Originally posted by Helgen Lane:

__ held 20 moons in hands, like ropes that were held in sailors' hands. (If the subject of the sentence is the author, maybe it means they were familiar with the moons very close, like a sailor is familiar with ropes.

This gives a really nice image of someone literally 'pulling the strings' of the empire, making the moons do their bidding... Which could be either an emperor or empress, or a shadowy force _behind_ the throne ;-)

The metagame that is created by this announcement is incredible

Amazing responses/language work by everyone here. So excited to see more. inkle please HMU if you need any beta testing, QA, what have you. Much love.

Kind of excited, but only buying anything if it's actually playable. I only played through once because I spent my time with the game balanced between absolutely adoring the translation puzzles and concepts, and frustrated as can possibly be with the interface, navigation, etc. I don't really want the former experience enough to repeat the latter experience.

I havent played since 2020. Praise the translators

In case anyone was interested in my continued pondering of this....
I have changed my mind about my first line of translation:

Originally posted by regal.nuisance:

my name is [Mazwai?]¹ and I (was) [born?] on [some kind of transmitter? station?]²
[...]

1) I am increasingly certain the first part of this name means Aliya. (+ free/exalted). I haven't completed the second play-though, but I got spoilers that if Aliya chooses to Vault, her and Mazwai's last names are swapped in the next play-though, implying some kind of Looping/reincarnation/connection. SO either this is Mazwai, or Aliya Elsara. This name is a combination of the word "free" and something else, which I cannot figure out.

A few days ago I got my stardust-grubby hands on a copy of the HV books, and am slowly working my way through that. in it, Aliya tells Talliin that her last name, Elasra, means "moonflower", and her nickname "El" means "rock".

Looking at the script author's name again, I'm more confident in the "free/exalted" translation of the first half of this name to mean "Aliya". Looking at the second half, we have [rock+plant+shape]. I was thinking, if "tree" is [noun+plant+high/elevation], perhaps [plant+shape] (shape of a plant) could mean flower? Then the word could be translated as "rock+flower" which is pretty close to moonflower, right? So it probably does mean Aliya Elasra, if its not too much of a stretch, and not the unravelled meaning behind the name Mazwai like I originally thought

I'm pretty certain the first line begins with "My name is Aliyah Reenel". Some of the symbols have equivalent pronunciations and the symbols translate to ALI-YAH-RE-EN-EL according to my spreadsheet.

My translation of the first paragraph?

my name is ALI-YAH RE-EN-EL and I was born on CAT-RE-BO-FAR-SET
in time/age beyond/after holy/divine/sacred (quality-itself-place-not-all-is) Empire
of (town? forest?) beyond/after
owned/held/taken/carried/kept twenty moon/world in hand
of rope owned/held/taken/carried/kept in sailor's hand
I was first child and next woman
I write/record this word/symbol of language of truth
I wish/hope/dream truth will lift/raise/rise/ascend from this word/symbol
of water on earthy/muddy thing
lead/show/guide/point/reveal beautiful jewel/treasure/gem/crystal

Nevermind lads it's a teaser for a tie-in book, not a new game. RIP!

Originally posted by Enriador:

Nevermind lads it's a teaser for a tie-in book, not a new game. RIP!

Yup. Seriously disappointed. Honestly, if they'd made that clear, I might have actually been interested. Now I'm just bummed.

Originally posted by Chevey:

Originally posted by Enriador:

Nevermind lads it's a teaser for a tie-in book, not a new game. RIP!

Yup. Seriously disappointed. Honestly, if they'd made that clear, I might have actually been interested. Now I'm just bummed.

I'm happy. I really enjoyed the books, and this is as good as a sequel could be to me. The Books scratch a particular itch that always comes when I really enjoy a narrative game