Runes

Arcane **runes** are the writing system used in the universe of The Messenger. They are based off of the English language.

## Main Story

### Tower of Time Statues

Spread throughout the 8-bit Tower of Time are four statues with alphabetic runes on their plaques. The statues of Queen of Quills, The Creator, and The Iron Hood all reappear for a second time in the Tower of Time room before Cloud Ruins, while The Bowman statue only has one location in the tower.

* The first statue, labeled "THE BOWMAN," is located at the first shop within the tower. This statue is based off of the Western Hero who rescues Ninja Village in the beginning of the game.
* The second statue is labeled "QUEEN OF QUILLS." This statue is based off of Monk, who is also known as the "Queen of Quills."
* The third statue is labeled "THE CREATOR." This statue is based off of Phantom, who created the scroll.
* The fourth statue is labeled "THE IRON HOOD." This statue is based off of The Iron Hood, a character introduced with the Picnic Panic DLC update.

### Forlorn Temple Thrones

In Forlorn Temple, there are two thrones with the word "DEMON" etched into them. The Tower of Time statues and the "DEMON" thrones allow the player to learn all letters of the alphabet, excluding: G/J/K/P/V/X/Y/Z. The remaining letters were discovered as part of the ARG.

## Picnic Panic

*For the main article, see Picnic Panic.*
### Rock on a Shelf

A rock with the letter P on it is seen on a shelf in the Picnic Panic version of the shop. Before the release of the Picnic Panic DLC, promotional material of the tiki shop was shared on social media, via The Shopkeeper's Twitter banner.

### Shop Checkpoint Signboards

Above every shop in Picnic Panic is a signboard with the word "TUWHERA" written on it. Promotional material displayed one of these shop signboards before the release of the DLC.

### Inn-finity

A green hut with a signboard with the word "INNFINITY" on it is found in a very secret area of Voodkin Shore. This secret area is accessed in the southwestern corner of the room with the fifth shop. Be in 8-bit, go to the dead-end with a palm tree and a health jar, and wait near the left wall for about 30 seconds to reveal the secret pathway. "INNFINITY" is a reference to The Shopkeeper's story in Voodkin Shore, about a family of innkeepers.

### Voodoo Magic Word

In the first and second Picnic Panic DLC trailers, shortly after the promotional words "VOODOO MAGIC!" appear, a tiny slab of stone can be seen in the background with the word "TUWHERA" etched into it. In the ARG, this word was required to save The Archivist, who was unable to return to The Void until "TUWHERA" was uttered into it.

Interestingly, this particular slab of stone does not appear in the final version of Picnic Panic, despite being in the trailer footage.

### Books from The Archives

In the official The Messenger Discord server, The Archivist gave the players an opportunity to view an excerpt from one of three books from The Archives. These books introduced two more letters of the alphabet: J and Z. This also introduced the apostrophe symbol.

* A lime-green book labeled "NINJA."
* An aqua book labeled "THE ALCHEMIST."
* A red book labeled "BARMA'THAZEL."

### Ninja's Book

Players of the official The Messenger Discord server voted for the lime-green book, Ninja's book. The book contained two pages with an excerpt of Ninja's adventures. With this excerpt, four more letters of the alphabet were introduced: G/K/V/Y. This also introduced the comma symbol and period symbol.

BAMBOO CREEK
AND INTO THE
HOWLING GROTTO,
NINJA WOULD
BEAR WITNESS TO
BEAUTIFUL
STREAMS OF
EMERALD. IT IS
HERE THAT HE
WOULD ADD THE
WINGSUIT
YET ANOTHER
ARTIFACT MADE
BY THE
LEGENDARY
CRAFTSMAN
KNOWN AS IRON
HOOD. AS HE
WOULD
EVENTUALLY
FIND OUT, RIGHT
BELOW HIM LAY

### Stone Tablet Timeline

Players of the official The Messenger Discord server were given an opportunity by The Archivist to complete a timeline of stone tablets, ranging from The Alchemist's birth, to the Phantom's curse, and to Ninja's role as The Messenger. If properly placed, The Archivist promised to reveal more information about how he became an immortal being. This timeline of stone tablets revealed the second-to-last unknown letter, the letter P. Only the letter X remained unknown.

Players proposed the following stone tablet placement:

* Birth of The Alchemist
* Hundreds of thousands of years gap
* The Flood
* Phantom's Curse begins
* Thousands of years gap
* Ninja carries the scroll

The next day, The Archivist confirmed that the proposed timeline was in the correct order and then provided more information on his origins.

