Hi all, I'm new to AoS, but not new to Warhammer. This topic seemed more like fluff than anything, so I posted here. I hadn't seen the Astrolith before, but has anyone else noticed that the outer ring reads "Games Workshop 40K" in the old Lizardmen alphabet? (I suspect many of you have by now) I can't quite make out what the inner ring reads, if anything.
Whoa, thanks! I thought for sure I would be old news. I'm glad I spotted that, for the fun of it at least. To be more precise, the outer ring reads "Games Workshop" for sure. Although the "E" symbol is covered by a skull, all the rest of the letters are there. The three remaining symbols in the outer ring are a diamond shape, four incised dots, and four raised dots. Technically, a diamond glyph is the number "0". But I think the symbol looks more like the glyph for "10,000", which is a square inside a square, only turned on its end. The four raised dots is the glyph for "4". So, I wondered why they would have a similar symbol but incised, not raised. I've seen some things like that in other gaming riddles/gaming ciphers. If you connect the incised dots as an "X" you could read it as a multiplication symbol. Also, thinking that the sculptor(s) was being clever I reasoned that it reads "10,000 x 4" which is "40,000". So I read the outer ring as either "Games Workshop 40K" or "40K Games Workshop". Furthering the notion that the Seraphon are space lizards.
As for the inner ring, the symbols may not mean anything and, because they're more stretched, are a bit hard to make out. Starting at the upper right, is the glyph for "A". The second glyph is obscured by decoration. I guess it could be the glyph for "L" (a "C" shape) or "TL" (an "E" shape) only because the bit that does show could be the ends of those shapes? The third symbol looks like the glyph for "Y". The fourth symbol looks like the glyph for "M", but is very stretched. The fifth symbol is the glyph for "O". The sixth, and final, symbol is a symbol I've never seen. So, "ALYMO" or "ATLYMO"? It wouldn't be a parody of the Alamo, would it? Ha ha. I can't believe I've spent so much time trying to translate a gaming miniature.
Thank you, pendrake, for posting images of the of astrolith & the glyphs. It's the due diligence I should have done in the first place.
Stumbled upon this while looking for stuff for the RP discord I help admin for our Lustria channel...this is amazing work