Generic, Text: Languages

Here’s a selection of Languages for this setting. They’ve got three main categories, Bold text means the language is racial/cultural, and is usually taught within the race. Italic text means it is a dead language, and that no current civilizations or communities use the language, but the language is itself quite valuable for historic study and academics. Quite a few ancients texts are written in dead languages, both for magic and important knowledge. Underlined text is used by a wide-spread community, and you learnt it off an immigrant or tourist of that area. Quite useful for politicans, spy, and anyone who wants to listen in to people who’ve found it prudent to spread an uncommon tongue. The lines indicate the relation of languages to each other. A person who knows Jannti might be able to glean mean from Primordial, Celestial or Dwarven, much like English, German and Latin have historical links and some shared meaning. So knowing a language allows for some passive benefit to the connecting tongues.
 

 
Abyssal: More madness than communication, abyssal can be intense to read. Most writers either use a stream of consciousness with little clarity, or are outright insane. Abyssal has a high level of specificity with conditions and clauses, allowing for a extremely specific level of instruction for future events. Historical documentation less so, with several possible outcomes being equally likely. Lots of knowledge of the Far Realm is translated into this language since it lends itself well to the altered mental state. It’s also a racial language for the Duergar, Gnolls and Githyanki, and some infamous prophetic texts.
 
Celestial: The language of Angels and Heavenly servants, while the genuine language of Creation can kill mortals that hear it, this lesser dialect can be understood and even spoken by humanity. It uses symbology, so has lots of Proper Nouns and a great descriptor, but Grammatical syntax and language related to causality is weak. Some theorise this may reflect the old gods having the ability to exist outside of time, and thus not having many terms to deal with realities they don’t experience. Lots of ancient religious texts use this tongue, for hymns and sermons, as well as ancient temples and sites of religious significance.
 
Draconic: The language of Dragons, using the sentence structure and adjectives of Primordial with the vocabulary and tonal complexity of Selidarian. This unique blend comes from the earliest days of Fae-Toril incursion, where Eladrin would feed their lesser Elven kin to Dragons in exchange for acts of service and a symbol of strength. It’s used by all dragons in these days, as well as several older Imaskari and Dragon magical texts and ruins. Also spoken in a simplified broken form amongst Kobolds and the Sarrukh and some of their descendants.
 
Druidic*: The secret language of the druids, shared by none least they anger the spirits. Require the Linguist Feat or Starting as a Rogue to speak this. A secret mix of dialect, jargon, and spiritual elements that allows you to hide messages in seemingly natural sounds. Only another creature that knows druidic understands such messages. It takes four times longer to convey such a Message than it does to speak the same idea plainly. In addition, you understand a set of Secret signs and symbols used to convey short, simple messages, such as whether an area is dangerous or the territory of a druidic circle, allies to the natural world like rangers or woodsmen, and subterranean entrances.
 
Dwarven: One of the only tongues named after a race, aside from draconic. Dwarven is practically a secret code outside of the race, usually only taught to trusted human traders and human and gnome members of Dwarven communities. The dwarfs have a tendency towards secret-keeping taught from their persecuted history and long memories with racial interactions. They’ve more friendly in the last few decades, but Dwarven hospitality is a relative thing. Even knowing this language is to be considered dwarf-friend or at least Dwarven allied.
 
Gnim: Language of the Gnomes, Gnim first developed from a gnomish population in Imaskar amongst artisan-slaves gifted from the Eladrin to the Imaskari. It uses Selidarian alphabet, but also borrows heavily from the abyssal aspects of Imaskari to take advantage of the utilitarian and frank language. Mostly spoken in Lantan’s Rest and amongst a few small gnomish communities, not a lot of ruins or ancient texts use Gnim. Mostly used for the rare tinkerer or artisan who wants to study the great engineers and experimenters of gnomish middle History.
 
