Email20120918 0531

Subject: [jo_dnd] The rescue of Column XP and language stuff. Date: 9/18/2012 5:33 AM XP: 250 each. So that went much much differently than I expected. Kudos for using The Wagon as a portable fortress. I knew that you would do that, but I think that future battles might be with people who have counters to that. (Not always, since they won't know about it.) I decided that I'm going to send Jo what Trajan can recover from the remnants of his stuff. Zakkur does not speak Polish very well. His native language is Esme, which he will explain is one of the languages of the Old World. He does not know what happened to the Old World either - the Enclave was started by people who found each other out of self-preservation. More background on the Enclave will be forthcoming if you guys are curious. He does speak a smattering of Orcish. He'll teach you the stuff he knows, which is mostly trade talk. Following is most of the terms he knows: Numbers, "Trade", "Finished/Yes", "You must give more","No", "Parlay", "Greetings", "This is what we offer for trade", "Share drink in friendship", "Day", "Month", "Season", "Year", "Winter", "Summer", "Meat", "Where is ___" (usually a name of someone who has traded before), "Great fighter" (honorific), "Another", "Stop" (I may end up saying he knows more, but like most people, he remembers Orcish better when other people are nearby using the language.) The three languages of the Old World that became the basis of the Polish were • Famlas • Esme • Vorkrais Famlas was the language of the elves. Most of the words in Polish that come from Famlas are terms that refer to powerful magic, or luxury goods. In fact, Hendrick has the best grounding in Famlas, since many spells are written in it. Analogous to Latin in the real world, as compared to English. Esme was the language of some humans, based on Famlas somewhat. It dropped a bunch of terms that were difficult for humans to speak, and is much more day to day in nature. Analogous to French, as compared to English. Vorkrais was another human language. It is clearly the base of the Kaarsteni language, but Kaarsteni is definitely a different language. Analogous to German, as compared to English. Thorian said that he didn't think that magical terminology was in Famlas. (Like I said before, The Settlements "Polish" is a combination of Famlas, Esme, and Vorkrais, with a couple of Bari (the language of the Dwarves) words thrown in randomly.) Halflings have their own language, Oufsen. It is completely unrelated to any of the other languages. Again, the major languages so far are: Polish (The Settlements; Humans) Orcish (Some, maybe all, Orcs) Bari(Dwarves) Oufsen (Olufland; Halflings) Esme (Old World, the Enclave; Humans) Vorkrais (Old World; Humans) Kaarsteni (Kaarsten Empire; Humans) Famlas (Old World; Elves, magical terminology) None of you can really learn Vorkrais, though you have picked up a little Kaarsteni. Zakkur is your only source of Orcish. Bari words pop up here and there in The Settlements, mostly when people are talking about structural engineering, buildings, or digging. (Bari is much more precise about those concepts.) Cassius and Miasma speak Oufsen, but no one else they've encountered do, and Polish traders exist in Olufland, which is why they know Polish. If anyone wants to learn Esme, Zakkur will happily try to teach it, but since he isn't a language teacher, it will take some time. Of course, there are a number of similarities between Polish and Esme, so it won't be that hard. (Zakkur came to the Settlements about two weeks before you met him, and didn't know any Polish at that point. He's been getting by using his knowledge of Esme and guessing.) Hendrick is the best source for learning Famlas, but he's just a beginner.