Linguistics

From FFa2Wiki

Contents 1 Akhenian 2 Arin 3 Cant 4 Carcasian 5 Cepn 6 Church Arin 7 Domeran 8 Drachen 9 Dremy 10 Enochian 11 Fallen 12 Hinde 13 Hoomiku 14 Koba 15 Lemurian 16 Lutraic 17 Naiponese 18 Old Draconic 19 Phae 20 Sinti 21 Skolish 22 Trade 23 Trinary 24 Unheard Tongue 25 Wu

Social Skill, Specialty Skill
The Skill associated with knowing multiple languages or how to use languages with skill and effectiveness. The character must choose one Specialty each time this Skill is taken. This Skill may only be used with a Specialty that the character possesses. If the character does not have the appropriate Specialty, the character rolls Unskilled. Each Specialty is either a specific Language or Literacy in that language. A character may be literate in a language they can not speak.

Calligraphy
The character writes a letter as a Social Attack. This is a Results Roll that takes a number of Full Round Actions equal to the Difficulty. The character decides what they wish the letter to do that is within reason for the target. When the target reads the letter, they must make a Social + Integrity roll with a Difficulty equal to the Potency of the letter. If the roll fails, the target is swayed by the letter and feels obligated to react as the letter dictates. The victim may spend an amount of Essence equal to the Potency of the letter, minus the victim’s Growth, to ignore the letter’s effects (treating the failed roll as a successful roll). If the victim succeeds, or has spent Essence to ignore the letter’s effects, they suffer an increased Difficulty to all actions equal to the letter’s Potency minus the Successes rolled by the victim for a number of Scenes equal to the Base Difficulty.

Warning
The Calligraphy use of Linguistics is not a form of mind control. It is a tool for social conflict representing the character’s ability to influence emotions in the target. The character can not write a letter which says ‘give me money’ and expect the victim to hand over sacks of coin. The character can, however, write a long letter threatening the victim and all they hold dear, and if the target believes it, they may very well give the character money. However, saying ‘I write a letter which causes the person to give me money’ is very likely not within reason for the target. The game master has every right to ignore such heavy-handed ideas, and can simply have the character fail. Instead, you might want to consider such things as ‘I want to drive the target to depression’ or ‘I want to enrage the target’. These are viable. If you need something specific done, you can have ‘I demand the prisoner be freed’ and explain how the letter moves the target to do so, ‘on fear of assassination’. The victim is then motivated, perhaps, to follow the letter, out of fear of reprisal.

Pidgin
The character can attempt to communicate to someone who does not have the same languages the character has, but knows a related language that the other knows. The character makes a Results Roll using Social + Linguistics. The Potency is how many ideas or concepts the character is able to get across to the listener. The character takes a number of Full Round Actions equal to the Difficulty to do so.

Languages
The languages of Kith Kanaan are varied, though a number have common roots. Certain languages grant a bonus to various forms of Sorcery. If there is a Sorcery listed for a language, the character may spend 1 Essence as an additional cost of the Spell being cast, to add their Linguistics Skill as bonus dice to the roll.

Akhenian

Related: Enochian
Sorcery: The Ashen Path
The language of Akhenatem. The language is smooth and flowery with many descriptors, making it good for giving titles and importance to ideas or individuals. Akhenian writing uses hieroglyphics.

Arin

Related: Church Arin
Sorcery: Path of Artificing, The Azure Path
Almost exclusive to members of the Arin faith. Arin was banned by the Joshuites for nearly a thousand years, but it has been used for ciphers and codes for generations. Arin is a very strong language, excellent for description and categorization, and a number of alchemists and artificers have used Arin to write out formulae.

Cant

Related: Local Language
The language used by the criminal class, used through most of the central region of Kith Kanaan. The language uses loan words and slang almost exclusively, and is constantly evolving to keep ahead of authorities.

