Darkson Designs

The following is taken from a lecture given at the Royal Citadel Academy:

“The language of the Serpent, called simply Serpentine, is an ancient language. Some scholars more widely read than I postulate that it was in use in the wider Void even before the Everfather brought the Giants into being as the first of his children. This boggles the mind. Evidence also suggests that the language has retained its form and phonology throughout those millenia, adding to its weight.

“Currently the Serpentine language is used by the dragons, snakemen and practitioners of the dark magical arts, for communication of all kind, as well as engraving and enchanting weapons, armour, even everyday household items. The language is rich, complex and hard to pronounce for the lipped, not to mention difficult to learn in its intricacies and endless case-endings. The modular nature of the language gives it a range of expression for all subjects, not limited to the nearly one hundred and fifty syllabic root-words and case markers.

“What you see before you is an artist’s impression of a set of glyphs found glowing in a cavern on the edge of the And Ranges, near Lophel. It’s a good rendering, of a poem or prayer, as it happens. I will slowly read it to you, putting in extra non-Serpentine syllables, using the ‘o’ and ‘oo’ sounds, which Serpentine does not have, as a precaution against the inate magic of the glyphs themselves…

‘Dẑnsh-bob-czhzhyŝ lsh-loft-yatẑ;
Lzlrryî-fury-fŝts yŝla-coop, Vza,
zh cî-role-yŝda lshfrr-pop-nŝdzh.
Cs, Cs-hope-thŝ, Lîtrr-loose,
tali ne-gold-nshyînîts!‘

“And the translation, roughly:

‘I am lost to the darkness now;
Find me, lord,
before my soul fades.
Bright, Brilliant, Most High,
take me home!’

“I must say, one can’t be too careful.

“The translation of this passage was a revelation. We believe that a non-Serpentine slave wrote this as a prayer to the Everfather, in the hopes that their captivity would end sooner. The script shows evidence of Assetic and Rvil education, but other than that, the character is unknown to us. It is a very well preserved example of grammar and phonology.

“Magically-speaking, the followers of the Serpent found that the glyphs themselves could be used in certain non-sensical combinations to enchant items, giving them magical qualities without the need for deep study of the structure of the language. An apocryphal story from many years ago tells of a young magician who stumbled on one such combination by accident. He was drawing the symbols in the dust outside his study-cell, trying to memorise their shapes and patterns, and as he stood up, scuffed one vowel marker from ‘s’ to ‘ŝ’. The ground itself lit up, the runes became indelible and the area became an entertainment establishment which never needed lighting. The young magician changed careers apparently and began a series of public houses across the Kingdoms.

“Each glyph has a specific sphere of power that interrelates to all the others, providing great scope, as in the communicative aspect of the language, to the enchantments that can be laid. There is a limit to this, however, and it seems that unless the item is of exceptional quality, enchantments must be less than six glyphs.

“The language also has a few dialects or pidgins that have emerged. Two in particular are of note. The first is the language of the lizardmen, a gutteral, simplistic version that incorporates a great amount of the basic vocabulary but lacks some of the higher concepts. The second has been dubbed Snaker, and is the pidgin used by hopeful followers of the Serpent from non-Serpentine races. It includes as part of its meandering grammar some of the random elements from enchantment engraving, probably in the hopes that the Serpent will look more favourably (a highly thematic element in the language) on their desire for assimilation. Granted, it does not achieve that goal. It does, however, lead to a greater rate of assimilation, even if merely for the fact that the snakemen cannot stand the misuse of their great language!

“My colleague, Professor Martis Meid, has made a lot of headway into producing a grammar and lexicon for interested students. This is not yet ready for public consumption but one hopes that eventually this will be the case, although it will be a grammatical look at the language, not one for the amateur magician or snakeman wannabe. I would advise highly and urgently against either of those goals – the first is fraught with painful misfires; the second leads to total annihilation of the subject.

“If you have further questions, please come speak with me or Professor Meid after this session. Thank you.”

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