Regional Speech, Trade Communication, Codes, and Records

Knowing a language allows a character to communicate. It does not automatically reveal every dialect, legal implication, technical abbreviation, hidden signal, professional code, historical expression, or cultural assumption carried through that language.

People across Thesalon communicate through more than ordinary speech.

They use:

• regional dialects;
• professional registers;
• signed languages;
• ship flags;
• lighthouse shutters;
• harbor lamps;
• river markers;
• warning poles;
• bells;
• horns;
• drums;
• route signs;
• guild marks;
• household symbols;
• resistance cants;
• temple seals;
• encoded letters;
• cargo records;
• witness testimony;
• oral memory;
• archive copies;
• living records;
• web patterns;
• reef markings;
• magical notation.

These systems affect what player characters can learn, conceal, prove, misunderstand, forge, translate, or persuade others to accept.

The central rule is:

Language determines whether basic communication is possible. Skills determine what a character understands, accomplishes, conceals, verifies, or convinces others to believe.

On This Page

• Player Rules Summary
• When Communication Requires a Check
• Regional Dialects and Speech Communities
• Caerlish Dialects
• Maritheli Dialects
• Suthrani Dialects
• Veyrsk Dialects
• Ilyric Dialects
• Vorraki Varieties
• Selvarin and International Speech
• Diaspora and Mixed Dialects
• Trade and Contact Speech
• Interpreters and Translation Institutions
• Signed Languages
• Operational Signals
• Codes, Cants, and Restricted Communication
• Communication Etiquette
• Literacy in Thesalon
• Scripts, Registers, and Partial Literacy
• Records and Their Uses
• Record-Keeping Institutions by Continent
• Scribes, Clerks, Translators, and Witnesses
• Forgery, Lost Records, and Conflicting Evidence
• Pathfinder 2e Communication Procedures
• Character Creation Communication Worksheet
• Quick Reference Tables
• What Most People Know
• Related Pages

Player Rules Summary

Ordinary Communication Requires No Check

A character does not normally roll merely to converse in a language they know.

No check is usually required to:

• introduce oneself;
• understand ordinary conversation;
• ask directions;
• buy common goods;
• arrange normal lodging;
• read a contemporary public notice;
• follow familiar shipboard instructions;
• communicate through a signed language the character knows;
• understand a familiar dialect;
• write an ordinary personal message;
• translate routine conversation between two languages the character knows.

Checks become appropriate when the communication is:

• archaic;
• heavily dialectal;
• technical;
• damaged;
• deliberately ambiguous;
• encoded;
• encrypted;
• politically sensitive;
• magically altered;
• performed in dangerous conditions;
• dependent on unfamiliar etiquette;
• intended to deceive or impersonate.

Language Does Not Replace Skills

A character who speaks Suthrani can understand the words used in a river court. They may still need Society, Legal Lore, River Lore, or another relevant skill to understand the ruling’s technical effect.

A character who speaks Maritheli can read a harbor notice. They may still need Sailing Lore to recognize that a pilot assignment would place a vessel on an unsafe route.

A character who speaks Veyrsk can understand a Stonewake warning. They may still need Arcana, Occultism, Crafting, or Seal Lore to understand what the warning says about the sealed site.

Dialects Are Usually Mutually Intelligible

Dialects of the same language are normally understandable without purchasing separate language selections.

A roll is appropriate only when local vocabulary, pronunciation, mixed grammar, professional jargon, or environmental distortion materially affects the scene.

Failure should generally produce:

• incomplete information;
• delayed understanding;
• loss of nuance;
• mistaken context;
• need for a local speaker.

It should not make two speakers of the same language suddenly unable to communicate at all.

Access Is Not Authority

Speaking a language does not automatically grant:

• archive access;
• temple recognition;
• guild membership;
• authority to interpret law;
• the right to use a restricted signal;
• permission to learn a cant;
• acceptance as a member of the culture.

Player-Facing Skill Summary

Task	Typical skill or action
Identify an accent or dialect	Society or regional Lore
Understand technical jargon	Relevant Lore or associated skill
Read archaic or obscure writing	Decipher Writing
Identify a public signal	Recall Knowledge
Decode a professional code	Relevant Lore, Society, or Thievery
Find an interpreter	Gather Information
Persuade an interpreter to assist	Request
Detect deliberate mistranslation	Sense Motive
Impersonate an official speaker	Lie or Impersonate
Reproduce a seal or mark	Thievery or Crafting
Verify a legal document	Society or Legal Lore
Compare several archives	Research subsystem
Translate routine conversation	No check if both languages are known
Translate technical testimony	Relevant Lore, Society, or content skill
Communicate through severe noise or weather	Relevant sign system, Perception, or situational check

When Communication Requires a Check

Familiar Dialect

No check is required.

The character understands ordinary vocabulary, rhythm, common references, and routine social implications.

Unfamiliar Dialect

No check is normally required for simple communication.

A check may be used to identify:

• the speaker’s region;
• likely social environment;
• occupational background;
• other languages influencing the speech;
• whether the dialect is being imitated.

Heavy Local Dialect

Use Society or relevant Lore when local words and references materially obscure meaning.

Critical Success: The character understands the complete meaning and recognizes a useful local implication.

Success: The character understands the intended meaning.

Failure: The character understands the broad subject but misses an important distinction.

Critical Failure: The character accepts a plausible but incorrect interpretation.

Technical Register

Use the skill tied to the subject.

