I count 14 letters overall on the golems shoulders, 7 on each side.
I think it would be safe to assume the foot of the letters are the parts nearest the center of the shoulder pads orb, and the head being the part furthest out.
5 Likes
That first symbol is the same so I agree. It is most likely the bottom of the letter is on the orb side and the top towards the outside edge. That makes the ones on the other shoulder mostly right side upā¦except where they run across the bottomā¦are they stacked and sideways?
5 Likes
Iām wondering if itās like when your note ends up being larger than the material youāre writing on so you write sideways in the margin 
If the last three letters are sideways, the middle one matches a symbol earlier on the shoulder, but smaller.
If you assume they arenāt sideways, and read it directly, it says God 
4 Likes
Tinfoil Theory Time.
What if the Guardians & Golems are like an earlier version of the Atlasā Sentinels. Protectors of lifeā¦ even after the death & reset of the universe.
Much of the technology we know from NMS involves the segmented glowy centered thing we see on chest armour, sentinel eyes, galactic terminals, some terminalsā¦ even the reload screen.
If there is a bleed through of other iterations then perhaps the techology from those other existences is different too. We now see teal coloured glowy stone based technology in ruins and these new guardians.
We also have the knowledge stones, portals, anomoly, monoliths & Atlas interfaces which are made from a carved metal/stone & feature a brighter power emitance than the more recently seen tech.
Then of course there is the purple crystals of the disonance era
Different iterations bleeding into one another as relics of pasts (& futures).
There are many unexplained techs such as the Royal exotic ships & the Boundary Failure structures. Are these also relics that have blured across the resets,
Each iteration has recognisable elements but also new & varied features designsā¦ and languages.
Perhaps what one traveller experiences as a āresetā another experiences as an āupdateā.
Time to go lay down 
5 Likes
Then maybe the symbols are just an early form of a tactical user interface, this is just itās health bar readingā¦ 
6 Likes
Well my task today is to awaken a rock golem and see if there are any glyphs on themā¦
3 Likes
For some reason HG decided to turn the rock golems into Sentinel Drone variants functionally, rather than being a fiend type encounter, like say boundary or biological horrors, so that theory isnāt entirely without credit!
5 Likes
There are at least two kinds of guardian. One walks, and is roughly the size of a minotaur. This type has writing on it.
The other type is slightly smaller. It flies, and more resembles a loose cloud of rocks, vaugely assembled into an upper body shape. As far as I can tell, this kind does not have writing on it.
Some further shots of the writing on the first type:
10 Likes
Yep. The flying ones seem to be entirely stone. The walking ones seem to have metallic components which contain the writing.
8 Likes
The mossy rock on the Floating Guardians right shoulder reminds me of a Telamon Eye.
These are hardly monuments powered by a travellers echo seed, are they? '
Whoever once called these ruins home, perhaps they were splicing Aeron and Traveller āEchoesā 
They do seem to be advanced enough in technology that it appears as magic so who knows.
6 Likes
The walking type is a StoneMech (based on the image name in the release web page).
So, @sheralmyst, the metallic parts might make sense.
@Mad-Hatter - - Atlas is associated with red, Void Mother with purple, but cyanā¦? (Is associated with Light No Fire teaser video. 
)
6 Likes
Iām or sure if this font site has already been shared but.
The font is downloadable.
While it says Expedition alphabet, it seems to include all parts of the game.??
7 Likes