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[superconductivebean]

#994: Hogwarts Inquires - 117

Did you know? - 18

The text on the Boards from the Undercroft:

appears before the In the Shadow of the Estate quest.

Few attempts on text legibility were made here and in the reblogs of that post. And no, these notes do not belong to Sebastian -- it is a headcanon.

We do not know the author. Howevor, Isidora is the most probable candidate for the authorship due to the name 'Percival' appearing but the what is likely a timestamp, 1632, veils on that probability, if to assume it is a timestamp, of course. It might be not. We don't know.

Interestingly, the artist tasked to fill up the boards wrote the spellings of the Middle English words: weter, strem, ston, chaungeable.

Diacritical marks were not widely used in the writings done in this language, if at all. You can read about it in more detail here.

These symbols are the triskelion and the valknut:

The latter although predates the Viking era, may not be as old as the former; the former is common in many of ancient art, going as far deep into the ancient history as Helladic and Mycenaean eras of the Ancient Greece and the neolithic mound in Meath, Ireland. Weirdly, the stone objects MC can throw with magic have blue-ish carved symbols on their surface; the carvings look somewhat distinctly Pictish, the choose for colour therefore sounds… like it's Let's Throw Everything Ancient To The Region To The Greater Mix Of Things.

This knot:

is the doire / dara knot; symbolises the oak tree, perhaps the most sacred among Celtic people.

This bit could be important to remember: according to this website, Oak's astrological period starts at June 10 and ends at July 7.

These:

are half Alchemy symbols for basic elements (tin, lead, silver, gold, mercury, etc), half transfiguration alphabet as seen from this image:

This little fella is Saturn/lead:

The congregation of the points at the lower left eludes me but the number of points is 7 and the number 7 appears on the end point of the dimensional door aka the wall MC and Sebastian appear at after they are teleported back to the Undercroft from the Isidora's estate:

Perhaps it tells us Isidora had 7 hideouts and not 3? Besides, the number 7 is the number of the planets corresponding to the 7 metals:

Sun - Gold - ☉

Moon - Silver - ☽

Mercury - Quicksilver - ☿

Venus - Copper - ♀

Mars - Iron - ♂

Jupiter - Tin - ♃

Saturn - Lead - ♄

Uranus, Nepture, and Pluto aren't a part of Alchemy due to a very simple reason: by the time Uranus was officially discovered in the 1781, Robert Boyle had already published the book The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes, in 1661. He'd effectively removed the word 'Alchemy' from the use and replaced it with the word 'Chemistry', thus also avoiding the confusion between branches of Alchemy that did research on various materials (that includes spagyric teachings; Paracelsian physicians were the people turning poisons into cures and remedy) -- and what people inspired by Hermes Trismegistus developed smooshing many different things together, such as philosophy, alchemy, astrology, etc, creating a wtf.

I'd say it gives geodesy but may also be a weird depiction of the sal commune err common salt:

What to say about these I can't decide, but they look like ~compound names for various alchemical substances, from left to right: Spiritus Fumans (Stannic Chloride), Aqua Tofana (the infamous tasteless belladonna poison), and Verdigris (Carbonate of Copper, once used as a green pigment; was mildly toxic):

What it's supposed to mean eludes me, besides, it is an assumption.

What I suppose it should mean: something Isidora, if that belongs to her, found; all things besides Verdigris were discovered after her death in the late 1400s, however, there is a person who could've been trying to decipher… these things.

In the In the Shadow of the Undercroft quest Sebastian mentions:

No, someone in his family knew about it [the Undercroft]. The Gaunts are full of secrets.

That Gaunt should've been alive in 1632, assuming it is a timestamp. They also needed to be at school at the time, so could be a professor, a member of the staff (a gamekeeper, for example), a Headmaster; unlikely it was Corvinus Gaunt, who was a student by the time the castle would receive plumbing update (late 17th--early 18th century).

'Aura? Ancient Magik' has to become my favourite kind of explaining things to meself because I, too, have no idea what this means:

I can only tell some text is in Greek. An attempt to type after this bit yielded some results:

Ιαεω is probably Ιασω, recovering&recuperation;

ΒαθρεμονΝΟΝΙΛα is probably βαθμολογία, a degree of smth or a grade;

ρπδ is a greek numerical for 184;

φ, a golden ration mention?;

πδ has to do with the Ptolemy's table of chords?

May not be linked to the much speculated Ancient Magic's capability of healing anything but more so of a celestial body's movement, tied, anyhow, to the Magic's power. Probably.

Speaking of which, Is this the constellation of Lacerta? The number of stars doesn't match, however. Lacerta has 9, this one appears to have 10 or 11; likely 11 + it has a satellite constellation of just 3 stars. I summon astronomy nerds to solve this one + the text and the table below is likely have something to do with Astronomy. I might also suggest: weirdly drawn Draco.

