Oh...

It comes from Thief 1 but it's a little bit prophetic when it comes to Thief 2's story...

A figurative translation could be "harvesting of souls" like depicted in the upper left illustration, and then on the right is "rebirth" which ties into Thief 2's story somewhat, especially the embryo that has a mask-like face masks play a predominant role in Thief 2 in a few ways like the Mechanists wear them and their "products" as well, and I think that the Antagonist of Thief 2, Karras also has a mask on for some reason, not to mention that there are many masks in game that hold a more... monetary value, but...

This is a depiction or "art" from Thief 1, found in the game, so I am thinking how else other than a sort of "prophecy" this art could represent and to be honest, I'm kind of stumped...

The left down picture shows a sort of an "eco-system", which thematically also ties into the Thief-games quite heavily for instance because of the "Pagan" fraction, so this illustration sort of depicts their domain, and the right most picture could mean "the gift of (organic?) life" which also ties into the ecosystem idea of the aforementioned illustration but the thing that stumps me is the left upper picture, which... Almost doesn't make sense in Thief 1 if I am not mistaken because in Thief 1 there are simply no "machines" like the picture illustrates, a machine that "harvests" people from the looks of it, or their "souls".... So I am really left wondering, what does it all mean?

It would certainly help if we could decypher or understand the writings, but a few of the symbols seem to be depicting "Glyphs" or "hieroglyphs" which in Thief is commonly used as a secret way of communication of the Keepers, which is also a predominant fraction in Thief games and a very important one because we are acquainted with them at the start of Thief 1, but they for the major part in Thief 1 and 2 remain a mystery until Thief 3 that is, which... Thematically is great I would say but just the gameplay of that game (and the looks IMHO) is very poor because that game was heavily consolized, see....

Thief 1 and 2 were PC exclusive or "PC only" games, while Thief 3 (and consequently Deus Ex 2) were made for both the PC and console and is where all these wonderful elements kind of disappeared, elements like the scale of Thief 1 and 2 games (I'm talking about the architectural scale of how the games or levels were built, which is wonderful I think, just like in System Shock 2 (both initial Thief games and System Shock 2 were made in the same game engine, named: "The Dark Engine", which IMHO is iconic in gaming just like the "Infinity Engine" is in which games like first two Baldur's Gate games were made as well as one of my favorites Icewind Dale but to get back to Thief...

I don't even know where I found that art in the game. Game is huge if you would put all levels together in one so they wouldn't be separate and the game would be a sort of "open world" game, I think one would travel through it for days if not weeks and there would definitely be spots that one would overlook, except through mutliple playthroughs and if one was really meticulous in playing the game and exploring every nook and crany... To me playing these games in the past the exploration part was as amazing as the lore is of the Thief games but yeah...

Some things might as well remain a mystery. Thief games have a lot of mysteries in them I think and that's part what makes them so memorable and enjoyable. It's a wonderful world of awe and amazement (even though if or that it looks simplistic at times) and one would be hard pressed to find something similar as it was created for the Thief games... nowadays, I think.

Thief games aren't games wherein you kill, you could but not on higher difficulties, for it is forbidden then, and this is an aspect that, compared to contemporary FPS games makes it stand out as well I think becasue it was created as a (welcoming) change from FPS games to give us something more to think about.

I think if they recreated these games today with raytracing that would be amazing, at least for me and I think a few others as well...

Anyway, sorry for my slight rant here. I just love Thief.

:)

Wonderful world of games and... weird stuff of lore.

I am still wondering what the hell does it all mean, those ancient writings and illustrations...

.