The Common Tongue

So this is something that has come up in discussion for this alt event, but is relevant.

Because of the lack of a Spoken Language system at game, the basic reasoning is that there is a Common tongue that pretty much most sentient beings understand. However, this or any associated fluff are not mentioned or included in the latest release of the Rulebook.

What can be said about this language from both a lore and rules viewpoint? For example, is Anterran the Common tongue and thus non-human races must learn Literacy, Culture (Anterran) to understand the written word of this language? If so, why is it that the human language has become the Common tongue of the world?

~ Joe G.

It's a necessary handwave. We cannot have people speaking different languages at game because we have not establish what are acceptable to speak (also because we cannot force everyone who has a literacy to learn that language or expect people to use a signal to indicate speaking another language. If someone is eavesdropping, they won't know it's another language unless they can see you).

So there is only one spoken language but many written languages.

The common tongue is the universal spoken language everyone understands. Could it be tied to having a heroic soul? Could it be because that was how everyone was created by the anastazi? Or perhaps incredibly deep seeded knowledge left in all beings by the Arani?

(I kind of like that last one best!). The answer can be whatever speculation you want to make, but the basic is, the common tongue is universally known for some reason or another.

If I could add another option that I use,

I read a book that had this as an issue. The solution the author presented was a mash up of common words of the languages. It was mostly used in trading so didn’t come up that often. However, it would be close to “broken” language.

I choose to imagine it that way, even though we’re speaking/writing in complete English sentences. In game it’s a form of broken elvish, halfling, human, etc. all fused together.


Though I do like Steve’s examples as well.

So the assumption should be that we're reading written Common unless a text is marked as requiring a specific literacy?