Halruaan: The chief dialect of the Shining South, taking a mix of different ethnic groups of the region, from mages fleeing the fall of Karsus, to refugees from the Genie Empires that collapsed when the dimensional gates shut. Halruaa has spread it’s culture through the use of heavy trade and high value exotics through the south and parts of Faerun. While not a very old language, it’s likely to be understood by anyone with a skin tone darker than a Tethyrian and South of the Tomblands. Also several more modern texts on evocation and elemental conjuration.
 
Illithidka: The other language of the Far Realm, this one was constructed from Qualith (language of the Illithid Empire) and Aboleths when they immigrated to our reality. It is a language similar to to Celestial with a weak uinderstanding of causality, but allows for complex expressions of mental state and emotional range. While they see little use in mortal areas, and even the modern Illithid is unlikely to read or write with their collectivist psionic mindscape. However, the language allows people to reconstruct meaning from most older Illithid and Aboleth ruins from the bygone Empires as well as Githzerai Temples and coillectives there are scattered texts that make use of it.
 
Imaskari: The first great civilisation of man, the Ismaskar were masters of beaucracy and interdimensial magics, both for communication and creating impressive quasi-magical structures and housing. Most of Mordenkainen, one of their greatest Mage, is still in the standard wizard’s collection. Making this an extremely valuable language for even the casual student conjuration and abjuration. The Imaskar Empire fell after an uprising of human and gnome slaves, but remenants of the Empire litter from the Shining South to Zakhara.
 
Infernal: The language of the Nine Hells. A corruption of Celestial, borrowing the alphabet and vocabulary of Abyssal to best increase the specificity of conditions and clauses, making it one of the most supreme contractual dialects in the multiverse. It was used exclusively for Blood Contracts with devils, and heavily borrowed from by earliest human civilizations that dealt with devils or needed a highly codified bureaucratic structure. Unfortunately this means a lot of earlier Infernal documentation used papyrus or proto-paper and doesn’t leave a lot of evidence behind, and modern scribes tend to translate it to other languages.
 
Jannti: The tongue of the Efreeti, Djinni, Marid and Dao; the genie’s of Abeir-Toril. A blend of primordial alphabet and syntax, but borrowing heavily from celestial nouns and pronounciation, the first Jannti texts were genie that were working for the Gods after the exodus of the Primordials to their cloned reality of Abeir. It’s still used widely in the Genie cities of Zukhara and the Shining South, as well as ruins of the Aarakocra Empire in Maztica and Anchorome, and the City of Brass in the Plane of Fire. Most of the more complex inhabitants of the Elemental Sphere also use this tongue, from slaves to intelligent elementals.
 
Jotun: Tongue of the Frost Giants, one of the great heirs of the Giant Empire and the Titans that founded it. Derived from Primordial but altered to better suite the giants facial structure and lips, Jotun has also taught to the Firbolg and Rasemi humans. It was originally the language of the Storm Giants, highest standing in the Ordning. Which means the text can be found all over older Giant sites and amongst the more loyal Stone Giant colonies. It’s also spoken by the Pyradocean Giants and some of the earliest Dwarven ruins.
 
Luiric: Language if the Halflings, originally from a different reality. They were captured and brought here by the Netherese to be a slave-race, but managed to escape with a fair chunk of their fellow human slaves during Karsus’ Folly. While their language was wholly original to their species, it had more than a few corruptions from the Netherese overlords and fellow slaves. It can be found in a few of the halfling communities that sprung up in the fall of the Empire, and the Kingdom of Damara and the Winterwoods of the Ghostwise Halflings.
 
Karaturian: The language of the Shou Lung Empire. Uses a symbol-based vocabulary derived from pure Celestial, but brings in a tonal inflection from Selidarian that gives it a sing-song quality. It’s spoken all across Kara-tur and parts of Zakhara, but Faerun seems particularly insulated to it with the intermittent trade and no geographically shared borders. The individual kanji have developed, both simplified and codified over the millennia. The earliest texts being as old as the Imaskari, but can be struggled through by even modern speakers.
 
