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Dunlupia (language of the Bronzefolk – dying language)
Pronounced “doon-loop-eah” – One of the languages of the Steel Realms.
Dunlupia was the language spoken by the Bronzefolk. It is considered a dead or dying language, not spoken by anyone now, outside of a few elders of their descendants in the heartlands territory of The Saelish (of Dunstrand). There may be a few scholars elsewhere, yet they are only guessing – it missing its cultural references. It is still used in its written form in a few places, but communicates only basic concepts. To most it is difficult to learn, and quite baffling in its use beyond simple conversational levels.
Origins: The language’s fully-formed spoken and written origins are a mystery to scholars, and the descendants of its speakers do nothing to change that. It may be a guarded secret or simply lost to the mists of time.
Written Form
The language does not have a phonetic alphabet, but instead draws on small symbols and characters that combine sounds representing concepts and ideas – similar to a druidic approach.
Copying Record: Its written form, without the missing knowledge of its sources and context, loses exactness and nuance each time a written record is translated and/or copied. This is not well known except by scholars, who tend to deal in source materials carefully. Each successive copy reduces its precise meaning – the (reading) Practice Level by 1; e.g. If it is written at Accomplished level, it translates to Competent. This makes it very difficult for scholars, which is why most texts have noted the “generation” of copy they represent. Success copying devolves the script until it appears only a crude, barely Familiar representation of the original record with the person doing the recording not realizing it until it is complete. Exactly why this happens is not exactly understood.
Digital/Image Copy: Even these exact copy mechanisms fall prey to the mystical confounding – resultant outputs get scrambled or simply have some meaning lost in the copy process.
About/Chronicle of Dunlupian Language
Pervasive Knowledge / Very Easy Difficulty
Dunlupia was the language spoken by the Bronzefolk. It is considered a dead or dying language, not spoken by anyone now, outside of a few elders of their descendants in the heartlands territory of The Saelish (of Dunstrand). The inhabitants there now speak mostly Gladnorean. There may be a few scholars elsewhere, yet they are only guessing at some of the meanings – it is missing its unique cultural references for context. It is still used in its written form in a few places, but communicates only basic concepts due to its exotic nature. To most it is difficult to learn, and quite baffling in its use beyond simple [barely] conversational levels. Because of the confounding of its written records, the Bronzefolk are often thought to be a crude, elemental tribe of humans that lacked sophistication.
Origins: The language’s fully-formed spoken and written origins are a mystery to scholars, and the descendants of its speakers do nothing to change that. It may be a guarded secret or simply lost to the mists of time.
Bronzefolk Records: Because the character script was typically very small, the records of the Bronzefolk were densely stamped on thin single sided sheets (pages) of bronze and sealed in wax or resin. Their most important records were done this way, weighing in at 10-100 pounds each volume. Obviously these weather well compared to paper, or hide. There are almost no known examples of these records outside The Saelish – guarded and restricted (though copies are available). The few that do exist are in the libraries of Port Towne or personal collectors.
Common Knowledge / Easy Difficulty
Older Sources: Dunlupia and Dundarian are loosely related, sharing some of words, and borrowing from elder tongues such as Draconic and Celestial. The written form of Dunlupia is also said to incorporate elemental symbolism of Occulash, a runic form of magic; This often makes magical translations of the work difficult – prone to unintentional errors and even magical confusion or backlash. This is often cited for the errors and omissions inherent in copying/translating records.
Uncommon Knowledge / Average Difficulty
Difficulty in Records and Literacy: The language has a minor element of Cerebro Language,inherited from its preeminent ancient roots of Draconic and Celestine – requiring knowledge that has been lost to achieve a level of Mastery. This also makes it next to impossible to translate writings beyond a level of barely Familiar; most scripts are written at the Competent and Accomplished practice levels, dropping any complete translations of anything of higher conceptual elements (especially mystical texts). This, combined with its older source origins, makes translating/copying texts by a non truly native speaker (conversant in the source and missing elements), next to impossible.
Scarce Knowledge / Hard Difficulty
Sometimes, scholars will “reinterpret” a work, not copying it verbatim, but instead paraphrasing it, changing the order of elements, and using synonyms. This can rob the work of some special and specific meaning, but communicates the general ideas well enough without losing the level at which the original was written.
Ancient Forgotten Sources: Elements of the ancient ideas and words represented in Drunnae are also found in this language, though very few scholars actually recognize their source and influence. It is not necessary to understand this language, but observant scholars recognize the influence.
Rare Knowledge / Very Hard Difficulty
Native Speaker (Cultural Context): Additionally, to complete the knowledge of mastering the language the character needs to be either a native Bronzefolk, having grown up in their ancient place of origin, or have Lore: Bronzefolk/Lords of Bronze at Mastery level. There are places and cultural roles that are used as concept bridges that have no meaning without the context of their ancient culture, requiring specific knowledge.
Practice Level:
- Maximum achievable as a ‘spoken’ language by non native.
- Native Speaker + Cerebro
Obscure Knowledge / Near-Impossible Difficulty is not in known references; It is GM only and not Forbidden Knowledge.
Dunlupian was invented by Hathor and Thoth on Helca in order for a select few Celestine to communicate about the Illuminated Awakening. It also was used to negotiate the bonds with the great animal archetypes of Helca (and could also on other worlds) that made them so potent against the monstrosities created by the Sea-Kings.
Expanded Mastery: + Draconic (conversational/fluent) + Celestine (conversational/fluent)
The ability to communicate on this level has the equivalent capability as Sylvan and the added capability to be able to charm or influence natural beasts/animals. It allows the practitioner to understand ANY spoken language at a practice level of 1 (though not speak back to them) as well as rudimentary communication in Drunnae and Dudarum. It also facilitates any attempts at calming effect on targets of draconic or celestine nature as well as the Druunad race on Helca.