Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 12 Sep 2004 to 13 Sep 2004 (#2004-193) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 14/09/2004, 17:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There is one message totalling 46 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Darokin: language ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 07:34:31 +0100 From: Jon Cole Subject: Re: Darokin: language > Ah, on a side note: Aaron, I don't think darokinian > would be the common language. Darokin's cities have > been for centuries merchants, but they had no > political unity to impose their language; as an > example, Italian would have been the main tongue in > Europe during 1300-1500, but it wasn't so. And think > about this: Thyatis has occupied directly at least > Ierendi, Karameikos, Ylaruam, and have been allies for > centuries with Ostland, and probably they have been > the bigger trading partner with the Darokinian > kingdoms and city-states - and I rather doubt > Thyatians would start speaking another language to > trade with them, it's like believing that Englishmen > and Americans would try to learn german, spanish or > italian for doing business with > Europeans... > Leaving aside this bit (cos I agree with it) I'd tend to think on it as a measure of flavour - either Thyatis isnt important to your game, so the Known World would need a common tongue that let you accentuate the regional language diversities - making Thyatian a good choice - everyone talks it, but do you know what the DArokinians are saying behind your back. OR The Empires are important to your setting, in which case the 2 Common tongues of Thyatian / Alphatian make for an interesting dichotomy in the game alongside all their other differences. Also form a practical pov - running settings with multiple partly comprehensible languages seems like a good idea until you have to administer it, and a Thousand Year Empire is a good enough excuse to have a common tongue. (say he who has a spreadsheet that assigns nationality to each gold piece ;-( ) Jon ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 12 Sep 2004 to 13 Sep 2004 (#2004-193) ****************************************************************