unforum

[Sylvia]

[surfzoned]

DjinnTradingCompany

[zizka]

I;m not up to speed yet...

[noam]

There's a new update:

[mortality]

W. Wallace could be William Wallace of Braveheart fame.

Ahasuerus, per wikipedia, is a name found repeatedly in the Old Testament and is apparently the Hebrew equivalent to Xerxes.

[zizka]

still not caught up (not even read the first full post ), but Ahasuerus = "(1) A shoemaker of jerusalem: One of the personalities and names ascribed to the wandering jew." To make a long story short, he was a jerk to jesus as jesus walked past his shop with the cross on his back. Ahasuerus was then condemned to wander without rest for eternity. "(2) In the book of esther, [he was] king of Persia, husband of Esther. [etc] Ordered the slaughter of Jews in his realm; when he learned that the jews were Esther's people, he reversed his orders."

I'd lay odds on the former's being the correct reference.

Maybe wikipedia has more info...

ETA:
dammit mort. I was typing out of a book...a real book, with pages and everything

I still like the wandering jew angle; granted, I've no idea what's going on yet. Is this more of an "Apocraphal Christian Mythology" story or a "Persian Kings in the Old Testament" story?

E(again)TA:
Enlil was the first conquorer of Tiamat. The earth, air, and storm god of Sumerian and semetic myth. His roles and deeds were later ascribed to Marduk and Bel. Iirc, Bel was the god that became identified as "El" by the Hebrews, though I'm 100% certain that waht I just said is a major heresy in a handful of religions.

more later.

[noam]

I was originally attracted by the Wandering Jew angle (I think part of me wanted it to be in the story) but I think it's more pointing towards Kings and leaders. Enlil, "Lord of the Command" (or Wind), King Xerxes as "Ahasuerus", and William Wallace. The triangle is weird, though.

There's something bugging me about this, though. This foundation deals with paranormal and crytozoological activities, yet this has nothing (yet) to do with either. Just some weird letters.

[mortality]

To summarize so far: not sure where this is going. Just have to keep an open mind.

Our first puzzle solve popped up one solution and two possible sub-solutions. One of which could have been an anagram for Hansel, the other was Hindi/Sanskrit for "not" something or other (cypher, laughter, the sky, Shiva, auspiciousness, knowledge... etc.).

I think we might need to go back and pay more attention to the subjects of the books from the first puzzle.

Invisible Cities is Italian magical realism. (Aside: I overheard a conversation on the train last month; someone was talking about getting their magical realism works published. Quel coincidence.) Marco Polo converses with Kublai Khan about cities he visited.

In the Hall of the Dragon King is the first book in a fantasy trilogy.

[zizka]

deep down, I know it can't be true, but part of me thinks this thing is some highly idiosyncratic, patterned cypher of a sumerian anagram.

This is my last utterly useless comment for hte night. I'll catch up tomorrow and start making marginally useless comments then.

[mortality]

Email from Ethan re: "hi nahi"

[wkelly42]

Bottom right corner -- a 3 inside a triangle. Probably related to the 2 with the caret above it in the previous letter.

I'm wondering where #1 is ....

[zizka]

[Sylvia]

[google]Simson line[/google] might help solve this. Maybe.

[mortality]

Anyone want to send Ethan an email summarizing the background on the books and names?

Maybe the 1 is on a website whose name we get when we figure out the solution to these puzzles.

[noam]