Comment by riffraff
2 months ago
You're not alone. Many have hypothesized this is just made up gibberish given the unusual distribution of glyphs.
Not a recent hoax/scam, but an ancient one.
It's not like there weren't a ton of fake documents in the middle age and renaissance, from the donation of Constantine to Preserve John's letter.
The way you describe it is why it’s not readily accepted. It’s misunderstood. You called it a hoax/scam and a fake. It’s not!
Whoever made the document was sincere in making up something that doesn’t exist. They had no intention to mislead. You wouldn’t call a D&D campaign a hoax because it features nonexistent things?
So you're saying it's a prop or a rulebook? (an old xkcd comic mentioned this).
I doubt it's a rulebook cause it's not a real language.
If it's a prop, it would be extremely expensive.
Just to get the parchment you'd have to slaughter a herd of ovines, then you'd have to process it, then you'd have to pay a skilled professional or more for months of work to draw and write.
So I think the profit motive is more likely, and given we know of a ton of scams like this from this period, it seems the most plausible.
But I'll be happy to be proven wrong if someone finds more info in the future.