I've been trying to figure this out for a while now and I thought I'd put it to this august congregation for review. I'm planning an adventure where a certain fairy creature leaves the magi of the covenant a strip of bark inscribed with a message in a language which no human has seen. The only way for the magi to translate this message would be by using magic.
Thing is, I don't want to let them go down-time and leave them to investigate the message in their lab (which I, in principle, would allow). Instead I'm hoping for a spontaneous spell.
Every possible spell I've thought up so far has as much speaking for it as against it, so I thought I'd just put it to you and reap the wisdom. Any ideas?
Whilst I sympathise with you and certainly share your desire to have some magical means of deciphering and/or relaying written text to one's mind magically, the guidelines for Intelligo Mentem on page 149 (ARM5:CR) state quite explicitly:
I suppose this is a fair limitation lest every magi start using magical osmosis to study their way to the highest levels. 'Twould certainly be nice to advance so rapidly and easily (one season at the Great Library to absorb every level 40 book they have lol.) but alas, game balance dictates otherwise.
Best they go find that fairy or another who can read it and bribe, cajole, or otherwise convince him/her to read it for them.
Another possibility I just thought of might be to have them summon a spirit who might be able to read it (maybe a powerful fairy spirit or some intelligent mythical beast, etc.) for them.
Apparently nothing, not as far the meaning of the words are concerned.
You could learn the properties of the inks/dyes used to make the writing but that isnt what youre looking to convey to the group.
I can think of one outside possibility that might not sit well with many others here but which has a thin strand of logical consistency to it. That would be to cast a spell which allows the bark itself to audibly recite the message written upon it whilst another magus fast casts Thoughts within Babble as a formulaic fast cast.
This would be the only way I could think of to get around the problem without lengthy investigation.
Maybe a MuIm spell would work, although this could be a stretch. Changing the script from an image into sound would at least result in the language being heard. Then you treat it like a waiting spell that repeats a message. Maybe a InMe would still be necessary to translate the verbal mesage into Latin.
Allows a mage to hear words when he runs his fingers over a written script or carved rune. This was invented by the blind magus Brall who wanted to still enjoy the books he had accumulated. It doesn't translate, but another spell might be able to do this.
The writing is an arcane connection to the writer for some weeks after writing. (ArM5, p.84) Thus magi with enemies let their letters ripen for a few months before sending them with Redcaps. I'm sure your players can come up with a way to get hold of the meaning from there...
As others have said, it cannot be translated with vanilla Hermetic magic.
Hermetic magic can "talk" to the wood, possibly, and obtain all sorts of information about it. I'd say this may include an image of who made it, of major events that happened to it, and so on. I'd say the simplest option is to allow a spontenous spell to give enough information to lead to an Arcane Connection to a dead person's spirit, perhaps the writer, which can then translate the piece; or, alternatively, providing enough detail to identify the language and allow for a translation via a Season of research in a suitable library (containing texts on that langauge).
I see several more extreme options:
Change the rules. If it works for your saga, allow translation. You can add an Intellego Mentem (with requisite) guideline allowing to read a language; this won't allow magi to read faster, just to read, so shouldn't upset game balance, I think. It would lessen the wonder of foreign and exotic languages, however. Especially if you're going to include rune magic, the Adamite langauge, or so on in your saga - I suggest you won't take this route.
Allow fast research. Just like Rego magic allows you to speed up mundane craftmanship (see Covenants and Societas), perhaps Intellego magic may allow you to speed up mundane research. Perhaps a magus could cast a spell in a well-stocked library that will allow him to view the right passages quickly and so on.
Contact a person or spirit that can translate it, and convince him/it to. This can be the long-dead ghost of someone who spoke the language, a demon, a faerie, a person trapped in a regio for centuries...
Go to a magical place where all languages are understood. Perhaps the remains of the Tower of Babel.
Contact magi or wise men capable at non-Hermetic magic that can help. Holy characters may summon an angel to translate it, certain Criamon magi can divine all that the item went through, you might be able to find a translator in a dream-quest... the possibilities are endless.