[superconductivebean]

#1159: Hogwarts Inquires - 118

Did you know? - 19

There is a WIP version of the in-game map left in the game files. It shows few interesting locations only partly utilised in the final game:

Top: Pitt-upon-Ford region used to be narrower and wasn't sitting as close to the Forbidden Forest as it does in the final release;

Left: A path to the Korrow Ruins was a narrow trog to the mountain valley vast enough to have a small loch. Korrow ruins must've been situated there, somewhere;

Top-right: A passage to the mountain lake valley accessible via the Falbarton castle (The High Keep quest). The dragon quest where you have to return the egg to the dragon is set in that location;

Bottom-right: Northern and Southern Bogs are likely to be the remnants of this separate location. Swamp Vivarium might be its part as well.

Speaking of Korrow ruins…

If you thought the world border cut off more at that location than it reasonably should, you supposed correctly. There is a continuation to a whole location with a stream, a lake, and a motte-and-bailey castle structure; moreover, it may had been possible to climb the summit of the hill seen from anywhere at Hogwarts, an example:

You can see the 'walkable' land right behind the castle's walls:

Immediately upon breaching the world border you will see the tracks of stream that ought to run through the trog:

Climbing up the hill reveals its possible point of origin:

And looking to the right opens the full view of the place:

Lake's basin:

Likely a junction area between the upper point of this location and any kind of the side activities:

The could-have-been Korrow Ruins:

Bonus: Hogwarts from up the summit:

Quick theory: if Ranrok's Loyalists managed to communicate all the castles in the area, they could've attacked Hogwarts from both below and above ground. In castle architecture, placing any weaponry on the mountaintops— wouldn't say 'considered insanity' but mountains used to be perfect natural defence against sieges.

Flying goblins would've been my favourite part of the game, I swear.

tags: @the-magiarcheologist @thriftstorebabayaga @endeavour12345

[superconductivebean]

#989: Hogwarts Inquires - 116

Did you know? - 17

Hugely inspired by @the-magiarcheologist's Forbidden Forest post.

A long while ago, around the end of October last year, I made a post about San Bakar's tower and a hamlet of Pitt-upon-Ford. There I did a little mention of a peculiar detail of the hamlet's graveyard; I get it, it's likely a Dark Souls reference, but these symbols from the two stones:

are found all throughout the Highlands but especially in the north and specifically, the one that looks like a crescent moon.

Just soaring down from the tower to a long-abandoned bricked castle?* estate? where you'd typically unlock yet another whisper of ancient magic and soak its power, you'd stumble upon another moon:

From there, the path will take you across the red brick bridge and to the Forbidden Forest, quiet at all hours:

The right path leads to a similarly empty remnants of a chapel? or a house? ready to part with its wall:

Smudges at what's left of its corners can be lichen and I think it is.

Taking the left path will introduce you to this cosy little place:

Whoever dwelt on this plot of land wanted the place to feel like home; the pool of ancient-but-not-so-ancient whispers had congregated at the starter castle for a reason, I reckon. Anyway.

Winding paths could take you to poacher camps, troll dens, wicked peapol picking on a mountain troll, spider clusters. I haven't time to explore the Forest much to the south but I did walk across the moon:

It is just forward going south, past underneath the bridge:

*At the last second glance on the-magiarcheologist's post did I realise although it looks crescent-shaped, the picture is distorted and hard to read when shown in full; like a Rorschach test. Is it really the moon? is it a drawing made after the mooncalves' dance? what does it signify? And if it may be assumed to be a replica of a mooncalves' dance, where does it lead to? Has the brick house person gone mad trying to solve this mystery, left the marks for is to follow?

[superconductivebean]

#1163: Hogwarts Inquires - 120

Did you know? - 21

Ever wondered what's inside this little tower just outside the Great Hall?

It was supposed to be a two-story living quarters.

The ground floor:

The upper floor:

[superconductivebean]

#1254

party girls

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#999

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#900

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#1161: Hogwarts Inquires - 119

Did you know? - 20

A follow-up post to the Korrow Ruins' possible true location.

At first @phinik and I thought this location has been cut from the game entirely:

However, it turned out not to be the case at all.

You should enter the world border around here; it's to the East from Aranshire, near the Ashwinder camp and the Well Well Well quest:

But first thing you'd see will be the low poly mountain:

Ignore it, go straight through and behold the marshlands:

What in Faroe Islands is this:

In the centre you'll find a somewhat detailed part of terrain:

Bonus:

[superconductivebean]

#1252

julia why do u look like the 90s russiаn momma ?

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#1011

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#803: Hogwarts Inquires - 104

Did you know? - 14

The ruins of the Korrow castle have some interesting imagery on the ceiling:

A long-tailed bird, a kelpie, a graphorn miniature, and astrolabes.

Which were probably all hidden behind some masonry not so long ago:

Circular designs look similar to what you can see in Potions classroom:

Outside you can find these reliefs:

My personal headcanon: Grace and Nerida could both have quests related to or located in these ruins.

Bonus image:

[superconductivebean]

#1164

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#1049

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#754: Hufflepuff Common Room

[superconductivebean]

#988: Hogwarts Inquires - 115

Did you know? - 16

To the north-east from the eerie hamlet of Pitt-upon-Ford, you will eventually stumble upon a bridge. Straying off the carriage-packed path will lead you to a small spider den and inconspicuous mongrel den:

Here, you'd actually see the den:

It cannot be entered nor it has a hidden inaccessible room, it's just a tunnel going to an under-the-map void: