Quatrian Symbology
I: An Introduction to the Symbols
Consistent throughout the various Quatrian epochs, certain concepts became established within the zeitgeist of the civilization across climate/biome. By the period generally recognized as “Middle Quatria,” these concepts underwent a kind of formalization into a fairly regular set of symbols, referred to in Quatrian studies as a “Symbology.”
There were anywhere from 28 to 48 basic symbols, representing “Entities,” a selection of which are presented in Image 1. There were also symbols for each Magician and Monster represented in the Quatrian Festival of the Hypogeum. For now, it will suffice to provide a brief overview of how the Symbology was likely implemented. We will then take a closer look at each of the symbols/concepts and discuss the deeper implications of their utilization.
There is some disagreement among scholars regarding the order of the symbols (1). The order presented above, known nominally as “The Standard Arrangement,” is based on an oral mnemonic device for remembering the symbols recorded by David Burgess in his comprehensive collection of recordings from Uzbek “singer schools” (2). That these traditions were sung instead of written means that the concepts alone can be found in these song-cycles. Burgess made the association official with the publication of “Quatrian Symbols: A Standard Arrangement Proposed:”
The song contains seven stanzas of four lines each. Each line describes one of the concepts we now recognize as symbologically ‘Quatrian.’ Additional categories are formed by musical cues and themes, and the arrangement can be inferred as follows:
Hypogeic Powers: Deer, Owl, Maiden, Musician
“Experienced” Powers: Skies, Mountains, Spirits, Forest&tc. (3)
Using Burgess’s Arrangement, the Symbols may be read from left to right. The top line, or the Hypogeic Powers, are those pre- and proto-shamanic entities who seem to transcend fate, time, and destiny within the Quatrian mythos. The next three lines, from “Sky” to “Animalcule” (an outmoded term for microorganisms of all kinds), represent Things That Can Be Experienced. The concepts in the following line should be familiar to most readers as the four “Classical Elements;” however, these play a slightly different role within Quatrian lore, which will be discussed in more detail in a later installment.
If the four elements represent the tangible foundations of experience, the following four — “Life Force” to “Mystery” — are used primarily to discuss and describe what we might call “forces” through which changes are enacted within the World. Finally, the last four symbols, beginning with Timehunter and ending with Silence, are special cases which must be discussed in the proper context.
Although this arrangement does suffer from some questionable interpretation and a decidedly modern bias, its utility has become standard in Quatrian studies. (4) In our next installment, we’ll look at some of the ways in which Quatrians throughout the various epochs used the symbols and how they impacted the greater Quatrian ontology.
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Notes:
(1) See, for example, “The Quatrian Symbology: An Alternative Order,” by Dr. Gennifer Woodward, The Journal of Archaeosociology, Vol. 13, Issue 6. Oxford 1934.
(2) See also https://classics.missouri.edu/sites/default/files/event-file/lordparryfall20163reichl_1.pdf
(3) “Quatrian Symbols: A Standard Arrangement Proposed,” Folklore and Society, 14:234 pp 245–256. Bletchley 1953.
(4) It has even been suggested recently that the Symbology presented in this arrangement can also be “read” from top to bottom.
