Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 krosszer0 Jan 10, 2011 0:07:21	Just a point of curiosity. I ran "Sand Raiders" last night to kick off my Dark Sun campaign, and I noticed that Silt Runners and Ssurans both speak Draconic exclusively. However, the campaign guide says that Draconic is an artificial language, used by wizards for arcane purposes and given to the Dray as their tongue by Dregoth. So how did Silt Runners and Ssurans, presumably natural races, end up with an artificial language as their only known tongue? Its an easily glossed over point that probably never even occurred to the designers, and my group certainly didn't lose any time on it, but I was just wondering if anyone had an explanation for it.
#2 Alphastream Jan 10, 2011 16:06:10	In 2E, "Ssurrans speak their own language that sounds like grunts, growls, and hissing" "Silt runners speak a tribal language, and 35% of them can speak the common tongue." So, they really don't speak anything that other races would speak. In 4E, that would be common or lumped into some other prominent language. I would pick one based on your campaign focus. For example, if you were feeding off of D&D Encounters you could have them speak primordial based on the elemental stuff going on, then delve into that aspect further. If you are running a silt sea campaign, they could perhaps speak Giant. Etc. Draconic works if you want to link them to Giustenal, which isn't a bad idea. It could sound like gibberish until the right person (such as a dray PC) figures it out. "Hey, this is a version of the language..." and then the party kills the dray PC when they hear he is linked to Dregoth.
#3 fromost_the_grimm_02 Jan 10, 2011 18:30:10	So how did Silt Runners and Ssurans, presumably natural races, end up with an artificial language as their only known tongue? Langauges are based on nurture, not nature.  So it simply comes down to a group of peoples being exposed to a language, and taking it up at the expense of any other languages they may typically speak. If two species came in close contact, any languages spoken by one could be adpoted by the other due to trading, raiding, or benign social interaction.  If one language was more efficient or more popular, or forced upon the weaker/captured/dominated species by the other, the inferior language could simply have been lost in the way that many indigenous languages are falling to extinction today.  I can imagine dray being very protective over their draconic tongue, and intolerant of other languages, especially those of a similar dialect.  The more primal ssurans probably had less of an attachment to their ancestral patois, and once exposed to dray may have actively wanted to emulate the stronger, prouder species.  It's difficult seeing dray interacting with silt runners as anything more than subserviants/slaves, so any local, inferior silt runner tongue would have been outlawed, and slowly lost. You could always introduce ancient ssuran and silt runner dialects if any in your group show interest in pursuing etymologies further, that have been lost over the millennia as the dray's draconic tongue slowly superceded all other reptiliian languages.