Languages

CRB Name	Emblem of Ea Name
Common	Tradespeak
Elven	Sildanyari
Elven (High)	Mynsandraal
Draconic	Draconic
Dwarven	Khazdul
Orc	Yrch-Speak
Gnome	Gnomish
Halfling	Halfling
Goblin	Goblin-Talk
	Kulthian
	Eldritch
	Handspeech
	Merctalk
Infernal	Infernal
Abyssal	Abyssal
Celestial	Celestial
Giant	Jotun
	Auran
	Low-Common
	Undercommon

There are a number of languages spoken across Gaea and the planes.

Common

These languages are spoken within Alexandria and are generally accessible to learn as bonus languages depending on your character's race. Characters can also learn these languages by selecting the Cosmopolitan feat (http://www.tenebraemush.net/index.php/Feats_A-D#Cosmopolitan) or by investing skill points into the Linguistics skill (http://www.tenebraemush.net/index.php/Skills#Linguistics).

Abyssal: This is the language of the chaotic demons who are another part of the faction that the and devils belong to. It has simply fallen prey to infighting and civil war.

Aquan: This is the common language spoken by the beings that come from the elemental plane of water. It is a bubbling, frothing language.

Auran: The language of the skies, and the primary language spoken by the eglarin. It consists of a series of screeches, chirps, and whistles.

Celestial: The language of angels and servants of the heavens. This language is often used in religious ceremonies involving the gods of light. It is never to be used lightly for it invokes divine power and presence.

Draconic: This is the common language of dragons, whether metallic or chromatic, as well as the root language of the Sith-Makar. Many spells and ancient texts are written in this language.

Gnomish: This is the common language of the gnomish people and is widely considered one of the more difficult languages in terms of learning pronunciation. Their long words and strings of almost nonsensical seeming combinations of letters makes Gnomish a challenge to most trying to learn the language.

Goblin Talk: The speech of goblins consists of jumbled up words and phrases from Low Common and mixed in with Gnomish sounding words. In other words, it's just a mess that takes a really chaotic mind to master and gives some non-native learners headaches when trying to read or recite it.

Halfling: The halfling language uses the elven alphabet, which leads some to believe that halflings have origins closer to elves then men.

Handspeech: This is the common language of hand signs and ground or surface tapping that is used to communicate visually and kinetically. Handspeech requires that at least one hand is free or the communicator has the ability to tap sequences on the ground or surface to transmit the sound and its associated vibrations.

Ignan: This is the common language spoken by the beings that come from the elemental plane of fire. It consists largely of hisses and pops.

Infernal: This is the language of the lower planes, spoken mostly by the race of beings designated as devils. Emblem of Ea makes little distinction between Demons and Devils beyond this. Devils are simply another faction within an enormous order that has fallen prey to infighting.

Jotun: The language of the giants has a number of different dialects and root origins. The giantborn speak a variation of jotun that uses pictograms in exchange of traditional alphabets; however, the giantborn also use a runic variation of the language for the purposes of arcane enhancements and writing.

Khazdul: This is the root khazad language and has a rune based alphabet. It is used by both khazad-aul and khazad-mornir. With the push from the khazad, khazdul is rapidly becoming a secondary mercantile tongue.

Low Common: Low Common: This language is a thickly accented and culture-specific version of Tradespeak that is used by some races to communicate with one another in gatherings. If you know Tradespeak, then you can generally follow along with this language, even if thick accents, slang terminology, and mixing in of words from other languages may throw you off. For inspiration, think of Low Common as like Cockney slang to English, and like Creole or Quebecois to French; while these real-world comparisons are not perfect, they provide a good informing place to start with Low Common. Do not use Low Common to replicate a real-world language or dialect entirely.

Merc-Talk: This language is made up of hand-signs and various words from other languages that are shortened or otherwise altered to make for easier communication. It is widely incomprehensible to those who have not spent long periods of time as a mercenary, but the languages does hold familiar words and terms.

Sildanyari: This language is the root language of the sildanyar and contains its own alphabet. Many ancient songs and legends are translated from Sildanyari, which reads from right to left. The sildanyari tongue is closely guarded and not often taught to outsiders.

Sylvan: The language of those that live in the natural environments. Sylvan is also the common language spoken by many fae beings and those that live close to them.

Terran: This is the common language spoken by the beings that come from the elemental plane of earth. It is a groaning, crackling language.

Tradespeak: This language is the common tongue of the world and is spoken just about everywhere. It has its own alphabet and is commonly used by strangers to greet one another and to conduct trade.

Undercommon: This the common language spoken by those from underground societies, such as the Iron Dwarves of the Khazad-Ur. It is not a racially distinct language but rather one that carries many races’ influence. Undercommon has words from many other languages, blurred into a common tongue, but this aspect of the language makes it difficult to understand on-whole for non-fluent listeners.

Yrch-Speak: The rough and rugged tongue of the oruch has its own alphabet, which is composed of all consonants and no vowels making translations rough and difficult. The oruch have a large oral tradition with little use for writing, save for the preservation of traditions and histories when they are in danger of being lost due to war or social mingling with other cultures.

Uncommon

These languages are, by their nature, difficult for characters to learn without study or certain selections in character generation. Characters cannot learn these languages with the Cosmopolitan feat and can only learn these languages by investing skill points into Linguistics.

Kulthian: This is the language that was spoken by the ancient Kulthians. Kulthian was the language of Kulthian magic and formal speaking in the ancient world. This system of spell casting has since died out, but the language still exists in ruins and the most ancient of texts. It is very difficult to master. Artificers use this language as the basis for their work and receive it in character generation.

Mynsandraal: This is the root sildanyari alphabet and language that was spoken by the Deep Elves. It is the sildanyari equivalent of Old English and is largely a dead language. Some elves and scholars learn it in formalized study and it is necessary in the translation of the most ancient of sildanyari ruins and sites and writings. Dawn elves and wild elves may learn this language in character generation.

Secret

These languages are secrets that cannot be learned outside of the sources that grant them.

Druidic: The language of druids. Only druids are allowed to know this language and are forbidden from teaching non-druids Druidic. The Druidic language has its own alphabet.

Eldritch: This is the language of magic in the modern day world. Only Wizards are allowed to know this language. Sorcerers do not cast magic in Eldritch; instead, they speak in whatever language they know best. A non-Wizard who tries to learn Eldritch will find that the knowledge burns from their minds.