### Colos or Suses Event

After the conclusion of the "Colos or Suses event" in the official The Messenger Discord, Colos and Suses created a Commemorative Plaque as a thanks for everyone who participated. The Commemorative Plaque revealed the final letter, X, along with the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, and 9.

### Discord Shop

Mysterious letters began to appear in the official The Messenger Discord server, obtained in various manners. The collected letters are currently recorded at the top of the Discord branch of The Shop.

**May 3, 2019**

* The Clockwork Concierge spoke of the mysterious shop upgrade called "The Letter H" and requested for The Shopkeeper to add it to the Discord shop.

**May 14, 2019**

* The Shopkeeper had neglected her duty to add "The Letter H" as a shop upgrade. The Clockwork Concierge again requested for The Shopkeeper to add the upgrade to the shop, and she finally updated the tree.

**May 17, 2019**

* Stéphanie was selected to be The Messenger for purchasing upgrades.
* Stéphanie purchased "The Scrying Orb," an incredibly fragile orb that was only visible to members of the official Discord with the "Ninja" role. It was explained that if its contents were revealed, shared, or discussed, the scrying orb would break. On that day, the orb cracked a bit due to Phil (The Clockwork Operator) talking about the orb.

**July 19, 2019**

* Tommy The Lucky One (a.k.a. StrawB) was selected to be The Messenger for purchasing upgrades.
* "The Letter E" was found and automatically obtained during Chapter 2 of the text adventure. **[E Obtained]**
* "The Letter H" was purchased by StrawB. **[H Obtained]**
* Since "The Letter H" was purchased by StrawB, the next upgrade appeared in the tree, "The Letters A & U."

**August 8, 2019**

* "The Letter R" was awarded by the Clockwork Concierge to celebrate 2,000 total members in the official Discord server. **[R Obtained]**

**September 13, 2019**

* Ashes was selected to be The Messenger for purchasing upgrades.
* The Shopkeeper asked if Ashes was interested in breaking the scrying orb. After a community discussion, they voted to keep the orb intact.
* Ashes asked The Shopkeeper for clarification on the purpose of collecting all of these letters. The Shopkeeper explained that these letters needed to be collected in order to see The Archivist once again. She also mentioned that these letters would not spell out the word "TUWHERA."
* "The Letters A & U" was purchased by Ashes. **[A and U Obtained]**
* "Ramblings of a lost soul Chapter 2" was purchased by Ashes. In the document is the mention of someone named "AEPHORUL," and it was speculated by some community members that it was the word the letters were forming.

**September 19, 2019**

* The silhouette of "The Letter L" appeared in the crack of the scrying orb. There were many arguments and discussions whether or not to break the scrying orb, but in the end, the orb remained intact.

**October 3, 2019**

* The scrying orb's magical power subsided for good, and the orb appeared to be unbreakable.
* Suses was encouraged by the community to punt the orb really far. The orb was punted really far and was lost.
* The Clockwork Concierge hinted that The Shopkeeper could potentially help with the orb.

**January 2, 2020**

* The Clockwork Concierge held a quiz, offering "The Letter O" as the prize. The community answered the quiz question correctly and obtained "The Letter O." **[O Obtained]**

**January 24, 2020**

* camand was selected to be The Messenger.
* camand asked The Shopkeeper about "The Letter L," which was previously punted by Suses, and "The Letter P," which was on a stone slab sitting on the Tiki Shop shelf. The Shopkeeper explained that "The Letter L" was lost forever, but she handed over "The Letter P." **[P Obtained]**

**January 28, 2020**

* The collected letters, A, E, P, H, O, R, and U were used to decipher a scroll called the "Tidal Wave of Lore."

### Ramblings of a Lost Soul

In the official The Messenger Discord server, The Archivist delivered a scroll to the Clockwork Concierge to deliver to the community. The document is titled "Ramblings\_of\_a\_lost\_soul.png." It revealed the "question mark" symbol and also an alternative version of the "apostrophe" symbol.

"SOUL ADRIFT, ADVENTUROUS HEART.

ANOTHER TIMELINE, ANOTHER OF THE FLESHMANCER'S CREATIONS DOWN.

ANOTHER MINOR WOUND, ANOTHER TRIVIAL CONCOCTION, ANOTHER DEAD END.

STILL NO SIGN OF THE STAR SHARDS.

"SOUL ADRIFT, WORRIED HEART.

