THE FALL OF MERMERUS (Jackalopery)

The Old Tales:

When you see the writing figures, chanting and cavorting below the waves, with teeth all too sharp and eyes all too human, let it steel your heart to know these were once goodly folk like you and I. They lived in the empire of Mermerus, now below the waves, and like specters their half-fish forms writhe in the depths, colonizers of and strangers within the homes they once lived and loved in. What warped their flesh and sunk their cities is yet a mystery, but there are…

Three Explanations for Mermerus:

Professor Emeritus Dogo of Runehold holds firm that Mermerus was a terrestrial empire that bridged the Tarnished Coast and the distant shores beyond. However, an emperor by the name of Ariachles turned the merchant class against the priest class through propaganda depicting the Archpraetor as a dragon-like figure, hoarding wealth and behaving with reptilian cruelty. The subsequent spiritual revolt turned the nation to the idolatric worship of an unknown oceanic demon. A mass suicide ritual caused the tides to drown the empire so they may join with their fiendish overlord, explaining the empire’s sudden collapse below the waves. His colleague, Reverend-Doctor Dillamor, argues that the keystone of the tomb of Ariachles’s entryway was marked with a serpent bearing the head of a man, the symbol that Dogo believes to represent the Archpraetor- why would he be buried under the symbol of his hated rival?

Mysteriarch Patriventi concurs with Dogo’s theory that idolatry was the reason for Mermerus’s aqueous collapse, but instead claims that before it sunk, Mermerus was a theocracy that practiced an unrefined and barbaric form of Unitism. That would reframe Ariachles as an iconoclastic Archpraetor who upended the orthodoxy in favor of demon-worship, though Patraventi had to go to lengths to explain how it was not Ariachles’s autarchy that led to the sumberging but his corruption in order to avoid being blacklisted by the Mistress or worse. Patraventi’s rival, Mysteriarch Relsath, published their objections in a book known as “the Secrets of Mermerus: Ten Theses”, but every known copy was burned shortly after their disappearance.

The Threefold Eye, sybil from the Gauntforgfes known for their retrocognition, saw a vivisected piscine mutant when they touched a rusted chestplate, a bubble bursting when they touched a detached machicolation, and a beached whale being hit by lightning when they touched a spear found in Ariachles’ crypt. Tillimar the Frail, a Glanodeli doctoral student, writes in her thesis that these imply not an idolatry-induced natural disaster, but hints that instead Mermerus was first erected subnautically by land-folk, and that a civil war resulted in the collapse of the sphere. Evidence for magic strong enough to create a habitable environment on the ocean floor is yet undiscovered, she claims, but is surely out there.

Of course, not everyone can be correct. The ruins hold many secrets, if one may circumvent the terrors of the depths and its potentially even more spine-chilling inhabitants…

Contemporaries of Mermurus:

Despite the warped citizens of Mermerus (or “Mer-maids”, the nomenclature resulting from the more frequent sightings of females) having a proclivity for foul and sacrificial magics, they are not malicious to land-dwellers, instead seeking solace amongst small tribes of their own in the secluded ruins of their lost empire. When their territories are disturbed or a demagogue whips them into a bloodthirst, however, they are quick to take up arms both mundane and arcane. Their most powerful casters are Sacrificiants, followed by Elementalists, followed by Invokers, and finally the non-magical Myrmidons.

MERMAID SACRIFICIANT N 3 H 10 A Mermaid, 3 SPELLS (Thassilic, any type), Sanguine Cycling (WOUNDS taken in the last ROUND can be used as STRESS for casting), Aquatic Arcana (SPELLS that effect a body of water take place NEAR you when submerged, and you are immune to these effects) I To rekindle the old ways

MERMAID ELEMENTALIST N 3 H 7 A Mermaid, 2 SPELLS (Thassilic, 1 Ash 2 Moon 3 Raven 4 Glass), Elemental Immunity (Ash = heat, Moon = cold, Raven = piercing, Glass = slashing), Aquatic Arcana I To unite with the universe

