Cracking the Code in WoR

[Gary Singer]

I had the privilege of being able to gamma read Words of Radiance, and I found a list of digits in one of the epigraphs to be very intriguing. It’s obviously some sort of hidden message, and I’d like to know what it says. So I spent a bit of time working on it. It’s the message encoded in the numbers for the epigraph "From the Diagram, Book of the 2nd Ceiling Rotation: pattern 15". The numbers are as follows:

11182510111271249151210101114102151171121011121713
44831110715142541434109161491493412122541010125
1271015191011123412551152512157551112341011129151
21061534

They have different layouts between the hardcover and the Kindle version. In fact, in the kindle version, the layout changes depending on device rotation. So I believe the layout is irrelevant. If you remove the line breaks, you get a long string of digits.

 

The first thing I thought of was that maybe the string could be split into three digit numbers and something like the first letter of each page given by the numbers could be used to construct the message. This would give “111 825 101 112 712 491…” But I tried a few pages and that didn't work. Peter mentioned to me that I should be able to figure out why what wouldn't work, and I could see that there'd be issues between digital and physical versions. Also, paperback page numbering probably wouldn't match the hardcover page numbering.

 

So I presumed that the code could be found in one of the messages in the other epigraphs relating to the Diagram.

 

I think the most likely source is the only other epigraph from the “Book of the 2nd Ceiling Rotation.” This one was “pattern 1” and it’s set out as follows:

Obviously they are fools The Desolation needs no usher It can
and will sit where it wishes and the signs are obvious that the spren
anticipate it doing so soon The Ancient of Stones must finally
begin to crack It is a wonder that upon his will rested the prosperity
and peace of a world for over four millennia

It sounds like its chock full of hidden codes, right?

 

I realized the long string of numbers has 154 digits, and couldn’t really be split into three digit numbers. I thought that maybe splitting the string into two digit numbers would give something that could work. I tried to use the two digit numbers as letter offsets into pattern 1, with 01 being the first letter from the string. The numbers become “11 18 25 10 11 12 71 24 91 51 21 01 01 11 41 02 15…”  With spaces I got:

te  th s soOOtnb t h thredtt  seryl  n ynnoor  hsh    thlh thsot thl th sou l

The “soul” at the end sounds sort of interesting, but it ends up giving a lot of consecutive spaces in the answer. I decided the spaces should probably be removed. Removing the spaces I got:

hoDthesevnsOOhobrhsethefyhghtsnudantvtcaoosTdttenstrothenewhanslwhenthevnsurn

I got excited for “Hod (Hoid?) these v” but it degenerates into garbage. With some potential English words along the way. I see “ten”, “the new”, “when they”. This one may be the closest to the solution.

Assuming 00 as the first offset (letter) into pattern 1, I got:

eoeheyhDiaTbbeuveehyheyoaenehhaswrnhiwaruuThwhhyaohelheynyienaTlieynheyiaTsen

which is probably what you yell if you’ve lost your spear and a chasmfiend is chasing you. But it for sure isn’t any answer to a code.

 

Assuming the numbers index 01 as the first letter from the back of pattern 1, you get:

urwruorogedaaueieuroruoofocurreperdrgitrbedlerroefreoruodorutedlruodruogedled

which sounds like our old friend the chasmfiend has met up with as again…

 

I also tried using just single digits from the original string as counts starting from the first letter and starting the next count from the last stop. That’s not it.

 

I wondered if pattern 1 could be set in rows with ten columns, and the digits could be xy co-ordinate pairs into the first hundred letters. Something like:

Obviouslyt
heyarefool
sTheDesola
tionneedsn
ousherItca
nandwillsi
twhereitwi
.
.

(0,0) would be “O”, (1,1) would be “e”, (1,2) would be “T” etc.  Nope. Even swapping x and y.

 

Two of the epigraphs had paragraphs apparently derived from one “Floorboard 17: paragraph 2”. One epigraph had every second letter starting from the first letter, while epigraph the other had every second letter starting from the second letter. I tried to recombine them into the original, but it turns out they don’t have an equal number of letters. Using “*” as a placeholder for missing letters, I combined them into: 

AThhbeurtethhaesytwoebreealneafntsbweehriWnhdaIttiisstohbevainosuwsefrrSotmotphTehneaPtaurrsehoefntdhieObnoenodfBtuhtewmhYeersetwhheeyraerwehtehreemwihsesrienSgeptioefcfeOPbuvsihofuosrRtehaelAilzeatthiiotnoldieksetarporyitchietmyoTuhteryiagrhetwbietfhotrheetShhiisnoWneemoubsttafiinnsdtohneeiCrapnowweemraIktewtiolulsfeoarTmraubtrhildegses*C*a*n*w*e*c*r*a*f*t*a*w*e*a*p*o*n*

Trying to index into these also didn’t yield anything but nonsense.

 

I tried a similar trick with pattern 1, taking every second letter starting from the first or starting from the second and indexing into those. Zip. Nadda.

 

It may well be that more than one epigraph is required. I have not tried anything with any of the other epigraphs, like the Book of the 2nd Desk Drawer etc.

 

I got nothing else. I’m hoping some of you who are into ciphers or code-breaking can help figure this out…

[Yalb]

If you look at the string the code '111' shows up regularly. I would almost treat that as a space between words. But im not sure what the rest of the code could be.

[Gary Singer]

Yeah, that's been noted. When I posted this, I didn't realize a thread had already been started over here: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/6398-wor-chapter-84-code/