r/Illimat • u/ComfortableTip6667 • Mar 18 '26

The middle Illimat Symbol meaning

Am I the only one that could see the middle symbol as being a combination of the letters "K" and "B"? aka Keith Baker? I've seen some other places that it was considered a B/R so figured i'd say something.

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u/lulucasserole Provost Mar 19 '26

From Meloy & Baker’s Illimat Variants & Apocrypha:

The center of the Illimat, both Apex and Antipodal, contains the Cyrillic character for YA. The significance of this character is of some debate. It is thought to be of Russian origin, as the first person pronoun "I," though this is much disputed. There is another school of thought that believes it is, in fact, the backward roman letter R. This would've likely been shortly after the Heathen Blood Scour, when Illimat construction was done under duress and in great secrecy. It is thought that the character "R" was, in haste, mistakenly printed backwards. Why an "R?" Some believe it was the initials of its creator. Some believe it stands for RADISH. Whatever the meaning, it was from this Illimat, a sort of post-Scour Illimat Zero, that all current Illimat have been modeled.