(Like, I'm forming it and I'm not sure where I'm headed here)
Spoilers All - TMP
So as I'm reading through a lot of Lena Post on here it's starting to strick at me. Her wording when she vaguely explained things to Gwen in EP 13, Futures.
Gwen asks if they're the bad guys.
Lena hesitates before answering "We are... Managing, the bad guys."
Unlike the The Magnus Institute they aren't collecting Statements, they're keeping track of them.
Lena doesn't see herself and her work as good, but a necessary evil.
This would make Lena NOT Jonah's Parallel, but Gertrude's.
To Gertrude, Michael was a necessary evil, but she hurt no more people than absolutely necessary.
Lena isn't willing to put her employees in unnecessary risk.
The Magnus Institute was destroyed and OIAR has something called The Magnus Protocol.
They're preventing the Dread Powers from taking hold. Be it Fear, Hunger, or Regret. They're making sure no one of them gets a real foothold into our world. And if one gets to close. Well, they have their last resort.
theres the standard heraldry with the lion and the unicorn, 'non vacillabimus' translates to 'we will not falter'
but what im curious about right now are these:
the chevrons (these things; ^) are again heraldry stuff, vaguely represent protection/defense
the other symbols are alchemy symbols
the 🜔 is salt and represents the body
the ☿ is mercury and represents the mind
the 🜍 is sulfur and represents the spirit
in alchemy these three symbols are considered tria prima, the three primes of life
you can see other alchemical symbols in the background of the whole logo as well and it is going to be very interesting to see how/if these elements play into the show
[id: embroidery of the OIAR crest from the magnus protocol. it is a circular symbol, overlaid with an inverted triangle, within which are arranged various alchemical symbols. the crest is flanked by a lion and unicorn, and has the letters OIAR at the top, and a script which has the motto “non vacillabimus” at the bottom. the stitching is various shades of red on a black background. end id.]
hahaha remember like six weeks ago when i was like “ive been embroidering the OIAR crest for eleven days”. simpler times. anyway this is nowhere near finished but. look upon her
okay. round up of lingering protocol thoughts/predictions before the patreon early release tomorrow and the wide release on thursday. I did listen to the pilot draft back in october, but the following takes are only about publicly available information, I'll save anything else for later this week.
the title. "the magnus archives" wasn't just the main location of the original show, it was integral for the framing device of every episode and the meat of the protagonist's journey. if this title functions at all similarly, then "the magnus protocol" means, well, the protocol to follow in the event of "magnus." this implies to me that a main force behind the plot is going to be the OIAR responding to Something that happens with their world's burnt down magnus institute, and that following set rules and codes will be a major theme. less passive observation and cataloging, more the unstoppable force of bureaucracy.
same vibes for "vigilo. audio. opperior." (I watch. I listen. I wait.) vs "non vacillabimus" (we will not falter). to me, a promise not to falter implies steadfast action in the face of resistance as opposed to passive absorption of experiences.
I am still pulling for agnes relevance. lowri ann davies playing celia ripley, "celia" being the name her archives character chose after losing her memory, that character's strange interaction with a fire ghost woman. if we presume this is the same universe as the one the statement giver came from in mag 114, the tree at hilltop road was still standing when she crossed over, implying agnes was still alive over there as of 2009. jonny's comments in q&as about wishing he has done a little bit more with agnes. it could happen.
I. I've been sitting here trying to figure out a take for what's up with gwendolyn bouchard because her connection to elias obviously has to be relevant somehow, but I've got nothing. archives verse elias was meant to be middle aged (at least in body) by the time of the show and my guess is that gwen's in her 20s so she might be a younger sister? a cousin? theoretically possible that she could be a daughter but the idea of elias raising children in either his original or jonah forms makes my brain return a 404 error. don't like that.
I haven't seen anyone talking about the Latin phrase on the O.I.A.R.'s crest, so here's what it means:
Vacillo can mean either to stagger, to waiver, or to be untrustworthy. The ending is in the future tense, so non vacillabimus means something like "we will not waiver" or perhaps "we shall not stagger."
"Non Vacillabimus" across my collarbones. The slogan of the OIAR. Below it, down the center of my chest, the alchemical symbols for sulfur, mercury, and salt. Soul, spirit, and body. I...did not get them voluntarily.
Christ, will you people ever stop doing that? It's- You might not be aware of this, but it is rather unpleasent.
Idk if anyone’s pointed out but the Latin over the OIAR’s is Non Vacillabimus which translates to ‘We Will Not Falter’
Idk if it’s significant, maybe it’s whatever Lena is aligned with deciding they won’t falter this time. It’s very stern and determined, very Lena-core.
Also it’s the office of incident assessment and response yet we’ve only seen the assessment part - no response to it yet. I’m excited to see it tbh I’m loving this series so farrr
I don’t know if anyone has done this but the words under the logo, non vacillabimus translates into Latin as “we did not care” I am scared for these characters oml
Or what we can see of it from the Kickstarter exclusive t-shirt design anyway. Do note, I am going to dig up everything and anything I can think of, whether it may be relevant or not. I also want to note that I am not an expert on the things I am about to reference, I have a dabbling interest in many things, and enjoy looking stuff up. Now let’s take a closer look.