THE WITNESSES OF BOOK 1, HAVE THEY REALIZED BY NOW?

NINJA SAW THEIR REMAINS. WITHOUT ECLIPSE MAGIC, WE ARE DOOMED.

HOW I WISH THEY WERE STILL BY MY SIDE...

"SOUL ADRIFT, INDUSTRIOUS HEART.

BUYING TIME THROUGH NINJA'S SIDE QUEST.

BUT HOW TO PREPARE THEM FOR BOOK 2?

A MATTER TO THINK THROUGH BEFORE I RETURN.

"SOUL ADRIFT, DETERMINED HEART.

SO MANY POTENTIAL ADVENTURERS, AND SO LITTLE POWER LEFT.

ONLY ONE VOIDWALKER TO SEE THE TRUTH AND CARRY IT BACK. BUT WHO?

I WILL KEEP WATCHING THEM.

"IT IS TIME THE ARTIFICER REVEALED A BIT MORE."

In reference to the last line of the message, The Artificer made a blog post on the official website.

### Ramblings of a Lost Soul - Chapter 2

In the official The Messenger Discord server, during a visit from The Shopkeeper in #the-shop text channel, "Ramblings of a lost soul Chapter 2" became an available shop upgrade in the Discord branch of The Shop. After it was purchased, Manfred delivered a scroll and gave it to The Shopkeeper, who then handed the scroll to the community. The document is titled "Ramblings\_of\_a\_lost\_soul\_Pt\_2.png."

"SOUL ADRIFT, ABHORRENT HEART

ANOTHER SHATTERED MOON, ANOTHER WORLD EATER

ANOTHER CORRUPTED FUTURE

"SOUL ADRIFT, RESIGNED HEART

CLOSING ANOTHER TIMELINE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN

HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH, AEPHORUL?

"SOUL ADRIFT, FORLORN HEART

LUANA, I NEED YOUR STRENGTH TO CARRY ME

SOLEN, I NEED YOUR LIGHT TO GUIDE MY PATH

"SOUL ADRIFT, HOPEFUL HEART

ALL THESE MESSENGERS, ARE THEY READY?

PERHAPS IF I SHOWED THEM THE PAST...

"STARS ALIGN AT THE TURN OF SPRING,

A VOIDWALKER IS NEEDED BEFORE THEN."

### Archivist Scroll 3

In the official The Messenger Discord server, The Archivist gave the Clockwork Concierge another scroll to deliver to the community. The initial document, which has a typo, is titled "Archivist\_Scroll\_3.png," while the updated document is titled "Actual\_Archivist-Scroll\_3.png."

"AND IN THE THROES OF THE FLESHMANCER

THERE ARE THOSE WHO GO

"ON WITH THEIR PAIN

ON WITH THEIR GRIEF

AND IF FATE WOULD ALLOW IT

ON WITH THEIR LIVES

"AND IN THE HOPES OF A BETTER WORLD

THERE ARE THOSE WHO GREW

"INTO DESTINED ADVENTURERS

INTO FORTHRIGHT MESSENGERS

AND IF FATE WOULD ALLOW IT

INTO SOLSTICE WARRIORS

"AND ON THE SPRING EQUINOX

THERE ARE THOSE WHO WILL KNOW

"OF AEPHORUL'S DECEIT

OF A WORLD WITHOUT SUN

AND IF HATE WON'T PREVENT IT

OF THE POWER OF LOVE

"THE SHOPKEEPER'S PENULTIMATE APPEARANCE DRAWS NEAR

SURELY A THOUSAND TIME SHARDS WILL HELP"

After the scroll was successfully translated, the Concierge awarded the community 1,000 Time Shards.

### Seeds of Evil

While traveling through The Void, the three Voidwalkers stumbled across torn pieces of The Archivist's writing on Dwellers, which was a book titled "Seeds of Evil."

THE FIGHT SEEMED FAIR FOR A WHILE,
ESPECIALLY AFTER I HAD MADE THE
CONNECTION THAT THE STARS WERE THE
WEAKNESS AEPHORUL CHOSE IN EXCHANGE FOR
POWER FOR HIS CREATIONS. AS IT TURNED
OUT, HIS MINIONS COULD EASILY BE
DISPATCHED WITH THE USE OF LUNAR AND
SOLAR MAGIC.
AS THE FLESHMANCER'S COMMITMENT TO THE
FORBIDDEN SCHOOLS OF ALCHEMY GREW WITH
EACH PASSING DAY, HOWEVER, HIS CREATIONS
BECAME EVER VILE AND GRUESOME. I
SOMETIMES WONDER WHETHER HIS INITIAL
GOAL IS EVEN IN SIGHT STILL, OR IF HE
CONSIDERS CAUSING SUFFERING AN END IN
ITSELF...

