At first I thought the eye was way out of proportion for it to be a Vykker head but after quickly drawing the cheekbone and eyebrow shadow in it looks exactly right.

https://puu.sh/uuq9o.png

Surprise!!

Hello nightmare fule. My name is Gunnr



Edit: Anyone having any luck with the scratched in runes? If the mudokon made them the writing we see would be backwards. I've spent way too much time on it and have little to show for it :(

Thanks Gunnr! :happy: And Vyrien, that's what I was thinking at first, too! That the eye was weirdly out of proportion. But once I burned the shadows around the jaw in and got rid of some of the distracting stuff in the background it really started coming together. And now that you've drawn in some of the facial contours there's no doubt in my mind that that is a Vykker. :D

And that means that there is most likely going to be Vykkers in SS.
:internally screaming:

Edit: Got some free time tonight so I figured I'd take a look at the runes next. It seems like a lot of them are pretty distinct but a few of them up by the top seem kind of faint or incomplete.

Good luck with the runes!!

I had a go at looking for what runes/cipher the scratch marks are referencing and found.... absolutely nothing ;)

:Soo...send that vykker to the owi twitter?


Then we'll give full focus to the "runes". :)

Owi keep saying to maybe look at them a different way?...:fuzconf:

OWI tweet me https://imgur.com/a/gQVTp

Sent my version earlier, but I think they may have missed it xD Should I send it to the facebook?

For the runes I'm just trying out different combos using common frequency patterns for substitution ciphers but it's hard because I have no idea where it could be broken down into individual words or if it's just one solid string or what xP

Edit: Just realized I posted it to an older tweet, my bad. Time to delete and retweet!

So this story OW are telling though the images infiltrated my dreams last night.

In the dream, the mudokons that had been made blind also had a powder substance tested on them while in Vykkers labs. This substance would be harmless while they were in the mines digging but if they went in sunlight it would start to burn their skin. It would be another way to keep them from escaping, getting help or someone spotting them.
It seemed like something the Glukkons would do - maybe not as a powder - but as a variety of SoulStorm Brew used only to poison their blind workers.

I'd also like to publically guess that Image #5 will be of a Mudokon with stitches over his eyes, mining. Similar to this:
So that we see the whole process this one Mudokon went through to get where he is. Image #4 may be an image of him travelling or recovering from the surgery.
It's a way of empathising with the characters to make you want to save them.

Okay, I may have figured out the code.

But, I'm gonna be honest, this is my first try at cracking a code this way and I am also very tired right now so I may be completely wrong :p

I went back into the photo and took a really close look at the runes just in case anything was missed. A lot of the symbols were indistinct or a little scratchy, so all the lines I was confident about I marked in red and all the lines I wasn't sure about I marked in blue (the purple and green stuff at the top was me trying to figure out letter frequencies). The bottom line seemed to me to be the most intact so I started there first and then worked up. I did actually manage to get a coherent phrase out of it but the problem lies in that there are so many symbols that I wasn't 100% sure about that for a few of them I had to make educated guesses based on stuff that seemed to work in the bottom line. So I'm not sure how off the mark I am. But I figured I'd post it here anyway just in case I wasn't completely off track :)

"THERE ARE GHOSTS IN THE CHAIR
NO MORE LIGHT
THE COLD AND THE DARKNESS WILL TAKE ME"

Very interesting... Someone commented on a one of OWI's facebook posts and pointed out that it would make sense for the message to be etched into the glass from the inside, making the message appear backward for the viewer. OWI replied to the comment saying that was a good idea, so that pretty much confirms that the image should be flipped horizontally before translating.

As for codes... I came across these proposed alphabets for the blind, which would be cruelly fitting. A few of them look very similar in shape to the symbols etched into the glass...

http://jmcvey.net/alphabets/1836_alphabets_972w888h.jpg

I've tried to match them up but don't know if I'm missing some of the lines, or if it's a slight variation of one of these, or if it's none of these at all.. but maybe this can spark something

Following on from what Hominix said as the blind suggestion makes so much sense, what about the patterns formed in Braille?

Couldn't see a flipped version of the image if OWI thinks it's a good idea to look at it the other way

Cool! Even if it's not right decipher sounds very impressive.

Btw, what do you guys think will happen after the last 2 images are fully revealed?

Man have a feeling the last pics will be Creepy like seriously pic 1 was nice pic 2 was Dark and pic 3 well gosh no words to say.

