****SPOILER****They Are Coming Back (How it was Solved)

[Socrates]

(Author's note: The following is an attempt to show the sequence of how the puzzle was ultimately solved.

Readers should note that the people who are mentioned that posted the answers to the clues were just a small portion of the players who participated in the effort. In such an effort the game is advanced by many people failing and posting what did not work and such is just as important as what is finally revealed to be the correct answers. For doing such shows what is a dead end and frees everyone from dwelling on what has already proved not to work.

Also sometimes someone will post an unrelated fact or piece of information that sparks a new line of inquiry. Many such incidents occurred during the effort to solve the riddles. Congrats to all who participated. And many thanks to the Puppetmaster and all the folks at Funcom for such an engaging game.)

First a Challenge was issued in this thread: They Are Coming Back

Originally Posted by Apis

The hour has arrived. No more pretenders. We are gathering. Quietly. Secretly. Dark days are coming and the fate of this world is at stake.

The hour has arrived. Prove yourself.

The link in "Prove yourself" leads to a Video.

The video has several bits of text flashed onto the screen:

Apoction was first to post a pic that Identified the text was the Alphabet of the Magi

Originally Posted by Apoction

JACKPOT!



The Alphabet of the Magi
Soo, the "codes" translate as follows (letters with commas have multiple meanings):

S---A-----E
A---R-----C
U,V-S-----S
N---I,J,Y--R
T---F,P,Ph-T
C---O-----E

Enix1 posted the following translation:

Originally Posted by Enix1

Wow awesome find Apoction! I got the letters S A e A r c(u,v or w) S S N ( i or j) r t p t C o e

Makaruda was the first to post the proper arrangement of the letters which spelled sanctuaryofsecrets.com

Originally Posted by Makaruda

Letters are anagram of sanctuary of secrets. Go to www.sanctuaryofsecrets.com

The link sanctuaryofsecrets.com led to flash site that showed a circle of 6 lighted cubes surrounding a darker cube in the center.

[Socrates]

Clicking each of the lighted cubes revealed 6 seperate puzzles.

The 1st puzzle solved was Thy Mother's Burden:

Vallikat posted the following:

Originally Posted by Vallikat

I did a google search for two birds and a serpent. At first I found a junk site that said something about two eagles and a serpent meeting at the center of the earth. Then with a search on that I found this site:

"http://cointrade.awardspace.com/MasonicKnowledge/SLANG.html"

and this section:

"
In Greek mythology also, the snake plays an important role. It is said that the Zeus freed eagles at each end of the world. The place where these two eagles met was the center of the world, the center of the earth. This center, sometimes called the navel of the earth, is guarded by a snake, called Pytho. Above this navel the Oracle of Delphi, called Pythia, was constructed. We see this Oracle play an important role in the life of Pythagoras."

A further search confirmed that the navel of the earth is said to be Delphi.

I put "delphi" into the box and revealed a crescent moon.

[Socrates]

The 2nd puzzle solved was "The Pillars Fall":

Yume posted the following:

Originally Posted by Yume

For Black 4 5 / 2 6 2 3 6 9 and (north) 12 / 1 9 5 5 7 7: Lat 45.262369, Long 12.195577...

Here's the lat/long map -- VENICE! They meet in Venice! Gets you the sign for Venus.

Now for the others!

[Socrates]

The 3rd puzzle solved was "Pattern Recognition":

Apoction posted the following:

Originally Posted by Apoction

Holy crap.

Got the equation... Flower of life

I'll post how I got it in a second!

Originally Posted by Apoction

Ok, here's the research, thanks to you guy here.

Basically, I redrew this in Illustrator (you can see the original with my overlay), and started spinning it, I've labled the itterations.

I then started with the center circle and noticed that they all seem to flow outward, from there, it was to isolate them in a less messy form and presto!



Oh and it's not perfect, the way I drew it, but good enough right! Really credit is due to the folks that pointed out the circular and hex relation based on crunching numbers, from there I just built it visually.

Here's the rotation of 60 degree version for kicks...

[Socrates]

The 4th puzzle solved was "True Names":

Ocura posted the folowing:

Originally Posted by Ocura

Melissonomoi

Priestesses of Artemis; the Bee-Keepers.

Gave us the "Male Symbol" (no idea what you call it in English lol)

Next please

[Socrates]

The 5th puzzle solved was "As Above, So Below":

Nickless_One posted the following:

Originally Posted by Nickless_One

ehm guys (and gals)... i guessed the password for the question "whose time is it?", but it was random success and i dont know the right way to it.... so tell me should I post it or leave it as it is?

Originally Posted by Nickless_One

well, i havent guessed it completely, more like lucky stroke of genius.., y'see since i was diging up lots of greek mythology stuff today, i couldnt miss a name that is quite connected to time, with words like chronology, chronic, chronicles... he is even depicted as a guy who turns zodiac wheel (time is cyclical remember...) now you must already know the answer just try different spellings and sign of Mercury is the reward....

Originally Posted by Nickless_One

you're welcome

for those who still don't know: ...Kronos...

(Author's note: Tristan reported (after all of the puzzles were already solved) that this puzzle can also be solved using morse code.)

