Tuathan Language in Anvimar | World Anvil

Tuathan (too-AH-than)

It either says when they are horses, they are gathering the gods, or they have got the horse gods, but the tenses are a bit tricky.
 

The Tuatha de Daiyan ruled over Anvimar for an age and traces of their passing remain in many areas throughout the continent. Their language can be found in ruins, ancient scrolls, and etched items of power long since parted from their creators. Few remain in the mortal realm who can read it, fewer still with the tongue to speak it. Some believe truly understanding the language would give the speaker insights into the workings of time itself.

 

Modern Usage

 

It is very rare to find any modern usage of Tuathan. Some wizards who are familiar with it have created ciphers based on the language to encode their spellbooks. More likely you'll find speakers within the feywild, perhaps an old eladrin, studious satyr, or an archfey who once roamed the mortal realm and fought back the fomorians.

Tenses

The Tuathan language has unusual tenses, related their unusual experiences with time. For example, a tense can descrbe a future state where something will be happening in the past, or, relatedly, a past state that is the consequence of a future action. With such tenses trying to communicate ideas like, "The lord's tunic will be red last week when we go to the temple next service day," becomes much simpler. Especially when we note the idea is communitcated that the lord's tunic was not currently red last week; that past state will only come to be when impacted by the future action.   Tuathan's casual relationship with linear time requires certain flexibilities in language.

Secrets of Time

 

Some believe that the Tuathans hid the secrets to manipulating time within the structure of their language and simply understanding the language would grant extraordinary powers. The Magerium has several members conducting research into the language, whether for general education or because they truly believe these rumours is another matter. Most without some tie to the feywild have too much difficulty understanding the tense structure of the language and rarely make it past the basics.



Cover image: Korinthia by Hex Sharpe

Comments

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Aug 2, 2021 18:14 by Cassandra Sojourn

Possibly connecting time magic to use of a language is great. I'm trying to wrap my head around that sentence with the lord's tunic. But I enjoy languages and people with flexibility regarding linear time.

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Aug 3, 2021 18:58 by Michael Holt

Thank you! I *think* in this case the issues with that sentence express the difficulties of translation I was trying to express, although I think the following sentence trying to explain it could use a touch up.

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Aug 11, 2021 03:50 by Cassandra Sojourn

Yes. That was meant as a compliment as it does exactly what it needs to in order to explain the nuances of a time language.

Choose your poison:   Phasmatum: An Afro-Solar-Fantasy world created for my epic novels.
Adazuri: A shonen-inspired magitech fantasy world home-brewed for 5e.