Chants of Sennaar 100% Achievements Guide

Comprehensive Guide to Achieving 100% Game Completion and Insights into the Game’s Languages

Please be aware that this guide contains significant spoilers and has not been annotated (with one exception). I strongly recommend experiencing the game firsthand before delving into this guide.

It’s important to note that this guide does not serve as a step-by-step walkthrough for completing the game. Your primary task is to explore and decipher the mysterious glyphs within the game world. Since there is no in-game map, it’s essential to maintain a mental map to prevent getting lost.

If you’ve reached this portion of the text, you’ve reached the beginning of the actual guide.

Progression Achievements

The unmissable ones.

Welcome to the Tower
Reach the Abbey

Enter Level 1, land of the Devotees.

The great escape
Reach the Frontier

Enter Level 2, land of the Warriors.

A new dawn
Reach the Garden

Enter Level 3, land of the Bards.

The darkness
Reach the Galleries

Enter Level 4, land of the Alchemists.

One last step
Reach Exile

Enter Level 5, land of the… Exiles?

Glyph Validation Achievements

In essence, your main objective is to decipher all the glyphs, totaling more than 150 in number!

That’s the spirit
Fill in the Journal’s first page

This particular glyph is quite easy to encounter. Simply roam around, explore, engage in conversations, and collect as much information as possible about the Language of the Devotees (Level 1).

Scholar
Validate half of the game’s glyphs

As the achievement description suggests, you must accurately guess and validate your findings in the journal. Successful validation will display the glyphs in full white. To locate these glyphs and have the chance to validate them, it’s essential to explore, engage in conversations, and gather extensive knowledge about the five local languages.

Champollion
Validate all glyphs in the game

As stated in the achievement description, you must accurately make guesses in your journal to validate them, resulting in the glyphs appearing as fully white when you’re successful. To discover these glyphs and have the opportunity to validate them, it’s crucial to explore, engage in conversations, and amass a comprehensive understanding of all five local languages.

Link/Terminal Achievements

In the game, there are 10 areas that illuminate when you step on them. If you haven’t encountered one yet, continue your exploration!

A good beginning
Rebuild a first link

This task is most convenient to initiate between a Warrior and a Devotee, although it can involve any characters with active screens. Your role is essentially that of an interpreter, facilitating the translation of messages between them. Each conversation consists of no more than 5-6 lines, making it a relatively straightforward task.

Half the way
Rebuild half of the links

Referring to the previously mentioned achievement, there are a total of 10 links to establish. It’s essential to have a sufficient understanding of each local language to facilitate effective interpretation during these interactions.

Peace walker
Rebuild all links in the game

Building on the achievement discussed earlier, there are a total of 10 links to establish. Ensuring you possess an adequate grasp of each local language is crucial for effective interpretation during these interactions.

Cable guy
Activate all Terminals

There are a total of 10 terminals scattered across various levels of the game. Here’s their distribution: 2 in Level 1, 2 in Level 2, 2 in Level 3, 1 between Levels 3 and 4, 2 in Level 4, and 1 in Level 5. Interacting with these terminals is the only requirement, but locating them can be a bit challenging as they are often found in less-traveled areas. To uncover them all, focus on exploring every doorway and passageway, and you’ll likely come across them over time.

Revisiting Achievements

It’s advisable to tackle these tasks after you’ve successfully completed the initial four levels of the Tower and reestablished the links during your journey. Don’t hesitate to backtrack when necessary; in fact, the Terminals can facilitate this by enabling fast travel through teleportation.

Open door
See the Great Door of the Abbey open

You should revisit the Great Door in Level 1, which was previously guarded by Warriors but should now be accessible to all players. You can unlock this opportunity by reestablishing the link between the Devotees and the Warriors.

Free at last
Meet a Serf in the Abbey

Return to the entrance of the Church in Level 1. You’ll discover that the individual you previously gave a coin to is no longer alone. To unlock this, reestablish the link between the Devotees and the Bards.

Feels like springtime
Visit the revived Abbey Garden

Return to the Garden in Level 1, where you will observe that the plants have been rejuvenated, although they remain in pots. To attain this, you must rebuild the link between the Devotees and the Alchemists.

A great audience
Attend the Bards’ show in the Fortress

Revisit the path leading to The Chosen Ones in Level 2. Specifically, seek out the overlook in the exact corner, where you’ll be treated to a performance by a group of bards entertaining a crowd of warriors. You can unlock this by reestablishing the link between the Warriors and the Bards.

For its own good
See the captured monster in the Laboratories

Return to Lab 1 in Level 4 and observe a covered cage with a couple of Warriors standing nearby. This can be achieved by rebuilding the link between the Warriors and the Alchemists.

A Link to the Past
Meet Bards in the Library

Visit the Library in Level 4, where you’ll see Bards among the bookshelves and desks. To trigger this event, you’ll need to rebuild the link between the Bards and the Alchemists.

Alchemists Express
Take a trip in the Alchemists’ cable car

The cable car operates from the beginning of Level 3 to Terminal 9 in Level 4. To access this feature, you’ll need to rebuild the link between the Bards and the Alchemists, and it might also require a bit of time.

Miscellaneous secrets

Rascal
Ring the Abbey bell three times

You can locate the Abbey Bell in Level 1, and you’ll notice a friendly cat nearby that you can interact with. There’s even a glyph over the door that clearly indicates the location. When you ring the bell, you’ll receive a warm greeting, but unfortunately, the door will never open for you.

