Re: Magic languages was Re: Trying GMail

Hallo!

On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 16:04:03 +0100,
Peter Bleackley <Peter.Bleackley@...> wrote:

> Staving Mark Reed:
>
>
> >ObConlang: I've always thought that Latin was overused for magic
> >spells, and thought a special Language of Magic would make more sense.
> >  I assume others have had this same thought, and was wondering what
> >they imagined/created for such a language?
>
>
> Khangaþyagon, my main conlang, is intended as a magic language. It is an
> agglutinating, VSO language, with a phonology that was originally meant to
> sound a bit Germanic. Search the list archives for Khangaþyagon for more
> info, and if there's anything else you want to know, ask.
The idea that magic uses ancient languages is old; after all,
magical knowledge is usually imagined to be ancient.  Hence, people
use whatever ancient language they know of, and for Europeans,
the most common answer is Latin.  Other popular choices include
Hebrew (which some creationists believe to be the original language
of humanity from which all other languages descend) and Ancient
Egyptian (magickal literature is full of bogus "translations"
of Egyptian hieroglyphics).  And then there's of course Enochian,
used by the 16th-century magicians John Dee and Edward Kelley
who claimed it was revealed to them by angels, which certainly
means they made it up, i.e., it is a conlang - and they weren't
the only ones to use a conlang for magical purposes.

A nifty idea is that the language of magic is the original language
of the world (Khangaþyagon is an example, if I understand the page
on it on the Conlang Wiki correctly).

I here enclose a draft of an essay I wrote for a role-playing
web site I am planning to set up one day (sorry for the GURPS-specific
rule-tech-talk in it):

--- begin ---

                               Magical Languages

   A popular idea about magic is that a magician, before he can learn
any
   spells, must first master a magical language. A magical language is
   usually one or more, often all, of the following:

     * The language of magical scholarship the spell-books are all
       written in.
     * The language in which the spells must be worded; translations of
       spells into other languages simply don't work.
     * The language of higher beings who are called in working magic.

   A common notion is that the magical language is an ancient language
   that is no longer spoken by anyone as a native language, such as
   Latin, Sanskrit, Ancient Hebrew or Old High Elvish. It might even be
   unknown to non-magicians: John Dee, a 16th-century English magician,
   used a language named `Enochian' that is unattested otherwise (the
   most accepted theory today is that he made it up by himself).
However,
   the language needs not be that obscure. There are plenty examples of
   spells written in commonly-used languages. The famous Merseburg
Charms
   are in the Old High German that was the common literary language at
   the time the spells were written. In The Lord of the Rings Gandalf's
   spells are in Sindarin - a language still in fairly widespread use in
   Middle-earth at that time.

Magical languages in the game

   A magical language, as defined by this rule, consists of two tiers.
   The first tier is a normal language - typically, but not necessarily,
   an ancient tongue that has no longer any native speakers but lives on
   in books - with nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns and everything.
   This is the mundane tier of the language, which as such is in no way
   magical - it is just a language. The second tier consists of the
   magical significances of the elements of the language. Here is where
   genuine magical knowledge comes into play. In order to cast a spell,
   one must not only know the mundane meanings of the words of the
   language, but also the magical meanings of them; the latter cannot be
   derived from the former, but must be learned separetely.

   In GURPS terms, a magical language consists of two different skills.
   The first is a normal language skill. It is treated like any other
   language skill. The language doesn't have to be especially complex;
it
   is often ancient, but not necessarily so. This mundane language skill
   represents knowledge of the mundane meaning of words, and of the
   language's grammar, but it does not include any magical knowledge.

   The magical knowledge is in the second skill: the magical language
   skill. The magical language skill does not default to the mundane
   language skill - you can be an excellent scholar of the language and
   still don't have the faintest idea how to use it as a magical
language
   - but the mundane language skill is a prerequisite for the magical
   language skill. Before learning about the magical meanings of the
   words, you must first master their mundane use and understand the
   grammatical structure of the language. And often, the books
explaining
   the magical usage of the language are written in the language itself.
   The GM may set other prerequisites, such as Magery or Clerical
   Investment, depending on what is appropriate in his campaign. The
   magical language skill is either Mental/Hard or Very Hard. A wizard's
   magical language skill may not exceed his mundane language skill. The
   mundane language skill must also be studied directly; a default from
a
   related language doesn't help. Now when the wizard has learned both
   the mundane and magical language skills for the magical language, he
   can go on and actually learn spells.

   Example: Adalrik, a beginning student of magic, has Old High Elvish
   (mundane)-12. Thus, he can read books written in Old High Elvish and
   converse with fellow students and scholars in that language, but he
   has no idea (yet) about how the language is used for magical
purposes.
   He also cannot learn any spells. But he can learn Old High Elvish
   (magical) at a maximum level of 12; when he has done so, he can start
   learning spells. His tutor, Medalrik, has Old High Elvish
(mundane)-15
   and Old High Elvish (magical)-14, and knows a number of spells. If he
   wanted to raise his Old High Elvish (magical) skill to 16, he would
   have to improve his Old High Elvish (mundane) skill first.

Multiple magical languages

   There may be two or more magical languages in the same game world. In
   such a case, the different languages correspond to different power
   sources, different magical traditions, or both. The GM may set up an
   elaborate system of magical traditions, power sources and languages.
   Perhaps each of the elements has its own language associated with it
   (which is also the `native' language spoken by the elementals);
   clerical magic uses a distinct magical language; "good" and "evil"
   magical schools use different languages; etc. In such a case, the GM
   should determine which language is prerequisite for which spells. In
   some worlds, different languages allow for learning different spells.
   The spell lists associated with different magical languages may
   overlap; in such a case, a spell is learned using one of the magical
   languages as prerequisite. Each version of the spell is a different
   skill which might be differently difficult to learn. If a spell has
   another spell as prerequisite, both spells must usually be in the
same
   magical language. Some very exotic spells might use more than one
   magical language, having both magical language skills as
   prerequisites.

   A wizard will choose to learn the magical language that gives him
best
   access to the spells he is going to specialize in. Of course, he may
   learn more than one magical language, thus gaining access to more
than
   one spell list.

   Example: There are two magical languages, Old High Elvish and Shadow
   Tongue. Old High Elvish is used, beyond its significance as a magical
   language, as a scholarly language, and most wizards work with it.
   Shadow Tongue is only studied by those wizards who use it as a
magical
   language, and it is said to have been invented by the Lord of
Darkness
   himself. Both languages support different spells: Necromantic spells
   require Shadow Tongue, there are no Old High Elvish versions of them;
   many combat-related spells are Very Hard in their Old High Elvish
   version, but only Hard in their Shadow Tongue version. Healing
spells,
   on the other hand, are Hard in Old High Elvish and Very Hard, if
   available at all, in Shadow Tongue. Shadow Tongue is mainly used by
   evil sorcerors; honest, law-abiding magicians prefer working with Old
   High Elvish. A few wizards learn both. The mundane language skills
for
   both languages are Mental/Hard (both languages sport rich inflecting
   morphologies and intricate subtleties of expression); the magical
   language skill is Mental/Hard for Old High Elvish and Mental/Very
Hard
   for Shadow Tongue.

--- end ---

Greetings,

Jörg.

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