Black Spire Coded Notebook

The book is heavily damaged by fire, rats, and other ravages of time.

From Min Feng, based on cryptography:

Looking at it for a little while, you find seven different "things" that seem to frequently recur at the beginnings of lines. Not all the beginnings of lines have a recurring "thing" like this, but about 2/3 of them do. Five of them are more early-ish in the notebook, two of them are more late-ish. You expect they are names, and the lines are like notes or items that pertain to each person. One of the names always has a small symbol after it.

(It's all written in the same hand, but you think it was not all written at the same time; the ink is not always the same.)

Follow-up from Min Feng, based on KS: Jade Taiga:

The symbol looks a little bit like a "5", and you wonder if that has anything to do with one of the old Taiga legends about the [[King of Five Grains]], supposedly one of the first Taiga rulers, who taught people how to farm.