Black Voyage's ancient transcribes research

Black Voyage and my other projects involve reference to secret codes and text, and to make that seem real and authentic I do alot of research into these matters and for Black Voyage I will properly introduce an ancient book that was key in Transplant.

First I am going to talk about the codes and cipher that inspired parts of Black Voyage.

Templar cipher

The templar cipher is a variation of the pigpen cipher which exchanges letters for symbols which are fragments of a grid. This cipher's origin is unknown but records go back to at least the 18th century. This works wonderfully for the continuity of my story as it is set in the middle of the 18th century.

The templar cipher intrigued me not because of it's history but because of the way it is written. I can encode objects in my comic but only a select few will know it's there as other will see it as a weird pattern. I already used this cipher in the first part of Black Voyage on a poster and will use it again in the main issue.

The Templar cipher consists of variants of the Maltese cross. This is a eight pointed cross that form four "v" shaped elements. (example below)

Voynich manuscript

The Voynich manuscript is an illustrated codex that is written by hand and in an unknown writing system. The book has been carbon-dated to the 15th century and has 240 known pages as some are missing.  The text has been studied by professional and amateur cryptographers, yet the text has still not been deciphered.

This text intrigued me the most as it was created before the events of Black Voyage. This means that it is plausible that Sophia would have it in the 18th century. The fact that it has not been deciphered also is the main reason I chose this book to be in my comic as these code can be interpreted how I want them to be. This gives me a opportunity to add weight and plausibility to it's power that I will give it in Black Voyage.

These are the codes and texts I will be using in Black Voyage. I hope this gave some understanding as to what these are and why I am using them in Black Voyage.