MERMAID INVOKER N 2 H 5 A Mermaid, 1 SPELL (50% Thassilic), Aquatic Arcana I To learn secrets

MERMAID MYRMIDON N 1 H 4 A Mermaid, Defensive Instincts (Take 1 less WOUND when protecting something) I To protect the tribe

To generate a tribe of standard size, assign it a leader and roll 2d6 to see how many non-combatants are affiliated. A bellicose leader will have a tribe of 2d6 Myrmidons, 1d4 Invokers, and an Elementalist as their acharya. A spiritual leader will have a Sacrificiant advisor, with d4 Elementalists and Invokers serving as clergy, the non-combatants guarded by d6 Myrmidons. A meek or pacificstic leader usually leads a council of d4 Invokers and Myrmidons, with an extra d6 non-combatants. Tribes who delve too deep may have mutants or demons among their ranks.

THASSILIC ARCANA:

1 IGNEOUS RIFT (A). For a ROUND, you can run your hand along the ground to create a foot-deep fissure that oozes pyroclasm. (A scourge with obsidian studs)

2 BOIL UNTIL RUFESCENT (A). Touch water to boil it, metal to heat it red-hot, or a creature to scald it for 2 WOUNDS. (A bellyful of well-done lobster)

3 BARNACLEIZE (A). Touch something; barnacles will instantaneously grow across it, eroding it. If allowed to sit for a week, the barnacles will hatch into water fairies. (Chunk of living coral)

4 RED TIDE (M). Any water you touch for a TURN becomes acidic. (Inverted seagull)

5 BLACK TIDE (M). You can control the agitation of water FAR from you for a TURN. (Tentacle)

6 GOLDEN TIDE (M). Any body of water you look in will contain some sunken treasure for a TURN. (Treasure chest loaded with booty)

7 KELP’S EMBRACE (R). Wet ropes bind a FAR target for d4 ROUNDS. It requires a STR roll or a sharp blade to break free; anything bound for the full duration becomes edible. (Soda ash)

8 DEEP LITHE (R). You can swim at twice your walking speed and spray octopus ink for a TURN. (Fish head with a diamond for a brain)

9 COMMUNION AURA (R). You can speak to all beasts for a TURN, and with a CHA roll can make one your familiar or mount. (A speck of animal food)

10 FROST BRIDGE (G). Your body becomes deathly cold, instantly freezing any liquid you come in contact with. If cast underwater, it instead creates a rime plate, which you can walk through to any other unmelted or otherwise intact rime plate you’ve cast. (Child-size silver ring)

11 LACERATION WHIRLWIND (G). Spinning blades of jagged ice explode in a cone in front of you, dealing 2 WOUNDS and immobilizing anyone NEAR you for d4 ROUNDS. (Oroborus eel)

12 SHARP EYES (G). For a TURN, your vision cannot be impaired by darkness, magic, obfuscation, or any other interference, and you can see auras. (A glass eye)

[For those not familiar with MARROW, there are four types of magic.]

One down, umpteen to go. Thanks for reading, and happy gaming.

WEARY WORK: CICERONE'S GUIDE

If you ever want to play A Weary Work To Do and enjoy learning about the secrets of the setting and mechanics, close this page now. In this doc, I show my whole hand (or as most I can within the constraints of the one-page format) and demystify every secret for anyone with aspirations of running a Weary Work campaign. Also included is a sample dungeon with which to start your adventure, though I'd recommend writing a short hexcrawl to get your party from their starting location to the crypt itself.

Thanks for reading, and happy gaming.

(Just kidding. Here's the real document.)

MARROW 0.9

Bet you're surprised this hack is coming back. Believe me, I am too. But I've had this revision in the works for a number of months, half-finished, and recently I've felt the urge to just get something done, so here is the dividend of that.

WHAT'S NEW?

