LANGUAGES

Characters may begin with l common language, and additional languages as equal to their Intelligence modifier. Characters may also learn languages from their Class, Race, or Background.

Most languages should be treated as 'language families'. Speaking one particular language, you may be able to get by in other countries where the dialects are similar.

Note that some languages represent variants from D&D norms...

KOSHKA

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This is the common language for the purposes of this game.

The language of the ancient Kos peoples, first denizens of MIR, though now it is highly filtered through the dialects of the various distinct nations that make up the Mirsk peoples.

Spoken by:
most inhabitants and travellers in MIR


IMPERIAL  (aka Helicosian)

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Derived from the roots of old Aesos, this was the common language of the southern seas of Helicos. When the ancient Cyrons built their empire and conquered the South, they formalized their version of the language, and it became the first fully standardized system of written speech used across the region.

Vulgarized forms of the Imperial speech trickled down to the common classes, and eventually mingled with other languages like Brin, but the high form of the Imperial tongue was the voice of the old Cyron Empire's bureaucracy and academia.

Although rarely used colloquially, to this day it remains the language of law, science, philosophy, and theology in the Southern lands. Additionally, dialects of Imperial are still spoken in some of the old territories once ruled by the Cyron Empire, particularly those which never fell under two-hundred-year rule of the Clarion Throne.

More than a decade ago, the High King of Clarion was murdered, and the Clarion Dominion dissolved. Soon after, many of the southerly nations re-consolidated as the Holy Kasparian Empire. For now, the Brin tongue of the Clarions is still spoken widely through the new empire. It is uncertain if the more formal Imperial language will ever gain enough popular use to replace it.

In MIR: 
A Latin analog, Imperial persists today as a courtly and scholarly language throughout the continent of MIR, especially in Malocovia and Dobrinia.

Spoken by: 
scholars, clerics, courtiers, scribes, Imperial officials, texts from antiquity, inhabitants of Old Cyrona and Aesos, Malocovian nobility


BRIN

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Derived from the old Lundish speech of Wellundia, this language enjoyed a broad dissemination thanks to the popularity of the Gospel of the Prophet Braius, and saw much use as a trade tongue along north-south trade routes.

Long ago, the High King of the Clarion Throne accepted the surrender of the Last Emperor of Cyrona, and the Clarion Dominion began. Since that time, the Brin tongue effectively became the most widely-spoken language in the continent of Duatha, even throughout the southern regions where the old Cyronic Imperial language once held sway. Although the new Kasparian Empire seeks to revive the usage of Imperial, Brin remains the common tongue.

Each major region tends to have its own distinctive Brin dialect that commonly incorporates local idioms and accents. Brin speakers can usually understand one another without too much difficulty.

In MIR: 
This is the (crypto-English) common tongue used in neighboring Duatha (ie: the rest of the world). The Clarion Throne never held sway over MIR, so the Brin language never gained significant penetration here.

Spoken by:
all inhabitants of Duatha, Trade tongue spoken by merchants and travellers.
Related to Kaelish and Lundish.



YMIRI  (aka Norun)

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The language of the Northmen of Ymir is indigenous to the Utgaard snowlands and to communities on the rim of the Thrashing Sea. It is said that it derives from the language of Dwarves and Giants, and those ancient beings born of the stone and soil. For these reasons, it often carries uncivilized connotations, but it has nonetheless travelled far beyond the cold, hard lands of the North. The guttural echoes of old Ymiri may still be heard in the Torvaldic-Brin dialect spoken in the northern the Kasparian Empire.

Ymiri are famous seafarers, and in aniquity, the Norun speech spread to barbarian tribes in Mir, northern Duatha, and even to the southern seas of Helicos. Today it serves as a dialect spoken by sailors the world over. 

As well, a bastardized form of Ymiri is also commonly used as a mercenary tongue wherever northerners ravaged, or traded steel and blood for gold. 

