Sarianae
Infinite Dreamer
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2010
- Location
- Storybrooke, Maine
Hello fellow ZDers! How familiar are you with Cryptography? Some? None? Plenty? Interested in learning?
I'm going to show you guys some today. Behold the following cipher text:
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This is but one of the legends of which the people speak...
Long ago, there existed a kingdom where a golden power lay hidden. It was a prosperous land blessed with green forests, tall mountains, and peace. But one day a man of great evil found the golden power and took it for himself... With its strength at his command, he spread darkness across the kingdom. But then, when all hope had died, and the hour of doom seemed at hand......a young boy clothed in green appeared as if from nowhere. Wielding the blade of evil's bane, he sealed the dark one away and gave the land light. This boy, who traveled through time to save the land, was known as the Hero of Time. The boy's tale was passed down through generations until it became legend... But then...a day came when a fell wind began to blow across the kingdom. The great evil that all thought had been forever sealed away by the hero......once again crept forth from the depths of the earth, eager to resume its dark designs. The people believed that the Hero of Time would again come to save them...
...But the hero did not appear.
Faced by an onslaught of evil, the people could do nothing but appeal to the gods. In their last hour, as doom drew nigh, they left their future in the hands of fate.
What became of that kingdom...? None remain who know.
The memory of the kingdom vanished, but its legend survived on the wind's breath. On a certain island, it became customary to garb boys in green when they came of age. Clothed in the green of fields, they aspired to find heroic blades and cast down evil. The elders wished only for the youths to know courage like the hero of legend...
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So, I randomly felt like emboldening some letters throughout the text to make it funny, right?
WRONG.
Within the above text, I have enciphered a message using a crypto-system known as the Bacon Francis Bilateral Cipher.
I task you with this: decipher the hidden message.
In order for you to do that, I shall be walking you through the encipherment/decipherment process below.
******YOU WILL NEED THE FOLLOWING CHART TO DECIPHER THIS MESSAGE:
I will be explaining how to use this chart in detail below.
However for now, simply note that each letter of the alphabet corresponds to a 5-letter sequence of As and Bs.
a - AAAAA
b - AAAAB
c - AAABA
d - AAABB
e - AABAA
f - AABAB
g - AABBA
h - AABBB
i/j - ABAAA
k - ABAAB
l - ABABA
m - ABABB
n - ABBAA
o - ABBAB
p - ABBBA
q - ABBBB
r - BAAAA
s - BAAAB
t - BAABA
u/v - BAABB
w - BABAA
x - BABAB
y - BABBA
z - BABBB
I will be explaining how to use this chart in detail below.
However for now, simply note that each letter of the alphabet corresponds to a 5-letter sequence of As and Bs.
a - AAAAA
b - AAAAB
c - AAABA
d - AAABB
e - AABAA
f - AABAB
g - AABBA
h - AABBB
i/j - ABAAA
k - ABAAB
l - ABABA
m - ABABB
n - ABBAA
o - ABBAB
p - ABBBA
q - ABBBB
r - BAAAA
s - BAAAB
t - BAABA
u/v - BAABB
w - BABAA
x - BABAB
y - BABBA
z - BABBB
The Decipherment Process
To walk you through this, I will be providing a short sample message below as an example.
Take a look at the following sample cipher text:
Every game has a story.
Only one is a legend.
A timeless tale of the epics of old awaits.
Decipherment STEP 1:
Re-partition the letters in groups of five. You can remove punctuation if it distracts you, since it's irrelevant.
It should look like this:
Every gameh asast oryon lyone isale genda timel essta leoft heepi csofo ldawa its
Decipherment STEP 2:
Observe any sort of variation of typeface design that you see. This can include any sort of change in font style: bold, italic, upper/lowercase shifts, size or color changes, and font shifts. When this cipher system is used most effectively, the changes are very subtle. However, for this example I have made the change obvious: the variation is between regular and bold type.
Now, you must do a substitution by comparing your letters grouped in fives to the groupings of As and Bs (in fives) in the above chart. Each of the two variations that you've observed will correspond to either those As or Bs. If you are not sure which variation corresponds to the As, and which corresponds to the Bs, you will have to figure it out through trial and error...the incorrect one will give you gibberish, be indecipherable, or if it's being used seriously, may perhaps give you a false message to throw you off. However, you really shouldn't have any problems figuring out the correct correspondence to As and Bs in the text that I've written at the top of this post. The example below should show you what it should look like:
Every gameh asast -oryon -lyone -isale -genda -timel -essta -leoft -heepi -csofo -ldawa its
Ababa abaaa abbaa abaab abaaa baaab abaab aabaa aabba aabaa abbaa aaabb babab ---
Decipherment STEP 3:
Refer to the above chart to see which letter it is that corresponds to each 5-letter A/B sequence you've translated the cipher text into. For example, the first 5-letter sequence you've written is ABABA. If you check the chart above, you'll see that this sequence corresponds to the letter L. Write the letter under its AB sequence equivalent and continue doing this for the rest of the ciphertext to uncover what the full message is. It should look like this:
Every gameh asast -oryon -lyone -isale -genda -timel -essta -leoft -heepi -csofo -ldawa its
Ababa abaaa abbaa abaab abaaa baaab abaab aabaa aabba aabaa abbaa aaabb babab ---
---L ------I -----N -----K -----I -----S -----L -----E ------G -----E -----N -----D -----X
The X on the end is just a dummy letter; the final message in this case would be:
Link is Legend.
