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Lunar Script Tutorial
(By ‘LeffeKnight’)

Lines

The first thing you might notice is that each expression is written along a line. That is, a sentence is written on a line. Sometimes, one line will stop and another will begin, sprouting from the first. Sometimes the line will wind left or right. Sometimes it will bend both ways or curl. And sometimes it won’t bend at all.

The direction the ‘line’ goes is irrelevant. And in this tutorial we’re going to use a straight, vertical line for convenience, because the line is not the important aspect of Lunar script. What are of interest are the characters that are based along that line.

Characters

If you travel along the line, the first character you ‘meet’ is the first in the word, and the second you meet is the second character in the word, and so on. Just as English script is typically read from left-to-right, Lunar script is read along a line.

   There are three ‘types’ of characters in Lunar script.

   1) The vowels

These are characters that represent the English vowels A, E, I, O and U.

Here they are. Notice the main line the character lies on (it’s the vertical one). 

      By far the most common characters, the couples represent an English

“Consonant-sound” and a vowel in succession. For example, MA, or HA or SU. I say “consonant-sound + vowel” because there exist couples that defy a “consonant + vowel” description. For example, CHI. I’m still calling them couples because they follow the same rules.

For every consonant-sound there are five couples. And it’s a simple reason: DA, DE, DI, DO, DU. One couple for each possible vowel combination. NA, NE, NI, NO, NU, for instance. These sets of couples can be grouped. So you just would have seen the D-group and N-group, if I had have drawn them. I’m saving that bit for later because groups are interesting and warrant some explanation.

   3) The special characters

These are a small set of characters, all very simple in appearance, that serve to facilitate reading the script. I'll keep these for later also.

GROUPLES (or groups of couples)

Don’t worry, I promise not to use that hideous word anymore. On to the goods...

You’ll soon notice that every couple in a group looks somewhat alike. SA looks like SE, for instance. And let me tell you, that’s a good thing. It makes recognising the characters far easier. And not only do they look similar, the couples in a group follow a handy format. Lunar script isn’t completely standardised, but some rules still apply. To make explaining this more straightforward, when I say the “A-couple” I’m talking about the couple from the group containing the ‘A’. And when I say ‘right’ or ‘left’, I’m talking as if the line was vertical and we were reading from top to bottom.

Here goes...

When talking couple-groups...

   1) The A-couple and E-couple are both primarily on the left side of the line and mirror each other vertically in almost every case.

  2) The O-couple and U couple are both primarily on the right side of the line and mirror each other vertically in almost every case.

  3) The A-couple and the O-couple mirror each other horizontally in almost every case.

  4) The E-couple and the U-couple mirror each other horizontally in almost every case.

  5) The I-couple has equal proportions on both sides of the line. The right side of the I-couple is usually the reverse (transpose?) or inverse of the left side when it crosses the line.

The H-group is a good example...            So is the L-group...

Secondly, at least one O-couple doesn’t mirror its U-couple counterpart, and as with the I-couple problem, if a character isn’t printed somewhere, it can’t be accurately determined.

  The best bet is to create missing characters based on the general format - And that’s exactly what I’ve done. I’ve also tried to create I-couples based on groups with similar characters.

 Here’s the outcome. Created characters are given by ‘*’ followed by the vowels of the created couples.

H 

SH*aeio

Special Characters

Ok, now to show you the special characters I’ve been holding back. Much smaller than couples or vowels, I was first confusing them for bizarre punctuation marks. Here’s what I’ve found so far...

The ‘S-mark’

 The S-mark is a little, slightly curved dash that can be added to the couple at the end of a word to put a single ‘s’ at the end of the word.

 It is mainly used to make the appropriate words plural, turning dog to dogs, cat to cats, etc. But it can also be used to add the final ‘s’ to a word when the vowel from an S-group couple isn’t required - walk to walks, sit to sits. It is also optional, but recommended as it facilitates reading.

Add the s-mark any way you like, as long as it doesn’t make one couple look like another. It’s a short trip from a CH to an T with a carelessly placed s-mark. Some examples are to the right.

