Scott Langlinais

The world of Second Rain

The Eld Language

Eld Common: A Practical Reference, by the Monks of New Portsmouth Grand Archive

The stunning complexity of early languages, with their lack of coherence and innumerable dialects, created a need for scholars to develop some common ground for communicating and recording history, myths, and legends. Thus, the Eld Common tongue grew from an attempt to merge the two primary language trees of the ancient world, and a branch of a third. Eld Common’s derivative rules for declining nouns and conjugating verbs—though many—represent a vast improvement in the ability of storytellers to communicate across cultures and eras.

When reading Eld Common, it is important to realize that its own dialects and colloquialisms have naturally developed, as with any language. We monks of New Portsmouth may read the same Codex passage as the monks of Johan, yet come away with two translations. And we could even more likely read a story differently from how it might be spoken amongst clans in Rhodare and across the sea.

Therefore, we must excuse any inconsistencies resulting from distance over land or across time. It may be jarring for some modern readers to hear a noun precede its modifier, for example, or to see a pronoun attached to its verb. So a translator will often (and perhaps should) take the liberty of expressing meaning in a way that seems to best suit his or her own audience, without affecting context.

Above all: Heed the storyteller’s intention, to the best of your ability. Eld Common was first and foremost a language built upon conveying meaning in stories, and capturing wisdom.

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