Spoken by:
Ymiri, some Mirsk folk, mercenaries, sailors, sea traders
Related to Dwarvish, Jotun, Chthonic

TALUMAR

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The language spoken by the Daramadi Caliphate, and the nations of Talumia to the south. It's a sophisticated, learned language, dripping with culture. 

Rougher dialects and patois are also commonly spoken by tribes of Rastania and the great steppes.

Spoken by: 
Southerners, Steppes Tribes, Merchants


HUANZU

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The blanket language of the Eastlands, with various dialects spoken by steppes tribes, the imperial courts of Tianxia, and even the far off warlords of Oyama. 

These iterations are mostly mutually intelligible, but carry strong connotations of class and ethnic histories. They will laugh at your pronunciation. Or behead you.

Spoken by Oyamajin, Zhujin, Huanjin, Yangjin, Jyongun, Sankarites, Taizong


THIEVES' CANT

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This is a language that Rogues get at level l. It is essentially an impenetrable mix of polari slang and hand gestures shared by street-level types everywhere, and is designed for sending surreptitious or covert messages.

*As a Skill Proficiency gained by the Rogue class, this language now functions as a Streetwise skill, applicable such tasks as finding illegal goods, making contacts, gathering hearsay, knowing your way around in a city, etc...


ELVISH

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The true tongue of the Fading Folk (Elves) and other related races. This elegant language is rarely heard, but is often seen as the root alphabet of ancient magical script. It is florid, complex, and quite difficult to learn. 

Among the Faerie races, it is treated as a form of high speech. Many scholars have studied it to aid in reading glyph enchantments and deciphering the long histories of the Fading Folk.

Spoken by:
Elvenkind, Alukah, Mages, Scholars



FAERIE COMMON

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This rough, highly-localized tongue is a form of pidgin used by various spirits and lesser faeries. It is mostly an informal patois of the old Elvish and Goblin tongues, with a liberal smattering of words and expressions stolen from mortal languages common to the area. Speakers of any of those languages may have a passing understanding of Faerie common, but it is easy to get lost.

Faerie Common is lilting, fast-moving, and often confusing. It sometimes takes a peculiar mindset to fully understand it - the more immortal the Fae speaker, the more confusing the tenses can become, as time concepts often have a loose meaning for such creatures. When spoken by more mundane Fae, it is rougher and more pragmatic.

Goblins and Trolls are known for speaking a particularly corrupted, blunt, low-class version of this language.

Spoken by:
Faeries, Elvenkind, Spirits, Goblins, Trolls, Gnomes, Brownies, Druids, Bards


CHTHONIC

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A primal language spoken originally by those ancient earth beings that have endured from primordial times - giants, ogres, earth elementals, and the like. Variants of this language have also been adopted by creatures who live in the underworld... trolls, wights, some goblins, and other monsters.

Both the Ymiri and Dwarven languages are derived from Chthonic, though Ymiri is now mostly distinct. Most often spoken in loud, direct, and resonant tones.

Spoken by: 
Giants, Ogres, Trolls, Goblins, Wights, Dwarves, Nockers, primordial spirits


DRACONIC

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The old dragon language, language of magic and the elements of fire, wind, and water. A truly ancient sister language to CHTHONIC.


CELESTIAL  /  ABYSSAL

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Extradimensional languages corresponding to outer beings on either sides of the axis of light and darkness.


CHAOS SPEECH

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A weird tongue spoken and scrawled by beings touched or corrupted by the great Vagaries of Chaos. The language is always in flux, with an inconsistent iconography. It can be extremely difficult to decipher, and it is sometimes thought that only chaos fanatics can fully communicate through this language, by way of some unnatural connection to the Vagaries.

*note: not the Warhammer Chaos gods


DRUIDIC

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I guess this is like a druid language, right? I dunno.
Maybe it should be replaced with FAERIE or DRACONIC or something?
Or it's some primal nature language that can allow hippies to communicate with each other even in very different parts of the world... a source code in the collective consciousness of life, or something. I think that usually Druidic has no written component, but I may waive that.