• 5 brand new Region Primers! Replacing the stuffy old gazetteer with a panoply of new character matrices and an overhauled looked at the Autumn Kingdoms.
• A guide to the structure and setup of MARROW campaigns- best practice tips from yours truly to get the most out of MARROW.
• Some minor revisions across the rest of MARROW (patch notes, rephrasings, and minor rule adjustments will likely continue to happen over the next couple of weeks).

WHAT'S YET TO CHANGE?

• Going through each character matrix and Ability table to make sure all of the abilities are interesting, fun, effectively phrased, and fit with the most current rules still. This is the biggest task left ahead of me.
• Sample LOOT table(s). Should be pretty easy to steal from resources I already own.
• High Arcana and suggestions as to what the Autumn Kingdom's cosmology looks like.
• Tighten up the specifics of the currently-nebulous drug rules and write up some common drugs. Same for maladies/diseases.
• I want to do a playtest of a full MARROW campaign. I've done a number of low-level games, and I've ran a high-level game that was converted from 5e, but I've never bridged that gap at the table, and I want to put the rules and the campaign advice to the practical test.
• In that playtest, I want to put the dungeon procedures to the test. I've learned some interesting new solutions to managing time in dungeons since I wrote this, and I want to see how I can contribute those to MARROW.

WHAT'S THE FUTURE OF MARROW?

I'm getting very close to a definitive edition. At that point, I may invest in getting some art (or getting back to illustrating it myself as I once planned to do) and layout and publishing it as PoD somewhere as a "Scrimshaw Edition", if I have the will to. For now, though, I simply intend to enjoy re-discovering this system with new eyes and making it even sharper and better (though it's already looking a lot more fixable than it felt a few months ago).

Here's a link to MARROW 0.9. Thanks for reading, and happy gaming.

A WEARY WORK TO DO

 This hack, and this post, may contain typos, but this is not among them: I set out to do five things with this hack.

1 I wanted the hack to revolve around a sort of numerical trick a la 4DJ. I all but tell you what that is; I hope it's intelligible.

2 I wanted to also introduce a lot of asymmetry in what the players know about the rules versus what the DM knows. For example, the “STATS” section has no typos.

3 I wanted to build in elements that would encourage players to do things that I as a DM found interesting, like starting rivalries, getting married, hosting parties, and rap battles.

4 I wanted to make a game that was “about” something, that orbited around key themes. Some of those themes include the life cycle of empires and the importance of stories and poetry in a young world.

I have the setting’s Four Truths, some equipment packages for starting characters, and a dungeon in the works, but I wanted to Get Something Done so I could remind myself that I could. Let me know what you think of the hack, thanks for reading and happy gaming.

These words are my hack bibliography

The Dividends of Research (Pb)

  I have good news! I’ve hired an Iodinian scholar by the name of Lara Beudenchamp (the Illuminated, third of her name, Principium Anathetor, et cetera) to answer some of the questions the shadows whisper to me right before I fall asleep. Unfortunately, she charges by the hour, and I have very little gold lying around my house, so this is all she could come up with. I hope it helps you, at least a bit.

What is the Red Word?

“Why do I burn?

When I feel those eyes on by back,

Tongues aflutter with my misdeeds

Their eyes upon me, needles, needles

What corner left in my soul holds that spark

That impulse

Of joining with a whole I know

I was born in the shadow of?”

-The diary of an infamous heretic known as Stitchley Hatters.

Who are the Red Hierophants, blessed be?

“TO PASS BILL INTO LAW EVER-BINDING:

Each party on the Council, starting with the Red Hierophants, blessed be, scribes a single word in iodine onto the beatified tablet before delivering it to the next party. Once a majority of the Council votes to end the scribing process, the tablet is heated and the law revealed. Only a unanimous concursion can abolish such a law, so laws are written almost as scarcely as they are vetoed (for an example of the last such occurrence in history, see the Second Defenestration of Turgendaal in Subsection III). Of course, codes are another matter entirely; for reference, please see Handbook 22A: “On Imperial and Sub-Imperial Codes”.”

