Rivenese & D'ni Numeral Conversion for Cemetery Totems

Hints and Solution just for finding the number conversion needed for the Cemetery Totems and Catherine's Journal. Includes an easy table that shows all conversions for quick reference - No other game spoilers.

Hints

I thought the numeral conversion was the trickiest part in the game to me so this guide is just to help you convert the Rivenese and D'ni number systems needed for the Cemetery Totems and Catherine's Journal. No others hints/spoilers for the game are included.

If you don't want to have the answer straight up, here are some hints first:

1. Look around the island with a jungle and moths.
2. Go to the village on Jungle Island (bulbous looking homes) and take a look there.
3. There's a larger building near water level with a green door, it's a school house you can visit.
4. On one of the tables inside there's a 'hangman' Wahrk game and a note. Play with the game.
5. The Wahrk game gives you D'ni numbers at the bottom (the square symbols). The amount they represent is based on how many ticks the 'hangman' goes down as you play it.
6. Use the game to figure out the D'ni number system. Compare it to the note on the right to translate the D'ni code to the Rivenese numbers (the red wedged symbols). You'll have to fill in the blanks to find some numbers.
7. Try rotating some of the D'ni numbers counter-clockwise.
8. For D'ni numbers that are multiples of five, they rotate 90° counter-clockwise. For example the symbol for 15 is the rotated version of the symbol for 3 so therefore 3x5=15
9. Try combining the multipliable numbers with the additional numbers. For example the symbol for 16 is the symbol for 15 and 1 combined together.
10. D'ni is a base-25 system or also known as a base-5 quintary system.
11. Rivenese is a base 6 or 12* system, after the 6th number there's another row of wedges added.

If you're stuck on what to actually do with the converted numbers, I recommend checking out jjembs' more comprehensive hint guide that encompasses the whole game.

Still don't know the conversion? The solution is up ahead.

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---SPOILERS AHEAD! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!---

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Conversion Table

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I made this quick reference image that converts the new Rivenese numeral system to our regular Arabic numbers and D'ni numerals for easy reference. I hope this helps!

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(Feel free to use the above image in your guides/videos etc. just give credit if so thanks <3)

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* - We currently don't know what base system Rivenese is due to lack of data. It's possible that the rings either keep expanding outwards, in which case it's a base-6 system or it might switch to something different in which case it could be a base-12 system. It might also simply not go beyond the number 12.
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Thank you to everyone who helped in the comments as well as the D'ni numeral wiki page for helping me with some terminology[dni.fandom.com]. Let me know if I made any mistakes.

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[Wicked Mab]

@Vantablack Pharaoh That is a phenomenal detail, I love that. Now I'm really glad they made that change from the original Riven.

[Vantablack Pharaoh]

It appears that Rivenese numbers are actually base 6 or at least counts in multiples of 6. You just never apparently need more numbers above 6 for much, meaning that 12 or maybe even 24 is the most meaningful highest number here - not 25 as in D'ni numerals. Similar but different. :)

Think about it, the Moiety use six symbols for the code to get to Tay as well as the code for the back way past the Submarine puzzle, as this would be their cultural heritage and thus a way of defying Gehn , therefore it makes sense that despite everything on Riven occurring around the number 5 (relevant to the D'ni and thus Gehn's culture as something sort of "divine" in a way), the Moiety would base around the number 6.

[Pixolotl]

Aaaaaaahhhh! The wedges are NUMERALS?! How could I not see this? Everything makes SO much more sense now! Thank you so much!

[Fay]

@Nogard slight correction in that it's the D'ni numbers, not the Rivenese ones but yes you could learn the D'ni numbers that way but it's not really learning them since you kind of have to make a conjecture that they're numbers in the correct order. The School House provides an actual way to learn and understand them and then be able to convert them into the Rivenese number system but it's a good little hint nonetheless

[MrDhjins]

small hint to get the rivenese numbers early game: Solve the rotating room on starter island, and enable the steam to go into the sidepipe in the little cave of the rotating room. this steam powers the lock of the machinery right in front of your starting prison. go back there and open the panel and your presented with 10 keys displaying 10 diffrent simbols. Yep you guessed right its Rivenese 1 to 10.

[Fay]

@*Tydus.Tarien~ We don't know what happens after 12. They could add more outer rings or swap to a new method or perhaps there are no further numbers. There's not enough info in-game to tell.

@Cpt.ButtHurt You can find it in the schoolhouse on the note.

[Cpt.ButtHurt]

In game i always have 1-9 numbers, how i can found symbols for 10?

[*Tydus.Tarien~]

what does a 25 look like....?

[Dr100percent]

To add to the confusion, the D'ni use base 5 numerals. This means every 5th number the symbols rotate 90 degrees counter-clockwise and add the next symbol on top of the previous group.

You'll find this important if you need to count past 12 on this chart (and you likely will for at least one puzzle).

[Fay]

@Gargish That's some great insights, thank you. I'll leave it as both numbers for now, the hint should still help people get to a solution. I did also play Obduction which I liked but I'll always be the biggest fangirl of the Myst franchise because of the lore. I don't fully recall the Obduction number system but I remember it being quite different in practice. I wish more puzzle-game makers implemented language and number systems like Cyan does.