Strange Purple Runes

[RaphaNissi]

Has anyone else noticed the purple runes around the heads of some NPC's?  They disappear into a cloud of smoke when you get close.  I saw them on the Freeport guards and also on mobs in the Feerrott.  Has anyone translated them?  <div></div>

[KniteShayd]

<P>haven't seen, if in feerot and FP, prolly sumthin to do with rallos and/or cazic.</P> <P>will havta see when i get home.</P>

[Nanlibo]

<DIV>These Runes are because someone has stripped their soul from them. This is part of the quest given by Cazic-Thule's Prophet.</DIV>

[Kerisan]

<P><IMG src="http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/8466/runesqp3.png"></P> <P> </P> <P>Here is an image of the runes, sorry it's not that good. It's the best I could get before they started to disappear one by one. I'll see if I can get a better picture. :robotvery-happy:</P><p>Message Edited by Kerisan on <span class=date_text>08-09-2006</span> <span class=time_text>11:49 AM</span>

[Cusashorn]

<DIV>Thats the Count Down effect that one of the named mobs casts in the Lab of Lord Vyemm. If the timer reaches zero, you lose 90% of your life (which kills you if you're lower than 90%, obviously.)</DIV>

[premiere]

<DIV>Unless people been sucking souls in PoF then that theory is wrong this is something more and we need to find out what.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><IMG src="http://eq2images.station.sony.com/000/001/115/155.JPG"></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>There were a ton of mobs in PoF including some beetles with em on their heads.  They dont drop any loot if they con or anything special so im curious as to what this means. There were ton of monks had them on their heads.  </DIV>

[ganng]

<P>My 2 copper:</P> <P> </P> <P>That would be the mark of Fear</P>

[Salat]

Its from strippng their souls for the fear quest in game.  You have to do it to green con mobs or higher.  Its easier to do it to non aggroable mobs, cause they still dont attack you if you shred their soul.   The guards in West freport, alot of people run around and get.  But as I said, they just have to do it to any green or higher color con mob to get credit for the 100 souls they need.  That circle is a countdown, once it disappears, someone else can grab thier soul.  But as long as that is there, you cant because they have no soul.

[Whazy]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Salat wrote:<BR> <P>Its from strippng their souls for the fear quest in game.  .....  That circle is a countdown, once it disappears, someone else can grab thier soul.  But as long as that is there, you cant because they have no soul.<BR></P> <HR> <P> </P> <P>The "circle-countdown" lasts for 1 hour.  So if you are doing the soul-stripping quest and stealing souls from non-aggro mobs, you have to wait a full hour for those souls to regenerate.</P> <P>If you steal a soul while killing a mob, after you kill it, it will respawn at its usual interval with no countdown circle.</P> <P> </P> <P>After you finish stealing 100 souls, when you go to turn in the souls, watch the Fear Gate when you are completinig the turn in, instead of the NPC you are talking to to finish the quest.<BR></P></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Dregor]

Damnit, I wasn't watching the gate!  Description please.<div></div>

[Cyrikk]

I Missed It also <span>:smileysad:</span> .  Any one got [Removed for Content]?<span></span><div></div>

[ElnAckom]

A translation thread and I'm not involved yet?! I'm shocked at myself!Well, of course being the in-game languge nerd that I am, I've already looked into this for several hours, and can offer the fairly definitive answer that the runes don't translate to anything.Firstly, they use two different in-game fonts, the "Evilrune" and "Magicrune" fonts. Secondly, there seems to be no pattern to which character appears in which font. Thirdly, the pattern of characters is seemingly random. There appears to be no consistency from one mob to the next, or from one mob's shred to its next.I carefully took down probably a dozen rune sets from screenies and got jumbled nonsense for each one. Sending them through anagram filters yielded no result of any substance.<div align="center"><img src="http://www.thefallenlegion.org/sespics/shredrunes.jpg"></div><div></div>

[ElnAckom]

Oh, and yes, people HAVE been in PoF and the Overrealm sucking souls. It's nearly guaranteed that this is the source of the runes. I have the quest, and have been doing it to any non-aggro color-conned mob I can get my hands on, because on our server, most of 'em have been taken already!<div></div>

[RaphaNissi]

Thanks for the posts!  I was hoping someone would be working on translating them.  <div></div>

[Cusashorn]

<DIV>Uhh... Source of the Runes?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>People: Its just a quest. The runes mean nothing special. It's just a countdown timer for part of the quest.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>There is a mob in the Laboratory of Lord Vyemm who casts a Countdown Timer spell that will deal 90% damage to your character if it reaches zero. This is nothing new.</DIV>

[RaphaNissi]

<div><blockquote><hr>Cusashorn wrote:<div>Uhh... Source of the Runes?</div> <div> </div> <div> </div> <div> </div> <div>People: Its just a quest. The runes mean nothing special. It's just a countdown timer for part of the quest.</div> <div> </div> <div> </div> <div>There is a mob in the Laboratory of Lord Vyemm who casts a Countdown Timer spell that will deal 90% damage to your character if it reaches zero. This is nothing new.</div><hr></blockquote>Thanks for your opinion.  Was there a problem with us speculating and investigating something new to a lot of us?  I thought that was part of what this board was about, discussing and speculating on lore of the world around us.  </div>

[Cusashorn]

<DIV>I'm just saying the runes are nothing new or special in and of themselves. Just a spell effect.</DIV>

[ElnAckom]

<div></div>True, Ouka, that they are nothing new insofar as the effect is recycled from the countdown you speak of. However, quite right that it was worthy of exploring in terms of a possible translatable meaning. To ignore the fact that the glyphs were clearly able to be discerned as recognizable Norrathian text would be to potentially miss something meaningful. While I concede that time and time again, translations have yielded little in the way of Lore, it seems to me that it's always worth a look. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Coincidentally, for examples of this curiosity leading to laughs, albeit little advances in our understanding of Norrathian anthropology, see these threads:<a href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=zones&message.id=12921" target=_blank>http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=zones&message.id=12921</a><a href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=lore&message.id=12502" target=_blank>http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=lore&message.id=12502</a><div></div><p>Message Edited by ElnAckom on <span class=date_text>08-12-2006</span> <span class=time_text>02:59 AM</span>