Glyph Book
The Glyph Book (ちしきのしょ, Chishiki no sho?, lit. Book of Knowledge) is a Quest item obtained in Konpa Ruins in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. It allows the player to read stone tablets written in the language of the ancients. Its Encyclopedia entry reads as follows:
- This tome is a primer to the lost language of the ancients. It was kept safe in Konpa so that future generations could learn its legacy.
Basic Description
The Glyph Book is a Key Item in Dark Dawn. It is required in order to defeat the game, and thus cannot be bought or sold. When in the player's inventory, it gives a translation to the Glyphs located on stone tablets in many dungeons. Though in-game text implies that this ability is unique to Matthew, the player can give the Glyph Book to another Adept with no apparent restriction. It should be noted, however, that when Matthew receives the Glyph Book from the statue in Konpa Ruins, an animation seems to display Matthew being supernaturally imbued with the knowledge to read glyphic writing at the same time, suggesting that Matthew becomes instantaneously fluent in the ancient writing system. The Glyph Book itself may therefore function merely as an available primer for additional individuals to learn the writing system through time-consuming study.
Background and Story
At some point in the ancient past, a group of people apparently hid the Glyph Book in what is now known as the Konpa Ruins. The Konpa Ruins, as well as many other dungeons located across the world, contain large tablets inscribed with the Glyph language; these tablets are often needed to solve the puzzles of the various dungeons. Presumably, the Ancients hid away the Glyph book to provide a translation should future generations ever need to explore these dungeons.
In Dark Dawn, Matthew and his party come to the Konpa Ruins, as they contain the only pathway to Bilibin that is known to be open. While exploring the Ruins, they eventually make their way to a large statue in the center of the ruins. The statue telepathically speaks to Matthew, granting him the Glyph Book, and thus the ability to read Glyphs. Matthew immediately puts this knowledge to use while reading one of the large tablets in the dungeon. Eventually, the party is able to make their way below ground to Konpa Cave. After a run in with three strange warriors, a strange masked person and a sword-wielding man called Blados confront Matthew and his party. Before making their demands known, they take time to confirm that Matthew has the Glyph Book, for unknown reasons.
About the Glyphs
The glyphs from the book can actually be directly translated into the Latin Alphabet -- letter per letter, glyph per glyph. It is a majuscule script, having only capital symbols. For example, the Latin letter E maps to a symbol homogeneous with Λ (capital lambda).
After observing these characters, it is possible to translate sections of glyphs that the game does not automatically translate, such as the text on summon tablets and the text on the red book seen in the menu screen. This particular book has some glyphs on its cover and inside has the three save slots. The title of this book is "Golden Sun", written in glyphs. The text in the magical symbol found on the top screen of the DS is also written in these glyphs, but is a transliteration of a foreign language, not English.