-An excerpt from ‘the most tedious book in the Athenaeum’, as decided by a surveying group of students at Mordent University

No, but like, who are they?

“Yeah, I was wondering the same thing! Why won’t this guy answer any of our questions with a straight answer?”

-I don’t know how Deus Ex Parabola’s strawman ended up here, but I’ve heard that salt circles can keep it away? Please let me know if you have any tips; I hate it so fucking much; this explains why Deus has gone mad;; 

What other constellations did Saint Copper imprison?

“This is an all-too-common misconception; Saint Copper imprisoned none at all. After battling a Thing From Beyond and losing an eye in the melee, Saint Copper beseeched the Great Bear to guard the firmament against the incursion of further violators. Each of the other stars are the Great Bear’s fetal progeny, and one day, they will all grow as strong as their mother, and return from their thrones clad triumphant with the blood of the last of the Things From Beyond, and we will drink and rejoice and shed our skins to join them in starstuff. Easy mistake to make, especially in this day and age.”

-Kagro-Kang, Ursulist prophet (presumed deceased)

What’s in the Æther?

“Y’ever seen one of them turtles? Sorry, no, not turtles, but they look like turtles, at least when you’s far away. But when ya get up close to have a good look at the buggers, it’s like their skin is… moving. Alive wit’ little gnats ‘n ants ‘n whatnot- hunnerds, thousands, too many to count. An’ they just live like that. Carryin’ these little folk wit’ em wherever they go, sharin’ their food n’ everything. And then the strangest thing happened- one day, I dropped a brush n’ all the little buggers scattered, an’ it was a skull in there. Imagine that! There was nothin’ under there at all, was the little bugs moving the skull along.”

-Garou Whistledown, itinerant Golgothan painter.

What the fuck is an elf?

“Stop asking me! Do you think I fucking know!?”

-Dr. Seremin Averu, Chair of Archaeology and Excavations at Mordent University.

Who was the Warrior-Poet?

“In your words, speak truth, but whisper.

In your deeds, be generous, but unflinching.

In your thoughts, be steadfast, but incorruptible.

In your flesh, be staunch, but meager.

And in your soul, be steel and lead.

Let me tell you a tale, my children, of the Mother in the Star...”

-The first words of the Codex Periodicum.

Where did the dragons go?

“DAY 49: Subject has begun to shudder violently to an unidentifiable rhythm- perhaps akin to a heartbeat, though no investigation has revealed the presence of a cardiovascular system. Also has begun secreting a fluid smelling faintly of gasoline, currently being chemically analyzed by the Rats. Omens of natural disasters written in Heretic and inverted archaic Chemoglyphic have begun appearing on the walls of the containment unit. We request more lead so that the holding chamber may be reinforced.

DAY 53: Subject’s shuddering and secretions have ceased, and the transmogrification appears to be reversing itself, though the carvings and placoid scales remain a part of the Subject’s flesh. Subject appears to have an insatiable appetite for its own offal. It has begun speaking Chitter again, and begs for us to let it out of the chamber. We have received strict orders from the Black Hierophant to not accede to its pleas, though I can’t help but feel pity for must obey my orders in service of the Empire.

DAY 54: Code Double Red. In response to the hypnotic stimulus, an Acolyte released the Beast Subject from its cell. Motecrackers have been deployed to our location but it won’t be enough it never is abandon all hope may She have mercy on our damned souls why did he release it WHY DID HE RELEASE IT”

-Partially burned records recovered from the wreckage of Outpost Omega.

Are you satisfied yet?

“NO. SHOW THEM WHAT WE GAVE YOU.”

-The shadows

Fine. Here. Are you happy?

Well, are you?

Are you?

Two cultures for Pb

There is more to come, but have this for now. In advance, thanks for reading, and happy gaming.

THE CHURLIAN TRIBES

NAMES: Always ending in a vowel. The higher-status someone is, the more syllables they have; being addressed by one syllable is practically a dehumanization.

