windigofer

Oh, INTERESTING easter egg there, indeed.

Basically it looks like they promote maintaining order by suppressing anything that could potentially interfere with that order (anything from killing rogue genics to the whole D-level system). Quite possibly meant as a snarky reference to military mottos or the "To Protect and Serve" motto common with US police departments in particular.

As for the full translation (based on notes in the BOF Complete Works artbook and previously posted on the now-defunct official BOF V blog, and also based on Nanpoo-Can's TrueType Dragon Quarter font--which I have confirmed to be complete, or at least as complete as was ever documented in the game--and of note, it does largely match your observations; I'll create a new proof sheet to post up here):

Line 1: 3RD RENGER (the "3" glyph seems to be deliberately obfuscated)

Line 2 and below do read as you noted.

Attached Thumbnails

 

dragontail

Wow, thnx windigofer!! now i can transilate a bit more!!

i owe you one

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windigofer

Glad to help. (Actually, thank Nanpoo-can; I'd been pondering a Dragon Quarter font, but she beat me to it by several months. Apparently the Japanese BOF V community had been clamoring for one )

windigofer

And getting back to some other stuff...

Found an interesting scan from the BOF V artbook that points out how some of the symbols are straight out of the Sephirot (and also includes a complete symbol map of the font used in the game).

So I decided to have some fun with transliterating bits...

Left section (dragon head bit), writing:

"land of blessing that it is pure" (Same text appears at right on the "sepirot half", separated as "Land of blessing" and "that it is pure")

Some of the rest is difficult to make out (even at maximum scanner resolution in 4800dpi; I scanned from the copy of these in "Breath Of Fire Complete Works" as I don't have the BOF V artbook proper), but what I can make out:

Above the section noted (at half light/half dark circle):

at left: "the day side" (the first part of this is iffy)

at right: "the night side"

Below this: "The blessed land that it is pure"

below this: "geo front"

Below this: Unfortunately mostly illegible. Three bits of writing around circle resembling Sierpinski triangle or radiation symbol. Final symbol on all three names seems to be "S" or possibly "N".

Below this: "Three (possibly 'consent') open the heaven's door"

Below this: POSSIBLY "old deep" (some text illegible)

Below this: "Odyn" and "Chetyre", rendered in Cyrillic (NOT in the Cyrillic-look alphabet invented for the game).

Below this: Five lines of illegible text.

Below this: Much of the text is unfortunately illegible, but (among others) "Upper Area" can be made out as can the words "kolon" (possibly "colony" as noted below--probably the ant colony, at that) and POSSIBLY "Trinity".

Below this: "High Area"

Below this: "Middle Area" (barely legible)

Below this: "Down Area" (barely legible).

Below this: "Under Area"

Yes, you're reading this right: In essence, the dragon's head is explicitly a map of where you go in the game.

Next post: We do the transliteration of what all is in the sephirot.

windigofer

And now the second bit:

The second bit (the black background, white decoration bit) is pretty much played off the real-life sephirot, which is a representation in the Jewish mystical system of Kaballah of the Tree of Life (as in the Garden of Eden) and (to make a very long story which I am not even remotely qualified to get into depth on--especially as I am not a rabbinical male student over the age of 40) is part of an esoteric system of which one works essentially to refine one's self to get closer to God. Traditionally the ten or eleven branches are supposed to represent different aspects of God (which fits in rather well with some of the other symbolism inherent in the game, the biggie being a character actually named Elyon which is one of the traditional names for God) .

(There's also another game company that took the name for its famous white-haired pretty boy with mommy issues, but we won't go there. )

Anyways, seeing as we're dealing with some symbolism inherent in this, I'll be making additional notes with the transliteration.

At the very top: "The Day" (left), "The Night" (right), "cloud" (upper left), "Moon" (upper right), "Stars" (lower right), "Sun" (lower left). This is at the level sometimes identified with YHWH but usually not charted, and on a mundane level would serve as a good atlas for people who've never seen the sky before.

At the link for Keter, traditionally symbolic of the Crown of God and of Mercy:

"Land of Bllessing", "Geo Front" (within Keter itself), "That It Is Pure"

Just below Keter, surrounding the circle with the Sierpinski triangle/radiation-symbol looking thing:

"A Dragon" (at bottom), "A human" (VERY iffy, upper left), "A wnig" (upper right, typo of "wing"). Probable same text as in similar bit at dragon's head; obviously representative of Ryu, Nina and Lin.

Line from Keter to Binah (lower left):

"Liner elv (or el7) System"

At the link for Binah symbolic of the left eye/left brain/heart and Innate Understanding:

In Binah itself: "Member" (aka the Japanese name for the Regents.)
To the left: "Mauabe aitencia vexsion" (Japanese renderings of Mebeth, Hortensia, and Vexacion respectively)

At the link between Binah and Chokhmah: "Headquarters"

At Chokhmah, representative of the right eye/brain and of Wisdom or Learned Understanding:

At Chokhmah itself: "Member" (as with Binah)
To the right: "Jazz-it, Cypito, Demonadi" (Jezuit, Cupid,and Daemoned respectively)


From Chokhman to Da'at: "Corridor"

At Da'at--which has some very interesting symbolism, seeing as it's technically a "hidden sephirah", and representative of all ten sepirot being one (the Fullmetal Alchemist fans may recognise the symbolism here: "All is one, One Are All") and thus the Divine Light, and in Hasidic traditions are also linked with Consciousness in and of itself (and here's where we get into some of the real symbolism, hehehe):

At Da'at itself: Trinity symbol, "High", "Area" (Unfortunately, text is difficult to read)

Right above Da'at, with three symbols: "Three (possibly 'consent') open the heaven's door". Possibly reference to Elyon?