Netherese: The Greatest of Human Empires, the original Netherese Empire dwarfed the Imaskar Empire. Birthed in the heartlands of Faerun after the collapse of the Elven Dynasties, it eventually subsumed the last holdouts of the Imaskari, stretching all the way from Illusk to the Purple Wyrm Planes of Zukhara. They adapted a lot more Infernal legalese and Imaskari text into their native tongue, creating a powerful tongue of it’s own. Netherese texts covers the world, and most of the Shadowfell cultures have adopted it with the Netherese’s long stay there. It’s still spoken by Illuskanites in the northern reaches of the Sword Coast.
 
Pansaerian: A language native of the Feywilds, a race of proto-goblins that fed on the ambient magic and defiled vegetation around them. They have the occasional scattered ruin in the Feywild from desert ruins that have been overcome with elven magic and forest. The kingdom of the Witch-King used this tongue extensively, a less tonally complex and larger lexicon than Salidarian, it can be spoken without compromise with emotional intent. It’s also spoken by most modern forms of goblin-kin and remnants of the Phaerimm.
 
Primordial: The language of the Primordials and Titans, First Creation and masters of the Inner Sphere. Split into four equal dialects, Ignan for fire, Auran for air, Terran for earth, and Aquan for water. The language is entirely based about differing states of being, having a fluid nature of self in the Age of Dawn, a poor understanding of pronouns and individuals. Often they require unique Nouns and severe emphasis to express a character, and this can reflect as hubris in translation. Lots of ancient magical texts dealing with Elements and Conjuration use primordial, as well as ancient Dragon, Giantkin and Batrachi ruins.
 
Selidarian: The original language of the Eladrin, precursor to the Elves and Gnomes. This was the unified language of the Feywilds and still used by the Feylord Courts amongst themselves. It’s a particularly tonally complex language with a flowing form, but requires an extremely accurate ear for pitch and timbre. It doesn’t appear much in this world, but on older Elven ruins it can be used for more complex cyphers and religious buildings, as well at the ruins of the Witch-King of Gebra or older Goblinash ruins and sites of fae magicks.
 
Skaldi: Tongue of the Fire Giants, the rebels of the Giants. In the ordning, they were the craftsman and generals. Modern Fire Giant enclaves have come to a new understanding of the ordning, with the disappearance of most Storm Giants, they declared themselves above the Frost Giants in the Ordning, an act which has cleaved the Giant race ever since. Some Fire Giants have also had positive relationships with Dragons, usually Blue and Red variants, but still seen as a betrayal. Spoken by some southron Dwarven populations, as well as the Fire Giants themselves, and their allies in the Ordning.
 
Sylvan: The language of The Elves. While it has a lot of similarity to spoken Selidarian, because it was spoken by a lower class restricted from Eladrin culture and education the written text is wholely original. It was also widely spoken and spread to the other inhabitants of the Feywild and has overshadowed Selidarian even among Eladrin that live outside of the Three Courts. It’s obviously around all the fallen Elven ruins and Druidic sites, but also a few merfolk and formion ruins making it a far flung tongue that all Elven children are raised speaking.
 
Tethyrian: The language of Tethyr, a now collapsed civilisation in the heartlands of Faerun, and most common language for the region, often considered a Trade or Common tongue for the Sword Coast Region. Tethyrian refugees have founded many of the greatest of the cities; Neverwinter and Baldur’s Gate, from as far north as Byrn Shandar to Stormhold. Tethyrian is a free language for all adventurers as default, as a way to communicate with each other and most NPCs during the campaign.
 
Thieves’ Cant*: The secret language of the criminal underworld, often altered to prevent thief-takers and traitorous thieves exploiting it. Require the Linguist Feat or Starting as a Rogue to speak this. A secret mix of dialect, jargon, and code that allows you to hide messages in seemingly normal conversation. Only another creature that knows thieves’ cant understands such messages. It takes four times longer to convey such a Message than it does to speak the same idea plainly. In addition, you understand a set of Secret signs and symbols used to convey short, simple messages, such as whether an area is dangerous or the territory of a thieves’ guild, whether loot is nearby, or whether the people in an area are easy marks or will provide a Safe House for thieves on the run.