History
Ancient Karshen is the language of the
Pestilent Species. It is unclear how it came to be that the initial
Mortal species developed language, but the two different groups each developed distinct languages, possibly derived from their respective creator
Gods. While several dialects of Ancient Karshen developed across
Tukarsh over the 5000 year long
Old World period, the language maintained such a remarkable cohesiveness that it is believed even the few remaining dialects of Ancient Karshen that are still spoken today would be compatible with many of the ancient dialects.
Ancient Karshen is one of two languages that have the requisite magical properties to be used by Mortals to manipulate magic and cast spells. The other language is
Ancient Mossix and is much more rarely used since the extinction of the
Inheritor Species during the
First Coming of the End Times.
There are many theories as to why Ancient Karshen was so prevalent at one point before suddenly becoming a nearly dead language. The generally accepted explanation is that Ancient Karshen's magical nature made the language immutable, allowing it to remain largely uniform across many different dialects. However, this immutable nature also caused the language to fail to evolve with the changing world, eventually reaching a critical point at which the language no longer met the needs of the Mortal peoples of Jeharr, causing it to be phased out in favor of newer languages sometime between the First Coming of the End Times and the
Age of Man. Another theory is that the a class of aristocratic magical individuals eventually developed and worked together to replace Ancient Karshen as the language of the common people, presumably in an effort to monopolize the language of magic. A third reasonably common theory is that the Gods themselves made an effort to eliminate the use of Ancient Karshen in day to day use for reasons unknown.
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