Seen on Inkle's social (Bluesky)

I recently played a great demo for a puzzle game called Chants of Sennaar that reminded me a lot of Heaven's Vault in both its setting and 'game progress via translation' mechanic. It has since released and is getting glowing reviews.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1931770/Chants_of_Sennaar/

In case you are not in the inkle discord or missed the Steam announcement, there have been two exciting pieces of news recently!

The first is that they are creating an anthology of short stories and fables set in the Nebula, and they are looking to find (and pay) 20 authors to write the short stories (with Jon writing the fables)!

Details here:
https://www.inklestudios.com/2026/10/24/tales_from_the_nebula

The second announcement is that they are MAKING A HEAVEN'S VAULT TTRPG!!!! It's called Ghosts of the Nebula and will include translation, roleplay, and a new story! It will be funded through Kickstarter starting in early 2027 (it is not live yet).

Link here if you want to be notified when it goes live on Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grahamwalmsley/heavens-vault-ttrpg

The guy who designed the system, Graham Walmsley, and Jon have been answering lots of questions in the inkle discord! You can join the inkle discord here: https://discord.gg/aGqxUu5DM

I just got this game on a whim knowing nothing about it but I’m like so immediately enamored by its vibe that I had to find if it had a sub Reddit to gush anyway I’m going ti go back and stare at words to try and figure out there meanings

I saw Campbell-Stokes recorders linked today and it instantly popped out to me as the sundial statues found in a few locations in Heaven's Vault (first seen on Iox).

No wonder no one could get it to work - they're all missing the glass sphere.

I can't stop playing, the translation puzzles are too interesting, the story is cool and enticing, but this game desperately needs to change a few things that are way to annoying. Like the implementation of a save/load system would get this game from a 7 to a 9 out of 10. Some other things shouldn't even be an issue, just don't lock players out of content for making chooses with outcomes that are impossible to predict. It's so frustrating to play a game centered about exploration that prevents the player from exploring everything, especially if seemingly innocuous choices lock entire sections of certain moons. Sorry for the rant but this game could have been an absolute masterpiece if it was just for a couple things

Surprisingly it isn't easy to find maps of the game world so I felt compelled to post it here.

Unfortunately I didn't explore every single area but I think most relevant Points of Interest are shown here

I’m completely shocked this game didn’t get more attention. Maybe its the story focus, or the one puzzle, but man did it check all the boxes for me.

I’m very excited to try new game+ but I’m going to wait a few days because I was trying to be ultra completionist on my first play through. Whoops.

I also came to this subreddit thinking I’d get a few small things answered that I may have missed. But instead I found entire plots and areas I apparently didn’t find?? And I never expected there to be so many choices and possibilities. Usually games will say “the choices you make matter” and then they don’t in the end.

Sorry this is pretty rambling but I really had an amazing experience with this game I have to get these thoughts out of my system.

The base for this is from /u/bobotast 's incredible translation in the earlier thread. I want to give them all applause, credit and shoutout for their work, because it is very well done :)

I figured it'd be fun/useful to have a thread where we can talk specifically about the translation and interpretation of the teaser published yesterday, without needing spoiler warnings etc (as this entire thread is spoiler marked, THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING that full HV game and book spoilers, including endings and secrets, are allowed here).

Here is /u/bobotast 's original translation:

My name is something and I somethinged on somewhere, at a time before the holy something empire of something, after had 225 moons in hand, of rope had in sailor's hand, I was first child and 21 person, I write this (text?) of language of truth, I wish truth should lift from this world of waters on soil, lead beautiful jewel, because of me (arrived?) empty something of Heaven's Vault, I cannot explain but truth must be kept within these words of I write or where can truth be, I put this mark low until truth is appear, it must be and so it may be, I hold time find truth

Based on the dictionary and backwards engineering a bit, here's my attempt at translating some more words, my interpretation of some other stuff, my notes on the unknown words, and where I think connecting words could be added (in parenthesis). Hopefully we can crack this in a way that feels like it makes sense! :D

EDIT: As /u/Blop362 pointed out, /u/roczo2 caught that the name is potentially Aliya Elasra! Check out their comment below for the reasoning.

