Re: Ritual languages/ Magical languages

On Mon, 14 Jun 1999, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:

> Old Hyksos, the Earthsea inspired (but quite original in
> many respects) magical language used in the Dutch roleplaying
> game Queeste - in that game people wishing to play the role
> of a mage must be fluent in that language, it's not a kind
> of make-belief, but an absolute requirement.
Or your spells don't work. A spell needs to be grammatically correct
and appropriate for the situation to even have a chance of working.

I've played two different mages in subsequent stages of the campaign,
and they turned out to have a completely different style - almost the
first spell Lavinia, the second mage thought of, after the standard
beginner's spells (like _Jappa wodanex ne jappa_ "I heal the other"
and _Jappa arrex jappa_ "I turn myself into air" (to become
invisible) was one the first mage, Jana, hadn't *ever* used though
she was as least five levels higher when she died as Lavinia was when
she cast the spell.

Obviously, it's a real (though limited, and very specific) conlang,
not just a code: the user's personality plays an important part.

   Irina


            Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastinay.
                     irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself)
       http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/index.html (English)
    http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/backpage.html (Nederlands)