SOLSTICE, AND ACKNOWLEDGING THEIR
POTENTIAL TO FIGHT BACK, AEOPHORUL
DEVISED A MOST WICKED PLAN. SEEDS OF
EVIL, HIS NOTES READ, GIANT MONSTERS HE
WOULD HIDE IN REMOTE PLACES, ALLOWING
THEM TIME TO FEED ON LOCAL LIFE UNTIL
THEY WERE READY TO EVOLVE INTO WORLD
EATERS, SPELLING THE APOCALYPSE FOR ALL.
I CALL THEM DWELLERS.
AS IF THE CHALLENGE OF FINDING THEM
WASN'T ENOUGH, DWELLERS MAY ONLY BE
KILLED DURING A TOTAL ECLIPSE. IF A WORLD
EATER WERE TO EMERGE, ALL HOPE WOULD BE
LOST. I PLACE GREAT FAITH IN THE CHILDREN
OF THE SOLSTICE, BUT WE NEED MORE TIME.
I AM NOW CONSIDERING PERFORMING ALCHEMY
ON ########

### Tidal Wave of Lore

The Archivist sent the community an unfinished scroll known as the "Tidal Wave of Lore." It was mentioned that the document would explain everything the community needed to know before the release of Book 2 (Sabotage Studio's second video game). The document only contained the the letters A, E, P, H, O, R, and U, while all of the other remaining letters were missing. The remaining letters were meant to be slowly collected as the three Voidwalkers ventured through The Void. However, before any additional letters could even be collected, the Tidal Wave of Lore was completely deciphered after five hours in a collaboration effort by the community.

This initial document contained an error, in which the fifth and sixth paragraphs were duplicates of each other. Later, after The Void closed, The Archivist sent the completed document, which contained a unique non-duplicate sixth paragraph. The completed document also revealed the hyphen symbol.

"COUNTLESS MILLENNIA AGO, TWO POWERFUL ALCHEMISTS KNOWN AS AEPHORUL AND

RESH'AN MANAGED TO CREATE THE ELIXIR OF LIFE. AS ALL THINGS IN ALCHEMY

COME AT A PRICE, THE GIFT OF IMMORTALITY CAUSED THEIR BODIES TO DECAY,

LEADING THEM TO CONCEAL THEIR HIDEOUSNESS UNDER COLORFUL ROBES.

"AT FIRST REVELLING IN THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THEIR BITTERSWEET ETERNAL

LIVES, THEY SPENT CENTURIES PROTECTING THE WORLD, NURTURING IT, AND

CREATING WONDERS TO INSPIRE MORTALS. OVER TIME, HOWEVER, AEPHORUL GREW

INCREASINGLY JEALOUS OF THE EPHEMERALITY HE WOULD NEVER TASTE AGAIN.

"THUS BEGAN HIS WICKED JOURNEY INTO THE FORBIDDEN SCHOOLS OF ALCHEMY, A

JOURNEY THROUGH WHICH EVERY LAST BIT OF GOOD WITHIN HIS HEART DISSIPATED

AS HE EXPERIMENTED WITH SOUL, BONE, FLESH, AND BLOOD ALIKE.

"AS FATE WOULD HAVE IT, AEPHORUL EVENTUALLY EMBRACED EVIL AND EMERGED AS

THE FLESHMANCER, A WICKED IMMORTAL WHO BORE NO SECOND THOUGHTS ABOUT

CURSING THE WORLD WITH HIS MONSTROUS CREATIONS. RESH'AN INTERVENED AS

BEST HE COULD, CAUSING UNSPEAKABLE CHAOS AND COLLATERAL DAMAGE TO THE

WORLD AS THE TWO FORMER FRIENDS FOUGHT THEIR ENDLESS WAR.

"AFTER MUCH STRUGGLE, RESH'AN COULD DETERMINE THE FLESH MINIONS' ONLY

WEAKNESS TO BE SOLAR AND LUNAR MAGIC, A POWER GIFTED TO HUMANS BORN

DURING A SOLSTICE. RESH'AN BEGAN TRAINING THESE CHILDREN SO THAT THEY

WOULD BECOME SOLSTICE WARRIORS, TASKED WITH CULLING THE PRESENCE OF THE

FLESHMANCER'S CREATIONS.

