Broken Sword 5 Hints

How can I decipher the Tabula Veritatis?

  • 1 of 8: Compare the symbols Gehnen deciphered. Look for meanings that appear in more than one symbol and check which graphical element repeats.
  • 2 of 8: For example the sun that appears in different pictograms. And each of these pictograms has a circle, so you can guess that the sun is depicted with a circle.
  • 3 of 8: There are different pictograms with a triangle that all speak of a mountain, so the mountain is a triangle, the symbol that looks like a half-pipe appears whenever a city is mentioned, so this is a city. Two parallel lines seem to mean "kingdom", the lying L is a river and the symbol that looks like an M is fire.
  • 4 of 8: Now look at combination of symbols: the Sunset Mountain is depicted with a sun having a line with a plus on the right side in a mountain. The young city has a line with a plus on the left side standing on its left side. It's not too absurd to assume that these two symbols depict begin and end of something.
  • 5 of 8: Then try to interpret combinations of symbols as they appear on the Tabula. For example, a sun with the symbols of begin and end depicts a day. The symbol that depicts a beginning and a river is interpreted as source etc.
  • 6 of 8: Also check how numbers are displayed. A vertical line holds short line in the middle for 2 on top and in the middle for 3 and on the bottom for four.
  • 7 of 8: This is an early version of a binary system with the top line meaning 1, the middle line 2 and the bottom line 4. So a symbol with top and bottom line is a five, with middle and bottom line 6.
  • 8 of 8: You should have enough hints to start to decipher it by yourself now; the final solutions are given in this links: