Riddle

[qscwdvefzrax]

Here is a little riddle which I posed as a giveaway contest to the US East trade forum. They have been having a little trouble, so I thought I might post it here as well to see if anyone can figure it out. If you do figure it out, and would not like the items, please pm me your solution so that other people may solve it themselves.

"One day, Baal and Mephisto were discussing which of the two should rule over all the humans. Mephisto thought it was his turn, so he tried to hit Baal with a Skull Missile. Baal was almost hit, but teleported away just in time and cast a Mana Rift on Mephisto. Somehow, Mephisto dodged the spell from Baal, but his name bar above his head was not so lucky and the Mana rift cut off the last three letters from his name.

All of a sudden, Izual, lurking in the corner, bounded to his feet and declared himself Supreme Ruler. Baal and Mephi laughed hysterically and turned on the upstart young fellow and tried to attack him. Unfortunately, Izual just laughed in their faces and proclaimed that he was three times as powerful as the sum of Baal and Mephi. Baal, desperately seeking an edge, cast his Vile Effigy clone in a last ditch attempt to contain Izual, but Izual again cried out that he was still twice as powerful as his (now three) foes. Izual banished the Lords of Hate and Destruction, and now rules supreme over the worldstone.

The question is, how did Izual know that he was omnipotent?"


First hint: Mathematics are involved.
Second hint: Simple math only.
Third hint: It is the same type of riddle as the previous one (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=438447).

Item List:
325/-54 ETH CA Infinity
PCombat 23 life
Zod
3x Ohm
2x Ist
Sur
Full IK Set - 40mf/40cb
Ist - Legit
2x Um
Pul
+3/296/2os Heavens Light
Many other items too numerous to list, like 20life charms, Ravenfrosts, resist/life charms.

[k/t]

Don't attempt this without first reading the thread in the USEast trading forum. We have already had several cases of insanity and suicide resulting from this problem. We don't need more victims.

[anonymite]

Yeah your thread history seems to point out a number of confusing posts on this matter.

Well just starting with the basics:

Izual = 3*(Baal+Mephi) = 3*Baal + 3*Mephi
Izual = 2*(2*Baal+Mephi) = 4*Baal + 2*Mephi

Therefore, Baal = Mephi = Izual/6

Now, what that has to do with anything, I have no clue.

One thing that confused me about these riddles though - omnipotence implies unlimited power, Izual shouldn't be relatable to baal or mephisto with a finite integer, unless you're talking about some alternative math form where infinity itself is defined. But the OP says we're confining ourselves to simple math. Care to explain?

[Frosty_The_Snowman]

There's an easy way to solve this :

3*(mephi + baal) = izual
2*(mephi + 2*baal) = izual

so :

3*mephi + 3*baal = 2*mephi + 4*baal
<=> mephi = baal (mephi is as strong as baal :rolleyes: ).

so izual = 6*meph = 6*baal

Then, all Izual's declarations are true.

However, I suspect this is not the right answer, even if it works. Because the "sto" out of Mephisto would have nothing to do here :grin:...

EDIT : Damn, anonymite, you got me by speed :laugh: !

[cKoniki]

oh my god....diablo trivia lmao...

[hhhrobi]

math has nothing to do with it!..

Izua has a sword !

That is the source of his power. Meph and baal.. no swords.. no power:tongue:

[Cannon Fodder]

Using the Bible Code I have found the words Supreme Ruler Izual in 1 Corinthians. Obviously Izzy being a fallen angel reads the bible and figured this out. Once he did he knew he was golden.


From what I can tell, I'm as close as anybody right now.

[VisMaior]

It has something to do with assigning numbers to the letters.

izual=3*(baal+mephisto-sto)
izual=2*(2*baal+mephisto-sto)

[VisMaior]

oh, and izual<baal+mephisto, obviously...

[NightCraweler]

Simple they were weakened from fighting each other, that is if they didnt get the answer correctly, if none of our answers are correct or near it the riddle makes no sence.

[tinncann25]

simple math...hm

lets say that
1= a
2= b
and so on

then
baal = 16
mephi = 51
izual = 69

therefore izzy is supreme =p

[VisMaior]

http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=438819

[hhhrobi]

3x(16+51)>69

so you are probably wrong

[godofgods]

SOLUTION 1

RITE its a dueling game

Mephisto is a level 15 necromancer casting his bone missile
Baal is a level 15 char

Izual is level 90 being 3 times wat mephi and baal are
when baal makes his clone/shadow warrior/decoy etc... which is also lvl 15 they become altogether 45
which is when izual says hes twice all of em put together

so naturally a lvl 90 char wud think he's Omnipotent against 2 lvl 15 chars

SOLUTION 2

The letters B,A,A,L, and M,E,P,H,I, and I,Z,U,A,L are turned into hectal and blah blah blah watever u do then , i is no good at maths

[phool]

something to do with mlvls? uber izzy is 110 etc, that kinda thing?

[VisMaior]

Lets say each name represents a number...

baal=x
mephi=y
izual=z

z=3x+3y=4x+2y
x=y
but this is nown to be not true, so the slution cannot be as easy as assigning a number to each name. It must be something else

[adny]

what about this sort of thing?


baal baal
baal baal
baal baal
mephi baal
mephi mephi
mephi mephi
----- -----
izual izual

i've never was into these things, so if someone want to try :)

[VisMaior]

mephi is 3.14, isnt he? :)

[masterazn]

Izual is already dead so he can't die twice!