Low-class names

1 Tavo

2 Kesi

3 Dali

4 Vana

5 Yesu

6 Tadi

High-class names

1 Taragonsedia

2 Hasanatona

3 Togadimara

4 Grasendyvari

5 Vedrasinotamo

6 Stasinakitha

DRESS: Somewhere between a Diesel-age pilot and Native American regalia.

1 Well-worn denim overalls embroidered with clay beads

2 Fur-lined bomber jacket with fringed sleeves

3 Fanny pack made from a hollowed-out crow

4 Jeans with wildlife patterns embroidered on the knees

5 Bomber cap with feathers sticking out of the sides

6 A suitcoat woven from serape fabric

TRINKETS:

1 A mineworker’s Imperial punch card; despite looking like swiss cheese, it doesn’t meet the criteria for “sufficient labor”

2 A clay amulet with the icon of an eagle, its eyes sparkling amethyst

3 A doll woven from dead grass; three blue beads are tucked away in its chest

4 A tarnished ankh bracelet scratched silly and bent in half

5 A small red pouch of warm-smelling spices

6 A jar of beatified liquor, clear and bitter and burning, labelled with angular animal designs

7 A hand puppet of a comically villainous Imperial enforcer

8 A ring of rusted iron in the shape of a propeller

APPEARANCE: Skin like rich tanned leather, hair like the earth after a rain or silver as startuff, eyes like brilliant tigereye. Some (5%) are born with blue eyes, clear as crystal, marking them as clairvoyant Seers.

ACCENT: Like a British person trying to impersonate an American.

CUSTOM: When there’s a feather lying alone on the ground, you must burn it as soon as possible, or that feather will tether the bird’s spirit to the material world after death, and no one wants a Phantasma infestation.

RELIGION: Spirits emerge from an undifferentiated mass of being, each expression of life in the material world simply one facet of that great beyond spirit. The older a creature is, the closer to the One Spirit it becomes- immortal, mythopoetic creatures like Yellow Bison and the Moonshine Crow are said to be near-pure avatars of the One Spirit made flesh.

CURRENCIES: Bead strings- yellow beads are used to buy necessities like soap and candles, blue are used to buy frills like massages and murals, red are used to buy dangerous equipment like weapons and chemic, and purple are used to buy luxuries like jewelry and buildings. The type of work someone does determines in what bead they are paid; a common laborer gets 3 yellow beads and 1 blue bead a day, while a notorious mercenary would get 3 red beads and 1 purple bead per mark. (3 beads of one color and 1 of another is a good estimate for small potatoes payment.)

REGION: The Churlian Fields are primarily rolling hills (40%), dry grasses (50%) and wetlands (10%), dotted with hulking, rusted antediluvian relics (30% on a given mote) of technologies decommissioned well before the Age of Aerodynes.

ARCHITECTURE: Simple geometric shapes and elemental designs melding closely with the landscape and terrain features; Churlian architecture is characterized by its simplicity and an almost symbiotic relationship to the surrounding landscape and symmetrical circular designs. In colonized regions, the aesthetic difference between Iodinian and Churlian design is very stark, some sociologists calling the incongruity symbolic.

FOOD: Standard Fare: A honeyed cut of yeabu* along boiled tubers. Fine Dining: Eagle’s blood pudding and berries served in the hollow of a melon. Travel Fare: Yeabu jerky and tack.

*Yeabu: a spotted, tripedal beast of burden native to the Field most notable for its protruding forehead. Female yeabu ritualistically headbutt each other when squads come in conflict. Behind the cranial protrusion is a wall of fat to protect the brain, frequently utilized by Churlians for long-burning candles, food preparation, and preservation.

MUSIC: Meandering and out-of-time vocals accompanied by plucked/bowed chordophones like Kagus and Vilas, traditionally with little to no percussion and/or one or multiple sustained pitches that move to create harmony. One of the best-known songs is the Ballad of the Skymonger, a culture antihero who stole the gift of flight from a falcon.