Examples:

• Legal Lore for a judgment;
• Sailing Lore for a pilot order;
• Medicine for healer shorthand;
• Religion for temple notation;
• Crafting for engineering instructions;
• Warfare Lore for military commands;
• Mercantile Lore for complex ledgers;
• Varkul Law Lore for death-registration language.

Knowing the base language allows the character to read or hear the words. The check determines whether they understand their technical meaning.

Archaic Language

Use Decipher Writing with a suitable skill.

Archaic forms are normally registers or historical forms rather than separate character-sheet languages.

Environmental Interference

Communication can be impaired by:

• storm wind;
• surf;
• battle;
• machinery;
• underwater distortion;
• smoke;
• darkness;
• distance;
• magical silence;
• crowd noise.

A known signed or signal system may remove the barrier.

Where uncertainty matters, the GM may call for:

• Perception;
• relevant Lore;
• Society;
• Sailing Lore;
• Athletics or Acrobatics to maintain position while signaling;
• another skill suited to the situation.

Regional Dialects and Speech Communities

Dialects reveal where people have lived, worked, traveled, studied, and formed households.

They do not reliably reveal ancestry, morality, citizenship, or political loyalty.

A person may speak:

• the dialect of a host neighborhood;
• the dialect of a parent;
• a mixed household dialect;
• a professional register;
• a consciously learned prestigious form;
• a dialect associated with a place they have never personally visited.

The Read Shibboleths feat provides a useful model for characters who study the social information embedded in speech. Speech patterns can reveal minor facts about social environment, while deceptive speakers may attempt to support an assumed identity.

Caerlish Dialects

Crownward Administrative Caerlish

Primary location: Crownward civic offices, courts, archives, diplomatic districts, and formal schools.

Characteristics:

• deliberate pacing;
• complete titles;
• precise distinctions among record, testimony, copy, and ruling;
• conservative grammar;
• frequent Old Crownward vocabulary.

Borrowed influences: Selvarin, Suthrani legal speech, Dwarven archival terminology.

Common users: Clerks, advocates, diplomats, archivists, court officers, and educated civic households.

Table use: Society or Legal Lore can reveal whether a speaker was formally trained or is imitating official speech.

Common misconception: Formal Crownward speech indicates royalist politics.

Crownward Neighborhood Caerlish

Primary location: Residential wards, reconstruction districts, markets, public kitchens, and labor streets.

Characteristics:

• shortened titles;
• extensive district vocabulary;
• mixed foreign loanwords;
• faster rhythm than administrative speech;
• local terms for reconstruction, food, housing, and public services.

Each ward has recognizable differences. Reconstruction wards use more Veyrsk, Maritheli, Goblin, and Suthrani loanwords than older central districts.

Estenmark Border Speech

Primary location: Estenwatch, signal settlements, patrol roads, and eastern forts.

Characteristics:

• short sentences;
• explicit direction and distance;
• military and evacuation vocabulary;
• numerous Vorraki and Orcish loans;
• distinctions among warning, confirmation, rumor, and witnessed threat.

Table use: Estenmark Lore or Warfare Lore can determine whether a phrase is an order, recommendation, warning, or report.

Misidentification: Outsiders often treat all Estenmark speech as military speech.

Marcher Reconstruction Caerlish

Primary location: West Hearthvale, New Bellweather, reconstructed villages, militia roads, and occupancy settlements.

Characteristics:

• vocabulary from work crews and camps;
• lost place-names used as family references;
• simplified formal titles;
• Orcish, Goblin, Vorraki, Maritheli, and Suthrani loans;
• distinctions between inherited claim and present occupancy.

Social meaning: Using an old noble place-name may sound historical, hostile, nostalgic, or absurd depending on local circumstances.

Heartplain Market Speech

Primary location: Grain markets, farming villages, seed houses, granaries, and agricultural assemblies.

Characteristics:

• extensive vocabulary for grain, storage, soil, weather, seed custody, and shared labor;
• Halfling and Shoony influence;
• indirect forms used when discussing reserves or scarcity;
• clear differences between food, market grain, seed grain, and emergency reserve.

Table use: Farming Lore, Mercantile Lore, or Heartplain Lore can reveal whether a transaction concerns ordinary grain or protected seed.

Torin Bridge Speech

Primary location: Torinbridge, ferries, toll houses, Underbridge Wards, and Freehold councils.

Characteristics:

• bridge and river metaphors;
• short witness formulas;
• precise vocabulary for closure, crossing priority, toll exemption, and structural danger;
• Halfling, Ysoki, Dwarven, and river-language influence.

Common feature: A statement may be repeated by a second person to establish public witness.

Highharbor Port Caerlish

Primary location: Highharbor docks, Harbor of Names, marine wards, foreign markets, and Return Houses.

Characteristics:

• strong Maritime Common influence;
• Maritheli and Tengu loanwords;
• rapid code-switching;
• simplified grammar in mixed crews;
• extensive identity, cargo, and return vocabulary.

Table use: Highharbor Lore can distinguish dock speech, registry speech, marine speech, and refugee-district speech.

Silveredge Surface Caerlish

Primary location: Surface Houses, pass markets, trade gates, and foreign guest districts.

Characteristics:

• Dwarven and Sakvroth structural vocabulary;
• careful use of depth, access, seal, support, and sponsor terms;
• distinctions between invitation, permission, sponsorship, and unrestricted access.

Verdant Court Caerlish

Primary location: Verdant Principalities, return courts, estates, garden households, and succession proceedings.

