Butterfly Script

by Simon Whitechapel

Butterfly Consonants

p	b	f	v	mh	m
t	d	th	dh	nh	n
T	D	s	z	rh	r
k	g	kh	gh	lh	l
q	G	qh	GH	wh	w
h	H	’	‘	ngh	ng

Lepidopteric, or butterfly script, was a divinatory script of the temple of Rilirac-Lirilac, read by enticing butterflies to a stone tablet pierced with thirteen rows of thirteen holes through which the butterflies would drink honeyed water. Priests would add vowels to the consonants supplied by the butterflies’ colors and movements, and then preserve the oracle by adding a fast-acting vegetable poison to the water and pinning the 169 dead butterflies to a wall inside the temple. Gems on the heads of the pins indicated the precise form of the consonant in its phonetic class, and in its final days the temple also developed mechanical butterfly-walls run by water.

Butterflies were sacred to the sun-god Rilirac, as moths, used in a related divinatory script by the priestesses who occupied the temple at night, were sacred to the moon-goddess Lirilac, and were divided into six classes based on the six colors of the rainbow recognized by the priests (red-orange-yellow-green-blue-violet). An oracle was read in thirty-six heartbeats by the six chief lepidopteromancers on the stroke of the temple’s gong of divination, which might be struck again if a further oracle was sought or if a dispute arose among the lepidopteromancers.

Example of a divinatory line

Guu-wa
Pray-ye si-kam’
will-rise av-de-ulo
lord-sun-true nguu-ha
sacrifice-ye vo-Da-azuë
in-midnight-black

Pray that true Lord Sun shall rise, sacrifice at black midnight.

Not all divinations were so straightforward as this and stretches of consonant sometimes had to be read as anagrams. For example, these three consonants

could be read as six different shells, each with its own set of vowels:

dh-G-l: dhaGul, “bowl”; aadhaGuul, “bowls”; idheGol, “pray!”; dhuuGela, “(light) rain”; etc.
dh-l-G: dhilaG, “mirror”; uudhilaaG, “mirrors”; dh’leG, “green”; etc.
G-dh-l: Gadhala, “wing-dust”; Gadhaluu, “obsidian”; aGudhulë, “sun-beam”; etc.
G-l-dh: Giluidho, “temple-wall”; auGulodha, “keep silence!”; uuGaladhi, “waterfalls”; etc.
l-dh-G: ludhaG, “fingernail”; aaludhaaG, “fingernails”; ladhaaG, “purple”; etc.
l-G-dh: leGedhë, “antenna”; eliGedhi, “antennae”; ol’Godhu, “transparent”; etc.

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