Languages (3.5e Other)
Language Roots and Translations in D&D 3.5e[edit]
Introduction[edit]
This is an attempt to give Linguistic structure to the roots of languages in D&D 3.5e. I realize that there are many more languages in 4e, but I rather pretend that 4e never existed, so I do not reference any of it here. Refinements are appreciated to make this as strong a system as possible. Also, I love to use a myriad of languages in my campaigns, so I have included ways to decipher scripts of similar languages.
Roots[edit]
Languages do not exist independently from one another, and clearly an attempt to learn Halfling when you are a native speaker of Common should not be the same as learning Draconic. This requires knowing what languages are similar to each other and if they share recognizable writing.
| Language | Speakers | Script |
|---|---|---|
| Supernal (Eldritch) | Shadingers, White Witches | Pre-Celestial |
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Celestials, Angels, Devas |
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Devils, Creatures of the Hells |
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| Arcane (Eldritch) | Dragons, Spellcasters |
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Chaotic Evil Outsiders |
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Kobalds, Dragons, Lizardfolk | Draconic |
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Elementals |
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Water Creatures |
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Air Creatures |
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Raptorians | Elven Record |
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Fire Creatures |
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Earth-based creatures |
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Fey creatures (dryads, brownies, leprechauns) |
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Druids Only |
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Dead Language |
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Dead Language |
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Humans and Associated People | Common |
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Halflings |
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Dwarves, Subterranean |
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Giants, Ogres |
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Gnomes |
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Elves |
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Drow, Underdark Creatures |
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Goblinoids |
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Gnolls |
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Orcs, Goblinoids |
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Dead Language |
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Oriental Adventures PC's |
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Oriental Adventures Others |
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| R'lyehian (Eldritch) | The Alien Old Ones (Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth) |
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Mind flayers, beholders |
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- ? = Items that are uncertain, and may require refinement.
- ! = The part Illithid scripting applies specifically to my personal Red Hook Campaign, where some Pantheon assumptions are taken which are not necessarily true in Vanilla D&D 3.5e.
Aka, this may be ignored to stay closer with the spirit of the original D&D Pantheon.
- Breakdown of the Chart
Eldritch, Prehistoric, Historic, and Modern refer to the relative age of the language. This also denotes its use bold and italic font, and indentation from the parent language listed above it.
The Language column is the name of the language. I have taken some small liberties in the names of many of the languages, including changing the '-ish' of the popular Tolkien languages to a more phonetically pleasing '-en'. Some of them (Like Avian) are names we have locally given them under house rules so it might not match quite properly.
The Speakers column lists common examples of the primary speakers of the language. Languages that have drifted into new languages have hence become dead naturally via semantic or phonetic drift. Typically dead languages have become the languages listed below it.
The Script column is the family of symbols used to write the language. Often it is based on proximity, with different but neighboring languages existing amongst one another using similar styles of writing. This is basically a way to show respect for languages that influenced each other without them having to be from the same roots. If listed with “Record”, then the language was previously not written until scholarly transcriptions recorded them, usually Elven scholars. Some material originated from the Speak Language Skill.
Reasoning[edit]
Justification of some more irregular choices:
Supernal: Keeping Supernal languages apart from the Arcane fit nicely with a Christian Heaven and Hell style Pantheon of choice because it gives warrant to the infinite nature of the Afterlife.
Arcane: Arcane being the root of all languages of the Material and closely related Planes functions well within the spirit of Arcane being both ancient (pre-dating Dragons) and primordial in our nature, able to be accessed emotionally or mentally by spellcasters.
Draconic: I have made it Prehistoric under Arcane. The great lifespans of Dragons, along with the magical nature of their language, would infer that it lasted relatively unchanged for an unnatural amount of time. More importantly, making it a direct extension of arcane seems to flush well with the deeply magical nature of the beasts.
Elven: Elven is used liberally as the Record language for creatures that might not have written down their own way of speaking. I felt it fit their scholarly nature, and this way there is at least some connection players can make to some of the more obscure languages. However, this assumption also means that anything written in this language would likely be written by the elves, not the creature that speaks it.
Rokugani: Due to the obvious deviation in the real-life languages Common and Rokugani are based on, it must be assumed that the languages would be deviated greatly, at least to a degree sufficient to house an entire new branch of Asian languages based on location of the branch rather than simply race. Aka, Rokugani and Common are both closer to Arcane than to each other, and that is intentional. Other creatures of Oriental Adventures will more appropriately spread out over the Asian Monster Languages (Name for category please) in a similar manner to the Tolkian languages did for Vanilla d&d.
Aquan and Deep Speech: The Primordial Aquan language is not relative to Deep Speech, as the former derives from the Elemental Planes and the latter from Space. Natural aquatic creatures should speak Aquan.
Deciphering[edit]
If attempting to read a language you do not know, then you may attempt to figure it out using a Decipher check as long as it shares either the same script, or exists withing the same Historical family. However, the DM has complete liberties over how much should be interpretable based on the character's known scripts and languages.
| DC | Result | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | The ability to interpret some key words. | Blight, Goat, with a Haste or Urgency. |
| 20 | Mood, Tense, Case and Voicing is indistinguishable, but word meanings are relatively clear. | Gift of Goat ends frantic blight', or 'Gift of Blight ends frantic goat. |
| 25 | Case is more clear and word associations are distinguishable. | Give a goat frantically and the blight is ended. |
| 30 | Full text as written is decipherable with complete technical accuracy, including tense and voicing. | The goat should have been given frantically in order to end the blight. |
| 35 | Along with the full text, the sentence's connotation to any hidden meaning or cultural references become clear. | A goat sacrifice should have been given to the appropriate gods with haste to end the blight. |
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