Characteristics:

• Elven and Fey influence;
• terminology for continuity through body or household change;
• careful distinction among inheritance, stewardship, occupancy, and living recognition;
• older court forms retained in ceremonial use.

Caerlonian Diaspora Caerlish

Primary locations: Marithel, Suthrane, Veyrskold, Selvarin, and international refugee communities.

Characteristics:

• host-language vocabulary;
• preserved older Caerlish expressions;
• new terms for passage, sanctuary, remittance, and return;
• generational differences in pronunciation and grammar.

A diaspora speaker may sound old-fashioned in Caerlon while sounding fully local in their own district.

Camp-Descendant Speech

Primary locations: Marches, Vorrakian prisoner-descendant settlements, Return Houses, and mixed war-camp communities.

Characteristics:

• Caerlish grammar combined with Vorraki, Orcish, Goblin, and work-camp vocabulary;
• multiple names for family roles;
• phrases preserved from military commands but used domestically;
• coded references to captivity and escape.

Maritheli Dialects

Windrider Freeport Speech

Primary location: Windrider Freeport.

Characteristics:

• rapid borrowing;
• flexible name order;
• frequent code-switching;
• simplified formal grammar;
• vocabulary for sanctuary, guest law, ships, debt, temporary households, and foreign status.

Windrider speakers commonly use a person’s preferred public name without demanding proof of an older name.

Whiteglass Lens Speech

Primary location: Whiteglass Harbor, lighthouse islands, pilot schools, and lens workshops.

Characteristics:

• precise visibility vocabulary;
• distinctions among seen, confirmed, inferred, reflected, and falsely shown;
• Gnomish and Dwarven technical loans;
• specialized terms for light color, angle, lens condition, and signal delay.

Table use: Crafting, Sailing Lore, or Whiteglass Lore can determine whether a statement concerns optical clarity, legal signal validity, or pilot judgment.

Pearlglass Surface Maritheli

Primary location: Dry districts of Pearlglass Harbor.

Characteristics:

• aquatic vocabulary adapted into spoken Maritheli;
• frequent use of Harbor Sign;
• distinctions among surface ownership, water access, reef custody, and submerged residence;
• Athamaru, Azarketi, Tidespeech, and Iruxi loans.

Pearlglass Submerged Maritheli

Primary location: Coral Ward, submerged markets, reef courts, and water locks.

Forms:

• adapted vocal speech;
• hand sign;
• body movement;
• light marks;
• written tablets.

It is mutually intelligible with surface Maritheli when conditions permit, but ordinary surface pronunciation may be unusable underwater.

Ropefall Yard Speech

Primary location: Ropefall shipyards, rope walks, sail lofts, and Three-Yard Houses.

Characteristics:

• short work commands;
• extensive material and tool vocabulary;
• Veyrsk, Dwarven, Goblin, and Caerlish loans;
• words that distinguish ownership, current custody, repair responsibility, and final inspection.

Grainwake Market Speech

Primary location: Grainwake Harbor, warehouse districts, Caerlon Steps, relief kitchens, and farming islands.

Characteristics:

• Heartplain and Halfling influence;
• vocabulary for grain quality, storage, relief priority, spoilage, and rationing;
• distinctions between gift, relief allocation, sale, reserve, and repayment.

Coinmast Ledger Speech

Primary location: Coinmast counting houses, bonded warehouses, insurance offices, and merchant courts.

Characteristics:

• Ysoki and Selvarin influence;
• compressed financial expressions;
• precise terms for ownership, risk, liability, cargo share, and conditional payment;
• numbers often spoken in fixed order to reduce fraud.

Table use: Mercantile Lore may be needed to understand the practical consequence of ordinary-looking phrases.

Debtwater Contract Speech

Primary location: Passage Houses, creditor compounds, labor wards, and debt courts.

Characteristics:

• contract vocabulary presented as ordinary speech;
• terms whose legal meaning differs from their everyday meaning;
• careful distinction among passenger, dependent, labor beneficiary, guarantor, and contracted household member.

Warning: A character may understand every word without understanding that a phrase creates an obligation.

Stormgate Passage Speech

Primary location: Stormgate channels, chain stations, military harbors, and inspection courts.

Characteristics:

• highly standardized commands;
• limited acceptable synonyms;
• clear distinctions among delay, inspection, closure, seizure, and military denial;
• Maritime Common, Maritheli, and naval cant layered together.

Highfall Cliff Speech

Primary location: Highfall towers, cliff roads, storm islands, and aerial watch stations.

Characteristics:

• Cliff Sign used alongside speech;
• Strix and Tengu influence;
• short phrases suited to wind;
• position words based on height, windward direction, tower line, and visible water.

Drowned Reef Canton Speech

Primary location: Reef cantons, wreck sites, small islands, and underwater villages.

Characteristics:

• local reef and wreck names;
• Tidespeech and aquatic influence;
• vocabulary distinguishing salvage, grave protection, habitation, reef custody, and abandonment;
• many terms conveyed through gesture or object position.

Saltglass Court Maritheli

Primary location: Saltglass Principalities.

Characteristics:

• elaborate household and alliance titles;
• indirect refusal;
• courtly references to glass, reflection, marriage, and inheritance;
• Suthrani and Selvarin diplomatic influence.

Farwake Navigator Speech

Primary location: Navigation houses, long-range vessels, chart rooms, and distant routes.

