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Futhark Runes

article by Ben Lincoln

Blood Omen contained a series of coded "Blood Script" messages scattered throughout the game world. If the player managed to locate the translation table, they would be able to decipher them into hints about the contents of certain dungeons and the names of the development staff on the gravestones in the cemetary. This "Blood Script" was based on the historical Elder Futhark runes used in the real world by Germanic tribes. However, it was modified to make it possible to use as a simple substitution cipher for the English alphabet.

When creating Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance, their development teams decided to reintroduce the runes (which had been absent in Soul Reaver and Blood Omen 2), but to use them in a way that was more true to their origins. This makes it impossible to use the Blood Omen translation table, so Jen Fernández (formerly of Crystal Dynamics) was kind enough to provide a new table, which can be viewed below.

Please note that Soul Reaver 2 has other writing in addition to the Futhark runes which cannot be deciphered.

Download
File	Size	Version	Release Date	Author
Elder Futhark Font	34 KiB	1.04	1997-10-12	jef@mindless.com
In Windows TrueType format.

Last updated: 18 February 2007

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