This is, however, a short example to explain how it works. Now that you've seen the way it's done, try taking a crack at finding the hidden message in the text at the top of this post. If anything is unclear or if you have any questions for me, feel free to ask.
If you believe you have found the hidden message, I ask that you please post it in SPOILER TAGS just in case someone else would also like to try it after you.
Additionally, if someone solves it, feel free to post your own crypto-messages for other people to solve (you are not obliged of course).
*In fact, you may even choose to simply hide a message within the text of your very post if you wish (expect me to be deciphering them though!) Furthermore, you are allowed to use a different cipher other than the Bacon Francis Bilteral Cipher that I have been using above if you wish, however if you choose to do this, you must include an explanation of how the decipherment works so that others may be able to follow.
I believe that covers everything I have to say. Good luck!
It might be a bit time consuming, but I do think working with cryptography is pretty neat.
I do hope you guys give it a shot!
************* C H A L L E N G E *************
I bid you fair warning; on a scale of easy to hard, I made this one EVIL.
This is for those of you who solved the earlier message and are up for a real challenge.
I will be extremely impressed with anyone who can figure it out. Someone...impress me if you can.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The prompt says: This message is impossible to decipher.
Your task: Prove the prompt WRONG.
By any means you may find at your disposal, decipher it..
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I bid you fair warning; on a scale of easy to hard, I made this one EVIL.
This is for those of you who solved the earlier message and are up for a real challenge.
I will be extremely impressed with anyone who can figure it out. Someone...impress me if you can.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The prompt says: This message is impossible to decipher.
Your task: Prove the prompt WRONG.
By any means you may find at your disposal, decipher it..
--------------------------------------------------------------------
--- The Four Giants ---
This tale's from long ago when all the people weren't separated into four worlds like they are now.
In those times all the people lived together, and the four giants lived among them. On the day of the festival that celebrates the harvest, the giants spoke to the people…
“We have chosen to guard the people while we sleep…100 steps north, 100 steps south, 100 steps east, 100 steps west. If you have need, call us in a loud voice by declaring something such as, ‘The mountain blizzard has trapped us.’ Or ‘The ocean is about to swallow us.’ Your cries shall carry to us…”
Now then…there was one who was shocked and saddened by all this.
A little imp.
The imp was a friend of the giants since before they had created the four worlds.
“Why must you leave? Why do you not stay?”
The childhood friend felt neglected, so he spread his anger across the four worlds. Repeatedly, he wronged all people. Overwhelmed with misfortune, the people sang the song of prayer to the giants who lived in each of the four compas.s directions. The giants heard their cry and responded with a roar.
“Oh, imp. Oh, imp. We are the protectors of the people. You have caused the people pain. Oh, imp. Leave these four worlds! Otherwise, we shall tear you apart!”
The imp was frightened and saddened. He had lost his old friends. The imp returned to the heavens, and harmony was restored to the four worlds. And the people rejoiced and they worshiped the giants of the four worlds like gods.
And they lived happily…ever after…
In those times all the people lived together, and the four giants lived among them. On the day of the festival that celebrates the harvest, the giants spoke to the people…
“We have chosen to guard the people while we sleep…100 steps north, 100 steps south, 100 steps east, 100 steps west. If you have need, call us in a loud voice by declaring something such as, ‘The mountain blizzard has trapped us.’ Or ‘The ocean is about to swallow us.’ Your cries shall carry to us…”
Now then…there was one who was shocked and saddened by all this.
A little imp.
The imp was a friend of the giants since before they had created the four worlds.
“Why must you leave? Why do you not stay?”
The childhood friend felt neglected, so he spread his anger across the four worlds. Repeatedly, he wronged all people. Overwhelmed with misfortune, the people sang the song of prayer to the giants who lived in each of the four compas.s directions. The giants heard their cry and responded with a roar.
“Oh, imp. Oh, imp. We are the protectors of the people. You have caused the people pain. Oh, imp. Leave these four worlds! Otherwise, we shall tear you apart!”
The imp was frightened and saddened. He had lost his old friends. The imp returned to the heavens, and harmony was restored to the four worlds. And the people rejoiced and they worshiped the giants of the four worlds like gods.
And they lived happily…ever after…
~~~ Fin ~~~
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