"BUT AEPHORUL'S KNOWLEDGE WAS ALSO GAINING GROUND, AND HE EVENTUALLY

STARTED CREATING ODDITIES OF UNLIMITED POTENTIAL KNOWN AS DWELLERS.

DWELLERS WERE IMPERVIOUS TO ALL BUT ECLIPSE MAGIC, A SPECIAL KIND OF

POWER AVAILABLE ONLY TO SOLSTICE WARRIORS DURING A TOTAL ECLIPSE. TIME

WAS ALWAYS OF THE ESSENCE, AS DWELLERS WOULD, LEFT TO THEIR DEVICES LONG

ENOUGH, TURN INTO WORLD EATERS, SPELLING DOOM FOR ALL.

"ARMED WITH KNOWLEDGE AND POWER, SOLSTICE WARRIORS WERE PATROLLING THEIR

WORLD, TRACKING DWELLERS TO DETERMINE WHICH ONE WOULD HAVE TO BE TAKEN

DOWN DURING EACH ECLIPSE. IF THEY KEPT THEIR GUARD UP, THERE MAY NEVER BE

A WORLD EATER, BUT RESH'AN KNEW IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME UNTIL THE

FLESHMANCER DEVISED AN EVEN MORE WICKED PLAN.

"IN A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO GET AHEAD, RESH'AN BOLDLY PERFORMED

TRANSMUTATION ALCHEMY ON THE VERY SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM, BREAKING REALITY

DOWN INTO COUNTLESS TIMELINES AND PARALLEL UNIVERSES. HE THEN HUNG UP

HIS ALCHEMY VIAL AND TOOK UP THE MANTLE OF ARCHIVIST, SETTING OUT ON AN

ENDLESS JOURNEY ACROSS ALL REALITIES, CATALOGING EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE

OUTCOME IN SEARCH FOR A RESOLUTION TO THE THROES OF THE FLESHMANCER.

MEANWHILE, AEPHORUL REJOICED AT THE SEEMINGLY INFINITE POTENTIAL FOR

DESTRUCTION HE HAD JUST BEEN OFFERED.

"AND SO THIS GAME OF CAT AND MOUSE, PLAYED BY DWELLERS AND SOLSTICE

WARRIORS ON ONE LEVEL, AND BY RESH'AN AND AEPHORUL ON ANOTHER, TOOK PLACE

ACROSS INFINITE TIMELINES. WHILE SOME WERE GETTING LOST TO WORLD EATERS,

OTHERS WERE CLEANSED AND RECLAIMED BY HEROES WHO WOULD KNOW PEACE,

PROVIDED THE FLESHMANCER NEVER SET FOOT IN THEIR REALM AGAIN."

### Echoes of The Void

A few minutes after the three Voidwalkers left The Void, each one received a vision. When the three images were pieced together, it formed the full "Echoes of The Void."

Left shelf:

* [2-4 unknown books]
* QUILLSHROOM
* SHOPKEEPER
* QUARBLE
* NINJA
* 1
* [4 unknown books]

Right shelf:

* OLAND
* [erased title]
* LIZARDESS
* DOCARRI
* GARL
* TORMENT PEAK
* MALKOMUD
* DWELLER OF WOE
* 2
* ZALE
* VALERE
* MOONCRADLE VILLAGE
* SERAI
* ERLINA
* VALTRAIDE
* MORAINE
* THE VESPERTINE
* KEENATHAN
* ELDER MIST
* WATCHMAKER

## Gallery

The Bowman statue in the Tower of Time, just above the shop.The Queen of Quills statue in the Tower of Time.The Creator statue in the Tower of Time.The Iron Hood statue in the Tower of Time.The Queen of Quills, The Creator, and The Iron Hood statues, making a second appearance in the Tower of Time.The 16-bit Forlorn Temple demon throne.The 8-bit Forlorn Temple demon throne.Screenshot from the Picnic Panic DLC trailer, showcasing the stone slab with the word "TUWHERA."The Picnic Panic version of the shop. A rock with the letter P sits on a shelf.Three books from The Archives.Stone tablets to be inserted into a timeline.Stone tablets inserted into the timeline.Captions for the "Colos or Suses Debate" stone tablet.The initial version of Archivist Scroll 3 which has a typo of "FLESHMANCHER."seeds.pngof.pngevil.pngechoes.pngof\_the.pngvoid-1.png