A Brief History of Language

Listen to the tale of how the Lords brought reason to the world.

In the beginning, it is said, all was chaos. Elementals were as beasts, and their battles wracked The Eye for eons. Nothing could truly change despite an abundance of flame. There was no beauty, despite an abundance of light. There was no peace, despite an abundance of water. There was freedom in the wind, but naught to do with it. There was struggle upon the earth, but naught that bore fruit. The Lords saw their gifts squandered, and brought forth their power to seize control of the fractured world. The elementals were given language, granted understanding as innate as how to hear and see.
Igni and Hydran, Terran and Aeric, Lucen and Umbran. While not all could speak them, every elemental could understand their language. And with language came structure and cooperation, control and order. The first civilizations began to take shape, the practice of magic advanced greatly, and the Daystar began to illuminate the new world of understanding, leaving darkness in the caves below. This marked the start of the age of ideas, imagination, and innovation: The Age of Illusions. The Shadow Over Truth would languish for an age, knowing how it had been wounded even after playing its own part in bringing this new era about. Of course, it would not be without its place even in a world so illuminated, as there would always be new shadows.

To imagine is to be able to deceive, and to conceive of the deceit of others.

With power and structure, of course, there was still anger, jealousy, and strife. While the Age of Illusions was a time of great advancement, it was far from peaceful, as elementals vied for dominance not only with the other elements, but amongst themselves. That fire elementals could only speak Igni, and those of water only Hydran, only exacerbated these conflicts. Civilizations shaped the world to their needs, moving the earth, shaping the winds, and altering the climate; while it was better than the utter turmoil of the time before, it was far from calm. Even so, the age seemed poised to last for eternity, sturdy as these nations were.
As it so happens in many of such stories, however, their rule would not last forever. In a counterbalance to the new magic of Illusion, a new force entered The Eye, one of soul and flesh. The elementals saw it as an abomination, but they could not defeat it. Some say The Shadow brought new beasts into the world as vengeance for the coming of language; the rise of the Nightstar and the coming of the first nights certainly seemed to lend evidence to this claim. Others say it was simply drawn to its opposite, and that the age had ultimately destroyed itself by allowing the Realm of Yore to bring forth new audacities of imagination. What is certain is that with The Fall of the Icemen, the last of these civilizations was no more, and the young mortal races now held The Eye; the Age of Essence had come.
Altogether, though, language had ceased to be something sacred. The Dwarves had created their own language to speak in secret during their captivity and borrowed some runic language from the Icemen, and other languages would follow suit. Other races would make languages for convenience; various Human tongues seem to stem from Aeric roots, but they differed wildly by region. Elven, they say, created a sort of code to speak with each other in secret in their travels, and Orcs between and among tribes in the Eastern Frontier. It seemed that every variety of mortals, even those of the same race, would be unable to communicate, repeating the mistakes and squabbles of the previous age.

To share knowledge and poetry, to be able to work together towards common goals, and to spread our word, we bequeath this unto all of you.

What were the Lords to do, seeing the mortals fighting for their own fleeting ideals? They showed promise, but seemed to waste it. The Traveler Across All spoke to the other Lords of a new plan, one that would put them on common ground and benefit all. And so they convened, and wrested from Yore a new language, gifted from their chosen few to the mortal races: The language of Common. While it was not innately known as the elemental tongues were, any being could speak it, and this gave opportunities to them all. For The Bearer, this meant coordination towards greater works; for The Observer and Traveler, this meant the sharing of moving stories and beautiful artwork, and for all of them, it meant a way to spread their ideas across racial and cultural lines. With this gift, the mortals could learn to represent their ideals without needing the strict elemental ties of their forbearers.
Even today, Common is the tongue of civilization, of commerce, and of travelers alike. The old Human tongues have all but faded out of use thanks to the convenience of learning Common, though other languages have better withstood the test of time. Even so, the oldest languages have not faded out of use. Shamans still call upon elemental spirits with Igni and Aeric, and even mages who do not interact with such spirits directly know that the words hold power; incantations of summoning and spellcasting alike have used them for centuries. Planetouched, by their nature, often know a smattering of their element's language before they're taught a word of Common, and even the ephemeral sprites that grace The Eye will respond to their words.

Learning Languages

As with the default setting, language is largely up to GM discretion. By design, this does not even hold a comprehensive list of all languages that may be in your setting; various dead languages may exist, such as the old human ones mentioned, as well as a language for Dragons, Giants, Fey, Demons, or perhaps even Aberrations, or these may simply default to the most suitable elemental languages. As for racial languages, it is assumed that everyone has a chance to know how to speak Common (if not necessarily write it, depending on how civilized their background is) and the language of their race. Other languages may be justified by backstory, again up to GM discretion; a Watertouched that was born to Elves may know Common, Elven, and Hydran, for instance. Apart from planetouched ancestry, simply having adequate knowledge in the corresponding path of magic can be a suitable justification; around 30-40 levels in a path can imply enough of a grasp of the language to be fluent assuming more formal methods of teaching. Barring these justifications, recommendations are below.

• Igni: Occult 40, Art 40. Igni is an imprecise, flowery, metaphoric, and flexible (some would say chaotic) language, and grasping it enough to be considered fluent tends to require some creativity.
• Hydran: Occult 40, Etiquette 20, Memorize 20. Hydran is complex, known for having many ways to say the same words, requiring awareness of context to avoid offense, especially when speaking to true elementals.
• Terran: Occult 20, Science 20 OR History 40. While how it is possible is unclear, Dwarven seems to originate more from Terran than Hydran, implying certain gifts from The Bearer all the way back into their ancestry. It is a more logical, concise language, where increased emphasis is often given simply through repetition and little room is left for ambiguity except through omission.
• Aeric: Occult 40, Music 40. As a language of the wind, Aeric is perhaps unsurprisingly melodic and rhythmic. Apart from shamans or summoners, Aeric finds common use by bards, in the admittedly founded hopes that wind sprites that hear their songs and stories will carry them to distant lands.
• Lucen: History 40, Music 20. Lucen requires skilled enunciation which can be difficult for the mortal throat, requiring many of the same skills as singing. It is still in common use by clergy in the Golden Empire, both for religious purposes and the practicality of communicating with elementals.
• Umbran: Occult 80. Apart from Darktouched, few mortals know or can teach Umbran due to the same stigma that faces Darktouched themselves with a measure of bias, which ironically works perfectly into the favor of the language. It uses a remarkable number of click consonants and is perhaps the easiest to mistake for not being language at all to an untrained ear, compared to the more common tongues.