Languages in Glorantha?

From: GAZZA <gazza_at_wantree.com.au>
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 18:26:49 +0800

How many languages are commonly spoken in (say) Prax/Sartar? And how common are they?

From what I can see, the list includes at least:
- - Sartarite (spoken by most Orlanthi)

• - Tarshite (spoken by people in Tarsh)
• - Praxian (spoken by the Praxian nomads - and probably those in the Wastes, too)
• - Pelorian (spoken by the Lunars?)
• - Tradetalk (something that Issaries invented; the closest thing to a "common tongue"?)
• - Stormspeech (I presume this is an ancient language used by priests of Storm deities for rituals)

Does every Rune have its own language? (That is, is there a Deathspeech, Harmonyspeech, and so forth?) Roughly what percentage of the population would be multilingual? (Especially - how many people speak Tradetalk in addition to their main tongue?) Are these languages similar in any way? (Could someone fluent in Sartarite understand any Tradetalk, for example?)

I'm curious because I want to know how I should advise my players on whether they should take multiple languages or not. The basic RQ3 rules don't even let most beginning characters speak their own language particularly well.

The campaign I'll be running will be set mostly in Prax, but with Orlanthi characters. (I believe this is not too uncommon; correct me if I'm wrong). I was thinking that Sartarite would be the main language, but if the characters want to trade with any of the nomads then (I assume) some of them should know a little Praxian or Tradetalk.
- --
GAZZA
"To know others is wisdom.
To know one's self is enlightenment."

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