Language in Fantasy Gaming
As I continue to try and put together an original fantasy world for my RPG campaigns, I keep running into problems with languages. I don't mean the terminology of the game, I mean the in-universe languages spoken by the characters, and what they imply about the game's assumptions toward the world in which our stories will take place. Let's take a look at the current setup (using D&D 5th Edition as an example, though other fantasy games have similar issues), go over the problems it creates, and then talk about possible solutions.
Okay, so in D&D, the overwhelming majority of characters speak approximately two languages: "Common," and a racial language corresponding to the character's race. Certain backgrounds will give you additional languages, but those will basically be selected from among other racial languages. In other words, every language that isn't Common is a racial language. Elves speak Common and Elvish, dwarves speak Common and Dwarvish, and so on.
So what does this imply about the setting?
Putting aside for a moment the concept of a universal Common language (which is unrealistic but immensely helpful for gameplay), the game is assuming that languages only ever vary by race, rather than (as in the real world) by nationality. Instead of having everyone in a given area share one language while their neighbors on the continent speak another (and perhaps those near the border speak both), we have any random gnome speaking Gnomish. How exactly does that fit into a setting?
Two ideas: one is that knowledge of your racial language is hardwired into your brain, as much a part of your inherent racial identity as your pointy ears or your tail. In other words, you know Orcish because you're an orc, rather than because you learned the language by normal means. The other idea is that the racial languages are simultaneously national languages. That is, the language structure is very much like the real world (geographically divided), but the population is divided along the same lines. So instead of knowing Elvish directly because you're an elf, you know Elvish because you grew up in the elven city of Elfville, and the reason you grew up there is because you're an elf. Racial empires.
Both of these models present problems. The inherent-knowledge model is super weird. If knowing Dwarvish is part of being a dwarf, were you literate at birth? If not, then at what point in your development did you become fluent? Questions abound. Beyond the logical issues, there's also the fact that inherent language reeks of "A Wizard Did It," which is generally something to be avoided in world-building (at least for my current purposes). And finally, inherent language reinforces the idea of inherent racial characteristics, which starts to get uncomfortably close to some real-world racism issues that I'm actively trying to get away from.
What about the racial empires model? For starters, I probably don't have to explain the obvious racism issues: a setting in which nations are literally and explicitly segregated by race? Yikes. No thank you. In addition to that, there are just as many logical questions for this model as for the other. For example, what if there are two nations of dwarves (say, on different continents)? Given that Common exists, why do the nations have separate languages in the first place when they already have a language that basically everyone understands? This model is no better than the other.
Okay, so the implications of racial languages clearly presents problems for a fantasy world if we're going to try not to reinforce racist thinking. So what do we do? Well, I tried my hand at a solution when I started one of my current D&D games. The basic idea was that there used to be racial empires long ago, but over the course of history the bloodlines of different races intermingled in such a way as to cause any population to be unavoidably mixed. Over time, the boundaries of racial empires dissolved, and languages evolved alongside geopolitical structures to produce national languages.
I named all the countries and their languages, then applied the following houserules:
• Instead of "Common", you learn your homeland's language;
• You can't know a racial language unless you're proficient in the History skill;
• Your language "slots" can be filled with any national language
This had mixed results. On the one hand, it did indeed feel reasonably believable. On the other hand, it obliterated the beloved racial identities of the characters. On top of that, it was a lot of work, and most of the work (such as the naming and design of every nation other than where the campaign is happening) is producing nothing tangible in the game. All in all, I'm not super happy with this solution.
What other options are there? I'm not entirely sure. One idea — one which I'm still forming, so bear with me — is that perhaps we could take the "racial empires" model and find a way to redeem it into something good. For example, what if in the distant past, the world was filled with a small subset of races (maybe even just exclusively humans), but then something happened and the boundaries between the material plane and, say, the feywild were torn apart, and in certain regions the population was transformed into the fey-themed races (elves, etc).
Perhaps in the time since then, the population continues to be primarily elven, and as a result their regional language got nicknamed "Elvish". We could then loosen the boundaries of both racial empires (the groupings are coincidental and approximate, rather than intentional and absolute) and racial languages (a tiefling who grew up in Elfland could know Elvish instead of Abyssal, and vice-versa). This allows the use of published content with minimal houseruling and preserves beloved tropes (like dwarven mountain cities), but leaves room for the acceptance of our neighbors and the condemnation of any individuals who might try to claim any sort of virtue to segregation.
Another idea — and again, still working it out — would be that the existence of the various races is the result of a direct intervention of the gods. Perhaps, given the wild and dangerous world of magic and monsters, the gods decided that humanity(?) would be best served by a toolbox of abilities, and thus intervened to create populations of various races. Maybe each race was created in the regions where their abilities would be most useful (hence racial empires), but with the knowledge that to grow toward greater heights as a collective population they would have to cooperate and lean on each others' strengths. Thus, diversity could be given explicit endorsement in the lore, and even the players' adventuring party could itself be a tribute to that ideal.
