The Vietnamese Shrine translation

[anonymous]

As indicated on the Discord by @PoppaQuad yesterday, a shrine can be found in the village in the map Firebase Z. As we know, Omega Group decided to chose the A Shau valley in Vietnam as the major mining and exploration compound from where they'd enter the Dark Aether. This I find interesting, as it would be much easier for them to operate within Soviet borders. The reason they chose Vietnam instead is explained by Peck:

 

"Personal Log. Peck. November 9th, 1983. Two days ago, I identified and submitted the *perfect* location for Phase 2."

"After assessing the dimensional breach outside of Khe Sanh, I found a mountaintop formerly occupied by an American base called "Ripcord." It has the ideal dimensional... *fertility* to suit our project's needs."

 

It appears that the Ripcord station, the American military base we encounter in Cold War's Campaign, has the perfect dimensional narrowness. The veil to the Dark Aether is thinnest here, so to say. But is this pure coincidence, or can there be found any mythological reason for this? Perhaps the local folklore and mythos can assist us. And so I took a look to the shrine in Firebase Z, featuring a typical 'Spirit tablet'. I don't know if it will give any answers, but I posted a screenshot of the village's shrine on the reddit translator and got the following (credits to reddituser McHaro).

 

Inner couplet (the inner two rows)：

五方五土龍神

The dragons and spirits of the five directions and five landscapes. (Five directions are: North, west, east, south, and central. Five landscapes: Mountainous forests, rivers, hills, flat land near water, low-lying land. It also reminded me of the "direction cardinals" that are mentioned in the CotD Vril map and the five Aztec direction gods mentioned in the Moon loading screen.)

前後地主財神

The spirits of wealth, chiefs of the area, front and rear

 

Outer couplet (the outer two rows):

土能生白玉 - Earth can bear white jade

地可出黃金 - Ground can produce yellow gold (Implies the produce from the ground is as precious as treasure)

 

On the jar:

生永和 - the living being harmonious forever

 

On the other jar one can see a dragon. Dragons were sacred creatures in Vietnamese folklore, although I do not necaserily see a connection with the Dark Aether.