Characteristics:

• compressed weather and route terminology;
• deliberately incomplete location references;
• professional names for routes not shown on public maps;
• numerical, visual, and instrument-based supplements.

Farwake speech is a professional register rather than a separate language.

Sirenward Survivor Speech

Primary location: Quarantine wards, patrol settlements, recovery houses, and displaced island communities.

Characteristics:

• cautious time references;
• alternate words for memory, voice, dream, and recognition;
• use of gesture where speech is unreliable or personally difficult;
• terms distinguishing heard signal, remembered signal, repeated signal, and unverified signal.

Shipborn Mixed Maritheli

Primary location: Multigenerational vessels and floating households.

Characteristics:

• vocabulary from repeated routes;
• household terms drawn from several languages;
• ship name used in place of settlement;
• strong Harbor Sign component;
• pronunciation shaped by mixed crews rather than one harbor.

Suthrani Dialects

Anuth-Selai Civic Speech

Primary location: River courts, public landings, civic offices, and administrative districts.

Characteristics:

• precise water and jurisdiction vocabulary;
• formal witness constructions;
• distinctions among upstream responsibility, downstream harm, temporary use, and continuing right;
• conservative River Temple Script forms.

Grand Temple Formal Suthrani

Primary location: Grand Temple Precincts and major foreign temple houses.

Characteristics:

• ceremonial pacing;
• pantheon-specific titles;
• legal and theological distinctions;
• frequent quotations from older sacred forms;
• different temples preserve different preferred vocabulary.

No single temple owns the entire formal register.

Anointed River Village Speech

Primary location: Ferries, canal villages, fishing settlements, and flood-control communities.

Characteristics:

• local water vocabulary;
• extensive terms for channel behavior, levee condition, fish movement, and household labor;
• Iruxi, Halfling, Tripkee, and Shoony influence.

Ivory Floodplain Agricultural Speech

Primary location: Estates, tenant villages, levee districts, raised roads, and agricultural courts.

Characteristics:

• words for silt, flood stage, planting claim, tenancy, animal movement, and grain duty;
• indirect speech when criticizing estate authority;
• different terms for naturally deposited land and deliberately created land.

Mereth-Kai Maritime Suthrani

Primary location: Inner Sea ports, island districts, fisheries, naval assemblies, and underwater wards.

Characteristics:

• Maritime Common and Maritheli influence;
• aquatic vocabulary;
• signed supplements;
• legal distinctions between water route, harbor territory, fishing zone, and sacred water.

Osseran Caravan Speech

Primary location: Osseran, Nine-Well Yard, Sunroad settlements, and caravans.

Characteristics:

• Kholo, Ysoki, Halfling, and Vorraki influence;
• route words based on wells and travel intervals;
• terms for hospitality, shade, water contribution, convoy membership, and temporary market law.

Kharad-Sur Gate Speech

Primary location: Gate city, mountain roads, toll houses, and pass communities.

Characteristics:

• Dwarven, Jotun, and Veyrsk influence;
• precise access terminology;
• distinctions among closed, sealed, blocked, restricted, and impassable;
• professional words for structural and avalanche risk.

Expanse Route Speech

Primary location: Scorching Expanse and connected routes.

Characteristics:

• shortened Suthrani grammar;
• Kholo and caravan influence;
• gesture and object-position supplements;
• extensive weather, water, and route vocabulary.

White Cord Funerary Register

Primary location: White Cord Houses, funerary courts, missing-person hearings, and burial institutions.

Characteristics:

• careful distinction among dead, missing, unreturned, witnessed dead, legally dead, body recovered, and identity unresolved;
• Requian and Necril loans;
• formal avoidance of claims not supported by testimony.

House of Two Births Register

Primary location: Adoption houses and affiliated temple networks.

Characteristics:

• separate terms for birth household, raising household, temple siblings, sponsor, chosen family, and adult self-identification;
• language intended to preserve several relationships without ranking one as inherently real.

Suthrani Diaspora Speech

Primary locations: Marithel, Selvarin, Caerlon, Veyrskold, and international temple quarters.

Characteristics:

• host-language influence;
• preserved temple and family vocabulary;
• local forms of Suthrani festivals and adoption terms;
• later generations may understand formal temple Suthrani better than rural speech.

Veyrsk Dialects

Skeldheim Hearth Speech

Primary location: Skeldheim and hearth-league settlements.

Characteristics:

• vocabulary for shelter, fuel, food, space, and emergency obligation;
• household names tied to hearths;
• clear distinctions among guest, protected traveler, resident, and winter dependent.

Hrafnvik Maritime Veyrsk

Primary location: Hrafnvik, rescue stations, fjord communities, and the Oar Quarter.

Characteristics:

• Caerlish, Maritheli, and Tengu influence;
• rescue commands;
• numerous words for cold-water condition, ice movement, vessel stability, and survivability;
• oar and crew terminology used socially.

Stonewake Warden Register

Primary location: Stonewake, sealed sites, warning towers, and specialist houses.

Characteristics:

• controlled vocabulary;
• standardized observation order;
• strict separation of observed fact, inferred cause, and prohibited speculation;
• Draconic, Androffan, Dwarven, and occult terminology.

The register is intentionally difficult to improvise because false certainty can be lethal.

Dromgard Giant-Road Speech

Primary location: Dromgard and giant-road settlements.

Characteristics:

• Jotun influence;
• multiple volume and scale forms;
• phrases structured to avoid ambiguity between individual, household, work crew, and giant kin group;
• physical position can indicate who holds the floor.

