ariilor

Ariilor is a constructed writing system used in worldbuilding and speculative fiction. It is designed to be a hybrid writing system, combining logographic elements with phonetic syllabaries, and is associated with a fictional Bronze-Age culture described in contemporary fiction and worldbuilding essays.

Scholars describe Ariilor as having a core of logograms representing common morphemes and a syllabary for phonetic spelling. The signs are typically geometric and stylized, often inspired by natural motifs such as waves and leaves. Text is usually arranged in columns read top-to-bottom and right-to-left, though some writers specify left-to-right variants. The script includes diacritics for tone or vowel length and a numeration system based on base-12 counters.

Within its fictional history, Ariilor is said to date from around the 12th century BCE in the archipelago of Nyr, with earliest inscriptions on clay tablets. The documented corpus remains small, consisting of several hundred signs and about two hundred preserved texts of religious inscriptions, trade records, and poetry. The majority of texts are unknown outside of fiction sources, with many variations across regional inscriptions.

Because Ariilor is a constructed system, there is no real-world decipherment; in the stories, scholars debate its relation to neighboring scripts and whether it encodes syntax beyond basic numerals. In-world use is largely ceremonial; informal writing uses a simpler script derived from Ariilor, and the modern fictional culture uses a Latin-based alphabet for everyday writing in later periods.