Language, Writing, and Literacy

STARTING and "COMMON" LANGUAGES

Each Human Sub-race has a spoken language. As mentioned in the Character Generation system, PCs will start out with at least two languages, sometimes three.

The two most widespread languages would probably be Youric in the north and west, and Zutaran in the east and south.

LEARNING NEW LANGUAGES

In this world, it may become necessary to learn new languages. If PCs want to learn new languages, it can happen by either traditional training or by complete immersion within a setting where the new language is spoken.

Traditional training will be conducted as per the instruction in the PHB, Part 2: Adventuring, p. 187. Summarized: spend 1 gp per day, study for 250 days, forgo other downtime activities, and you get the language.

It may be rare that a character has the time, money, access to teaches, or desire to go to foreign language classes. I think the more frequent way of learning new language will be by immersion. If a character travels to a new land, is immersed in a community that speaks a new language, and actively tries to learn the language through interaction and Q&A with the locals, they will have an increasing chance, based on INT, to pick up intermediate fluency after a time followed by full fluency after a longer time.

The base time frame to pick up intermediate fluency is 6 months +/- one month per INT modifier. After that time, a character can make a DC 10 INT check at a rate of up to twice per month. Once he makes the INT check, he has intermediate fluency in the new language.

Once a PC has intermediate fluency, the base time frame to transition to full fluency is 6 months +/- one month per INT modifier. After that time, a character can make a DC 10 INT check at a rate of up to twice per month. Once he makes the INT check, he has full fluency in the new language.

LITERACY LIMITATIONS

If a character speaks a language, it cannot always be assumed that he can read and write the language. The ability to read and write is far less common in this game setting than in more advanced settings. Many people raised in civilized lands (The Nadrilian West, The Markelands, Kortella, Pylosean, Esosan, and Voldruv) can puzzle out simple writings they encounter, but intermediate and more advanced writing may be indecipherable to them depending on their upbringing. Those from the barbaric, rural, or less developed lands (Gaeirmund, The Danneinkiff, Ingvael, Korsi, Bishtaan, Heshba, Jbail) are quite likely to be effectively illiterate.

We won't be working with any hard rules or prescriptions of exactly which PCs can read or write, and at what level of proficiency if they can. Players can decide what they will about the character. I just hope to put these ideas forward for consideration. Sometimes a character may be assumed to be literate with the selection of a Proficiency, Skill, Background, Feat that suggests literacy (examples: Proficiency in Calligrapher's / Cartographer's Tools, the Sage Background, the Ritual Caster Feat). Others of certain sub-races with a less suggestive back story and skill set may be illiterate in all likelihood.

That being said, illiteracy is not necessarily the drawback it might be in more advanced settings. People in all known regions expect to interact with a lot of other people who can’t read or write, and take appropriate steps. For example, when sending a message, a merchant might actually dictate a message to the runner instead of handing him a written note; the runner simply recites the message when he finds the recipient. Even people who can’t read can understand tally marks, or recognize very common symbols such as coin denominations.

MODERN WRITTEN LANGUAGES

There are a limited number of established writing systems in this setting.

The most prevalent in the starting region is the Nadrilian-Yuoric alphabet. Strangely, it is called Nadrilian by most Yuoric scholars, and called Youric more often by non-Yuorics. This is the default written language. If a character has literacy, it will be assumed that this is the writing that he can read.

Other symbolic / alphabet systems currently in practice include:

-- Archalasian: a historical writing of western Faolan used by Pylos, Kortella, Voldruv, and to a lesser extent Esosan. Originated in the ancient empire of Archalasia, which crumbled and broke apart nearly a 1000 years ago.

-- Zutaran: an historical writing used in the East, especially in Sarcera, and quite frequently in Jbail. Originated in the ancient empire of Zutar, which was crushed and dispersed by Imperial Otessa around 6 centuries ago.

-- Otessite: a writing that has endured since the time of Imperial Otessa and still exists now in the reduced province of modern Otessa, called Indomitable Otessa by its supporters and Lesser Otessa by its detractors. This writing system is partially hieroglyhic in its design. Its other symbols are complex, making it very difficult to learn by most. A derivative version of this written system was transplanted to the lands of Arkkad in the distant past. It has many similarities, but it differs to some extent. This set of symbols is called the Sabusi hieroglyphs.

-- Alijanian: a very foreign and unusual type of writing from distant Far East Alijan. It is extremely detailed and depends on very fine management of brush strokes with special paint brushes. To the Western cultures, it is a very foreign style of writing, but has gained some exposure because of the small displaced communities of Alijanian refugees who have settled in the Alornic Sea region.

ANCIENT WRITTEN LANGUAGES

Several of the modern forms of writing have a more distant, more obscure but still corresponding version that has been found in writing on old stone tablets, animal skins, and papyrus fragments. Nadrialian, Archalasian, Zutaran, and Otessite all have older "ancient" versions of the written language that can be deciphered by experienced modern readers, but with varied level of difficulty depending on the time period during which they were written.

The Alijanian font is a newer development of writing, so there are no known "ancient Alijanian" writings.

In addition to the ancient versions of the modern written languages, there are other, extremely rare written languages and symbol systems that have been discovered that do not correspond to any language in current use, neither spoken nor written. Two of such ancient written languages are Paroach and Uisde. They are languages only known by sages and historians of civilized lands. Even to those of the highest education, little is known about the lost empires of Paroan and Uisdea, other than that they were both apparently based on the Andra Peninsula of north-central Faolan.

Stories of the people of these ancient eras are more like legends. A handful of scholars have begun to piece together theories based on the fragments of their ancient writings that can be found and translated. It is likely that these ancient cultures knew something about the powers of sorcery and the arcane. The stories of the great and the terrible Paroach and Uisde sorcerers who bent the world to their will through the fearsome use of powerful magics are retold in many different cultures. Many of the writings used by modern day students of the occult arts (Ritual Magic) are written from old fragments of Paroach and Uisde animal-skin parchments and stone tablets.

These though are matters only considered by rare sages. The vast majority of people likely have no idea that Uisde and Paroach civilization ever existed, and many do not believe stories about them and their mighty deeds to be anything more than imaginative bedtime stories, myths continuously exaggerated to entertain or frighten children.