Emberdeep Forge Speech

Primary location: Emberdeep, geothermal works, mines, and fireward districts.

Characteristics:

• Pyric, Dwarven, Goblin, and Sakvroth loans;
• precise temperature, vent, pressure, and hazard terms;
• short commands used around machinery;
• worker forms differ from administrative forms.

Iceflow Hold Speech

Primary location: Glacier valleys, ice roads, fishing holds, and moving settlements.

Characteristics:

• vocabulary for ice sound, age, movement, load, and seasonal safety;
• route descriptions based on current conditions rather than permanent landmarks;
• silence may be used to listen for danger.

Northfire Camp Speech

Primary location: Northfire Camp and foreign work settlements.

Characteristics:

• Veyrsk grammar mixed with Caerlish, Goblin, Dwarven, and labor terminology;
• simplified oath language;
• camp-specific household terms;
• words for contract status, remittance, winter closure, and employer responsibility.

Shattered Spine Hall Speech

Primary location: Jarldoms, fortified valleys, clan halls, and high routes.

Characteristics:

• inherited hall titles;
• formal challenge language;
• Jotun and Dwarven influence;
• indirect accusations framed through household responsibility.

Wyrmwatch Dragon-Contact Speech

Primary location: Wyrmwatch territories and treaty halls.

Characteristics:

• Draconic influence;
• formal distinctions among witnessing, interpreting, and speaking for a dragon;
• careful tense when discussing long-lived parties;
• standardized words for territory, flight, tribute, protection, and recognition.

Foreign Worker Veyrsk

Primary locations: Ports, mines, ruin camps, Northfire, and seasonal contracts.

Characteristics:

• reduced case and title systems;
• strong professional vocabulary;
• host-community loanwords;
• mutually intelligible with ordinary Veyrsk but visibly foreign or camp-based.

Ilyric Dialects

Aelora Canopy Speech

Primary location: Aelora, canopy platforms, living bridges, and Guest Platforms.

Characteristics:

• Canopy Sign used alongside speech;
• direction based on height, trunk, bridge, water, and light;
• terms for sponsorship, maintenance responsibility, and permitted access;
• Vanara, Elven, Fey, and Amurrun influence.

Saren-Tel Wetland Speech

Primary location: Saren-Tel, floating markets, reed settlements, and moving channels.

Characteristics:

• Iruxi and Tripkee influence;
• numerous water and channel terms;
• place-names that change with geography;
• distinctions between a community, its current location, and its recognized water rights.

Namarra Healer Register

Primary location: Namarra, Recovery Houses, clinics, protected gardens, and teaching communities.

Characteristics:

• careful distinction between observed symptom, suspected cause, established cause, and treatment response;
• language designed to avoid promising cures;
• Suthrani, Vishkanyan, Elven, Gnomish, and plant-community terminology.

Mistwell Protected Speech

Primary location: Mistwell, waiting grounds, sanctuary houses, and protected routes.

Characteristics:

• avoidance of unnecessary proper names;
• location described through sequence and permission rather than direct map reference;
• Wayang, Shadowtongue, Kitsune, and guide-sign influence;
• vocabulary for concealment, sponsorship, and controlled disclosure.

Thornward Border Speech

Primary location: Thornward Marches, patrol communities, extraction sites, and western borders.

Characteristics:

• military, ecological, and witness vocabulary;
• distinctions among purchased, taken, harvested, stolen, sampled, and destroyed;
• Caerlish, Vorraki, and foreign technical loans.

Emerald Plateau Speech

Primary location: Plateau settlements, terraces, springs, grazing circuits, and storm refuges.

Characteristics:

• place references tied to water flow and elevation;
• vocabulary for shared spring responsibility, grazing rotation, and weather shelter;
• Jotun and Vanara influence in some regions.

Living Harbor Ilyric

Primary location: Coastal living harbors, mangroves, reef settlements, and river mouths.

Characteristics:

• Tidespeech, Iruxi, Athamaru, and Maritheli influence;
• surface, submerged, and signed forms;
• distinctions among using, feeding, pruning, healing, and harming living infrastructure.

Guest Platform Contact Ilyric

Primary location: Aeloran and other sponsored-arrival communities.

Characteristics:

• simplified grammar;
• explicit stewardship instructions;
• vocabulary for sponsor, guest duty, restricted area, and permanent recognition;
• loanwords from the resident population.

Stewardship Legal Register

Primary location: Stewardship councils, living-land hearings, Green Veil, Riverroot, and protected regions.

Characteristics:

• relationship-based rather than ownership-based terminology;
• separate terms for custody, responsibility, permission, use, protection, and belonging;
• Nature, Society, and relevant Lore may all be needed to interpret a ruling.

Vorraki Varieties

Vorraki is a contact language and continuum rather than one uniform national language.

Maw Court Tribute Speech

Primary location: Kharzug-Maul and dependent territories.

Characteristics:

• Orcish and Kholo influence;
• vocabulary for provision, protection, challenge, declared ability, and feast obligation;
• different terms for voluntary contribution and compelled tribute.

Varkul Death-Law Speech

Primary location: Varkul Neth-Kharn, death registries, corpse courts, and mortuary settlements.

Characteristics:

• Necril and Requian influence;
• precise status categories;
• names treated as registry claims;
• grammar that distinguishes body, person, soul claim, office, and household custody.

Grimspine Military Speech

Primary location: Drakkar-Grim, passes, cliff settlements, and fortress territories.

