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Discussion & Proposal: Regional Languages
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<blockquote data-quote="jkason" data-source="post: 5910078" data-attributes="member: 2710"><p>Why? For the same reason it exists in so much space-based science fiction: The natural tendency will be to want to explore as much of a rich fantasy environment as you can, and having to learn a new language for every place you go becomes increasingly problematic from a logistics view.</p><p></p><p>Yes, in the real world, regional languages and translation nightmares occur all the time. In the real world, people also have to relieve themselves several times a day, but I've yet to hear complaints about the absence of a 'holding your bladder' mechanic. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" /> Clearly an overstated example, but the point is: there comes a line past which verisimilitude is more problematic than immersive, and when you reach that point, most writers will have a tendency to do what they can to find a way to 'hand wave' everything on the wrong side of it. </p><p></p><p>The regional language question for me, then, is about where I place that line. I think adding them for flavor is nice and I'm all for it, but if they're going to provide a regular slew of extra hurdles to, say, signing onto adventures in Exotic Locales(tm), I'm not as enthusiastic. </p><p></p><p>If you're looking for me to expalain the <em>mechanism</em> by which E'n developed Common, I think actively-intervening deities (whom are per-design aspects of the same handful of force), magic, and multiple long-lived races (all of whom apparently already developed universal Racial languages) might all play a reasonable part in that. Seriously, if you're not balking at people turning themselves into dragons or teleporting vast distances with a single ritual, it seems a tad stubborn to insist there's then no 'logical' way the world might have managed to talk to one another.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jkason, post: 5910078, member: 2710"] Why? For the same reason it exists in so much space-based science fiction: The natural tendency will be to want to explore as much of a rich fantasy environment as you can, and having to learn a new language for every place you go becomes increasingly problematic from a logistics view. Yes, in the real world, regional languages and translation nightmares occur all the time. In the real world, people also have to relieve themselves several times a day, but I've yet to hear complaints about the absence of a 'holding your bladder' mechanic. :p Clearly an overstated example, but the point is: there comes a line past which verisimilitude is more problematic than immersive, and when you reach that point, most writers will have a tendency to do what they can to find a way to 'hand wave' everything on the wrong side of it. The regional language question for me, then, is about where I place that line. I think adding them for flavor is nice and I'm all for it, but if they're going to provide a regular slew of extra hurdles to, say, signing onto adventures in Exotic Locales(tm), I'm not as enthusiastic. If you're looking for me to expalain the [i]mechanism[/i] by which E'n developed Common, I think actively-intervening deities (whom are per-design aspects of the same handful of force), magic, and multiple long-lived races (all of whom apparently already developed universal Racial languages) might all play a reasonable part in that. Seriously, if you're not balking at people turning themselves into dragons or teleporting vast distances with a single ritual, it seems a tad stubborn to insist there's then no 'logical' way the world might have managed to talk to one another. [/QUOTE]
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