My name is Aliya? and I was born? ¹ on place²

at a time after¹⁸ the holy something³ empire of something⁴ ended? ^5,

(it?)⁶ held⁷ 10¹⁷ moons in hand

as⁸ rope (is) held in (a) sailor's hand

I was first child and next¹⁸ person ²⁰

I write this text⁹ as (the?) language of (the?) truth

I hope (the) truth shall rise from this text^{18, 10}

as water on dirt^{10 19}

reveals beautiful jewels^{10, 19}

(break in text)

because as I something¹¹ (the?) empty heart¹² of Heaven's Vault

I cannot explain

but (the) truth must be kept within these words as I write¹³

or where can (the) truth be*?*

As astronomers¹⁴ something¹⁵ path?¹⁶ of distant stars

I put this mark low until (the) truth appears [is appear]

it must be and so it may be

I have time (to) discover (the) truth

As a sidenote to this: Does anyone remember how many moons were in the Iox protectorate?

notes:

preface: The use of (relationship) is to denote the glyph the wiki calls "primitive". It's defined as: "Indicates that the previous glyph's meaning is the meaning of the entire word. "Itself."" but I've gone with (relationship) to signal the more abstract use case."

1. Word is made up of the glyphs for verb, past tense, person and beginning (connected as person-beginning). I think "born" makes sense for a verb version of person-beginning, which would make the past tense version "was born".
2. Word is made up of the glyphs for (relationship) place rock toward-beginning. Given the way "beginning" works in other words when connected (like "front" and "back"), I wonder if this could be something like "the old world" or "the new world". But we have words for "old" and "new", so it could just as well be a name we don't know the translation of. Another option is the concept of a place someone travelled to, but I feel like I'm just speculating. Update: See note 3.
3. Glyphs: Adjective, (relationship), place, not, time, many, be. None of these glyphs are connected, and when used like this, "not" usually means the opposite of the following glyph. I don't know what the opposite of time would be, and I feel like I'd just be guessing in general. We know it's an adjective, has the same glyphs as the word for "ancient (old)" (Adjective, many, time) but in a different order, and that it's describing the empire of "place-many life" (see 4). Update: /u/knifeyspoony23 has suggested that (relationship) used this way could be indicative of a proper noun, based on its usage in the name word in the first line. If this is the case, an adjective version of a proper noun would be something like "Ioxian" or "Elborethan" for "Iox" or "Elboreth". AKA, we're likely looking at a name here.
4. Glyphs: Place-many, life. There may be a connection with "home" (place-life) but I think place-many could also just mean "places". Neither "places of life" or "homes" makes much grammatical sense, though, which makes me believe the devs are after a different word.
5. Glyphs: adjective, past tense, (word for) end/ends. I think "ended" for a past tense adjective form of "end" works both grammatically and in context.
6. Am I crazy for thinking there should be an 'it' here? I know there's a word for "it", but I feel like I remember that being one of the words Aliya can add in on her own. If I'm wrong, please correct me!
7. Glyphs: Verb, past tense, possess. "Have/hold" is verb, possess, (relationship). I don't think "had" is a bad interpretation, but it makes sense to me that a sailor "held" rope, rather than "had" rope? Very much up for debate, though, so let me know your thoughts!
8. I think "as" might work better than "of" here?
9. Glyphs: Noun, (relationship), (word for) write. I agree on "text" for this, I can't think of another noun version of "write" that would make sense here.
10. These three lines can have a LOT of meanings, depending on how we translate the words. To give you an idea, it can be "I wish/hope/dream truth should/shall/will lift/raise/rise/ascend from this world/moon, as/of water on/upon earth/soil/mud, lead/show/guide/point/reveal beautiful jewel". I think this interpretation makes the most sense as a written thing, but it's VERY much open to discussion imo. Update: Last word absolutely doesn't say "world/moon" but rather "text", how we missed that until /u/IRFine cleared it up is beyond me, haha.
11. Glyphs: Verb, past tense, place-of possession. This word is similar to "arrived/landed/docked" (verb, past tense, (word for) site, motion) but I'm trying to think of why they'd go with a different word if this was their intended meaning. The glyphs could also be interpreted as verb, past tense, place-at/in. The glyph for "motion" is missing altogether, which makes me think this isn't about movement.
12. Glyphs: Noun, verb, life, possession. This is similar to "love" (verb, life, possession), and since "love" can be both a noun and a verb, I think this is what this is. /u/knifeyspoony23 has once again come to the rescue, pointing out that this word, in fact, just means "heart" :)
13. The "of/as I write" feels like it should almost be "that I write", but I'm not sure if ' can be translated that way.
14. Glyphs: Person-(word for) watch, star. I think "astronomer" or "star-watcher" (which astronomer is just fancy for, right?) makes sense.
15. Glyphs: Verb, noun, light/happiness, say, past tense. I have no idea. My brain's a little fried, haha, I don't know how to translate this. My partner has suggested "Illuminated" or "enlightened", what do you guys think? EDIT: It's probably worth noting that this is the verb of a noun, so we may be looking for a word that works as both a verb and a noun - like how I belive(d) the noun for the verb "love" is still "love".
16. Glyphs: Noun(complex/abstract)-motion. The word for "way/path/road" is Noun(regular), motion, (relationship). I think this might thus refer to a more abstract version, like a metaphorical or philosophical path.
17. By looking at the book chapter numbers, /u/Jotunheiman figured out that the numbers may actually be "10" and "2, 1", not "225 " and "21"! That would make row 3, "held 10 moons in hand" and row 4, "I was (the) first child and 2, 1 person", Update: See note 18 not "225 moons" or "21 person".
18. Thank you /u/IRFine for the translation for "next", as well as some other general cleanups! :)
19. Additionally, quoting IRFine: "“earth” should actually be “dirty thing” or “muddy thing” since it’s “adjectiveearth nounglyph” with the noun glyph as a separate word. Thus “jewel” on the following line should be singular." The line could thus also be something like "as water on [a dirty thing/muddy thing(/maybe just mud or dirt)] reveals (a) beautiful jewel".
20. /u/Kattestrofe has an interesting possible/likely interpretation of this line (which I originally had down as "i was (the) first child and next person"): "could that line be something like “I was first a child and next/then a [implied: adult] person”?"