THE SACCHARINE DYNASTY

NAMES: Flowing, overwrought, sounding as if a group with a hyperbolic spirit played Telephone with archaic European names. House names are typically two vaguely Asiatic syllables, serving as surnames (Tsollinarit Vo-Tran) just as often as titles (Mirilando de Prisstil of House Ye-Khar).

Low-class names

1 Salthen

2 Iolde

3 Vernus

4 Yordic

5 Ralfodo

6 Kendris

High-class names

1 Xainaphen

2 Terrophilius

3 Mimsley-Hattington

4 Carnigelia

5 Fyordinham

6 Rufadelpho

DRESS: All of the following are gender and class agnostic.

1 Ball gown covered in orbs (1), flowers (2), bows (3), knives (4), bells (5), or hats (6)

2 A fine ruffled suit coupled with a coin veil

3 A leotard covered in glittering quartz

4 An animalistic masquerade mask with genuine matching furs

5 Half of an ocean-blue silken gown sewn to half of a crushed red velvet  suit

6 Nothing but a thick coat of paint 

TRINKETS:

1 A music clef-shaped locket containing a sliver of antimony

2 A darkwood Kithremba (like a cross between a sitar and a banjo) named Ethel missing two strings, one of which is being used as a garrote somewhere

3 A gold-on-black scroll containing saucy messages in impeccable calligraphy; both the sender and addressee are married nobles of rival Houses

4 A badge of watch from House Do-Rahck in the shape of an 11-pointed star

5 A cotton candy-pink iron stiletto carved with the name of a fallen House

6 A bill for ‘a buggy covertly laden with sufficient explosives to destroy a small house’

7 Three turquoise octahedral dice stained brown with blood with pips in the shape of butterflies

8 A bowl carved from a Crystal Crab carapace and mended a la kintsugi

APPEARANCE: Crazy bod mod, a sign of both discipline and wealth, is the norm (80%). Underneath are pale, diamond-eyed folk who tend to the tall and lanky side despite their diet.

1 Entire body bleached/tattooed cotton candy pink

2 Entire body bleached/tattooed baby blue

3 Entire body bleached/tattooed lavender

4 Entire body bleached/tattooed stark white

5 Entire body bleached/tattooed some other color, or with swirling designs

6 Eyes are an unusual color (1-4), have a strange pupil shape (5), or are monochrome (6)

7 Crystal implanted into forehead as “third eye”

8 Poems carved into foot-long fingernails

9 Pointed, elfin ears laden with gauges and piercings

10 Forked tongue, frequently tattooed with alchemical symbols

11-12 Roll d4 times and combine

ACCENT: On a class spectrum from Italian (lowest of low) to French (highest of high). There is much social stigma around speech impediment, lisps and stutters most common in this region; if you want to make a killing, covertly advertise yourself as a linguistic therapist around a lesser-known noble house.

CUSTOM: You must eat all food you are presented with in its entirety (crumbs are frowned upon), and take care to avoid any sort of mess. To do otherwise is a great disgrace, you slovenly slob.

RELIGION: The head of each House is divine, their power corresponding  to their position on the socioeconomic hierarchy. The Emperor (praise be) is the autarch-god-lord of the Dynasty. The Saccharinians live in a world where a god can be stabbed in the back and replaced; it’s no surprise that Viadolphus Machiavelli’s “the God-Prince” was such a hit.

CURRENCIES: An uncountable myriad of bills, each representing a very specific, concrete asset that one can claim and use. The “grain-store” is the most common (enough grain to make a week’s worth of bread), while the “arsenic-vial” is among the most coveted. Making new bills along with new pieces of technology is common; the “printing-press” caused quite a stir when it hit the market.

REGION: Dominated by chromatic spires of pure sugar crystal (80%), the remainder covered in crushed rubble and crystal dust (20%), the deforested litter of centuries of excavations. Pools of sugar-water in and around which Crystal Crabs congregate are common (30% on a given mote).

