Ambrosia Software Web Board: Aloiphoi, redux - Ambrosia Software Web Board

I don't really remember how I got there, but I was going through the writings of the occultist Aleister Crowley (I'm not joining a cult, I swear), and I stumbled across some rather familiar stuff about wisdom and folly. I Google'd some of the other Aloiphos texts and found that all of them seem to be taken verbatim from Crowley's Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis or whatever). I have no idea if anyone else found this out before already, but I don't remember hearing about it and I figured this board needs some activity anyhow.

Some of the Aloiphoi actually seemed pretty relevant to Cythera, FD in particular, so I was a little surprised to find gandreas didn't even write them, but I guess he took out passages that fit in with the story or something.

This post has been edited by Buzzzzy: 09 September 2014 - 08:48 PM

I looked in to the name again, but this time with initial stress (άλοιφος). This led to:
διφθεράλοιφος (schoolmaster, teacher of writing)
which seems to be attested in the Cypriot syllabary:
ti-pe-ra-lo-i-po-ne
That makes sense to me. I've speculated before that the Cytheran writing system was probably based on Linear A/B, not the Greek alphabet.

I'm joining a clut.

I'm joining a pltt.

This post has been edited by Buzzzzy: 11 September 2014 - 02:46 AM

Hmm, interesting find. This may have been mentioned before on irc (perhaps by Pallas?), but I don't recall for certain. There don't seem to be any topics that mention it.


(I'm waiting for someone to write a conspiracy theory about gandreas trying to use Cythera as a tool to brainwash people into joining a cult.)

I've never heard of Aleister Crowley, but thanks for sharing your find! ^_^ I wonder if these writings influenced Gandreas' design for the Cytheran government, or if he stole the writings because they matched his design for the Cytheran government so closely?

Do the Aloiphoi refer to Cythera's government? I thought they pertained to the mages.

I was specifically thinking of Aloiphus FD (that Buzzy mentioned), which was about the government.

To be honest, finding a direct connection in some of them (like J with its stuff about a frog and a quilt) is kind of a stretch, but there's scattered stuff that sort of sounds like Cytheran magic, or the elementals. I guess FD could be about the mages too, since the judges are mages, and the stuff about Houses doesn't really seem like Cythera's Houses. I dunno, it actually seems less obviously relevant on second look. Given mages' vague description of the Aloiphoi, I kind of doubt now that gandreas intended anyone to find substantial content in them.

Any clue what the letters mean?

Buzzzzy, on 17 September 2014 - 03:32 AM, said:

I'm inclined to agree about the lack of substantial content. I think they are intended just to give cultural background and add depth to the game.

I suspect that the lettering is most likely some sort of ordering system.