Taresletter

Taresletter is a term used in speculative fiction and puzzle communities to describe a written artifact whose visible text conceals additional information, character sets, or messages. It functions as a narrative device or puzzle mechanism, rather than a defined script or language. The concept is not part of established linguistics or cryptography.

Etymology and scope: The name combines tares, from the biblical parable of the tares and the wheat, with letter, underscoring the idea that surface content hides deeper meaning. It is largely used descriptively rather than as a formal theory, with no standardized notation.

Forms and techniques: A taresletter may integrate acrostics, telestics, marginalia, interleaved or scrambled letters, or typographic tricks that must be decoded by readers or protagonists. Some implementations use a second, hidden alphabet or a key text to recover the concealed message.

In practice: The concept appears in puzzle anthologies, alternate reality games, and fan fiction as a plot device or puzzle element. It encourages close reading and cross-textual analysis, and has been discussed in online communities as a playful example of steganography within fiction.