ARCHITECTURE: A mash-up of the mythic European castle aesthetic and Islamic/faux Arabian architecture. All hyperbolically grand and splendorous; often optical illusions are employed to make them look larger and more boastful than they really are, frequently resulting in Neuschwanstein levels of nonsensical geometry. Tempered sugar-mortar and ‘concrose’ (sucrose concrete) are construction staples.

FOOD: Standard Fare: Candied poultry with a side of sparkling sugar water and a bowl of cold pinto beans. Fine Dining: A main course of breads and rich Crystal Crab* and tuber stews followed by up to fifty courses of desserts. Travel Fare: Rock candy and dried turkey legs.

*Crystal Crabs: crustacean creatures who have evolved shells of sweet salt to dissuade predators. Nest in hallowed-out warrens within crystal spires next to bodies of still liquid. Develop hive minds under duress, but always a sucker for shiny baubles.

MUSIC: The Saccharinians invented the symphony orchestra and are emerging into a Baroque period, filled with candlelit opera, prickly counterpoint, and ever larger and louder ensembles commissioned by the bored patriarchs and matriarchs of the upper crust Houses.

Languages of Pb

 IODINIAN

Iodinian- The lingua franca of the Iodine Empire’s domain. Sounds like potatoes sizzling on a pan. Puritans deride the slew of loanwords that have crept in over the course of Imperial expansion, and it takes a Proficiency of at least 3 to remove them from one’s vocabulary, though those loanwords allow one to say basic idioms and phrases in all languages marked with an asterisk.

Low Chemoglyphic*- This language, with a script closely resembling a mix between chemical formulas and sacred geometry, is the preeminent tongue of the Church of Her Red Word, in which most Poetic holy books are written. Sounds like the war-cry of an angel. It is an aping of High Chemoglyphic, the language of magic, and one’s Proficiency in High Chemoglyphic is automatically 1 less than one’s Proficiency in Low Chemoglyphic.

CHURLIAN

Minespeak*- This language developed as the result of Imperial mining conscription, and it is the discordant blend of the Old Song and Iodinian. It is most frequently heard in Imperial mine-cities in the Fields, and sounds like rocks colliding with each other as they roll down a hill.

Old Song- This is the oldest widely-surviving form of oral communication, flourishing in the face of the Empire’s attempts to wipe it out. It is a music as much as it is a language, with rhythm and pitch endowing as much meaning as syntax and pronunciation. It sounds like the cries of a mother bird set to Gregorian chant. All who sing along understand some fragment of the phrase’s meaning, and even CHurlian animals are capable of such.

Symbography- More of a pictographic system than a language, Symbography is the visual language of the Churlian tribes. Appearing like Art Deco petroglyphs, they record the mythic history of the Churlian tribes from the Bridge Age and before on towering cairns the Empire have been fervently demolishing since before colonial efforts began.

SACCHARINIAN

Gluci*- The high-class brogue of the Dynastic sugar-crystal palaces. Due to its nuanced tonality and subtle consonant differentiations, it pairs suspiciously easily with Jabber, and as such any speaker has equal Proficiency in Jabber while speaking Gluci. Sounds like golden scissors gently slipping through a bolt of silk.

Chitter- The language of lepers, the itinerant, and the sugar-crystal crabs that make their nest in the glucose spires. Even knowing how to speak it is enough to make you a pariah in high society circles, which is why “chittertongue” is such a popular insult the world over. It’s almost entirely click-based, and sounds like tapping wet pieces of glass together. All lepers intuitively know how to speak it, their Proficiency growing with their symptoms.

BURSINGR

Fjordi*- The language of the low-elevation Bursingr peoples, those who live on glacier-barges and in caves carved into snow-clad cliff-faces. Coldwind speakers regard Fjordi speakers with condescension, but Fjordi serves the trade tongue of the confederate. Sounds like a reed flute after being submerged in mud.

Coldwind- The language of the high-elevation Bursingr peoples, so insular and storied that some people regard them as a myth. Coldwind allows a speaker to hear what the wind is saying, so long as it chills the bone as it whispers. Sounds like a last breath at the hands of a silent strangler.