Characteristics:

• Jotun, Draconic, Strix, and Orcish influence;
• standardized command vocabulary;
• distinctions among fortress order, household command, dragon compact, and local warning.

Ashen Technical Speech

Primary location: Varkhûl-Ashak, Skill Houses, forges, and industrial territories.

Characteristics:

• Dwarven, Goblin, Sakvroth, Draconic, and Pyric terminology;
• worker shorthand;
• production codes;
• official terminology designed to obscure harm or ownership.

Iron Tribute Road Speech

Primary location: Urgath-Korr, Iron Tables, fortified wells, and tribute routes.

Characteristics:

• Kholo, Suthrani, and caravan influence;
• precise route, convoy, contract, protection, and well-truce vocabulary;
• meaning often depends on which table, road, or witness recognizes the phrase.

Blackwood Border Vorraki

Primary location: Blackwood boundary markets and court-facing settlements.

Characteristics:

• Fey, Elven, Arboreal, and local covenant influence;
• careful avoidance of protected place-names;
• terms for negotiated harvesting, refuge, boundary, and restoration.

Red Waste Market Vorraki

Primary location: Red Waste markets, Kharruk assemblies, wells, and court contact points.

Characteristics:

• Kholo influence;
• portable and route-based concepts;
• fewer fixed-place assumptions;
• words for temporary agreement, moving boundary, and seasonal return.

Dreadshore Naval Vorraki

Primary location: Dreadshore eyries, naval camps, signal houses, and coast patrols.

Characteristics:

• Strix, Tengu, and military influence;
• wing and flag supplements;
• standardized naval terms with local cliff vocabulary.

Gaping Coast Contact Speech

Primary location: Coastal brood territories, estuaries, tidal settlements, and foreign markets.

Characteristics:

• Iruxi, aquatic, and brood vocabulary;
• body and water-position signals;
• distinctions among brood kinship, feeding right, pilot duty, and tidal territory.

Subject-Town Vorraki

Primary location: Mixed towns throughout Vorrak.

Characteristics:

• local ancestry and captive-community influence;
• simplified court terminology;
• strong market vocabulary;
• different varieties can be difficult for distant speakers but remain broadly intelligible.

Skill House Speech

Primary location: Controlled specialist compounds.

Characteristics:

• Ashen official vocabulary;
• preserved foreign professional words;
• worker codes;
• hidden terms for supervisors, punishment, sabotage, and escape.

Hidden Lantern Cant

Hidden Lantern communication is not one full dialect. It layers recognition terms, omissions, altered names, and coded references onto local languages.

Further details appear under Codes, Cants, and Restricted Communication.

Prisoner-Camp and Defector Speech

Primary locations: Former camps, Lantern House East, Windrider, Highharbor, and Marcher communities.

Characteristics:

• Caerlish, Vorraki, Orcish, Goblin, and camp-number influence;
• preserved commands converted into household language;
• indirect references to captivity and surviving family.

Selvarin and International Speech

Municipal Selvarin

Primary location: Ordinary Selvarin civic life.

Characteristics:

• standardized grammar;
• broad international vocabulary;
• limited inherited hierarchy;
• clear terms for residence, profession, representation, and municipal duty.

Treaty Selvarin

Primary location: Treaty courts, diplomatic hearings, and multinational agreements.

Characteristics:

• deliberately defined terms;
• limited acceptable synonyms;
• formal indication of translated text;
• explicit distinction among represented state, observing state, host authority, and private party.

Envoy-House Selvarin

Primary location: Diplomatic households and mission districts.

Characteristics:

• represented polity’s loanwords;
• protocol vocabulary;
• household shorthand;
• titles that may have no municipal meaning.

Translator Professional Speech

Primary location: Translator guilds, language schools, courts, and archives.

Characteristics:

• terms for literal translation, functional interpretation, uncertainty, untranslatable concept, annotation, and disputed reading;
• speakers explicitly identify when they are summarizing rather than translating exactly.

Market Selvarin

Primary location: Foreign markets, bonded warehouses, inns, and trade districts.

Characteristics:

• Maritime Common influence;
• Ysoki, Suthrani, Maritheli, and Vorraki loanwords;
• simplified legal forms;
• rapid price and quantity constructions.

Stateless-Household Selvarin

Primary location: International neighborhoods and former mission districts.

Characteristics:

• family vocabulary from several languages;
• old state titles used domestically but not publicly;
• civic identity emphasized over foreign legal classification.

International-School Speech

Primary location: Schools serving envoy, translator, merchant, exile, and mixed households.

Characteristics:

• frequent code-switching;
• simplified idioms;
• playful mixed vocabulary;
• later adopted into professional international speech.

Diaspora and Mixed Dialects

Caerlon Steps Speech

A Grainwake dialect combining Caerlish, Maritheli, Halfling, and agricultural vocabulary.

It is strongest in:

• grain handling;
• public ovens;
• relief allocation;
• return travel;
• mixed island farming.

Three-Yard Work Speech

A Ropefall register combining Maritheli, Veyrsk, Dwarven, Goblin, and Caerlish.

It is used for:

• ship repair;
• labor organization;
• safety;
• apprenticeship;
• injury support.

New Ivrath Speech

A mixed Caerlish–Suthrani community dialect.

It contains:

• dry-field and floodplain farming vocabulary;
• bilingual council formulas;
• household terms reflecting mixed marriage and adoption.

Northfire Camp Speech

A stable mixed dialect rather than merely broken Veyrsk.

