Xenobiology study of Thargoid Ship Logograms - Compendium

[Siobhan]

Thanks. In my defence the last time I read The Dark Wheel was probably 1984!

Putting my Canonn hat on (tin foil obviously) and trying to be as scientific as possible about this, I just wanted to make sure that the fiction I was speculating on was officially sanctioned fiction rather than fan-fiction. If you see what I mean.

Well to be fair, it's the same books that say that Thargoids of both types were geno-engineered by humans to live on certain planets...

 

[JonesTheFilm]

I'm also working on this a bit, I was wondering if the language might be arranged around an 8-element pattern, since 8 is clearly important to them, something lije this:

https://i.imgur.com/kj8OKOk.jpg

Your images remind me of the radar-style loudness meters used in video/audio editing. I doubt it has any relevance, but in a universe where images have been hidden in the sounds of unknown probes, who knows!

 

[Orodir]

Updating the post and imgur as information comes in. Great work commanders keep it up!

 

[amigacooke {macOS}]

You know this sort of thread is why the Frontier forum is just a cut above the others.

Naturally, I didn't understand a thing.

 

[[VR] Frank_G]

These symbols resemble galaxy arm regions to me, indicating which areas that particular hive faction occupies.

Wait, I thought they were motherships or something.

My thought was, that the middle symbol represents Barnards Loop and the outer markings the faction zones. But maybe they dont think in factions at all and the symbol represents something different (maybe it a "humans go home" decal )

And no... Those arent motherships... and that is no moon...

 

[Gromit240]

My first thought, which I haven't seen mentioned here yet, was that they may be individual identifiers. Like names. Obviously the center bit denotes their clan, faction, or whatever. The rest of the symbol may be a unique serial number given to each Thargoid to distinguish them.

 

[Louis Calvert]

My first thought, which I haven't seen mentioned here yet, was that they may be individual identifiers. Like names. Obviously the center bit denotes their clan, faction, or whatever. The rest of the symbol may be a unique serial number given to each Thargoid to distinguish them.

I think it's likely that you're right. Assuming the centre icon is the "hive mark" (seems silly it would just say "thargoid" on everything, but a faction mark is likely), then the surrounding rings I think are words, I think these icons are the ship names in Thargoid.

Only thing that makes me think otherwise is that I have just found the first duplicated icon that's appeared on two different ship images (at least I'm pretty sure it's the same one). Doesn't disprove the name or word theory though, how many of our ships are named things like "Discovery" or "Seeker" and things like that I wonder!

 

[JonesTheFilm]

Only thing that makes me think otherwise is that I have just found the first duplicated icon that's appeared on two different ship images (at least I'm pretty sure it's the same one). Doesn't disprove the name or word theory though, how many of our ships are named things like "Discovery" or "Seeker" and things like that I wonder!

Surely also a possibility of the two images being the same ship on different occasions? We know little about Thargoid jump ability, maybe some of them get around a bit?

 

[Louis Calvert]

Surely also a possibility of the two images being the same ship on different occasions? We know little about Thargoid jump ability, maybe some of them get around a bit?

Oh yeah, that makes perfect sense, lol totally didn't think of that.

 

[Louis Calvert]

More Thargoid glyphs

Here's the full compiled list collected by Orodir.
It's worth noting that these images aren't corrected for angle, only rotation, they should all be basically circular, so just bear that in mind.

And this one is the same list ordered by similar designs. I colour coded all the parts that are the same as other parts and tried to lay them out so they are relative to each other, the layout doesn't really mean anything, it's just for organisation. I've just noticed I missed a few links, but you get the idea

 

[Orodir]

Surely also a possibility of the two images being the same ship on different occasions? We know little about Thargoid jump ability, maybe some of them get around a bit?

Since there have been many of the same symbols encountered at different instances, I have to agree that there is a chance it was the same Thargoid.

 

[ape808]

First thought is that maybe they represent Barnard's loop and the other nearby nebula as seen from different angles. But then again, the complete circle image makes that unlikely.

 

[Ecthelion]

My first thought, as posted in the temporary Canonn thread, is the resemblance of some kind of growth ring. Like in trees. Since the same symbol that is on the barnacle is the same on all, that could somehow signify their origin - as in they start as barnacles and evolve in their "life cycle". The older ones would then maybe have more complex markings.

Anyway, I'm not so sure about this idea.

