We've seen a recurring alchemical symbol, which appears to be the sigil of the BlackGrail. It is a triangle with one angle pointing straight down; from that angle there is a line extending further downward with two crossbars.
No, closer to Phosphorus actually from what I've been able to find. Gold (according to this site anyway) is a circle with a dot in the middle. That jibes with my alchemical knowledge, all of which comes from Metal Men comics. Phosphorus is a triangle (point up) with a...aw hell, here's a link: http://www.chemsoc.org/viselements/pages/alchemist/alc_phosphorus.html On the wall of the flophouse was this symbol, but with the triangle pointing DOWN. Rob, correct me here, the symbol was drawn in feces, or smeared over with feces? That could be important. Because the Phosphorus symbol is used to represent spirit. Flip the triangle and you have anti-spirit. Is the smearing a desecration of the anti-spirit symbol, or a territory marker? Because if we screwed with something that was under the protection of some big soul-eating nasty, I want out of the car right now! [ChrisT]
The cover of Cryptonomicon was one of the symbols for gold as used by Basil Valentine and Trithmeius. I don't have a web referecne but I have several book references. Like most things alchemical why have one symbol when you can have a dozen? While I don't have a good web reference to the symbol I do have Neal's own words here: http://www.well.com/user/neal/ [Jere]
In game, this symbol is often associated with feces. It also tends to appear in places where the human spirit is at its lowest.
To be a pesky medievalist: the reason why gold and feces were so often associated with each other in the Middle Ages was the cultural distrust of money and merchants. Merchants were outside the feudal system, as travelers and makers of their own destiny. There's also a connection between flattery ("brown-nosing") and gold as well. Here's an interesting article: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/epc/srb/srb/11-3edit.html [Mike] < <|Alchemy|>
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No, closer to Phosphorus actually from what I've been able to find. Gold (according to this site anyway) is a circle with a dot in the middle. That jibes with my alchemical knowledge, all of which comes from Metal Men comics. Phosphorus is a triangle (point up) with a...aw hell, here's a link: http://www.chemsoc.org/viselements/pages/alchemist/alc_phosphorus.html On the wall of the flophouse was this symbol, but with the triangle pointing DOWN. Rob, correct me here, the symbol was drawn in feces, or smeared over with feces? That could be important. Because the Phosphorus symbol is used to represent spirit. Flip the triangle and you have anti-spirit. Is the smearing a desecration of the anti-spirit symbol, or a territory marker? Because if we screwed with something that was under the protection of some big soul-eating nasty, I want out of the car right now! [ChrisT]
The cover of Cryptonomicon was one of the symbols for gold as used by Basil Valentine and Trithmeius. I don't have a web referecne but I have several book references. Like most things alchemical why have one symbol when you can have a dozen? While I don't have a good web reference to the symbol I do have Neal's own words here: http://www.well.com/user/neal/ [Jere]
In game, this symbol is often associated with feces. It also tends to appear in places where the human spirit is at its lowest.
- From my handy dandy encyclopedia of symbols: "Particularly among primitive peoples, excrement was often regarded as a substance embued with various powers; it was often associated symbolically with gold." [Rob]
To be a pesky medievalist: the reason why gold and feces were so often associated with each other in the Middle Ages was the cultural distrust of money and merchants. Merchants were outside the feudal system, as travelers and makers of their own destiny. There's also a connection between flattery ("brown-nosing") and gold as well. Here's an interesting article: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/epc/srb/srb/11-3edit.html [Mike] < <|Alchemy|>
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Page last modified on August 15, 2003, at 02:01 PM