Later generations may speak it as a first language.

Oar Quarter Maritime Speech

A Hrafnvik dialect with strong Caerlish and Maritheli influence.

Guest Platform Contact Speech

A deliberately teachable form of Ilyric that can become a household dialect among long-term residents.

Harbor of Names Speech

A Highharbor contact dialect containing:

• temporary-name terminology;
• testimony formulas;
• Caerlish, Maritime Common, Vorraki, and Suthrani influence;
• distinctions among remembered, witnessed, recorded, and claimed identity.

White Cord Diaspora Speech

A Suthrani funerary register used across several continents, often mixed with local family languages.

Selvarin International Speech

A stable multilingual urban form used by people who identify primarily with Selvarin rather than any ancestral state.

Trade and Contact Speech

Maritime Common

The default Common of the Marithel campaign.

Used for:

• harbor trade;
• ordinary shipboard communication;
• directions;
• emergency response;
• passenger interaction;
• basic contracts;
• multinational crews.

It lacks the precision of local legal and professional registers.

Selvarin Diplomatic Standard

A formal register of Selvarin used for:

• treaties;
• neutral hearings;
• diplomatic correspondence;
• prisoner exchange;
• international identity claims;
• cross-border legal comparison.

It is not a separate character-sheet language from Selvarin.

Vorraki Court-Market Speech

A simplified, widely intelligible Vorraki register used among:

• Great Seat representatives;
• subject towns;
• tribute roads;
• foreign merchants;
• prisoner negotiators;
• defectors.

Sakvroth Deep Trade

Used beneath the surface among communities that do not share Dwarven, Jotun, or local deep languages.

It is common in:

• Silveredge;
• Veyrskold;
• Kharad-Sur;
• Ashen territories;
• old underground roads.

Suthrani Caravan Speech

A contact register combining Suthrani, Kholo, Ysoki, Vorraki, and route vocabulary.

It is used across:

• Osseran;
• Sunroad;
• Red Waste approaches;
• pilgrimage routes;
• caravanserais.

Highharbor Reconstruction Speech

A mixed work register used by:

• engineers;
• labor crews;
• refugee households;
• military logisticians;
• foreign aid workers.

It contains terms from Caerlish, Veyrsk, Maritheli, Goblin, Dwarven, and Vorraki.

Northfire Work Speech

A Veyrsk-based technical contact register used by foreign contract workers.

Pearlglass Surface–Aquatic Contact

A combined system of:

• Maritime Common;
• Maritheli;
• Harbor Sign;
• Tidespeech;
• light patterns;
• writing tablets.

It allows ordinary trade between surface and aquatic communities without requiring every participant to speak the same aquatic language.

Temporary Pidgins

Short-term contact speech can form in:

• military camps;
• new ports;
• refugee centers;
• work sites;
• expeditions;
• prisoner exchanges.

A temporary pidgin normally provides only practical vocabulary.

Stable Mixed Dialects

A contact system becomes a stable dialect when children and households use it for ordinary life rather than only trade.

Examples include:

• Northfire Camp Speech;
• New Ivrath Speech;
• Harbor of Names Speech;
• Three-Yard Work Speech;
• Selvarin International Speech.

These are normally treated as dialects of their strongest parent language rather than separate Pathfinder languages.

Interpreters and Translation Institutions

Selvarin Translator Guilds

Languages handled: All major regional languages, many ancestry-associated languages, legal registers, and selected planar languages.

Who may request service: Residents, foreign missions, courts, merchants, private clients, and protected witnesses.

Services:

• spoken interpretation;
• document translation;
• treaty comparison;
• interpreter certification;
• script identification;
• multilingual transcription.

Confidentiality: Formally strong, though political pressure and bribery remain possible.

Records maintained: Interpreter assignment, language claimed, version produced, known uncertainties, and client authorization.

Player access: Payment, envoy sponsorship, guild contact, court order, or community referral.

Windrider Harbor Interpreters

Languages handled: Maritime Common, Maritheli, Caerlish, Vorraki, Suthrani, Tengu, Ysoki, aquatic languages, and Harbor Sign.

Locations: Harbor offices, Blue Lantern houses, Low Lantern Refuge, major markets, and pilot stations.

Services: Arrival interviews, ordinary trade, sanctuary testimony, crew disputes, and missing-person communication.

Limitations: Not every harbor interpreter is qualified for legal or magical documents.

Blue Lantern Testimony Interpreters

Purpose: Interpret sanctuary claims without exposing more identity than necessary.

Practices:

• use refuge names;
• separate direct statement from interpreter explanation;
• record uncertainty;
• avoid supplying information the witness did not state;
• protect language details that could reveal origin.

Political pressure: Foreign authorities may demand original-language recordings or direct access.

Highharbor Return Translators

Locations: Harbor of Names, Return Houses, Unreturned Offices, and registration courts.

Specialties:

• camp dialects;
• old Caerlish;
• Vorraki court speech;
• identity terminology;
• names in several scripts;
• prisoner records.

Suthrani Temple Interpreters

Locations: Grand Temple Precincts, White Cord Houses, adoption networks, and foreign temple quarters.

Specialties:

• sacred testimony;
• adoption records;
• funerary speech;
• sanctuary cases;
• pilgrimage;
• resurrection disputes.

Pearlglass Aquatic Interpreters

Forms handled:

• spoken surface language;
• submerged speech;
• Harbor Sign;
• Tidespeech;
• Athamaru;
• Azarketi;
• Iruxi;
• light and tablet communication.