The Preacher’s fate
Discover the Preacher’s corpse

This particular discovery can be made in the underground maze beneath the Graveyard in Level 1. It’s situated in the upper-rightmost corner of the maze.

Fashion victim
Leave the Armory with the wrong disguise once the Call is made

To fulfill this task, follow the description provided: equip yourself with a spear, shield, and, optionally, a small helmet. Then, exit the Armory in Level 2 after successfully completing this level.

True G4M3R
Winning at both games in the Gardens

The game consoles can be found in the vicinity of the Windmill in Level 3. Chances are, you’ve already played one of them to obtain an entry token for the Theater. Now, simply engage with the other game. One of them resembles “Flappy Bird,” and the other is akin to “whack-a-mole,” where you’ll need to hit the blue figures.

Additionally, if you manage to win at the card game in Level 1, that’s a bonus, although it’s not a requirement for this particular achievement.

Ending Achievements

I did it
Finish the game (or not?)

You can complete the game without freeing all the exiles and rebuilding the links. If you missed the opportunity due to being a completionist like myself, you have the option to casually speedrun the game in 2-3 hours or discreetly restore a backup save behind-the-scenes.

In this together
Reaching the real end of the game

To achieve this goal, you must complete the game while both freeing all the exiles and rebuilding the links throughout your journey. You should ensure that there are 10 lights illuminated on the top of the Tower before concluding the game. Additionally, you’ll encounter a glitched-up version of the game at some point, although it’s not a New Game+. The revelation you’ll experience at the end makes it all worthwhile!

Notes on the Various Languages of Babel

All Languages

• Are logographic/ideographic (and given the nature of the game, compound logographs aren’t really seen, spare the few from Level 5)
• All have pronouns
• All have a word for “not” (negation)
• Are gender-netural — “man” can also mean “woman” or “person”.
• Have no articles, nor verb tenses, aspects, subjunctive, conditional, or other moods; also no other inflections. For example, “I find you” could also mean “I found you” or “I will find you”.
• Sometimes form concepts by combining simpler parts, e.g. how “Church” and “Graveyard” in the Language of the Devotees have that surrounding box thing in common — each glyph is that box plus another related part. Usage of the simpler glyphs appears to be more historical than current, however, seeing as such glyphs may well carry no meaning on their own.
• Many languages have isomorphic concepts. Sometimes this is direct, e.g. “death”/”dead”; other times this is less so, e.g. how an “impure” in the Languages of the Warriors can refer to a Devotee. Still other times the language is more specialized, like in how the Language of the Alchemists has numbers and the other languages do not.

Language of the Devotees

• The script is simple and reminiscent of long lost ancient Mesopotamian and European scripts (we’re not talking about your typical alphabets and cuneiform here…).
• No plural marker — reduplication is used instead (e.g. “person person” means “people”, and “Me Me” means “Us”).
• Distinguishes between inclusive We (“Me You”) and exclusive We (“Me Me”).
• Is a Subject-Verb-Object language.
• Is a head-final language, meaning adjectives come before the noun they modify.
• Has no (known) copular verb (i.e. “(to) be”/”is”/”am”/”are”, etc.).
• Has words for places, indicated by a box around a thing: church, graveyard, garden, etc.

Language of the Warriors

• The script consists of only straight, pointy lines, making the language appear “tough”, slightly reminiscent of the Klingon language from Star Trek; as well as Runic.
• Has a plural marker that comes before the noun being pluralized.
• Is a Subject-Verb-Object language.
• Is a head-final language, meaning adjectives come before the noun they modify.
• Has no (known) copular verb (i.e. “(to) be”/”is”/”am”/”are”, etc.).
• Has words for containers (box and bottle), as well as “big” and “small”.

Language of the Bards

• The script is artistic, making it reminiscent of modern-day Indic scripts (Devanagari, Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya/Odiya, etc.).
• Has a plural marker that comes after the noun being pluralized.
• Is an Object-Subject-Verb language (more like Subject-Object-Verb if the verb is the copula and the “object” is an adjective).
• Is a head-final language, meaning adjectives come before the noun they modify.
• Has a copular verb (i.e. “(to) be”/”is”/”am”/”are”, etc.).
• Has compass directions.
• Negation works weirdly in this language: you negate the whole clause, rather than just one thing.
• There is also the ability to distinctly ask questions in this language. The grammar works much like negation. This means that “Can I help you?” can be made distinct from “I will help you”.

Language of the Alchemists

• The script uses only lines and circles, making it very geometric-looking; and the way it’s used makes it feel like each glyph is an icon for some scientific instrument.
• Has a plural marker that comes after the noun being pluralized.
• Is a Subject-Verb-Object language.
• Is a head-final language, meaning adjectives come before the noun they modify.
• Has no (known) copular verb (i.e. “(to) be”/”is”/”am”/”are”, etc.).
• Has numbers. A single glyph can encode a 4-digit number from 0 to 9999.

Language of the Exiles

• Each glyph is based on 16 bits that make up a square with an “×” and a “+” inside of it.
• Is a Subject-Verb-Object language.
• Is a head-final language.
• Each concept is directly isomorphic to some concept in another language. As a result:
• There is a plural marker, and it co-occurs with the noun being pluralized.
• There is a copular verb.