Language

Language manifests in many unique, and poorly understood ways across Zol. This is largely because of the effects of The Undoing and the strange nature of Common. No one fully understands the influences upon language, and its effect on the world. However, many academics believe it is central to understanding the nature of Zol’s history.

Each listed language has its own script. If a language has regional subsections, these regions can communicate with one another, but their dialects differ slightly. Academics expect that directly after The Undoing, these regional languages were the same, but time has caused them to diverge.

# Languages of The Three Corners of Civilization:

• Widely Spoken Languages
  • Common
    • The mysterious language spoken by all people after The Awakening. It is not know how this language is shared by all cultures. Those born after The Awakening needed it to be taught to them.
    • Strangely, the language seems to be able to grow to hold new words, but it remains very constant in its structure. It seems strangely impervious to the passage of time, unlike other languages.
  • Elvish
    • Gethsemnean Elvish
      • The Elven tongue spoken by elves of Gethsemane and Laenwalde
    • Eastern Elvish
      • The Elven tongue spoken by elves of The Free Cities of Alderun, Kapesh, and The Ward.
  • Dwarvish
    • Moddian Dwarvish
      • The language of Mod Dranor
    • Laen Dwarvish
      • The Dwarven tongue of Laenwalde
    • Eastern Dwarvish
      • The Dwarven tongue spoken by elves of The Free Cities of Alderun, Kapesh, and The Ward.
  • Human
    • Kapeshian Human
      • The Human language of the east
    • Laen Human
      • The Human language of the west
  • Orcish
    • Ka’thoorin Orcish
      • The specific brand of Orcish common in the east
    • Laen Orcish
      • The specific brand of Orcish common in the west
    • Ward Orcish
      • The specific brand of Orcish common in The Ward
  • Goblin
    • The language of goblinoids. Commonly spoken in the wilderness. Its structure is very informal so it does not have listed variants.
  • Giant
    • The pleasantly simplistic language of Giants and Firbolgs. Its simplicity makes it have no major regional differences.
  • Smallfolk
    • The language of Halflings and Gnomes. A very slang-filled dialect. Varies from city to city, even sometimes district to district, that recording variants is a long winded effort. However at its core it is very uniform.
  • Changeling
    • The language of The Glassius Reach
  • Aarakocran
    • The language of Aarakocran. Has few words compared to other languages, and is largely based on tone of voice to denote meaning. Very hard to speak if you are not an Aarakocra. Spoken mostly in Reach Run.
• Lesser Known Languages
  • Witchtongue
    • A language used amongst the many differing groups of The Witchlands. Sometimes called Druidic.
  • Draconic
    • The language of Dragons and Dragonborn. Extremely complex, and hard to learn. If variants exist, they are not well documented.
  • Sunfiend
    • A rarely used language of the Tieflings, similar to Damnian.
    • Due to its relationship with hell, it is not often used as many see it as taboo.
  • Triton
    • An uncommon dialect used by subaqueous people. The only two known places where it is used frequently are Abdjadan and Yoel Sundarum. There are slight differences in the two dialects, but it is largely negligible.
  • Subaqueous Hand Signs
    • A form of visual communication for usage underwater. Does not have a written equivalent. Commonly used in Yoel Sundarum.
  • Owlin
    • The rare and sing-song language of Owlin
  • Beastspeech
    • The informal language of Beastfolk
  • Grung
    • The language of Grung tribes. Each tribe has their own different take on the language. Involves a fair bit of croaking which makes it difficult for non-Grung to speak.
  • Tabaxi
    • The fast-spoken language of the Tabaxi. Many early tabaxi were nomadic, so the language is widely the same across The Three Corners.
  • Harengon
    • The complicated language of the Harengon. Difficult to learn, but well loved by linguists for its complexity, and intelligent design.
  • Genasi
    • A language of complex, four sided, verbiage. Spoken only within Ep Drukar
• Fringe Languages
  • Illithid
    • A barely understood language of the alien Illithids
  • Fae’n
    • The language of the Fey
  • Fell’n
    • The language of the Fell
  • Void Tongue
    • The poorly understood language of monsters from The Void.
    • Many academics suspect that what is perceived as Void Tongue, is actually many languages grouped together from lack of understanding.
  • Damnian
    • The language of Fiends from Damnation.
  • Seraphic
    • The language that is spoken by the celestials of gods. Many celestials, who act as acolytes for different gods, all speak Seraphic. Because of this, some scholars suspect it something developed by gods for the purpose of communication between beings of this nature.

Many people of Zol believe in the concept of The Triumvirate. However the diversity of Language which exists within Zol (which was catalogued during The Rebuilding) spans a wide range of dialects. Some think this is a product of The Undoing, others believe they are artifacts of Old Zol. A few even believe that they were composed shortly after The Awakening. However, linguists believe this to be inaccurate. It is widely known that all people knew the language of Common, and it would not have been practical for them to devise new means of communication. If they did, it would have likely been rooted in Common. However no other language is rooted in Common as far as scholars can tell.

There is some confusion surrounding the nature of The First Tongue and The Old Tongue when compared to other language. Standard language carries the purpose of communication, while The First Tongue and The Old Tongue carry immense magical power. These magical “languages” are not forms of communication, but are rather understood as foundational pieces of reality.

The First Tongue and The Old Tongue are more akin to a set of names and commands rather than a spoken language.