Again, I certainly don't have all this figured out. Also I'm white, so my perspective on the value of the various possible solutions is pretty limited. But I'm gonna do my best. :)
That's all for today. Until next time, take care of each other, okay?
Okay, so in D&D, the overwhelming majority of characters speak approximately two languages: "Common," and a racial language corresponding to the character's race. Certain backgrounds will give you additional languages, but those will basically be selected from among other racial languages. In other words, every language that isn't Common is a racial language. Elves speak Common and Elvish, dwarves speak Common and Dwarvish, and so on.
So what does this imply about the setting?
Putting aside for a moment the concept of a universal Common language (which is unrealistic but immensely helpful for gameplay), the game is assuming that languages only ever vary by race, rather than (as in the real world) by nationality. Instead of having everyone in a given area share one language while their neighbors on the continent speak another (and perhaps those near the border speak both), we have any random gnome speaking Gnomish. How exactly does that fit into a setting?
Two ideas: one is that knowledge of your racial language is hardwired into your brain, as much a part of your inherent racial identity as your pointy ears or your tail. In other words, you know Orcish because you're an orc, rather than because you learned the language by normal means. The other idea is that the racial languages are simultaneously national languages. That is, the language structure is very much like the real world (geographically divided), but the population is divided along the same lines. So instead of knowing Elvish directly because you're an elf, you know Elvish because you grew up in the elven city of Elfville, and the reason you grew up there is because you're an elf. Racial empires.
Both of these models present problems. The inherent-knowledge model is super weird. If knowing Dwarvish is part of being a dwarf, were you literate at birth? If not, then at what point in your development did you become fluent? Questions abound. Beyond the logical issues, there's also the fact that inherent language reeks of "A Wizard Did It," which is generally something to be avoided in world-building (at least for my current purposes). And finally, inherent language reinforces the idea of inherent racial characteristics, which starts to get uncomfortably close to some real-world racism issues that I'm actively trying to get away from.
What about the racial empires model? For starters, I probably don't have to explain the obvious racism issues: a setting in which nations are literally and explicitly segregated by race? Yikes. No thank you. In addition to that, there are just as many logical questions for this model as for the other. For example, what if there are two nations of dwarves (say, on different continents)? Given that Common exists, why do the nations have separate languages in the first place when they already have a language that basically everyone understands? This model is no better than the other.
Okay, so the implications of racial languages clearly presents problems for a fantasy world if we're going to try not to reinforce racist thinking. So what do we do? Well, I tried my hand at a solution when I started one of my current D&D games. The basic idea was that there used to be racial empires long ago, but over the course of history the bloodlines of different races intermingled in such a way as to cause any population to be unavoidably mixed. Over time, the boundaries of racial empires dissolved, and languages evolved alongside geopolitical structures to produce national languages.
I named all the countries and their languages, then applied the following houserules:
• Instead of "Common", you learn your homeland's language;
• You can't know a racial language unless you're proficient in the History skill;
• Your language "slots" can be filled with any national language
This had mixed results. On the one hand, it did indeed feel reasonably believable. On the other hand, it obliterated the beloved racial identities of the characters. On top of that, it was a lot of work, and most of the work (such as the naming and design of every nation other than where the campaign is happening) is producing nothing tangible in the game. All in all, I'm not super happy with this solution.
What other options are there? I'm not entirely sure. One idea — one which I'm still forming, so bear with me — is that perhaps we could take the "racial empires" model and find a way to redeem it into something good. For example, what if in the distant past, the world was filled with a small subset of races (maybe even just exclusively humans), but then something happened and the boundaries between the material plane and, say, the feywild were torn apart, and in certain regions the population was transformed into the fey-themed races (elves, etc).
Perhaps in the time since then, the population continues to be primarily elven, and as a result their regional language got nicknamed "Elvish". We could then loosen the boundaries of both racial empires (the groupings are coincidental and approximate, rather than intentional and absolute) and racial languages (a tiefling who grew up in Elfland could know Elvish instead of Abyssal, and vice-versa). This allows the use of published content with minimal houseruling and preserves beloved tropes (like dwarven mountain cities), but leaves room for the acceptance of our neighbors and the condemnation of any individuals who might try to claim any sort of virtue to segregation.
Another idea — and again, still working it out — would be that the existence of the various races is the result of a direct intervention of the gods. Perhaps, given the wild and dangerous world of magic and monsters, the gods decided that humanity(?) would be best served by a toolbox of abilities, and thus intervened to create populations of various races. Maybe each race was created in the regions where their abilities would be most useful (hence racial empires), but with the knowledge that to grow toward greater heights as a collective population they would have to cooperate and lean on each others' strengths. Thus, diversity could be given explicit endorsement in the lore, and even the players' adventuring party could itself be a tribute to that ideal.
Again, I certainly don't have all this figured out. Also I'm white, so my perspective on the value of the various possible solutions is pretty limited. But I'm gonna do my best. :)
That's all for today. Until next time, take care of each other, okay?
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