Languages
Common Languages
The civilized people of Creation all speak one of seven different languages, while the barbarian tribes speak many dozens of different languages. When players create their characters, you must make sure those characters will all be capable of understanding each other. The task is not as daunting as it seems. Representatives of the Realm and the Guild both travel widely, so three trade languages are common all over Creation: Old Realm, High Realm and Riverspeak. Many people in every major city speak all three languages, and at least one person in the smallest rural village will haltingly speak at least one. The players should decide ahead of time which trade language their characters all speak. While natives of Nexus and the Realm speak their native language perfectly, most people cannot speak the widely known trade tongues particularly well. One dot of Linguistics allows for perfect understanding, though. The characters can use these languages to ask locals for directions, to transact commerce and to discuss other relatively simple topics. However, talking complex philosophy or planning elaborate military strategies with most locals is difficult or impossible. That’s what taking additional dots in Linguistics is for.
Languages of the Realm
The major languages in Creation are:
- High Realm: The language of the Dragon-Blooded nobles and their servitors and the language used for all official business in the Realm.
- Low Realm (Earthtongue): The speech of the Realm's commoners.
- Old Realm: The language of the Old Realm. This is the language of many oral and written spells, as well as the language of First Age tomes. Characters must have Lore 1 or greater to purchase this language. Old Realm is also the native tongue for spirits, demons and the Fair Folk.
- Riverspeak: The language of the Scavenger Lands. Also the common parlance of the Guild. Full of loan words, it is used by almost every trader and merchant in Creation.
- Skytongue: A language family spoken in the Threshold regions of the North.
- Flametongue: A language family spoken in the Threshold regions of the South.
- Seatongue: A language family spoken in the Threshold archipelagoes of the West.
- Forest-tongue: A language family spoken in the Threshold region of the East.
- Guild Cant: A secret language spoken only by members of the Guild. (Characters must have Backing [Guild] at 2 or higher to know this language.)
- Tribal Tongues (various): Languages spoken by groups of barbarians. For each dot of Linguistics purchased, a character may know four tribal tongues.
- Specialties: Individual Dialects: Haltan, Delzahn, Gethamanese, Haslanti