VMs: Code hypothesis...

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

Here's my current theory about the VMS' code, without particular 
justification or explanation - please feel free to disagree wildly. :-)

I suspect that the code is mainly star-sign and number-based, where both 
the numbers and the star-signs are steganographically hidden. For example, 
EVA <dy> might well code for "Cancer": numbers we've discussed elsewhere.

Given a "current " star-sign, to decode an index value, turn to the 
appropriate astrological page and read off the word from the appropriate 
nymph-label.

The remaining letters are encoded the same way that nymph-labels are:
(1) text is encoded right-to-left.
(2) EVA <y> at the right-hand end ==> "cum-"/"con-"/etc
(3) EVA <y> at the left-hand end ==> "-um"/"-us"/etc
(4) EVA <d> codes for "z" (usually?)

Note that "<gallows>" is quite distinct from "o <gallows>" - I suspect that 
the former is normally a number, and the latter is somehow connected with 
the characters beneath a long/split gallows.

Things I don't know:
(a) what the letter-pairs for all 12 star-signs are
(b) how the 30 nymph labels are ordered for each sign
(c) what the rest of the letters code for

ATM, I'm comparing nymph-labels with normal text to work out in what ways 
the two differ.

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....