Lower left side of Da'at: "It manges military law (possibly 'production')" (basically, martial law)

Lower right side of Da'at: "It manges goverment predazion concealment" (AKA, putting down the occasional feral/rabid/etc. genic that's gone amuck in Sheldar)

From Da'at to a spot technically not at a sephirah: "Trance port"

At a spot just below Da'at (and technically not on a sephirah itself): "Upper Area"

From the Unnamed Spot to Gevurah: "Life Line"

At Gevurah itself, symbolic of Judgement and Strength (and also Concealment):

At Gevurah itself: "Trinity". (Well, that would CERTAINLY count! )

On the other side of the Unnamed Spot is Chesed, which denotes "Kindness" (and is also, coincidentially, where the term "Hasidim" comes from).

At Chesed itself: "Colony".

Going back to stuff we have marked paths for , from Gevurah to Tiferet: "Commerce Zone" (beware of puppet girls!).

At Tiferet, symbolic of balance, miracles, compassion, inner beauty and so on:

At Tiferet itself: "Middle Area".

To left of Tiferet: Dragon sigil, "Observance of order, order by oppression" (same as the original that was noted on the thread)

To right of Tiferet: Gunsight (?), "Bionics public corpolation, aal from cradle to grave is created" (the creators of D-levels?)

Far right and far left of Tiferet in triangles: "Independence, Cooperation, Knowlege" (misspelling of "Knowledge")

From Tiferet to Netzach: "Industry Zone"

At Netzach, representing victory and interestingly on the side termed the "Pillar of Mercy":

At Netzach itself: F.P.C.

From Netzach to Yesod: "Adjacency"

On the other side is Hod, which has denotations of praise, splendor, submission, and the Naming Of Things (thus bringing them into existence):

At Hod itself: "Rengers Bese" (Ranger's Base). Appropriate, as this is where we meet Ryu (and Bosch) for the first time.

From Hod to Yesod: "Tenement" (aka, The Bunking Quarters).

Yes, all roads lead at first to Yesod which denotes the concept of translating spiritual concepts and learning into action:

At Yesod itself: "Down Area"

From Yesod to Malkuth: "Pail Way"

At Malkuth--the very bottom of the sephirot, and denoting the Created rather than the Creator:

At Malkuth itself: "Under Area".

All in all, surprising amounts of symbolism (where you know they've done their homework)--and more than a few easter eggs.

BlueTundra

Since we're talking Easter Eggs, a while ago I tried to translate this wall paper but it didn't make much sense to me.

In particular, it says "Die ersten die" which means nothing in English but in German it says, "first those".

I'd appreciate the help.

__________________
"Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic."
-The Picture of Dorian Gray

"Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We’ve got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen."
-Lady Chatterly's Lover

BlueTundra

In addition, there are some more screen shots that I was trying to figure out.

In the first, around the circle, I got "...sein die ersten werden..." which, in Germain means, "...will be the first".
In the same screenshot, the top hexagon it says, "ti", the on to the bottom left says, "ten" and the final on the bottom right says, "ku". Not sure if that has any significance.
On the outer layer, the top left says, "Dragon" but I can't make out what the rest says.

In the other with Ryu walking, the sign says, "Anti Toxin."

Attached Thumbnails

   

__________________
"Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic."
-The Picture of Dorian Gray

"Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We’ve got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen."
-Lady Chatterly's Lover

dragontail

Yeah i figured that much out aswell but here's the question; why did they use german and russian languages in bof5??? somehow it seems to be connected with the second world war....well to me it does (it was just a thought)

what i figured out aswell that Odjn means number one in russian and Chetyr number four....but what about number 2 and 3??? after looking up on all of this there are so many questions that i have inside my mind now....



Well, i guess what i say is not really that of importance..i just like to write what i think, that's all :P

__________________
DragonTail + Fireball + Steven S. and his bro = friends and best bros and sis forever!!
Argh! hey i'm a girl!(why am i always Ryu,Cloud or Sora!?)
http://www.dragon-tear.net/forum/sh...7458#post127458 c'mon and join!it's fun!belive me!
<('.^<) (>^.')> ^(^.^)v v(^.^)^

windigofer

Well, the German language tends to be thought of as "cool" by Japanese (along with French and English); as for the Russian bit, what I got out of it was that it was a comparison with the Soviet Union days (when Dragon Quarter was first released, it should be noted that the USSR had existed maybe a decade beforehand and was still fresh in the memories of its creators) or maybe even the Tsarist era. (I'd also say, IMHO, that quite possibly with the Regents' headquarters in particular they may have been inspired by the city of St. Petersburg, and Russia was seen as particularly exotic as well.)

Re 2--the final boss in Kokon Horay is 2 (Dva, though thanks to a mangling of transliteration this ended up as Dover in the internationalised version; do-ba may be the closest one could render "Dva" in Japanese, though).

There is no 3. :3 All numbers (including D-ratios and the names of dragons) are based on the powers of two or inverse powers of two. Yes, there are spoiler-ridden reasons for this:


And yes, I feel all of you giving me dirty looks as if to say "DAMNIT, YOU SAID THERE WOULD BE NO MATH". I never said any such thing. :3 Besides, I've been an engineering maths/computer-science student, I get it honest.

Antimatzist

About the German bits:

"Die ersten die" and "...sein die ersten werden..." sounds a LOT like the saying "Die letzten werden die ersten sein", which means "The last will be the first", from the bible... possibly referring to the fact that low-standing people like Ryu, Nina and Lin are fighting against the higher-standing people and win in the end.