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The bug jars that can be found in dungeons all have runes on the bottom of them. I found a reddit post translating them into the Elder Futhark runic language. Here's the link! INVESTIGATE!
http://www.reddit.com/r/skyrim/comments/nklj2/you_know_those_runes_on_the_lids_of_the_bug_jars/

WTF!!!!

Copied the below from reddit

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I figured it out guys.

I was watching Fullmetal Alchemist and I strung this together. Heads up, this may contain indirect spoilers to the show if you haven't watched it...

Here is the answer: Imgur

So I know this may seem ridiculous, but hear me out, I don't entirely know the meaning of lake in these translations, but otherwise if we attribute each rune to a city I think it would go as follows:

•Need Horse Lake - Whiterun, symbol of a horse for the map marker
•Need Human Lake - Morthal, similar to Mortal, which could represent human
•Day Need - Dawnstar, dawn star, like the sun
•Giant Ice Sun - I believe this to be Winterhold due to it being at the top of the circle, as in the sun, and it is cold there?
•Need Hail ____ - Being unsure of the last word I assume this to be Windhelm as it is cold there, and that may relate it to hail.
Now that shows the outer areas, and as I was looking at this I realised that it was in the shape of a circle, and if you connect the cities, it made a pentagon. Now, I looked at the pentagon, and at the center of each line, there was something interesting. First was Skyborn Altar, Second was Shearpoint, Third was Mount Anthor, those are all area's with dragons, so it was easy enough to figure those out. I assume once all the dragons are dead, the last place you would go is the Tower Stone, which is said to give you the ability to unlock expert locks or in our case the answer to our puzzle, but that left one more location; Mzinchaleft.

Now I was unsure on how Mzinchaleft fit into the picture here, but after doing a bit of research, I discovered that Mzinchaleft leads to Blackreach, where I discovered the fight with the dragon Vulthuryol. So that solved that, Kill the 4 dragons and activate the tower stone.

The last piece of the puzzle is where to go, where is the center of this circle? well a little bit of exploring lead me to the Waynon Stones, and if you have ever been there you should know what it looks like. If you haven't been there, it is a circle of stones with a statue of Talos with a dragon coiled at his feet, but most importantly there is an offering table across from Talos.

Now this explains the shape of the transmutation circle, but now for the process.

•Step 1: First comes the crests of blood. Basically just go on a killing spree in each of the 5 cities.
•Step 2: The inner Pentagon. The dragons must be enough to suffice for each point in the inner pentagon, and the Tower Stone unlocks the ability to use the transmutation circle.
•Step 3: Head to the Weynon Stones and place the bugs in the jars in a circle on the altar, placing each bug corresponding to it's respective cities location. These will act as your sacrifices.
•Step 4: Wait for "The Promised Day" to activate your transmutation circle and obtain ultimate power.
tldr: Its a transmutation circle

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AND...
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Guys guys I figured out what "The Promised Day" is, and that the ultimate power is.

(Possible SPOILERS)

Imagine how this could tie into real life, and the the timing of this fabulous puzzle. The "Promised Day" HAS to be Christmas, because that's when one opens their promised presents.

As for the ultimate power... Transmutation isn't just about alchemy, but refers to transmutation of species, used by Lamarck. you are Dragonborn, with the soul of a dragon, and the body of a mortal. In Lamarckism, what happens if an organism uses something for an extended period of time? That's right.

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmutation_of_species

You. Will. Be. Able. To. Transform. Into. A. Goddamned. Dragon. After. Christmas.

This also explains the delay in releasing the Creation Kit; can't have someone digging through and spoiling the big surprise, can we?
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OMGWTF

I just read the whole thread...lots of conspiricy theory stuff going on, but for me it proves that TES fans are some of the most dedicated, creative and out-and-out greatest people on earth

I have to say the logic used in piecing this together is fuzzy indeed. There is minimal amount of fact & a lot of speculation. In fact I think the fact stops & butterflies in jars & the rest is conspiratorial. Of course it could be true, I have absolutely no evidence to the contrary. I'm just pointing out it is fantastical.

Very interesting indeed... I'm going to give a link to this post to the guys at reddit who were posting about this.

I just read most of the posts in that thread as well as some of the linked sources, and I think there's definitely something going on relevant to the Jars and the Dragon Shrines and Waynon Stones. I doubt it'll be something like turning into a dragon on Christmas, and would really just be content with summoning another dragon.

Reanimating the Numidium and pulling the Dwemer out of the timestream seems like it would fit the symbols and points, but there would be enormous repercussions in-game that I doubt could happen without pretty much rewriting the whole game to be either pre- or post-ritual.

This may pertain to Rune in the thieve's guild, I'm not really sure, just a possibility.

Or they could just be decorations for your house. These jars do respawn at their original location and trying to place one upright is damn near impossible. I was able to get 2 butterflies in a jar. I see no rune you guys speak of and I choose not to believe this conspiracy theory until Bethesda themselves says otherwise.

I doubt the Dwemer will come back. Ayleids have a better chance of coming back than Dwemer, who found a way to read the divines and elder scrolls without consequences.

Butterfly
Bee
Moth
Torchbug
Dragonfly

These are part of an unmarked quest in your quest log and are meant as nothing more than a curiosity.

The runes are there, and although we have no clue what they mean, its a hell of a lot of fun trying to find out. I appreciate your honesty, but just don't rain on our confused, directionless, parade.