The G-mark works in exactly the same way as the S-mark except that it can be found on any couple in the word to add a single ‘g’ immediately after the couple. I have only seen it at work on couples from the N-group to produce the ‘ng’ sound occasionally needed. Examples are to the left. I think it is supposed to be more curved than the S-mark. Both the S-mark and G-mark can be used at once on the same couple, as with KINGS, or WINGS.

  The Name-marks come in a pair surrounding an individual’s name. They denote that the word they enclose is a person’s name. A Name-mark looks like twin dashes that stem from the line. Place one at the beginning of the word on the side that the first character isn’t on. Place the second mark just after the last character of the name on the side that it isn’t on. If a character lies on both sides of the line (I-couples, N-group) place it on the side with the least amount of character. Examples to the right.

  The Double is a line struck through a couple, close and roughly parallel to the main line. The ‘A’ vowel looks like it has one, so don’t get confused. If you see a double through a couple, treat that couple as if it had two instead of its usual one consonant. This allows for short-sounds and facilitates reading. Whenever the word you’re trying to write has two consonants in a row, you’ll be using a Double. So to get LITTLE, you’d write LITLE and use a double on the ‘T’. More explanation soon. The example to the left shows BELLE. It’s also somebody’s name - you know why.

Reading and Writing
 

So you’ve seen all of the characters and flirted with the extras. Now you just need to learn the convention so you can rush off and start writing on your own. I’ve put down some ways to help you learn how to write. It will be your responsibility to use S-marks, G-marks, Doubles and Name-marks. Also think about the sounds in the word - because not all English letters are covered. A space is like a space with English script, just leave a gap. 

Method of Understanding #1

* If it’s a vowel, just write down the corresponding vowel. Move to the next letter and repeat.

* If it’s a consonant, and the next letter is a vowel, write down the couple containing this consonant and the vowel. Move to the letter beyond the vowel and repeat.

* If it’s a consonant, and the next letter is not a vowel and you’ve already written down a vowel, write the couple containing this consonant and the last vowel you wrote. Move to the next letter and repeat.

* If it’s a consonant, and the next letter is not a vowel and you haven’t written down any vowels, write down the couple containing the next vowel in the word. Move to the next letter and repeat.

Method of Understanding #2 

Click to enlarge

We just try and get the letters of our word into Lunar script form. Working through the word, if you come to a vowel, write it straight down, if you hit a consonant and it’s got a vowel straight after it, get them down into a couple and move on. Consonants will always need to be written as couples (except for the special characters), so when you get one and there’s no vowel after, use the last vowel you put down or if you haven’t put a vowel down, the next vowel to come. This keeps some sense of the sound of the word. Reading becomes harder (even ambiguous) when you have to use consonants like this, but it’s all part of the show.

Final Pointers

 * “of” is spelt [o][Vo]. It’s purely a matter of sound.
* If you didn’t know already, Arzeckhi is pronounced (AR - CHECK - HEE).
* Tribes was spelt differently. In one case [Ti][Ri][Be][Se], in another [Ti][Ri][Be.s].
* The D-group and K-group characters are perilously similar in appearance.
* Numbers were left out. I can’t see where they’re going when they get large. Here are the definites.
* ‘Q’ needs to be ‘built’. Standard is [Ka][W*].
* Even the ‘I’ vowel is mirrored across the line.
* ‘X’ probably needs to be built also. I’m thinking [K*.s]
* Hmm... Did you get lost in the Reading and Writing section? it’s a bit hard to explain.
* There’s no ‘C’. Use ‘S’ for the soft and K for the hard.
* “the” is just one character [THe]
* How about the ‘pantaloons - culottes - pants’ thing in the Lunars index. What’s going on there? It’s almost as crazy as Ot’s head erupting from the swamp.
* Here’s a mad DB charm... Swallows Defend the Nest. When you’ve got high essence, it’s just a bargain.
* forgive the sub-par Character drawings.
*[Ni][Ti][Ra][i][Ni]  [Lo][Ve] [THa][Ta] [Su][Tu][F’u]..

   Well, the clock’s just ticked over 4:00 in the morning. And a car alarm just went off for a few seconds. That’s always suck. Thanks for reading - I hope you get something out of this.

 Yours in service,

 LeffeKnight