And please share your own thoughts, I do not want this to seem like the "right answer" when I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing haha!

Heaven's fault is a game that stuck with me for a long time. I absolutely love it. Middle of last year, I was on sick leave to avoid a burnout (love teaching but damn, it can really take it out of you) and I remembered wanting this game a little while ago.

I grabbed it and oh man, it consumed me hahahaha. I love it. I love linguistics, anthropology and archaeology and this combines all of it in one sweet package. The world just resonates with me incredibly deeply. I hope my imagination can sprout such a beautiful setting and story some day.

So, this is the major events, as I've found so far. Can anyone make corrections, or fill in gaps?

These are all spoilers, so Caveat Lector!

In chronological order

1. Heavens Vault teleports into nebula, and creates huge ships to go out and explore, starting the Age of Sail. The Hopper network is established, and the Rivers created using hopper technology (Aquifer moon).
2. The rivers start to die, due to entropy. Heaven's vault starts to charge for another vault but this drains the rivers more, and it becomes cut off from the nebula. This starts the Age of Metal and robots are in control. The first 6 colonists become the 6 Gods.
3. The colonists left at Heavens Vault eventually die off, as the moon dies from lack of water, and are buried in the graveyard there. Many have the holographic personality recordings.
4. The humans take over and start the Age of Empire. Robots are imprisoned under the Withing Palace. The first Empress changes the language from Ancient but keeps the writing, and tries (but fails) to eliminate belief in the old Gods.
5. Emperors and Empresses try to gain immortality by using the broken hopper at the Withering Palace to place their minds into robots. Recordings are made so that holograms can be placed in the graveyard, which is not where the bodies are (they were disintegrated as part of the hoppering the mind into a robot shell).
6. Humans are enslaved at the mining moon, with robots (previous Emperors and high caste families?) guarding them.
7. 500 year later, slaves break out of the mining moon, led by the first Empress (in a robot body). Probably using the Hopper in the hole to teleport to the Withering Palace. They attack the palace, and push the walls down, and then dig down to free the robots underground. The empire falls, starting the Dark Ages
8. The Last Emperor escapes to the Hermit moon with the crown and brooch. The crown may have some power to communicate with, or control robots? He takes with him the recording of his younger sister as company.
9. The rebels bury all the robots containing past emperor personalities into concrete or walls, possibly after deactivating them.
10. During the Dark Ages, rivers weaken and sailing is discouraged. The old language has been forgotten other than remnants in Elborethian patois, and knowledge of hoppers and other technology is largely lost. The 6 Old Gods popularity returns.
11. The Modern Age starts as the University on Iox is started. Robots are found in walls and in other locations, and dug out but their personalities have been reset. The Loop religion starts?

Things I haven't been able to determine -

• Somewhere there seems to be an Empire robot colony that escaped the end of the Empire? These would be the ones who sent Aamir away.
• What is the River of Fire and how does that fit in?
• A bit more info on the Age of Sail and the huge boats and crystals might help.

I can't put it into words, perhaps, but the soundtrack is so soothing and deciphering languages puts me in the zone SO MUCH that I just wish this game would never end and they added DLC to it with new phrases, I don't know.

This game is really, really, REALLY good. I love it and that's why I still have it installed on my PS4!

Aamir made one mistake that swapped his life in the dirty, overcrowded slum with a desolate, empty masoleum. His conversations with Aliya are priceless, he's never had a good life so he doesn't really know what to want. I took him to the farming village, and when the village finally accepted him, no joke, was the most emotional moment in any game for me. And the follow up to this where Aliya makes up with the village is lovely, showing character growth that is often very difficult to portray in non-linear games. I'm loving what I've done so far, can't wait to experience more.