[Socrates]

The 6th puzzle solved was "The Birds of the Muses":

Makaruda posted the following:

Originally Posted by Makaruda

The answer is 6284968128 the first four perfect numbers

Got nothing in the middle so probably need to figure out the right sequence to enter the answers in.

[Socrates]

The final bit was to enter the clues in the proper order:


Svimen posted the folowing:

Originally Posted by Svimen

As Above, So Below = Kronos = Mercury = 1
The Pillars Fall = Venice = Venus = Copper = 2
Thy Mother's Burden = Delphi = Luna = Silver = 3
True Names = Melissonomoi = Mars = Iron = 4
The Birds of the Muses = ? = guessing Jupiter = Tin = 5
Pattern Recognition = Flower of life = Saturn = Lead = 6

? = 6284968128

Entering the clues in the proper sequence revealed the center symbol which is the Sun.

Coren posted the following link which was shows the order one must click the symbols to get your final reward: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Velho_1568.jpg (look closely at the pic in the link and look for the "moon" symbol click it first and then click the rest of the symbols in order shown on the pic.)

Coren was also the first to enter the proper sequence and recieved the first Token.

(If you are haiving trouble with clicking the symbols in the proper order see this post.)

Originally Posted by Coren

SPOILERS BELOW:

Congratulations. You’ve passed the gauntlet.
You’ve reached the Sanctuary of Secrets.

There is much to reveal.

Secrets that have been kept underground for far too long.
Secrets that have been keeping humanity in the dark.
Secrets that will change the order of things to come.

But all in good time. Much has already been said for now.
There will be a next time.

The above text then vanished and an entry form appeared which asks for your Name and a valid email address.

Filling out the form resulted in an email from Apis:

At approximately 00.32 universal Time on the 4th of April 2009 you were the ##th person to pass the gauntlet. It is an achievement worthy of recognition. We have prepared a token for your keepsake. This is your personal token. Follow the link below to confirm your passage, and do not share it with anyone. There will come a time when it will serve you further.

Link:

This channel is no longer secure. Do not reply. For now rest assured that with your token your place in the Sanctuary of Secrets is safe.

The tokens are dated, time stamped, numbered and each has a unique code attached to it. (Those areas have been blacked out to comply with the email from Apis.)

[Greve]

Nice effort Socrates, will be nice for people who shows up tomorrow to see how we (read; you guys/gals) solved the mystery!

[Nyte]

..........

[Ithnag]

pretty cool, i wish i would have been able to help!

[AcidicPlague]

good on you! Was fun.

[zenbu777]

Nice writeup. Wish I could of helped (with the solving, that is)

[Quaecumque]

Missed the first one. Waited more than a year. Then was on vacation when the second one was solved. You guys are too darned fast Congrats. Let's see what happens on 4/7/09, eh?

[Socrates]

BTW if any of you note mistakes I made (it was tough wading through the original thread with tired eyes please list them and I will glady to them ASAP.

[Socrates]

Also I want to thank all of you who were working on this game, it was fun just to be involved.

I hope that even after the The Secret World Goes Gold Ragnar and the gang will challenge us with more of the above!

Now I need a long shower a tall drink and much sleep!

BTW just an aside on the speculation of what the tokens are for.

I am hoarder of email correspondence especially from the games (game companies) I play. Checking the last codes I got from FUNCOM for betas in the Anarchy Online Expansions they are nearly identical to the Unique Token Code in both format and number of digits.

Here is hoping we will all be seeing each other in beta test real soon!

Note: The above is pure speculation!

[Lone Wolfe]

Jeez that was fast. This puzzle didn't even make it two days.

[AcidicPlague]

Originally Posted by Lone Wolfe

Jeez that was fast. This puzzle didn't even make it two days.

We're an industrious forum. Also, super clever. Puzzles like these dont last as long with things like google these days

[Tristan]

Okay this is a bit belated, but I figured it might still interest some of you. That puzzle for "As Above, So Below," I don't think that they really intended it to be figured out through process of elimination. I kept thinking over the last few hours that the video HAD to be significant somehow, they wouldn't have thrown it in there for nothing. So I watched it over and over again, looking at the whole thing, and then I finally LOOKED at the whole thing and realized what had been staring me in the face the whole time.

I know Morse code. The design elements in the video are actually dots and dashes. They spell out Kronos.

I think that's how they'd intended for us to figure it out.

[Socrates]

Originally Posted by Tristan

Okay this is a bit belated, but I figured it might still interest some of you. That puzzle for "As Above, So Below," I don't think that they really intended it to be figured out through process of elimination. I kept thinking over the last few hours that the video HAD to be significant somehow, they wouldn't have thrown it in there for nothing. So I watched it over and over again, looking at the whole thing, and then I finally LOOKED at the whole thing and realized what had been staring me in the face the whole time.

I know Morse code. The design elements in the video are actually dots and dashes. They spell out Kronos.

I think that's how they'd intended for us to figure it out.

Very interesting! I think (IIRC) the reason it was figured out was because we had been delving in so much greek and roman mythology that somone put the Question: "Whose Time is it?" and "gods" together and come up with the god associated with time.