Imperial Common

Imperial Common was the primary language spoken by citizens of the First Empire, and is the common ancestor of many of the modern languages spoken in Irion today.

History

Imperial Common developed from a trade pidgin used by a number of pre-Anchor societies into the dominant language used in the Empire, eventually coming to entirely supplant many languages, particularly those spoken by shorter lived species like humans and halflings.
However, with the destruction of the Prima Ancora and the subsequent splintering of the First Empire into various countries, the language began its slow decline. With less travel between the countries, regional variations began to develop, particularly in new concepts and technologies. For a time, Imperial Common remained in use for formal events and as a common, neutral language in diplomacy, but this has largely fallen out of fashion as it became increasingly difficult to understand by the common people.
Today, Imperial Common can only be heard in traditional prayers to Narundi, a goddess who held supreme in the days of the First Empire, and still well regarded in many circles to this day. Most praying worshipers only have a general understanding of what their prayers mean - even most priests and priestesses have only memorized translations of the prayers rather than learning the whole language.

Writing

Imperial Common has gone through a number of changes in writing systems. In its early days, it was written on clay tablets, first using pictograms, which were simplified into abstract symbols known as cuneiform. After the development of parchment and ink, this was further simplified to allow for the uniform width of the tip of a quill and changed to allow characters to flow fluidly from one to the next without lifting the quill. [PLACEHOLDER IMAGE: What does a script version of cuneiform look like]