Now that I've got some sleep and had another chance to take a look at it, I think that if it is just a substitution cipher I may be on track! I had worked on it horizontally flipped like OWI was hinting was the correct way to look at it. The last line is clearest and the letters I worked out for it make sense, it's really just the top line that I'm unsure about xP There were a few runes that could have been two different runes depending on if a line was there or not and it was hard to tell because of how scuffed up it was. Some of the runes were barely visible at all and I sort of hunted for them after I was confident about the other letters. But the fact that it's a coherent sentence and it mentions cold and darkness (something the ASSET9X websites mentioned) gives me a lot of hope :fuzsmile: Either way, I gave it the old college try haha

I updated the image so the runes are over where they would be in the actual picture. I figure I'll send it to OWI just to see; even if it turns out to be wrong, maybe it's still the right way to approach it, or maybe they'll have something new to say!

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Ghost in the chair?

...maybe it means that chair Ed died on?

It wasn't Ed that died, it was his friend Asset 98. But yeah that's what came to mind when I first read it too; the chair 110110BG was strapped to in Photo 2. If it is right, maybe that Mud is saying a lot of them have died there :(

Never mind Varrok, he's just trolling...

Very impressive work OrangeLightning. You can't be too far from the truth here.
The messages fit the picture perfectly and give it an even more chilling vibe.

I agree with you that the first line is a bit weird but it could mean that the minds of the Muds that go on the chair we see in the second screenshot are already completely gone.

I now kind of hope this is the correct message.

Did you send it to them? I didn't see it on Twitter.

Good job right there OL. This message sounds like a Slipknot's song. Edgy.

Thank you! And yes! I sent it direct to their Twitter because the last time I sent something they didn't see it, so I didn't want it to get lost in the shuffle this time xD

omg I just checked back on twitter

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*HYPERVENTILATING*

^ Really great job OL, now we wait and see :)
(fingers crossed)

Well, I won't be sleeping tonight.

Fascinating find, though.

Oh, this happened.

.@StarDrop513 deciphered the message. It looks like it was written by the poor Mudokon after all... pic.twitter.com/aCKpBATFw0

— Oddworld �� (@OddworldInc) March 5, 2017

OWI on Facebook is looking for a picture showing the Vykker. I didn't want to post it in Vyrien's stead so I thought I'd mention it here. Look for the post about a clearer image of the writing on the glass. Great job Vyrien and OrangeLightning!

Holy smokes I was actually right!!! Thank you, guys! :fuzgrin:

I'm so happy I was actually able to help out with the codes this time!

Edit: Vyrien you should totally post yours to Facebook if you see this tonight! The shading you did for the Vykker reflection really made it pop and stand out more :D

I did post it to their Twitter yesterday but I guess they didn't see it. I'll try again.

edit: okay I replied to their post asking for the image, hopefully they see it lol.

I don't see your reply on any of their posts...
Have you tried replying to the newest one? (From 2 hours ago)

Latest tweet https://imgur.com/a/X3FFF

I hope they are just getting ready to post OL and Vyrian's vykker

Glad I was able to help. :fuzsmile:

I've posted it everywhere and pm'd them it so...

^Err ok I guess then we just wait...

WELL! I'm back from my non-internet-for-2-days trip!
Happy to see so Much development! =)

Did you post it to their twitter?

Welcome back, Shade! :)

Just saw that they finally saw Vyrien's Vykker on Facebook a bit ago, so hopefully that will be up and posted soon too!

Hey, I was just looking at the recap Oddworld posted on their site for the last image and I noticed something interesting

http://www.oddworld.com/2017/03/thir...orse-mudokons/

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In the section called 'Save Us' they mention the ASSET9X websites and that they think their may be something left to find on them. I'm not sure if this is something they will have come into play for Photo #4 or what, but the I'm thinking since they're mentioning it now there may be something for us left to do on those pages.

I think what's missing is the message written on the glass and/or the Vykker's reflex since they don't mention it in the article.

But they mentioned the Glass Message in their Twitter..
But the reflection they seem to "not have any idea" what it is
weirdly enough, the theory for the second image, "shows a reflection" too...
Huh...

They've seen it on both facebook and twitter now yeah.

Perhaps I missed something, but what was the alphabet used in the scratches?

It was a language for the blind in Scotland made in 1836.
I never thought to look into a language for the blind.

"BLIND" you say?
...huh...

Yup, such a clever little detail too.