GOLGOTHAN

Geol- A close cousin to the Old Song, Geol is closely guarded by the sages and griots of the principalities. It is an entirely oral tradition, and allows one to speak the languages of stones, minerals, sufficiently bastardized metals, and potentially dead ancestors, as well as know the resonant frequency of any object with a glance. Masterful speakers of Geol can make mountains tremble and boulders fragment. Geol sounds like the clacks of thousands of magnets colliding and repelling.

Earthbound- The language of the exiles banished to rest their calloused feet upon the scorched, accursed ground. Pity the poor pilgrim who mumbles their prayers in the tongue of the outcasts. Earthbound sounds like rain evaporating out of a steel bowl. Gain Proficiency in Earthbound when exiled from the suspended cities of the principalities.

Ediph*- The primary language of the Golgothan jungles and mesas at large. It is in Ediphisian script that the first of the world’s religious texts are written, and some linguists claim that there are ten thousand words for divinity. Jury’s out on whether this is hyperbole or not. Each principality has its own dialect, which you can put Proficiency in to be more highly regarded by the constituents of that principality. Sounds like hearts beating in time to an eschatological liturgy.

OTHER

Vermin*- The language of Verminfolk, occasionally appropriated symbolically by marginalized communities or rebellious organizations. Originating from Haven, the metal insect city in the star-shadow of the Husk, this language sounds like the buzzing and whirring of a plague of locusts. Most insects can understand its rudiments.

Jabber- This is not a language in and of itself, but rather, a way of speaking a language that subtly implies either a hidden message or the exact opposite of what is stated. Everyone understands sarcasm or facetious tones, for example, but one who is Proficient in Jabber can endow their words with more sophisticated alternate meanings, up to a point where advanced Jabbertongues can have two conversations at once. Comes in two mutually intelligible dialects; Cant, the language of thieves, and Doublespeak, the language of politicians.

Blade- The language of warriors and of the weapons they wield alike. Learning Blade and combat training are almost indistinguishable, and any seasoned tactician worth their salt would pay a soldier who knows Blade extra. It sounds like blood ecstatically swimming out from its prison and kissing its steel liberator in joy. You gain Proficiency in Blade every time you win a formal duel with your primary weapon.

Heretic- The blasphemous tongue of those who revel in the ways that came before the Poetic sects. Knowing but a word of it labels you an enemy of the state in the highest order no matter where you find yourself. One can learn Heretic not through study, but through pain; when one emerges from torture with their spirit unbroken and their faith intact, they gain 1 Proficiency in Heretic. Sounds like the noises of a phantom pursuer one hears while alone in the forest.

Lunacy- The language of the Lunatic Harmony, a fringe religious sect that believes in something strange called a “moon”. Apparently it is what provides the Æther’s luminosity, and is a big orb of… rock? Cheese? Something like that. They’re not taken very seriously on the large stage. Sounds like the gentle burbling of goldfish typing on typewriters, whatever those are.

LANGUAGE RULES: Start with 4 + WITS Proficiency to put into languages. 1 Proficiency means that you can speak snippets of a language with a heavy accent, but enough to get by for a day or two. It also means that you can differentiate between the writings and verbalizations of languages within the same family as yours. 2 Proficiency means you can speak basic sentences with a limited vocabulary, but approach fluency. 3 Proficiency is equivalent to a native speaker who doesn’t specialize in language use and serves as 1 Proficiency in languages of the same family. 4 Proficiency is rare even among intellectuals, representing an incredible grasp of linguistic function and manipulation. There are more languages than exist on these lists, and not everything written here is necessarily true.

Again, this one’s just for me. I tried to synthesize some cool things that my forebears had done with language, and I think I still have more to do in making these languages more interesting, but I have enough that I can get to the table and improvise, particularly because I mostly wanted these in place to start making commentary on interlinguistic power dynamics, and these do that as-is just fine. Thanks for reading, and happy gaming.