Gods' influence on language

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In theory, everyone in the world speaks the same language and write it in the same way. Reality isn't too different; while we might struggle to understand each other's accent and puzzle over the unnecessary frills of our letters, mutual intelligibility is always possible. What not many realise, is that this is the result of a lot of efforts from the gods.

Why

According to what I gathered from the archives, languages are, in fact, supposed to evolve. And just like accents, this evolution would depend on location, leading to different variations of the same languages appearing. Over time, they would continue to drift apart from each other until speakers of different groups would not be able to understand each other.
The troubles this would bring are not, however, the reason why the gods are set against this. The gods are obviously immortal. This means that, without intervention, language would keep changing around them, and they would have to constantly waste efforts to catch up to what's going on, otherwise they themselves would not be able to understand their own worshippers.
This is also why, if more mortals understood what's going on, most would agree with the gods' actions. Can you imagine not being able to pray directly to your gods, and share words of thanks or polite requests with them? Yes, scholars and priests would undoubtedly be able to speak the old tongue and communicate with the gods, but using them as intermediate would make all prayers bland and identical to each other, preventing you from standing out and being rewarded. Never mind the trust you would have to put into the priests to make sure they would actually say what they're supposed to!
More importantly from the gods' perspective, not understanding us would mean they would not know when they're being insulted and when they're supposed to smite mortals down! Can you imagine the horror?

How

Thankfully for everyone, in their high wisdom the gods have decided to do away with the entire problem by simply fixing the language. The way this works in practice is easy to understand, as we've all followed those rules all our lives: using proper grammar and vocabulary is essential, and this is an extensive part of the mandatory schooling programme.
When a new invention requires a new word to be added to our dictionaries, approval is granted to all mortal rulers by the gods themselves after those at the top of their hierarchy in the gold realm have agreed to the necessity and settled on what the word is going to be. Whether us, poor mortals, appreciate the new word or not is irrelevant—and while it is never wise to voice that out loud, quite a few of those new words are very cringe-inducing!
Of course, there are always a few objectors that don't understand that the better part of valour is discretion. Those idiots insist on showing off with fancy new words or expressions when we all know that anyone above 5 years old doing so is definitely going to be smitten down. Not that the rest of us don't all enjoy a good betting on when and how exactly this is going to happen...

Opinion from the archives

All of that is the official version, of course. In practice, the gods can't possibly be everywhere all the time, and so long as people are discreet, they can manage to get away with a new word for a while. However, the most popular solution has always been to use pre-existing words but to twist their meanings and concepts out of context.
This is especially used by those who wish to criticize the gods themselves. In such cases, people don't use obvious nicknames linked to the gods' nicknames, of course, or they would be discovered immediately. Yet, with gods able to both lurk around us, invisible, spying on all our discussions, as well as to read a mortal's every single thoughts as soon as they possess us, no secret is ever safe...

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Characters Cécile · Archivist Gabriel · Pierre Ysabeau Politics The Archivists · The royal archives · Cult of the water god · Cult of the Forging God · Royal Heir Appeasing the gods Gods' views of mortals · How to appease gods through prayers and sacrifices · The director instruments channelling prayer magic · The Brand · Mortal Possession · Mark of A God's Disfavour or the Divine Curse · Eldritch Horror Feeding Ritual · Picture Book: The Tale of the Eldritch Horrors Cult Culture Divine portraits · The godly calendar · High Priests' Lockets · The Water God's Gifts · The forging god's alchemy · The Story of the Trees of the Water Temples Mortals' Life The Pollution War · Dry Season Retreat in the Temple Complexes · Gods' influence on language