Masytron Code · Level 1

The Masytron Alphabet

A secret writing system made of numbers. Each letter is a pair of digits and a stroke, and every message begins with a header that says how to read it. The Walkers learn it in the Numiverse; you can learn it with the wheel that comes with the collection.

This is how masytron is written in the Masytron Alphabet.

The header

Every message begins by saying how to read it

Before the message comes a header pair that says how far the alphabet shifts. That is why the same pair can mean one letter in one message and a different letter in the next. Nothing is learned by rote: every message makes you find your bearings again.

The pair 00 is never a header. It is the alarm, the doorway into the code: a signal announcing that what follows is a message.

I

Thought

You learn the grid and the pair of digits. You decode with the table in view, with no shift.

Read
II

Analysis

The header appears. Before reading, you must reorient yourself, shifting the alphabet by whole squares.

Reorient
III

Action

The letters also rotate within the squares. The Walker no longer only reads: they write messages of their own.

Write

The Secret Code Wheel

Encoding without a single sum

The collection includes a wheel to assemble: two discs joined by a fastener. The outer one is fixed and holds the 27 letters with their strokes. The inner one turns and carries the coded pairs and the headers.

  1. Turn the inner disc until the message’s header sits under the arrow at A.
  2. To encode, read from the letter to the pair. To decode, from the pair to the letter.

The wheel comes in the collection’s box, together with the bookmark and its coded messages.

A message for you

Can you read it?

21 | 21 32 71 63 43 92

The answer is on your wheel. It is the word the Numiverse uses for those who dare to touch the machine.

Later on will come the digital encoder and Level 2 of the Code, with headers that also say which way the alphabet turns.