I have isolated the new logo from the old Magnus Institute logo, and put it against a black background for better viewing.
The Latin text on the lower banner "Non vacillabimus", google translate gives "We will not falter" as a result. Though I've seen different interpretations/translations floating around. So I'm sure someone more versed in Latin than I am can say more on the nuances here.
The laurel wreath, which are pretty straight forward. Associated with victory, honour, peace, and achievement. Common on coats of arms and crests. Laurel was associated with the god Apollo, and seen as a cleansing and protecting plant, it was the Romans who later adopted it as a symbol of triumph.
The triangle in the centre with the smaller triangles within reminds me of an inverted Sierpiński triangle, a fractal with ever smaller triangle iterations within.
The rule of this fractal is the repeated forming of triangles by taking the middle of each side and connecting them. However in the logo the triangles are not fully formed, and instead more shaped like arrows or diamonds.
In the centre of the triangle there seems to be a circle with shapes around it: triangles with crosses underneath.
They look like the alchemical symbol for sulphur/brimstone. In alchemy sulphur is seen as an active male element, something that brings about change. It is seen as having hot and dry properties, like the element fire, and is also associated with the sun.
On the left there appears to be a claw and fur, likely depicting a lion. This parallels the royal coat of arms of the UK.
On the right there is a split hoof and fur, likely of a classic depiction of a unicorn. This parallels the royal coat of arms of the UK.
The letters on top only have the A fully visible. However after inspecting it, it seems to be written in a typeface similar to Castellar Std Roman. Based on the shape of the letters of such a typeface, and the letter snippets we can see, we can guess that the half visible letter on the left is either an O or a Q, and the one on the right is either a R or a B (note how the middle arm curves slightly down, suggesting a bowl of a B or a tail of an R). Further between the half visible letter on the left, and the letter A there is enough space for another letter. So you have O/Q • _ • A • R/B.
On the top left corner of the centre there is a curved line that does not match the two exterior circles, so there's another round shape in there.
In the central circle we can make out the bottoms of two more shapes. While I can't immediately think of what the left one might be.
The right one gives us more to work with.
It could be another alchemical symbol, potentially of mercury (the counterpart and opposite of sulphur according to alchemical ideas), sulphur, or the symbol for Venus. Or less likely but potentially a compound symbol. Another possibility is a cross crosslet, or a Cross of Lorraine. Though given the amount of space from the centre of the circle, I'm not so sure about the cross crosslet. It’s worth nothing that it has pointed diamond ends, like the passion cross (meant to refer to Christ’s suffering on the cross as the points represent nails), which in heraldry is called Cross Aiguisé (French for “sharpened”) or Pointed Cross, or Cross Urdée (from ‘urde’, heraldic term for “having points”). Not sure what it could mean for The Magnus Protocol though.
There’s also 10 circles on each side of the triangle, resulting in 30 in total. Though not sure how this is relevant.
Not entirely sure about this triangle with the circles...
If anyone has any idea about what this might reference, I am definitely open to reading it, because I have spent hours searching and haven’t come up with anything that matches halfway decently. There’s also those weird little 3 dark lines on the right side intersecting with the other line. Not entirely sure what that is but it feels a little out of place as the centre of this image is pretty clear and sharp compared to the outer edges.
And lastly these little things appear 5 times on a side of the triangle, so if the pattern repeats itself, it should come to a total of 15. I don’t have much to say here. They remind me a little of carved pateras you can find on antique furniture or architecture. It looks a little like a pointed quatrefoil (4 leaf structure/shape). Could be a clue, could just be decorative.
What does this all mean put together? No idea honestly. But I wanted to share the things I have noticed so far.
I saw a post saying that the artists ink5oul on instagram might have the alchemical symbols for salt in their bio. I'm sure I'm not the first to notice this but looking at the logo seems to confirm that the ɵ is a salt symbol and not, say, a theta.
The logo also has the symbols for mercury and (if you look in the corners of the square) sulfur. The fact that the symbols of combustion surround the others may have something to do with the sparks in front of the screen (and maybe the lightless flame?).
Besides that, the lion and unicorn supporters are symbols of the united kingdom (no surprise, hey work for the govt) and non vacillabimus means "we will not falter." Pretty good motto to have if you're up against the embodiments of fear ig.
No idea what O.I.A.R. is for.
No idea why the double chevrons. I would suspect military, but in the British military they're supposed to point down (if they were insignia, I think they'd be corporal).
listen no one’s gonna give a shit about this except for like the tma fans that are also Latin nerds but “non vacillabimus”, the motto on the crest in the new poster means literally “we will not stagger” (“be in a weak condition” is another option, as is “falter”) and I need it to be October/whenever yesterday, please and thank you