While there are many skills that are seldomly used, encipher does, in my mind, occupy the special slot of being never used at all. The problems with encipher is that, even if you had something that you don't want just anyone to read, A ) everyone with your specialisation of Rituals will be able to read it, and B ) no one outside your specialisation will be able to read it at all.

So I propose a change to the skill so that it actually could be used to pass along enciphered information.

Allow us to "CHANT ENCIPHER *cipher*" where the *cipher* is any string made by yourself. Think of it as a password. Thus, you can afterwards "READ WITH *cipher*" in order to translate it and thus pick out its information.
CHANT TRANSLATE would work as old, except with perhaps the added clause that you can't translate something enciphered by someone more skilled in Rituals than yourself.

This allows you to use enciphered books and hide them from your own guildmates, for example having actually classified information in the Researcher Library that can only be accessed with the proper security clearance (read: access to passwords) and allows guilds outside of the guardian guilds to make use of ciphers.

I, of course, have no idea how feasible it is to code this in, but if possible, I'm thinking it could be very neat.

This sounds interesting, although in your proposal it sounds like anyone could translate without having access to the password. This seems like a bad thing! Beyond that, I like it!

I was thinking Translate would be a safeguard. If I make a great puzzlebook for the Institute, but then go ahead and lose all net-access before being able to get out the password to decipher it. Someone else that would also be Trans Aeonics could then get ahold of the book and translate then reencipher it so the work isn't lost. But only being Translatable by the original encipherer works just fine for me as well. I mean, the chances of said work being lost forever and being relevant to anyone but the one who originally made it is rather slim.

My concern was that, if anyone with Rituals could translate it, it wouldn't be much of a secret. I would think in the incredibly slim circumstance that everyone who knows the password finds it impossible to relay that information to someone else, you could get help from a friendly Patron or similar (who might be able to read it even without the password).

Hrm. Ah yeah, I didn't consider gods in the equation.

In that case I agree. Using encipher makes a codeword, and anyone with the codeword can read it by tagging the codeword at the end of the read command.

Either way, I think it could be very neat to have. I'm planning on including puzzles in one of the Institute departments, so it'd be nice to have two copies of a puzzle-book. One enciphered with the answers, and one unenciphered without the answers, so the puzzler can use the unenciphered without cheating, and the tester can use the enciphered to look up the answer without having to solve it correctly (or worse, wrongly) himself.

I can definitely see someone making a sort-of linked challenge using this; the first pamphlet, unenciphered, gives you the clues for the password for the second, and when deciphered correctly the second gives you clues towards the third, etc.

One of my characters already does this... I wrote a C program that helps me do the cipher and then paste it into the journal. I challenge any of the gods to decipher it! (Even though the cipher is in the title which is in plaintext...)

But yeah, I wouldn't mind if encipher worked more like this. As it is, it seems like it's meant to be for "organizational secrets" and maybe it made sense when only one org had the skill (in Achaea?).

Sounds like a great idea!

Biggest downside is that if it becomes more useful, the communes should probably get some form of the skill too.

Just get a friendly ritualist to encipher it for you.

Lendren:

One of my characters already does this... I wrote a C program that helps me do the cipher and then paste it into the journal. I challenge any of the gods to decipher it! (Even though the cipher is in the title which is in plaintext...)

I was tempted to do something like that.

o The mechanics of Rituals Encipher have been reworked. See the AB for details!

Details, please!

Ssaliss:

Details, please!


RITUALS - ENCIPHER

Syntax: CHANT ENCIPHER
CHANT TRANSLATE

In order to guard your writings from the uninitiated, you can hide your
writings in a cipher. CHANT TRANSLATE will decipher the text so anyone
may read.


Hmm. Is it only readable if you translate it, or can you also READ ?

From HELP READING,

There are a number of different kinds of readable objects in Lusternia. Simply typing READ