Well I don't mean to rain down on it just last time there was such a grand conspiracy that I remember was back in Oblivion.

Basically one poster not unlike yourself brought to the forum:

If you stand on top of dive rock and delete all of your saves then jump off Dive Rock Akatosh himself will come to save you.

And thousands of weak-willed people chose to believe this and deleted -all- of their saves only to die and had to start all over then they started blaming the moderators who in turn said that if anyone were to speak of this again they would be immiediatly banned, no warning whatsoever.

And if this conspiracy turns into that where pretty much all the weak-willed gullable people choose to believe this and do the stuff mentioned by this poster ((WHICH I MAY ADD WHERE DID HE FIND THE TRANSLATIONS?!!? WHAT LANGUAGE?!?!? Direct me to a reliable source such as the wonderful UESP or the actual bethesda forums themselves otherwise I'm not going to believe this crap.)) then go out of their way to do what is said needed to be done only to find dissapointment and they killed off all villages in the process

It's not Bethesda's or UESP fault you choose to murder everyone and almost all of your vendors because you choose to believe one person's conspiracy theory because you desperatly want to be/ride a dragon.

Here are pics of the runes: http://imgur.com/a/XLezp#0
Very interesting. Most don't look like Dragon Runes, more like Dwarven runes, maybe from Tolkein?

Like I said, unless Bethesda themselves confirm this, I'm not going to believe this massive conspiracy which I view as a load of crap.

Very interesting theory Musicman247. We should see if these symbols match up to any other lore languages in other fantasy games, books or movies, but I suggest that we hold off on that for a while and just check Elder Scrolls stuff for now.

You pointed us all to an offsite link one that is neither UESP or Bethesda official forums which has a massive surge of people viewing this particular forum post and then you have ElderTroll below your opening post that is posting instructions which I don't know where he got them

Again, where are your -OFFICIAL- sources for translation. If it's not UESP who do a damn good job of keeping tabs on everything and wonderfully organized or Bethesda themselves, then I'm not going to believe this.

I'm sorry. I was just interested. I wanted other people to see this interesting thing. WE HAVE NO OFFICIAL SOURCES, I'M NOT SUGGESTING ANYONE DO ANYTHING. I'm just wondering what this is. Is there anything wrong with that? Am I breaking any forum rules?

Right now no, but if you allow this to continue to the point where people believe this stuff and they start murdering people in every village then come back here to complain:

WHY WE NO CHANGE INTO DRAGON?! WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?!!?!?!?! UESP AND BETHESDA ALL YOUR FAULT I KILLED OFF THE PEOPLE! YOUR FAULT WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!

And as a result of this weak willed gamers constant whining which leads Moderators and Admins to ban even looking for these bug jars to getting an immiedate ban for even a whisper of this, then I am going to hold you accountable for introducing the UESP to this NOT-OFFICIAL massive conspiracy theory.

Thank you for admitting that this is not official.

You may not want to believe the instructions, which is fine, I don't either, but there are definitely rune-like markings on the bottom of the lids of bug jars. Just took this screenshot on my laptop (poor quality) and there is definitely something there.

Yes there are runes there but like I told you before, unless Bethesda confirms this then these could be the names of the bugs themselves for all I care.

Has anybody actually tried nordic runes....... I mean runes were used as a real type of writing. I have a book on them somewhere let me see if I can dig it up.

PLEASE DON'T KILL ALL VILLAGERS ON CHRISTMAS. IF YOU DO, SAVE FIRST. Take a video for all I care, just don't blame anyone but yourself for the consequences.

I hope that puts all of your worries to rest.

Well in all fairness you're talking about the same massive group of people that choose to delete all of their saves and jump off of dive rock thinking Akatosh would swoop down and save them because one idiot said he would.

These same group of people more than likely will try out this stupid conspiracy theory.

And I see many gamers as weak willed considering my numerous experiences with them in which the males can't attract females and learn to despise them because they are attracted to shallow blonde bimbos who make fun of them for being "less than stellar looks" And then those weak willed gamers turn into weed-smoking sexist jerks that are usually warty and fat. http://www.youtube.com/user/harrypartri ... sqiSknjHK8 Kind of like that guy with the NES shirt

It was asked earlier where the "translation" came from. With a quick Google search I was able to find this image, which is of Anglo Saxon runes, which the "translator" probably used to "translate" the markings. http://theshorterword.com/images/AS.runes.jpg

Since TES is not set on earth, I would assume that real-world runes would not apply in translating in-game runes.

I have to wonder why Bethesda would bother to research and code nordic runes into the game. If there is anything deeper to this at all, I wouldn't expect it to be anything more than some little joke or easter egg. It may be nothing more than just a particular programmer's/developer's personal interest in runes that was snuck into the game, a little personal graffiti.

I'm not mad at you Musicman it's just I'm tired of these massive conspiracy theories that not only give many peopl's hopes up but also cause massive drama on the forums which ruins people like me ability to find good reliable information.

Yes they are bugs
Yes they have runes on them

You claimed they were dwarven now you claim they could be Ayleid too

This further supports my point that whoever "translated" these ruins were simply making stuff up as no one can deliver a reliable "TRUE OFFICIAL" source of the language translation from either UESP or Bethesda.

Also music man, your link "Theshorterword" is not a reliable source as it's NOT BETHESDA OR UESP