unforum

[Sylvia]

well there was another reference to food on a larger scale, lunch, but made me think of food. in case no one knows what I'm talking about on his blog and I think in some emails he has mentioned several foods or drinks.

As for Borges, this is interesting. http://artificeeternity.com/bookofsand/index.htm

I hope he remembers soon.

[Typoxic]

I hope so, too. I've thought a lot about the Borges thing, but (as usual) nothing seems to make sense in context.

[Sylvia]

Tell me about it. Other than the book we used for MSG 2 at Amazon, here is a website that might help us some. http://www.themodernword.com/borges/

I'm just too tired to get into it tonight. And I can't decide if the Tlon thing is the correct way to go or one of the other titles listed in Labyrinths or something all together different. My brain is mush right now.

[Typoxic]

Tlön looks most likely, just because both samples were from that story. I mentioned it to Ethan a few times, but nothing came of it. I forget exactly what was said, but it's in the correspondence archive.

[Sylvia]

update on Ethan's blog

[Sylvia]

I've been thinking about this some more. Is there anyway that the whole thing could be saying something like the following:

one ring
two books
three ???
four songs
five ???

or

first ring
second book
third ???
fourth song
fifth ???

or

first edition
second book
third chapter
fourth verse / paragraph
fifth word / sentence

I'm grasping.

[mortality]

I think we need confirmation that our first two answers are both correct and complete. The St. Pete case at least provides clear indications of when we have a right answer. 0701 has given us no metric for measuring our success or accuracy. It's getting impossible to make any further progress when we can't even tell if we're building on a strong foundation, never mind the nebulous, non sequitur nature of the last few puzzles.

That's actually a huge metaphysical part of the problem with this game...we don't actually have any characters that can legitimately claim to know the solutions. Ethan and Slider are guides at best. Jade's our familiar. Smoke allegedly has all the answers but is so opaque as to be near useless unless we know exactly what to ask about...and get a question prompt that fits our need.



To recap:
One Ring (The Ring was not a Ring...so it's a seal?) All we know for sure is that One Ring is correct. Seal is kind of unconfirmed.
Second Crown (King) (Wise King=Second king of Israel) Pretty much confirmed, given Ethan's hint about John Dee's interest in a king.

Combine those and you get Solomon's Seal, assuming they're related. These are the only two that seem even remotely correct. Let's get a judge's ruling. Especially about Solomon's Seal.

Three ...punishments? For awhile Ethan seemed to be agreeing with Typoxic's suggestion. This is probably a completely unrelated tangent but: http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?title=Satan mentions three punishments offered to David after Satan convinces him to hold a census. Biblical apophenia, join the craze!

Fourth/Four song(s)? Ethan specifically mentioned "7th" in that last blog post, so maybe it's 4th. Would also fit the pattern of amount (1), ordinal (2nd), amount (3), ordinal (4th)... And "Land of Confusion" is the fourth song and begins with a reference to dreams. Which Ethan just mentioned again and would also tie back to the whole Sandman theme casablanca noted earlier. Or maybe we need to look for something to do with Solomon's dreams? He dreamed of God and was given one wish. He asked for wisdom. However: why would we have been directed towards Tubal Cain and the Masonic Orders?

Five/fifth ...dunno.

Unsolved mysterious conjecture: how MSG4's "the executed one" and MSG5's "the banished one" probably relate to MSG3. Masons?

Completely clueless: "sealed its own fate"

Serious, what. the. fuck? (I think I was looking for "land of confusion" and "solomon") http://www.matthewdelooze.co.uk/readarticle.php?article_id=9

[Sylvia]

all good points mort, but still leaves us just as confused and with no viable solution. Is it possible that MSG 2 could be referring to the second book of Kings in the Bible? I haven't looked it up yet, so I'm just speculating.

I'm beginning to believe that all the messages are just that simple. Like one ring or something related to a book maybe first of a trilogy, second book (note the caret symbol looks like an open book), third chapter, Fourth page, fifth paragraph?? Like I said, Just speculation but I really think we are making it unnecessarily hard ourselves.

[Typoxic]

Yeah, Ethan seems to be pushing us toward simplicity and dropping huge hints about MSG4. Has anyone listened to the music yet?

[mortality]

I was getting more at the point that we think those are the correct solutions. We need someone to say yes or no. Other than the fact that MSG1 synced up with the One Ring poem, 0701 has not shown a mechanism for confirming solutions.

When we solve something in 0702, we get a clear solution and some evidence of progress. There's nothing of the sort for 0701.

[petunia]

Jade email

[petunia]

1st email from Ethan

[petunia]

2nd email from Ethan

[wkelly42]

[mortality]

Depends on how you count. Saul never established peace in Israel, facing civil wars his entire reign. David did establish peace, united both the northern and southern kingdoms, and then handed that to Solomon who was then able to build the Temple.