Snowmane's Ciphers

Captain Snowmane protected his journals and the locations of his treasures with a series of ciphers. After his death, it took over a century to recover enough of his journals, and the journals of his crew, to begin deciphering their contents. The keys to translation are encoded in constellations, nicknames for ports and landmarks, a dead language, and even a directional system hidden in knots of rope.

Originally, it was believed that Snowmane was exceptionally paranoid, or simply enjoyed creating ciphers, but translation of his journals revealed them to contain a novel's worth of homoromantic poetry. Considering that he lived in a time and place where the Malisyk, who actively hunted homosexual and gender nonconforming individuals down, this was likely to protect himself and his crew should they be captured.

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by Joel Wennerhoem

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Table of Contents

Rare Text

The text is written in Kamosazae, a now dead regional language based on Nazaza, which is itself is a variant of Sazasharanare.

Cipher

The text is further ciphered with a Vigenère cipher whose keyword is based on Snowmane's keyword

Constellation Coordinates

Walking Ropes

The Translation Journey

Gathering the Journals

After years of negotiation, the archives of Tyrn-Cha have finally brought Snowmane's journals home from the World History Museum of Metkrah, where they've sat gathering dust in storage as a trophy of the Blood Snow Offensive.

While I am grateful they protected these texts from falling into the hands of the Malisyk, who would have destroyed them, they clearly didn't want to give them back at all. I suppose such is the way of museums and states — even this archive has numerous artifacts which the Faur̆i Faecha tribes are petitioning for the return of.

I have my work cut out for me. The library is still being put in order, and the shipment from Metkrah included a great many other books. I will likely be spending weeks poring over the stacks to find the journals. I will also be helping with the the unsorted stacks, as I suspect I will find more there.

— K̆amuna R̆asu-Ber̆ini

1/37/4431

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After Snowmane's death in 4248, his vessel — Ol' Behule — and its contents were claimed by Aempis and held in a museum. Its inventory included he past couple months of crew journals — primarly those of Snowmane and his first mate, Harin Ropeweaver.

More of Snowmane's journals were recovered from Tyrn-Cha after the combined forces of the Faecha Maidens and the Aempian Royal Forces stormed the fortress city. More of Snowmane's journals were found within, though it is certain that many more were burned.

From the contents of the recovered journals

Ledger of Recovered Texts

• Snowmane's Journals (21 of an estimated 50+)
• Harin Ropeweaver (18 of an estimated 30+)

Translating the Text

The text itself was written in Old Eusazi - a dying dialect of Nasaza spoken by his family - further obfuscated by using a Vigenere cipher whose ketyword was his nickname for the most recently visited port or island before the entry. Its only thanks to the journalings of his first mate and some of his crewmates, which referenced these nicknames and kept a partial log of what was purchased or done at each port.

Finding the Keywords

4420 - Researcher excitedly talking about gaining access to the archives in Tyrn Cha now that the journals have been moved from Metkrah

The translation process to his works is quite complex, but we have finally determined the method after decades of research and sourcing the journals of his crewmates.

Finding an Entry's Keyword:

• Determine the date based on the constellation angle described at the front of the entry
• Check the ledger on that date to determine the port
• Find the port
• Search the first mate's journal for the port nickname

Applying the Keyword to the Entry:

Snowmane added the numeric value of his keyword to each letter he wrote. So for example if the unciphered first letter is C (Summer Camp) and the first letter of the keyword (Behule) is B, the value of D (letter 4) is added to letter C (letter 3) to create the letter E. U would be added to E for [WIP].

With a password of Behule, the cipher resets every 6 letters and at the start of each paragraph.

The text itself was written in Old Eusazi - a dying dialect of Nasaza spoken by his family - further obfuscated by using a Vigenere cipher whose ketyword was his nickname for the most recently visited port or island before the entry. Its only thanks to the journalings of his first mate and some of his crewmates, which referenced these nicknames and kept a partial log of what was purchased or done at each port.

Constellations to Coordinates

Walking Ropes

Finding Snowmane's Hideout