Carcasian

Related: Naiponese, Phae
A fluid, pleasant-sounding language, with a musical, rhythmic vocabulary. Difficulty to learn, but perfect for music and poetry, Carcasian is the language borrowed from most for court terminology. Carcasian has many colourful swear words – most religious in nature.

Cepn

Related: Unheard Tongue (Spoken)
Used by the cepn race, this language is rare in Kith Kanaan. The language is soft, almost a whisper, designed to be used when communicating with those with exceptional hearing. The Cepn language is usually direct and to the point, though words involving death and physical experiences tend to be more elaborate and poetic in nature.

Church Arin

Related: Arin
Sorcery: Joshuite Miracles
While the Arin language was once out of favour in Kith Kanaan, the Joshuite church could not discount the usefulness of the language for their texts and for documentation. The language was codified and redesigned for more religious pursuits, and has come into favour in Tarantis.

Domeran

Related: Trade
The Domeran tongue is all that remains of the language of the Joshuites. When the Joshuites came to Kith Kanaan, their language evolved, drawing on aspects of Carcasian and Drachen, and eventually became Trade. The Domeran tongue has some faint similarities to Trade, but is very ‘clean’ without any loan words. It is used by the Domremy and has a very ‘old fashioned’ feel to it. Domeran is good for speaking simply and to the point, but is terrible for swearing.

Drachen

Related: Old Drachen, Trade
The most common language next to Trade, Drachen is a harsh language, descended from the language of dragons and used by the slaves of dragon kind in the ancient past. It is a harsh, guttural tongue, excellent for giving commands or being to the point. Drachen holds many colourful words that are scatological in nature, making it popular for swearing.

Dremy

Related: Phae
Sorcery: The Path of Amairgin
Not heard often beyond the Northern Wilds, this language is pleasant and rich in tone, making it excellent for singing. Dremy is often confusing to hear when spoken quickly, as many syllables carry over.

Enochian

Related: Akhenian
Sorcery: The Ashen Path, The Spiral Path
Enochian is an ancient language, and has a deep, eerie tone to it, though words are very precise and clear. Enochian has an excellent rhythm, with regular intonation that can make the language almost hypnotic. Enochian swear words often use death symbolism and references to the underworld. Enochian writing uses pictograms.

Fallen

Related: None
Sorcery: The Ashen Path, The Twilight Path
Mostly used in the Southern Wilds, this language is rare outside of that region. The language uses many hisses, clicks, and glottal stops, and is incredibly difficult to learn unless the character has it as their native tongue. In emergencies, or to indicate alarm, Fallen has a number of shrieks and cries which can cause most unaware listeners to panic. The written language uses pictograms.

Hinde

Related: Sinti
Sorcery: The Path of Suleiman
The language of Hinde is very fluid and quick, with a lot of sudden, harsh stops that use the throat. It is a descriptive language, used for storytelling and for debate by giving the user many different ways to say the same thing. Hinde is aided by body language and use of the hands. Hinde has some colourful curses to fling around, but not so many actual swear words.

Hoomiku

Related: Trinary (Written)
Sorcery: The Path of the Artificer
Used almost exclusively by the Hoomiku and almost never taught to those outside the race. This language is incredibly quick and uses bursts of sound that most people can not accept as a language. It is very technical and precise, and is capable of adapting to new concepts and ideas, with specific rules for how to bring new ideas into the language, breaking them down into components which can be assimilated seamlessly into the tongue. By spending a number of hours equal to the Difficulty of a Craft project, the character may spend 1 Essence as they write out a blueprint for the project to be done using Hoomiku. Once finished, the character may use the blueprint to gain a number of bonus dice equal to the character’s Linguistics Skill for the actual Craft roll.

