May 2014 Entry - Tri-translated Treasure Map

[jbgibson]

Okay, my 'monsters' don't do paper maps, so this will be in their methodology.
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...well that's awkward. Our human-centric CG upload doesn't want to accept an audio 'map'.... Fine. The rendition so conveniently archived by Wikimedia Commons should be there roughly forever. Go hear OO'loiuuu'onOoO'ia's directions.

That's in middle cetacean (humpback dialect) (only the first bit is navigational - the repetitive last part is an advert for ShinyStripes Pilotfish Cleaning Service)

Anyone who has paid attention to my postings knows I don't take myself over seriously - so this is a 'real' entry with as many layers of quotation marks as you like... zero to dozens. I'm composing this map-as-it-were using other folks' "symbology" so other than the attached narrative it my not have as much originality as you think a contest deserves. If you figure it's interesting but not original enough to win, then don't vote for it :-). I shan't be the least bit dismayed.

[jbgibson]

Now we have a translation of the original into northwestern delphinic (note the loss of fidelity of depth data).
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Two-click Nickedfin Loverboy Duskytail's rendition

[jbgibson]

And finally which then was translated into inner-trench merfolk (note the mistaken translation of the original "bubblenet" into "seine-net" and the total lack of depth data, since merfolk-navigation is all bottom-referenced instead of cetacean-standard surface-referenced
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Atlantestha BentTrident's account of Loverboy's rendition of OO'loiuu's directions

[jbgibson]

I would try to render that in typical human linework-on-paper, only merfolk don't talk to humans, so that particular translation never got made. Plus, all those species use narrative navigation, not symbolic 2-d like we do. In the narrative spirit of the original it would be roughly:

"from the place where we bubble-netted mackerel under a gibbous moon three seasons ago, to that human shipwreck with shiny stuff 256 lengths out from the dead light-on-a-pole by the irritating human harbor behind a mudbank"


Where'd I get the info? From a talented mockingbird linguist who was telling a flock of diving-cormorants where they might find human coins to trade with jackdaws.

This is mapping JUST as these 'monsters' do it - nobody says we have to provide a human graphical translation. :-) Unless we reeeeeeally need a graphical version for it to be considered a map. Personally, the audio conveys *perfectly* these "monsters' " mapping.

The first two are wikimedia commons public domain files. The latter is attribution-licensed - the author is User:Hangklang - Wikimedia Commons

[jbgibson]

Okay, I can picture the WIP scraper not liking a bunch of links instead of attachments, so here is the reason merfolk don't do human-style maps.

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See, they will occasionally send messages with chamelion-ray copies. The above is what happened when the extremely unconventional thinker Oteyorej Squidlimpet tried to copy more than the typical battle-code glyph or simple number. Complex patterns just don't reproduce well. Because I know what he was trying, I'll interpret.

Top left is the bubble-ring of humpback OO'loiuuu'onOoO'ia and a fish symbol - mackerel or tuna in our terms. The line is the travel path, the upright line with X is a beaming lighthouse, the hump is the mudbank past which lies an "irritating human harbor". Below that is the number 256 (a round number estimate for the binary-counting Cetaceans). Mister Squidlimpet could care less about human shipwrecks - they're so much unwanted litter to his people. The "original" artwork is the dribbled tar you see in the sand to the left of the chamelion-ray. Oteyorej Squidlimpet isn't much of an artist by human standards, but he is among the most graphically oriented of his auditory-focused people.

Base ray image is attribution-licensed; originator was this photographer.

[Meshon]

Where'd I get the info? From a talented mockingbird linguist who was telling a flock of diving-cormorants where they might find human coins to trade with jackdaws.

Perhaps my favorite bit of this whole awesome map archive. I really love this. Thanks for sharing this piece of your (totally sane, I'm sure) mind.

cheers,
Meshon

[Ferra Dubrinsky]

that is awesome