Maybe some mystical site related to where he taught humans to write might make all written language become clear to the viewer? An artifact that was given by the god to humans might be a translation tool?
If the map is fairly new it might serve as an AC to the creature that created it.
If the language is used by fairies; stick a faerie in the scene and let the PC's get the translation out of the faerie using spontaneous magic, bargaining, or threating to hit it with their pointy bits of cold iron.
This just came up in the campaign I am running and I have personally ruled it is a Limit, theorised to be of the Divine. God smashed the tower of Babel, now the languages of men are no longer universal and although you can read thier thoughts thier words cannot be translated. Seemed to make sence to me. And of course now our covenents Criamon magus is obsessed with making such a spell. The Fay on the other hand may not have thier language so restricted....
Perhaps not but then I would still rule that it isnt within the scope of Hermetic Magic to magically translate fay writing without some preexisting link to or knowledge of Fairy Magic and even then not without a MAJOR breakthrough.
Faeries are normally illiterate, since most are spirits of nature. Those who can read are interesting special cases. An object written by a literate faerie might be a summoning tool for other literate faeries -- if any are nearby and not so powerful as to laugh at the summons -- if it is in the storyguide's interest for that to happen.
Another possibility is that the faerie who wrote it was not literate -- just aware of the idea of writing. Then the inscription is simple gibberish, meant as a prank on the magi. That begs the question of why the faerie chose to prank the magi (a bit obvious -- some faeries happen to enjoy pranks), why they chose to prank the magi in that particular way (storyguide's whim), and whether the gibberish-inscribed object has any other value (again, storyguide's whim).
One answer each to the two storyguide's whim points:
The faerie pranked the magi that way to inspire them to create a spell to help translate written materials. It's useless on this object, but will come in handy on something they'll encounter in a future adventure. (That's the storyguide's reason, not the faerie's motivation, which doesn't need explanation unless it's also useful in a future adventure.)
Just so the magi and the players aren't annoyed at spending several seasons of research investigating ways to magically read foreign-language writings, the strip of bark is actually a modest amount of Herbam vis.
The faerie doesn't really need a motivation for the prank, other than faeries being prankish. But the idea for the specific prank might be something suggested to the faerie by some other magus, maybe one who needs a translation spell for some reason, or just wanted to mess with the player-character magi to waste their time without their awareness. Or maybe some non-magus aware of the ways of faeries and magi gave the faerie the idea.
Actually, most are not spirits of nature. Such things belong to the Magic Realm:
Whereas faeries are different:
This is a major departure from previous editions.
Of course, we won't know more until the Magic Realm and the Faerie Realm are out, but from this I would surmise that illiteracy is more common in Magic Creatures, and that if it follows the dictates of a faerie's purpose that it can read, write, or speak an utterly incomprehensible language, then it can. A faerie who can write specifically wants someone to be able to decipher its script, else it wouldn't have been imagined to be able to write in the first place. In other words, you are free to do what you want with faerie language, depending upon whatever story you are trying to tell.
For what it's worth, faerie stories (and faeries in prior editions of the game) could always speak to mortals whatever language was being spoken. Perhaps faeries are the descendents of Cain, and speak a pre-Babel language which is mutually intelligible with all known languages?
Or perhaps, being drawn from the imagination of the human race, they simply speak directly to the mind of whomever they are addressing, appearances of vocal expression notwithstanding.
Think of it as if fairies radiate an innate aura of the Hermetic spell "Thoughts within Babble", if it helps to better conceive of the why's and wherefore's of intelligible interaction between mankind and the fey.
Daedric, are you still searching for a way to introduce your players to the story via that massage?
How about a piece of bark that is inscribed in a language no one can read with letters none of the characters knows. However, as soon as the magi use magic, it springs to live (using magic on it is the trigger and thus ensures noone else might read it..) and starts to talk to the characters. Or cites poems as riddles. As feary magic does not follow hermetic magic the bark might as well talk back or even give answers....
Or ist is in fact a feary of its own, which used the writing on itself to make contact to the magi....
