A Little Fish

ΙΧΘΥΣ — the acrostic, not the animal

unknown — scratched into catacomb stone by hands that never signed their names

A whole confession, small enough to scratch into a wall in a hurry.

Catch rate: 240 / 255
Base research: 18
Stat total: 100

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina24

Contend22

Defend20

Popularity34

Total100

Why these numbers

The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.

Stamina 24

Small on purpose. This is the whole idea in one word, and the word is short.

Popularity 34

Slow, and easy to lose in open water, which suited the people who first drew it on a wall as a secret sign.

Cited for this book

ΙΧΘΥΣ — Greek for "fish" — spells Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, one letter per word. Tertullian took the pun further than a password: Christians are the little fish, born in the water their Lord is named for, and unable to live anywhere else.

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	Born in Water	Bible	Argument	20	100%	15

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“But we, little fishes, after the example of our ΙΧΘΥΣ… Jesus Christ, are born in water, nor have we safety in any other way than by permanently abiding in water.”
Tertullian, On Baptism 1 (trans. ANF), public domain. (trimmed quote — a footnote number breaks the sentence in the source scan there.)public domain

Born in Water

BibleArgument · power 20 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe oldest Christian pun about fish: ΙΧΘΥΣ, the Greek word for "fish," spells out "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior" letter by letter, and the earliest believers scratched it into stone as a password nobody outside the church could read.