[qscwdvefzrax]

what about this sort of thing?


baal baal
baal baal
baal baal
mephi baal
mephi mephi
mephi mephi
----- -----
izual izual

i've never was into these things, so if someone want to try :)
EXCELLENT


mephi is 3.14, isnt he? :)
baal is 159
izual is 265


Izual is already dead so he can't die twice!
Semantics.

[VisMaior]

baal is 159
izual is 265

Is that so?
izual=3*mephi+3*baal,
265=3*mephi+3*159

mephi=-70,2/3
huh?

[qscwdvefzrax]

baal is 159
izual is 265

Is that so?
izual=3*mephi+3*baal,
265=3*mephi+3*159

3*mephi=-70,2/3
huh?
Where do you get those numbers from?

[VisMaior]

baal is 159
izual is 265

10 c h a r s

[AdvocateDivine]

Has any one thought of maybe the Acts? Like Mephi is in Act 3 and Baal is Act5. So Izual has to be 3(3+5)= 24; Then when Mephi splits its now 2(3+3+5)=22. I don't know if maybe thats the direction the riddle is going in. But it says simple math. Maybe it has to do with the quests that they are on as well?

[masterazn]

Izual is in act 4.

[qscwdvefzrax]

10 c h a r s
I dont get it.

[phool]

lets say I assigned the following values...
L=0
A=2
H=1
I=10

Am I along the right track, before I do the other 6?

edit:damn, I'm not am I... that's 11 char with 10 and 1 :(
edit2:beat me to it:tongue:

[qscwdvefzrax]

lets say I assigned the following values...
I=10

Am I along the right track, before I do the other 6?

edit:damn, I'm not am I... that's 11 char with 10 and 1 :(
edit2:beat me to it:tongue:
No
:innocent:

[qscwdvefzrax]

here (http://forums.diabloii.net/showpost.php?p=4262205&postcount=181)


We use 10 letters in their names. balmephizu. We have a base 10 number system. So,


baal baal
baal baal
baal baal
mephi baal
mephi mephi
mephi mephi
----- -----
izual izual


We need to find a way to replace each letter with a number such that the sums are proper. He has stated that there are three solutions. That probably doesn't mean three solutions for each sum, as that would have 3*3=9 ways to combine them into an answer. The number of solutions to the whole problem is A*B=3 where A is the number of solutions to the first sum and B is the number of solutions to the second sum. 3 is prime, so it is either 3*1 or 1*3. So there are 3 solutions to one sum and only 1 to the other.

How to solve this, beyond brute force number cruncing, I don't know.Well, to look at the clues, you see that l+l+l+i+i+i = a number than ends with 'l' so that helps reduce the number of permutations required to check. There are other hints to help solve the equation.

And there are actually 30 solutions: 3 solutions to 1, 10 for the other.

[krischan]

IMO this riddle lacks so much information that everybody can just make blind guesses. It doesn't just make it tougher, it makes it frustrating. To me, all approaches to find a logical explanation are just an expression of helplessnes so far. I admit that I don't have even a trace of an idea about the solution.

[phool]

Well I believe I tried all possibilities where each letter represents a digit from 0-9, and came up with no solutions that were true in both cases.
3(A+B)= A, 10+A, 20+A, 30+A, 40+A or 50+A. In the only instances where this was true, 1 per value of A I think it was (e.g. 3(5+0) = 15),
4A+2B=A, 10+A, 20+A etc didn't work using the same values of A and B, and in fact only works when A=B, e.g. 32 + 16 = 48.
*confused*

[mirack]

Mephi-13+5+16+8+9=51
Baal -2+1+1+12=16
Baal- 2+1+1+12=16
--------------------------------
84

Izual - 9+26+21+1+12=69

The letters as long as he took out baal first.

[Tahirirocks]

It's done - strikeamatch solved it in the other thread, you all can stop guessing now.

[mirack]

which thread?

[gorash]

which thread?

heres exact page where answer was posted. congrats so strikeamatch.

http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=438819&page=21

[VisMaior]

this is misguiding. You never said the values changed, I assumed, Izual in the first case equals izual in the second case...

[Dawnmaster]

math has nothing to do with it!..

Izua has a sword !

That is the source of his power. Meph and baal.. no swords.. no power:tongue:

Actually, Izual eventually got corrupted by the power of Three (reminds me of Charmed somehow :rolleyes: ) and I don't think he was much more powerfull than Tyreal (who's sword got taken away by a very weak Baal in TalRasha's Tomb)

As for the riddle itself, I'm not even gonna bother, they're hundreds of thousands of possible scenario's to approach this, it's just idiotic to try to find out which scenario you're talking about.

[theredpredator]

I would love to see them duel some time. Ill put my money on baal tough

[phool]

I would love to see them duel some time. Ill put my money on baal tough

baal and izzy both do no damage... I guess between them it's a matter of who dies from sheer boredom 1st. My money's on good old Diablo:hanky: