JesseLowe/Linguistics

Linguistics

Languages are known at three levels of fluency: Marginal, Basic, and Expert. A character is always Expert in his native tongue. Fluency in a language includes its various subsidiary dialects.

A character can attain Marginal fluency in a language by making a successful Intelligence + Linguistics roll at a difficulty set by the Storyteller; this takes about a week's worth of study. Most characters with High Realm or Low Realm have at least Marginal fluency in the other tongue. This costs no XP, but does fade after a year of disuse. (I.e, if Swan picks up Marginal fluency in Skytongue while he's in Cherak but doesn't speak it for a year afterward, he no longer has Marginal fluency in Skytongue.)

Marginal fluency allows the barest of communication: asking directions, surrendering, making very simple threats, buying and selling without bargaining (well), etc.

Basic and Expert levels are bought with "Language Points." A character gains 1 Language Point when he gains dots in Linguistics as follows:

• Gain 1 LP
•• Gain 2 LP (total: 3 LP)
••• Gain 3 LP (total: 6 LP)
•••• Gain 4 LP (total: 10 LP)
••••• Gain 5 LP (total: 15 LP)

He may also buy additional points at a rate of 3 XP per 1 LP. (If Linguistics is a Favored, Caste, Auspicious, Breed, or Aspect Ability, it's at a rate of 2 XP per 1 LP.)

Putting one LP into a language grants it at the Basic level of fluency. At this level, a character can perform most day-to-day tasks of communication with comparative ease, but will still be marked as a non-native speaker and cannot communicate the most complex of concepts or subtle shadings of inflection.

Putting two LPs into a language grants it at the Expert level of fluency. At this level, the character has mastered the language and can do everything in it that a native can do.

A character may gain even greater fluency in a language by taking a speciality in it. Doing so represents a unique talent for the language, and counts against the 3-specialty limit for Linguistics. However, the character has a remarkable command of the language, and will no doubt be accounted among the greats in its history.

Languages Of Creation

• High Realm
• Low Realm
• Old Realm
• Skytongue
• Forest-Tongue
• Seatongue
• Flametongue
• Riverspeak
• Barbarian languages
  • Speech of the Forest People
  • Delzahn
  • Icewalker
  • Kamsan
  • Varajtulian
  • Tear Eater Speech
  • Karalan
  • Arczeckhian
  • The Ten Tongues (Ten Tribes)
  • Jungle Tribes
  • Dune People
  • Djalan
  • Jackal Tribes
  • Silent Crescent
  • Pelagothropian
  • Island Tribes
• [Dragon King language]
• [Mountain Folk language]
• Secret languages (These all require Backing in the appropriate organization to know):
  • Guild Cant
  • House Tongues (I'm thinking one for each House older than a couple of centuries)

Inventing a Language (Under construction)

It's entirely possible for a character to invent a language. To do so is an extended Intelligence + Linguistics roll. Each roll is a month's worth of work, usually at a rate of about 4 hours a day. Before beginning work on constructing the language, the character must make a series of decisions:

• Will the new language be based on a pre-existing one? If so, anyone with Basic or Expert fluency in the original language automatically has Marginal fluency in the created one.
• How complex will the language be? The levels of complexity are Marginal, Basic, and Expert; they determine the difficulty of mastering the language and what concepts can be conveyed with it. The maximum concept complexity is equivalent to fluency, above.
• Will the language be deliberately difficult to understand? The language creator can make the language more difficult than most; this will increase the difficulty, time, and experience cost of learning the language.

Signalling Systems

Many organizations find it useful to have a small signal set -- essentially, a language -- for use with various signalling devices such as semaphore systems, bells, gongs, drums, heliographs, and the like. Constructing a signalling system requires a week's work and an Intelligence + Linguistics roll. This establishes the basic alphabet of the system (if there is one), and a small library of the most commonly needed signals. Almost invariably, other signals will be added over time, but the basic library is all that's needed for a functional system.

Among literate organizations, a signal set will typically be recorded in a signal book; security-conscious organizations will change their signal books and systems with some frequency. As long as a signalling character has a signal book handy, communication takes no roll but will be rather slow, at a rate of one signal per combat turn.

By making an Intelligence + Linguistics roll at difficulty one, a character may learn a signal system's basic library. This takes about ten hours of study for most systems. It costs no XP. Once a signal system is learned, the character can communicate -- using the appropriate tools -- at the same rate as regular speech, or as fast as the tools allow, whichever is slower. For more obscure or unusual signals, a character may have to resort to the signal book or spelling it out.

Comments

Re: signalling systems, I'm not convinced it requires five successes to create such a language, especially not if each roll represents a week's worth of work, and especially especially not if the only thing needed to create is a "basic library". I would personally say that anyone with 2 Linguistics can do it automatically within a week, with the number of successes they get on the relevant roll being how awesomely they construct it (1 = you make it okay, 5 = your constructed language is the simplest thing ever to learn and the most efficient thing ever for its purpose, etc).
~ Shataina

Good point. Changed. -- JesseLowe

Just noticed a possible typo. You have +3 LP for Linguistics 3- that should be 6 total, not 5? --IsawaBrian

Yup, that's a typo. Fixed. -- JesseLowe