Languages of Werlyth

Overview

Language is the tool that separates men from beast and in Werlyth that probably isn't quite as true as you would like it to be.

Learning and Understanding Languages is an important part of the adventurers life in Werlyth, a decent amount of communication is possible thanks to the prevalence of Trade Basic, it is not a complete language and cannot handle complex instruction or concepts. If you cannot understand someone then this will be conveyed to you and this may make things a little more difficult in the short term but life always finds a way.

The expectation is not to roleplay these languages (outside of you not understanding certain characters or conversations), because that would be impossible long term but to give an idea of how the world communicates.

A complete list of languages is available here: List of Languages

Shared Languages

Trade Basic

Trade Basic was developed by the merchants of Lanercoast on Lathlenn in order to better facilitate trade throughout Lathlenn. The continent is wide and the common divisions amongst groups of humans led to the simultaneous development of many different languages that sometimes only share a common root ancestor in the distant past.

Technically, Trade Basic is the most spoken language on all of Werlyth, being taught by default to all adventurers and most merchants the world over after being more adopted once Adventurers Guilds began springing up around the world around 25 CR. This makes it somewhat of a lingua franca but you will not find many regular townspeople who speak it and as such local language knowledge is still very valuable. The typical speakers of Trade Basic will be adventurers, merchants, travelling traders, government officials (particularly diplomats) and maybe some nobility.

The language is a terse one, being developed to quickly facilitate trade and as such has some weaknesses. Names are not covered, nor are most proper nouns, these things taking on the local flavour where not covered (e.g. a sword in Luminaire may be a claiomh in Cean, this is just to give an example, things people buy are generally given a Trade Basic noun) though given it's use in trade, this is often not a problem. Trade Basic is also tenseless, when speaking about events happening in the future or past it would be either contextual or require a definite article of time ("Jump" is never "jumped" or "jumping", it would be "I jump" or "Two weeks ago I jump")

Human Languages

Lathlenn Languages

Cambornian

Cambornian was the first language of humans and in Camborn it stayed that way while the rest of humanity spread out and changed. Being the diplomatic powerhouse that it was Cambornian is not a dead language despite the sinking of the country in 0 CR, it is still spoken by most diplomats and government officials / nobles across all of Lathlenn. Considered by most to be overly flowery and verbose, it was the perfect language for treaties and agreements between countries. As such most of the existing agreements and contracts still in place in Lathlenn are written in this language and there is an active push to keep the language alive by the survivors of Camborn.

Ferghelain

Ferghellin is the home of wizards on Lathlenn and the language is equally formulaic and stiff with very hard consonants that make it sound like whomever you are conversing with is already annoyed by your presence, which might be true for most in that desolate place.

Essen

Essen is the language of Esslemont and is a complex language that developed quite differently from others in the initial spreading of humanity, due mostly to the large mountain ranges that separated them from the rest. Producing unstressed vowels with context specific hard/soft consonants has produced a spoken language that alternates between sing-song or angry drunk.

Kingly

In Kinge, having developed after Auchen they speak the language of Kingly, which is a direct offshoot of Auchenian and shares the majority of rules and grammatical intonations. Poetry readings are very popular in all areas of Kinge

Auchenian

Auchenian is a soft spoken language, full of nasal vowels and mixed syllabic intonations. Meaning is often conveyed through inflection and expression and as such the language has developed a penchant for stories and long form poems.

Nyris

Before the Cataclysm, Nyrae shared a lot of it's local language with Lunaris being very similar in form, though spoken with more of a lilt in Nyrae. This language still exists in the south of Nyrae and amongst the survivors of the druidic overthrow and so it is still possible to hear Nyris spoken in many places. The druids speak the language of the trees in Nyrae.

Shrouded Talgen Language

The humans of Shrouded Talgen speak a version of Cambornian all of their own, and while it is easily distinguishable by those who do speak Cambornian or Mereen, Talgeran still has it's own unique flavour having been developed by the beleaguered humans of Shrouded Talgen and as such it is spoken much more quickly than the others of it's root and also with more practicality. Vowel sounds have been shortened and the tendency is for even consonants to be softer.

Human Shared Root Table

The below table should give an indication of which regions languages, you can share by learning one language. Communication between shared root language isn't perfect but much better than none at all. The real world equivalent is to give you an idea of how different the various areas of Lathlenn developed due to the lack of instilled cohesion in humans by Ord.

Root Table

Region	Languages	Real World Equivalent
Central	Cambornian, Mereen, Talgeran	French
Northern	Ferghelain, Brae, Anghor	German
Western	Lunarin, Nyris	English
Eastern	Essen, Lanerist	Russian
Southern	Kingly, Auchenian	Greek
South Eastern	Darken, Pellin, Orilonian	Arabic
Fullerene	Hirythian, Penshen	Norse