

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.stack.imgur.com/0bdim.jpg)
![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DTvFG.jpg)
![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/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.stack.imgur.com/eNvWE.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/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?


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2016-10-31T01:37:50.147
2017-04-13T12:54:49.090
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question
rokka-no-yuusha
Is the circle-script used in Rokka no Yuusha decipherable?


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.stack.imgur.com/AIugW.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/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.stack.imgur.com/i11kr.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/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.stack.imgur.com/jWNKn.jpg) became marginally readable
> after I spent over 9000 hours in ~~Photoshop~~ GIMP enhancing it:
> [link](https://i.stack.imgur.com/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.stack.imgur.com/GYPG2.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/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_.


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answer