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Daedric
As you may know, learning to read and write in the Daedric alphabet is no easy task -- but you must understand that, like learning the Cyrillic alphabet, it can be done. Though I have no simple way to prove it to you, I will let you know that I've learned to read and write a variation of this alphabet.
A variation, you say? Why yes, dear reader, there are many variations of the Daedric alphabet. This page is written in the one that is used in the books in the Morrowind game, and, as you may have noticed, this one is missing the "X" and "Y" characters and all punctuation marks. I'm serious, it is. If you view the source code, you'll find that I've switched the font every time I needed a punctuation mark. Other variations include two different X and Y variations, a slight change of the letter J, and the backwards-ing of the letters J, H and D.
Daedric is an interesting system of symbols because while it is normally written left-to-right, much like English and most other languages that use the Western alphabet, it can also be written up-to-down, like Chinese, right-to-left like Arabic, or several other methods, yet still convey the same basic information. Take for example the following signs:
As you can see, the order of the letters on these signs is quite peculiar to a speaker of any Latin alphabet, but this is not actually a particularly strange convention for the Daedric alphabet. It's actually rather common among the signs you see in Vivec or any other major religious center of Morrowind.
Are you trying to learn Daedric? If not, I suggest that you do at least attempt to, as while allowing you to find certain less-than-serious things put into the game by the devs, letting you satisfy your curiosity for what those magic scrolls say, and enhancing your gaming experience in general, it's also more useful than you might think at first. I use it when i'm writing stories or poems in a public place and I'd rather not have the world looking over my shoulder and into my heart (yes most of my writing is very personal).
Do I have any advice for those interested in learning this alphabet? Well, all I can really say is this: practice, practice, practice, and don't lose hope -- it's not that hard and you WILL learn to read and write in Daedric!
Don't forget to check out Seajay's Daedric Translation Page -- it's just wonderful.
