Concept: While languages should vary in accordance to race, as race in Cealla is the foundational groupings that created the dominant cultures of the continent and the immigrant experience will maintain these racial languages, it should also be influenced by regionality to create a more nuanced language perspective for characters. Your language is influenced by your guardians as a child but also by the area you grew up in, and this should be the basis for language association in Cealla as it is the most realistic concept and a fun mechanic.
In character creation each race should have associated languages that the character gets for free. The idea behind this is that the people who raised this character were of the same race, so they taught the character these languages; a player with an orphaned character can make their own decision as to what languages they’d have and why since language isn’t a natural thing. This part isn’t new, it’s pretty standard for D&D and other similar games at large.
The new part would be the included addition to the racial stats, wherein they get to choose a regional language. This group would correlate to the region in which the character spent the majority of their youth and grew up in, as it would compound on their language experience. It should carry influence on them, and would allow them to have narrative hints to possible unique aspects of their background that separates them from the rest of their race, if that’s what the player wants.
This would be stacked with backgrounds that allow players to add more languages to their character’s knowledge. If their background makes sense to it, they likely would know more languages than just where they grew up. Characters who have an invested concept in knowing multiple languages will be invested in being built to have that access.
Base Languages
Below are the languages that every character of a particular race gets access to for free, just because they’re that race.
Universal (Playable races): Common Tongue (Different names depending on the group.)
- Huum: Common (Fyoi)
- Highborne Alshari: Bûrsûsan
- Lowborne Alshari: Bûrsûsan, Low Cant
- Cronf: True Sliahi, Sliahi
- Sjomaur: Sjo
- Fan’daru: Fan
- Sveppur: Sveppu
- Braytiin: Heilgol
- Lhiberuuk: Old Ceallan, non-Lhiberuuk parent language
- Hobbs: Hobbknobb
- Orn: The High Tongue
- Skriodyr: Sporescent
- Avgahin: Avgaha
- Kitin: Kitin
- Drekkan: Drekka, Foitur
Regional Languages
Below are the languages that individuals can learn, depending on which region they hail from or is best associated with their backstory.
- Sliah: Sliahi
- Ska’atch: Fan, Desert Tongue
- Himinsor: Bûrsûsan, Low Cant
- Hollow: Alleyspeak
- Tracht: -
- Shantiel: Shantielian
- Oarsend: Sjo, Wavespeak, Avgaha
- Vandren: Sporescent (Specifically for Bejaanuon members.)
- Spudd: Spuddi
- Loap: Loapan
- Heilgolund: Heilgol
These two factors will be used to decide what languages a character can speak from creation, with minor exceptions; really old Himinsori should probably get the choice of two regional languages since they could be more traveled in their long life. Blessed characters, or others with a non-typical race choice, would essentially have to workshop their language selections based around their backstory as well.
Foitur
Foitur is the first language of Cealla, taught to the people of the Cradle with the arrival of Himinn and Jorinn. Foitur is a constructed language based on the innately magickal language of the Drekkans. Because of this, Foitur works as both a spoken language and a sort of programming language. While simply speaking the language does not have innate magick effects as the language of the Drekkans does, combining key functional phrases with magickal intent or 'depth' can yield a near limitless amount of magickal abilities. Though few speak fluent Foitur in the Age of Litri, many with magickal abilities know the functional words and phrases of the language to construct and cast various spells.
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