Alkimia Interactive’s remake of the 2001 classic has been out for over a month, and players are still digging up secrets buried deep within the Valley of Mines. The latest discovery comes from the game’s dedicated lore community, where fans have begun translating the ancient Orcish runes carved into the walls of the Orc Cemetery and the Temple of the Sleeper.
Rather than using random decorative symbols, the developers appear to have constructed a functional, decipherable written script for the Orcs.
Mapped Letters and the Search for Krushak
A German-speaking Gothic fan named raem3 shared the initial translation progress on Reddit, explaining how they mapped the individual rune shapes to decode the text. The process began by documenting each inscription found on the stone walls and assigning numerical codes to repeating characters to find patterns.
The first breakthrough came from recognizing the word “Morra”—the common Orcish term for humans. The word was relatively easy to spot due to its specific letter length and the double “R” pattern in the middle.
However, locating “Krushak”—the Orcish name for the Sleeper—proved more difficult. The translator expected to find it easily because of its distinctive structure starting and ending with the same letter, but it was nowhere to be found on the accessible stone walls.
Building an Orcish-Human Dictionary
To solve the puzzle, the community turned to environmental storytelling and in-game dialogue. By comparing subtitle files and screenshots across German, English, Spanish, and Polish versions of the game, players collected spoken Orcish lines from conversations with friendly Orcs like Ur-Nazkrog, Krashok, and Chokta.
This comparative analysis allowed translators to compile a rudimentary Orcish-human dictionary. With this vocabulary, they successfully deciphered the compound phrase “azûm morok-lârka,” which translates directly to the “Temple of the Sleeper” or “Sleeper’s Temple.”
Using this translation key, the community managed to read a full wall inscription:
- “Morok-lârka hak la” which roughly translates to “The Sleeper will [rise/awaken]” or “The Sleeper’s Temple stands.”
Environmental Storytelling in the Remake
This translation project highlights how much care has gone into expanding the world-building of the colony. In the original game, the Orc Cemetery and Sleeper’s Temple relied on eerie, atmospheric design, but the inscriptions were largely unintelligible textures. The remake adds a layer of archaeological depth, rewarding players who take the time to study the walls.
For players navigating these dangerous ruins, understanding these runes offers a glimpse into the history of the Orc civilization before the creation of the Barrier. It also sets up the dread surrounding the Sleeper’s awakening as players progress through the final chapters of the story, showing how Orc shamanistic magic contrasts with the human rune magic.
While the translation is still partial, the community is actively searching for more inscriptions in the deeper sections of the colony’s map and locations to fill in the remaining gaps of the Orcish alphabet.