Languages

Yru is the single umbrella language of all Orvah. Daathru and Uthuru describe regional Yru dialect traditions, not separate Orvah languages. Kanar is the language of the Wildlands. Learning a regional tongue does not change a Hero’s Origin Seed or Kind.

People speak a variety of languages across a diverse landscape. Erevath’s mainland alone has over 30 languages and within each of these languages, dialects based on: bound or boundless and high or low status. There are also wild languages and unspoken languages based on the senses.

Language has four chapters of creation. The first started with the Deities. Then, the language between Deities and the Astrals; the third, between the Astrals and the Ren (Nuhlrin); and lastly, between the Nuhlrin and the Vathians.

The Deity language is rarely spoken but is still visible in recorded scriptures, mind-pendants, or ruins across Erevath. It is still used by the Rhunai who dwell in secret on Erevath, though more populous on their secluded island Ank Vahl. The Vathian language emerged rough, frantic and scattered. The Nuhlrin’s refined it after their arrival. The Nuhlrin, in contrast to the Vathians, are older, wiser, more mature, even though their arrival on Erevath is fresher than the Vathians.

As the Vathians evolved their language with Nuhlrin interactment, it became clear that status and allegiance were important to differentiate understanding status. This was a distinction made clear by the Duranine and the Corvians. The Ereth and Imari were reluctant to make status a concern but eventually adopted.

Communication, however, can transcend words written or spoken. It can be inhaled, digested, felt, visualized, smelled and even displayed through curious artistic expression, like paintings with living paint. The threads increase the methods in which people can write and receive and understand this language.

For example, in the frozen North, liquids are cultivated and matured and through threading can contain scriptures or messages that can be consumed, digested, and received–another form of a message in a bottle, so to speak. Or in the West, a flower can contain direction, or remembrance. Trees can contain scriptures read only by touch. Messages in the East only by sight, written in the stars or hidden in the exact visual arrangement of the landscapes.

Remember the languages are broken up into status as well. The Highbound are particularly entrenched in the affairs of Balance in the deepest parts of the culture they represent. The Lowbound are essential, but not as integral to the direction the culture evolves in directly. This ties in with the Bound empires to maintain order and Balance where possible. The Boundless do not operate with these statuses.

SPOKEN Copy link

WRITTEN Copy link

Erevas: The Thread-Script of the Astrals Copy link

How Erevas Functions in Astral Perception Copy link

Erevas is not a written language in any traditional sense; it is a divine, sensory weaving born of the Astrals themselves. To the Astrals, Erevas is not read, but felt. Its woven, flowing script conveys meaning through form and resonance rather than static symbols. Each glowing knot within the script serves as a sensory anchor point, transmitting significance through vibrational patterns in space.

Astrals perceive Erevas with every sense at once. Touch reveals its texture, as if one’s fingers were tracing living threads. Sound emerges from subtle harmonics embedded in its structure, a quiet music that shifts with context. Sight reveals shimmering strands that glimmer and morph depending on the reader’s awareness. The script is alive, ever-changing, and incomprehensible to those without the innate attunement of the Threads. For non-Astrals, it is a beautiful enigma—something glimpsed, but never fully known.

Erevas in Mortal Hands: The Practice of Mortal Weaving Copy link

Since Erevas transcends simple language, mortals cannot experience it as the Astrals do. Yet through Threading, they have developed ways to approximate its meaning and inscribe its power. This process, known as Mortal Weaving, is a delicate act of interpretation and recreation—a shadow of the true divine weaving, shaped by the limits of mortal perception.

Methods of Mortal Interpretation Copy link

Mortals who attempt to read Erevas must rely on their Thread-sense, using the one or two senses granted by their particular affinity. Touch-Readers, most commonly Red Threaders (Domain), feel the texture of woven Threads, discerning meaning through changes in resistance and pressure. Green Threaders (Guidance), or Sight-Readers, see faint mirage-like patterns hovering in the air, interpreting shifting light as language. Yellow Threaders (Harmony), or Sound-Readers, listen to subtle tonal fluctuations, translating resonance into speech. Blue Threaders (Adaptation), or Taste-Readers, consume Thread-infused substances—such as water from the Castellar Pools—to gain fleeting clarity of meaning. Violet Threaders (Abundance), or Scent-Readers, interpret faint aromas left by the Threads, with meaning that alters depending on intensity.

While these methods allow glimpses into Erevas, they are inherently incomplete. Each mortal perceives only a fragment of the whole, filtered through their own Threading specialty. What Astrals understand as a seamless tapestry of meaning becomes, in mortal hands, a collection of partial truths.

Methods of Mortal Writing Copy link

Writing Erevas is no less challenging than reading it. Mortals cannot simply draw its symbols; they must weave them into reality. One method, known as Thread-Inscribing, produces physical manifestations of Erevas: engraved Thread-Stones etched with interwoven glyphs; tapestries infused with Thread-essence, whose patterns shift subtly over time; or inks condensed from Threads themselves, their meanings altering depending on the reader.

Another approach, called Sensory Glyphs, is a more direct but still imperfect approximation. These glyphs attempt to capture one sensory facet of Erevas in a form mortals can reproduce. Pressure Marks, deep indentations, represent Red (Domain) Threads and are read by touch. Light Traces, thin glowing sigils, capture Green (Guidance) Threads, visible only at certain angles. Vibrational Runes, sound-based etchings, convey Yellow (Harmony) Threads and hum when touched. Liquid Glyphs, made from moving ink, reflect Blue (Adaptation) Threads and can be tasted for meaning. Scented Inscriptions, infused with aromatic essence, reveal Violet (Abundance) Threads to those who inhale their fading perfume.

Despite these efforts, no mortal-written Erevas is ever truly complete. It is a translation of divinity into human limitation, always a step away from the living truth of the Astrals’ script.

The Fragility of Mortal Weaving Copy link

Working with Erevas carries inherent risks. Mortals cannot capture its wholeness, and with that incompleteness comes instability. Even the most skilled Threaders produce fragments rather than full weavings, their texts lacking the seamless intent of true Erevas. Poorly woven inscriptions can produce Snags, tangles in the fabric of reality itself, sometimes leading to unpredictable phenomena—or even Wither.

Meaning is also inherently unstable. The same glyph might appear benign to one Threader and catastrophic to another, its interpretation shifting with perspective and intent. Rogue Threaders have occasionally sought to “lock” Erevas into permanent forms, an act known as Forbidden Weaving. Such texts, called Locked Threads, are dangerously volatile. When disrupted, they can unravel violently, releasing stored power in catastrophic bursts.

The Pinnacle of Mortal Weaving: The Threaded Codices Copy link

Though imperfect, some master Threaders have approached true preservation of Erevas. These Threaded Codices are multi-sensory artifacts that adapt to the reader, changing in response to intent and alignment.

Among the most famous are the Rhunai Codices, Balance-forged tomes that alter their meaning depending on the reader’s purpose. The Vathian Vault Runes of Vahlia are sealed archives of layered glyphs, legible only under precise celestial alignments. Darker examples include the Tangled Manuscripts, creations of rogue Threaders whose unstable weavings can unmake themselves—and those who dare read them.

Even these rare works are but echoes. Erevas remains, at its core, a living, divine script—perceived fully only by the Astrals and never entirely captured by mortal hands.