> I would take a somewhat less structured view than Nick on the
> planning behind New Pelorian. My take would be that the lunars had
> many cultures to try and integrate, each with a different language,
> and each with many cultural assumptions built into that language.
Speaking for myself, I do not believe that New Pelorian was a result of Lunar planning. Instead it was a heroic discovery in response to a enormous calamity.
In the Good Old Days before Sheng, the Lunars did not speak New Pelorian. Communicating the Lunar Message was the responsibility of Etyries, the Tongue of the Goddess. Even so, there were fewer Lunars than there are now.
When Sheng came, he slew as many lunars as he could. The remaining lunars, frantic with worry, started trying to Lunarize as many people as they could so that the Goddess's message would not perish. They grasped at straws and got nowhere.
The pits of desperation were reached when the Great Sister found some peasants at prayers and started giving them the good news about how the glyphs were really the Goddess in disguise. The peasants were amazed that someone so great could get it so wrong and mocked her mercilessly, using the true meanings. Instead of having them all executed, the Great Sister realized that the glyphs were not the scribblings of ignorants but the last vestiges of the long lost Green Age language that everybody spoke, Old Pelorian.
With the help of JeSeven, an aged grammarian, Old Pelorian was painstakenly reconstructed from the glyphs. New words to represent the concepts that had arisen since then were crafted with care so they would not disrupt the magical nature of the old language. But the language had still changed and so it became known as New Pelorian.
When New Pelorian-speaking missionaries ventured into the marketplaces, their audiences were amazed. Even though they all spoke many languages, they could understand the missionaries and, more importantly, the Lunar Message that had hitherto been too hard to understand. Many, overcome by what they had experienced, went to the missionaries to learn more. In this way, the Lunars waxed and multiplied until they were far greater than they were before and Sheng was finally able to be defeated.
But what of the Etyries priestesses? They are still around although New Pelorian has robbed them of their cult's original purpose. Now they use their power of reaching unity to find new friends in distant lands and to convince locals of the value of their goods.
IMO FWIW. --Peter Metcalfe
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