Koba

Related: None
Sorcery: The Path of Awakening
A pleasant and sibilant language, Koba is spoken by the race of the same name. Due to the Koba normally remaining away from other civilizations and the primitive nature of the tribe, the language of the Koba is rich in detail when it comes to natural phenomenon, colours, and the detail of plants and animals, but is sorely lacking when involving artificial constructs (such as buildings). Koba describe artificial structures and devices using language evoking animals, plants, and natural events.

Lemurian

Related: None
The language of the people of Lemuria, an island chain to the far west of Kith Kanaan, in the heart of the ocean. The language is vibrant and colourful, almost made for singing and expression.

Lutraic

Related: None
Sorcery: The Path of Awakening
Much like Koba, the language of the lutrai is colourful and draws richly from nature and the elements. The difference between the two languages is that Lutraic is connected with the sea and sky, while the Koba language is connected more with the jungle and earth. The lutrai are more technically-minded than the Koba however, and have adapted their language to accepting concepts completely alien to the Koba. However, much like their neighbours, the lutrai prefer to describe artificial structures using language that evokes more natural concepts.

Naiponese

Related: Wu
Actually two languages, Naiponese is an inflective language with formal and informal terminology. One is detailed and splits many common words into degrees, giving higher or lower stature to a word depending on where the syllables are placed, while the informal aspect places emphases by using specific prefixes or suffixes on certain words. The language emphasizes the past and present, as future-tense and present-tense are the same.

Old Draconic

Related: Drachen
Sorcery: The Azure Path
The language of the True Dragons, and spoken partially by the draconic races, this language is sibilant and very seductive. It is good for negotiations, the language built for politics and persuasion, as it has many words which are inflective, meaning one thing or another, depending on pitch, creating a lot of neutral terms. The language also has a lower form, which is more guttural, with short, sharp words and direct terminology used for speaking with one’s lessors. A lot of these terms eventually grew into Drachen.

Phae

Related: Carcasian, Sinti
Sorcery: The Path of Veils
The language of the faerie race and those of the spirit courts, this language is melodic and very distracting. The language uses musical tones to run words and ideas together into a harmony, and most listeners are caught up in the music of the language rather than being able to focus on the words used. Phae is useful for weaving a tapestry of images together into a story, and most conversations are done using stories for simile and to represent the ideas and concepts being shared.

Sinti

Related: Hindi, Phae
Sorcery: The Path of the Witch
The language of the wandering folk, Sinti is a colourful and rich language, useful for telling stories. The Sinti tongue is rich in flavour, drawing some words from Hinde and picking up loan words from the Phae and other cultures that the Sinti have crossed. Many of these words have slipped into Trade over time.

Skolish

Related: None
The language of the skole, this tongue is a warrior’s language, filled with words and similes associated with combat. The language is dignified, with careful structure so that the speaker is clear and easy to understand, and can be either direct and to the point, or poetic and epic in scope.

Trade

Related: Carcasian, Domeran, Drachen
Trade is a creole language, which makes it a colourful, if somewhat confusing language for those who are unaccustomed to it, and uses many slang terms that it has picked up from its parent languages. The language is flexible, borrowing new words picked up from nearly anywhere. It has some swear words, most are direct, and taken from Drachen, which is used for more relaxed, everyday talk, though the more polite terminology comes from Carcasian and is common for ‘civil’ discussion.

Trinary

Related: Hoomiku (Written)
A purely written language, trinary uses three conditions: active, inactive, and neutral. The trinary language is a written code used by the Hoomiku and is almost impossible to understand without teaching. Trinary is not very useful within Kith Kanaan at this time except as an effective cipher.

Unheard Tongue

Related: Cepn (Spoken)
A purely spoken language, the Unheard Tongue can only be used by those with the Power of Sense (Echolocation). The language can not be heard by anyone not capable of speaking or hearing in the ultrasonic spectrum.

Wu

Related: Naiponese
The language of Chang’Na, with sharp sounds and tonal changes. The language of Wu is hard to learn by outsiders though there are similarities with Naiponese. Wu is a very formal language, good for poetry and courtly ritual.

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