I'm more inclined to think that it's a faction symbol or maybe a symbol of their purpose - since they sort of behave like drones (seen with our eyes), the symbol could be like a symbol for the branch of their fleet - like they're the scout fleet - scouting ahead and using barnacles to refuel or grow more ships. The symbols around the "barnacle-symbol" could be their position in that branch/fleet/unit or just a general ID of that ship within that branch.

Or I could be completely wrong, but I'm sharing this so that maybe I'm sparking some ideas in others.

 

[TiberiuS]

Surely also a possibility of the two images being the same ship on different occasions? We know little about Thargoid jump ability, maybe some of them get around a bit?

Just look how often you see an NPC with the same name or ship name. There surely is a limited number in the pool when the ships are "created" in game. So meeting a ship with the same name twice is not that uncommon.

 

[ShadowWolf Kell]

Not sure if there's any purpose to them. They could just be randomly generated, or the inner and outer rings could serve some purpose.

Has anyone actually encountered multiple Thargoids all using the exact same glyph? What about color variations?


One possibility is that it's the origin world that the ship came from, which ties into the alien base growing theory. Without some kind of reference, it'll be quite difficult to figure those out. That's my hunch anyway, that it's tied to a specific system. Far too many variations to be clans.

Just look how often you see an NPC with the same name or ship name. There surely is a limited number in the pool when the ships are "created" in game. So meeting a ship with the same name twice is not that uncommon.

Names is another possibility, though that might be hard to translate. Anyone watch the Arrival?
[video=youtube;Qd8zT1YAUck]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd8zT1YAUck[/video]

 

[ebbrell]

to me the thargoids who hyperdict you are the nice guys... each time they just follow me

 

[DrNoesis]

Interesting.

the 1 inner "barnacle" peice is always the same, the next ring only has 3 variations of symbols (if you utilise pinch of salt v3.5) and Im counting 13 outer ring variations.

That gives us an observed range of essentially 39 configurations, or "characters", which is more than enough to give us a full alphabet plus some numbers... gonna have to go trawling through more pics and vids myself now lol

 

[Orodir]

CMDR Moribus has done a great job of transcribing the images. OP heavily modified.

 

[CDR Michael Darkmoor]

https://imgur.com/a/T294N tl:dr

Readdressing some of the work by CMDR Louis Calvert (Moribus above) and others focusing on the secondary ring.
Is it just me... but do these seem to "grow" from the original Barnacle symbol or not?

Edit: Perhaps going from the simplest to the most complex may give some insight?

 

[Louis Calvert]

Given everything that's gone before, I'm going to assume we can decipher whatever this is and approach it as a puzzle to solve. Whether it's a language, numbers, faction logos or rank insignia, it's there for us to solve. I realise it may not be, or that it may be something that can only be unlocked later, but there's no harm in trying.


Things to consider:

Since the Thargs seem to love octals, then it's safe to assume that whatever this is it's probably got something to do with an octal format (even if it's a rank logo, ours are bilaterraly symettrical because we as humans are too so it's natural to think that way, maybe the Tharg logos are 4 or 8 planes of symmetry, or something like that, for example)

If it's a Rank insignia or some other marker similar to our badges:

There's a LOT of them, and they aren't necessarily progressive (in that there's common elements among several and there's not much obvious progression from one icon to the next in most cases). I'm also assuming the collection we have here isn't all of them.

If it's something like a name or ID:

There's enough complexity in there for these to be words, however, where do you start translating it? If we go with the previous Thargoid signals, they have all been translatable into the maths that we know, one way or the other, so if we use the same approach here then these icons should be translatable into our English alphabet, presumably.

If it's not words/numbers:

It may be icons representing maps of an area of space, or planetary systems, there's no doubt that the "barnacle" core icon does resemble Barnard's loop or the Greater magellanic Cloud. Is that just because they are
really obvious structure in the sky and the Thargoids like it, or is it just a coincidence and the icon doesn't actually represent anything like that at all.

Non-Cannon Sources

There's a lot of misinformation out there about various things. I don't know if this stuff about the two Thargoid races is real or not. In the source material it's considered to be true, but they don't really know for sure and the whole plot of those novels is about layers of conspiracy, lies and deception. In the original Elite story the name "Thargoid" came from the first encounter, someone thought they saw the words "THARG" written on the side of the ship in an alien-ish alphabet and the name stuck. I don't know if that is still (or was ever) cannon but bear in mind that assuming things from any source (even official ones) might not actually be accurate (the official source might be lying, or might be making stuff up to hide the truth, etc.)