Speak (language)

Speak (language) Social [lore] Apprentice 400 hours each Counts as two skills at character creation At the apprentice level, a character knows basic phrases of the language. At journeyman level, your skill is such that you can hold most conversations in the language, albeit with a thick accent and some odd linguistic manerisms. At master level, the character is fully fluent in the language: knows proper grammatical rules, can think in the language, and could even make-up words that would sound convincing to a native speaker. You automatically have this skill in your native language at the apprentice level if you have a Knowledge of 1 or higher, journeyman level if Knowledge is at least 4, and master level if 8 or above. Each language is a separate skill. The 'reverse specialization' guideline doesn't apply to this skill; i.e. you can't default every language in the world to your native language (unless your name is Douglas Ramsey).

Modern languages include:
 * Anglan—the language spoken by the Humans of Formour and the Heldanic Confederation
 * Bizzannite—the official (and only one of many spoken) language of the Byzant Empire; dozens of dialects: different parts of the Byzant Empire and various Elder Kingdoms can understand each other at a penalty between zero and three skill levels (in other words, from complete understanding to none)
 * The Chant—guttural mishmash of different languages and slang terms; also called Cityspeak and Undercommon; will vary between cities (usually with a penalty of one or more skill levels to understand); partial written form as graffiti
 * Comul—this is a constructed language used to unite the widely dispersed members of the Bhahi faith; they hope that this will become the standard for international communications
 * Dwarven—language of the Dwarves and many Trolls; formal written form as Runes
 * Elven—musical language of Elves, Kobolds, Pixies, and other non-Goblinoid Fae; many travelling merchants know this language and it is fairly common in the Byzant Empire
 * Gobbley—spoken by Goblins, Hobgoblins, some Ogres, and many Trolls; no written form
 * Killian—syllibant language of the Killian Empire; two written forms: phonetic script and Kame—a somewhat glyph-based written form
 * Orcken—the language of both Orckish nations in Osterre, and of Plains Ogres; related to Gobbley;
 * Ogre Speak (not to be confused with Ogrenon) is the dialect of the Forest Ogres, and is a close cousin (-1 skill level) to both Orcken and Gobbley; Orcken and Gobbley share some basic vocabulary (-2 skill levels); no written form
 * Outrogothic—the language of the Barbaric Goths of Osterre; this language is mutually unintelligible from Gothic—at most a native (master level) speaker of one would understand one or two words of the other (not even an apprentice- level of skill); ironically, Gothic is much closer to the original form than modern Outrogothic; uses the same written form as Gothic, but literacy is very rare and almost a lost art
 * Zanir—spoken alongside Bizzannite in Ebonstone/Zar; modern written form uses Bizzannite, ancient form used pictographs