.

[![B, K, P, V, W ciphers](https://i.sstatic.net/GYPG2.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/GYPG2.png)

Alas, there is no information available to us beyond Adlet's letter from episode 3 and the ciphertext from episode 12. While there are other ciphertexts large enough to be readable (mostly close-up shots of the map of the continent, which has labels on it), none of them give us any letters that we don't already have from these two sources, meaning that we will never know what the circle-script equivalents of "Q" and "Z" are. And *that*, my friends, is the *real* mystery of *Rokka no Yuusha*.
> **Comments:**
> **username_1** (2015-09-20): What is the source for the episode 12 information?  
> **username_0** (2015-09-20): @Michael I unciphered it using the translation table and then filled in the remaining blanks (unknown letters) by deduction.  
> **username_2** (2016-10-31): And another ciphertext is deciphers:[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/WksuX.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/WksuX.jpg)  
---
