God Of War: Ascension, out tomorrow, has a hidden message protected by a cipher. It’s found on one of the paintings in the game, and has had people scratching their head since it was highlighted.
The message is overlaid on a picture of Mount Olympus. “Of all the prophecies I have seen, this one haunts my dreams,” it says, followed by the cryptic line “QUJIKPHIUEEEKMJQUJ” and then “The full truth of this nightmare yet remains hidden. – Aletheia.”
QUJ IKPH IUEEEKMJ QUJ
Playing that part in a different language results in a different coded message.
However, once people started to see patterns in the message, the first words started to appear. QUJ was repeated, that could be SUN, because the repeated bit was six letters in the French version – SOLEIL. That opened up the word BIRD. Phoenix? There was one at the end of GoW III, right?
QUJ IKPH IUEEEKMJ QUJ SUN BIRD xxxxxxxx SUN
Then a couple of people linked what was going on to Mithras. Mithras was born from a rock, shared a banquet with the Sun God and has plenty of animals (including lions) around him when depicted. Iconic scenes show him “slaughtering a bull,” too. And what do you know, it all fits.
QUJ IKPH IUEE EKMJ QUJ SUN BIRD BULL LION SUN
Of course, this might not be right. There’re other possibilities with regards to fitting the letters in, but there’s a pattern here that at least suggests those invested in cracking the cypher might be onto something. The letters do fit with other languages, too, so this might well be the right path.
Kratos, perhaps, might not be the main lead for the next game. Either that, or Mithras could resurrect anyone he finds worthy, which could include Kratos. From there it’s anyone’s guess, but it would be great to start a new generation with a new lead character. Let’s hope we find out soon.
Via GAF.
djodjoross
“Of all the procefÃas I’ve seen, this is the one that haunts my nightmares.
QJFLTORJPJFOJIQJF
The truth behind this evil dream is hidden.
– Aletheia ”
The fact that repeated two strings at the beginning and end of the mysterious code and that these change for each language facilitated the task of decrypting, but has not been necessary that we put ourselves to work, as the NeoGAF forum readers have broken the code a few hours ago. This string of symbols represents the set of words “Sol – Bird – Toro – Leon – Sol”
A reader of the American edition of IGN has realized that there are symbols on the floor corresponding to this translation, and that if you press R1 to step on the image changes and shows us another message: “When the earth stops, the journey begin “… But the code was just that, a track to get that second message?
Suppose for a moment and let not your imagination: the results can be very interesting … For starters, who is Aletheia? It is not really a “who” but a “what”: Aletheia was the Greek philosophical concept of truth. Since the signing of the message itself is telling us that it is a real clue of the future, because that image is “prophecy nightmares stalking the truth.”
What could symbolize the string “Sol – Bird – Toro – Leon – Sun”? Any fan of mythology will occur several possible interpretations. The first is a reference to the Persian gods, starting with Mitra, a Persian god who ended up being a very important deity in the Roman pantheon. Many symbols and legends associated Mitra have finished the Christian religion syncretism. And remember that the Roman pantheon and the Christian religion were the two dominant religions of Europe after the Greek …
In favor of this line could go in the spin-off Ghost of Sparta had certain references to Persian mythology. Mitra is the god of friendship, a solar deity (related to the sun) which is often represented as a young man killing a bull (whose blood and flesh of the world is born). In his statues often appear other animals … like birds, bulls and lions. And according to mythology Mitra would have the power to resurrect all those who deserved it after the world over. And perhaps more of a gamer can link this with the end of God of War 3 …