Mistwell Protected Interpreters

Specialties: Concealed identity, protected testimony, route-sensitive speech, Wayang, Shadowtongue, and unusual magical communication.

Access: Guide sponsorship or sanctuary authority.

Vorrakian Defector Interpreters

Locations: Lantern House East, Windrider, Highharbor, Selvarin, and Marcher communities.

Specialties:

• court speech;
• subject-town dialects;
• Skill House language;
• prisoner-camp speech;
• tribute documents;
• military registers.

Risk: Their own identities and families may be endangered by public service.

Veyrskoldic Ruin-Language Specialists

Locations: Stonewake, Silveredge, ruin camps, and Selvarin.

Specialties:

• Androffan;
• ancient Draconic;
• Seal Script;
• archaic Veyrsk;
• technical Dwarven;
• rare planar notation.

Namarra Medical Interpreters

Specialties:

• medical consent;
• altered-body descriptions;
• poison and contamination terminology;
• patient histories;
• communication with people whose speech changed through injury or magic.

Interpreters at the Table

Ordinary Interpretation

A competent interpreter allows normal conversation without repeated checks.

Specialist Interpretation

A check may be needed for:

• law;
• theology;
• technical evidence;
• old writing;
• unfamiliar magic;
• contested identity;
• precise oaths.

Possible skills include:

• Society;
• relevant Lore;
• Diplomacy;
• Religion;
• Arcana;
• Occultism;
• Nature;
• Medicine.

PC Interpreter

A player character who knows both languages can interpret normal speech automatically.

A check is appropriate when the character must:

• preserve exact legal meaning;
• translate under severe time pressure;
• mediate hostile speakers;
• handle technical testimony;
• conceal or alter part of a message;
• reproduce poetry, ritual, or wordplay.

Untrusted Interpreter

The GM may use:

• secret checks;
• Sense Motive;
• comparison with another speaker;
• written transcript;
• later contradiction.

One interpreter check should resolve a meaningful exchange rather than every sentence.

Signed Languages

Signed languages are complete languages where noted. Operational signals are covered separately.

Harbor Sign

Rarity: Common in major maritime communities.

Range: Marithel, Highharbor, Mereth-Kai, Hrafnvik, major fleets, and mixed aquatic districts.

Users:

• sailors;
• dockworkers;
• pilots;
• rescue crews;
• aquatic–surface households;
• deaf communities;
• loud-work crews.

Capacity: Full ordinary conversation.

Writing: Handshape notation exists but is mostly used in teaching and court transcription.

Mutual intelligibility: Local varieties are usually understandable, though Pearlglass and Hrafnvik possess distinctive vocabulary.

Crownward Civic Sign

Range: Crownward, Highharbor administrative institutions, schools, archives, and public hearings.

Capacity: Full conversation, civic procedure, education, and formal testimony.

Teaching institutions: Civic schools, archive households, public advocates, and disability communities.

River Sign

Range: Suthrani river settlements, ferries, barges, flood works, and Mereth-Kai.

Capacity: Full conversation in many communities, with a strong operational vocabulary for water movement.

Features: Body direction and relative position can indicate upstream, downstream, bank, and vessel movement.

Canopy Sign

Range: Aelora and other vertical Ilyrian settlements.

Capacity: Full conversation.

Features: Designed for distance, line of sight, height, and movement between platforms.

Cliff Sign

Range: Highfall, Dreadshore, Veyrskoldic cliffs, Strix communities, and aerial patrols.

Capacity: Full local conversation plus long-distance operational forms.

Features: Uses arms, wings, body angle, colored cloth, and position.

Deepwork Sign

Range: Mines, forges, geothermal works, shipyards, and loud industrial sites.

Capacity: Full work conversation; some communities use it more broadly.

Features: Large, visible movements designed for darkness, noise, masks, and limited air.

Mistwell Guide Sign

Rarity: Restricted uncommon.

Range: Mistwell routes and protected communities.

Capacity: Sufficient for travel, warning, identity control, and quiet conversation.

Access: Guide training or protected-community membership.

Operational Signals

Operational signals communicate a restricted set of meanings rather than full conversation.

Lighthouse Signals

Mediums:

• color;
• shutter sequence;
• beam direction;
• mirror flash;
• lamp position;
• repeated interval.

Common meanings:

• harbor open;
• pilot required;
• reef danger;
• weather closure;
• vessel overdue;
• military threat;
• quarantine;
• false-light warning.

Recognition: Sailing Lore, Marithel Lore, Lighthouse Lore, or training.

Forgery: Deception establishes believable intent; Crafting or Thievery may be required to alter the mechanism.

Stormgate Chain Signals

Mediums:

• chain position;
• tower flag;
• horn;
• bell;
• lamp;
• semaphore.

Meanings:

• free passage;
• reduced passage;
• inspection;
• military hold;
• emergency closure;
• damaged chain;
• unauthorized approach.

Unauthorized use can trigger immediate patrol response.

Ship Flags

Public flags identify:

• vessel status;
• request for pilot;
• medical emergency;
• quarantine;
• surrender;
• distress;
• limited maneuverability;
• convoy position.

Private fleets and corsairs also use restricted recognition flags.

Convoy Lights

Night convoys use lamp position, number, and rhythm to communicate:

• line order;
• speed change;
• vessel missing;
• danger;
• turn;
• separation;
• silence order.

Harbor Bells

Harbor bell systems may indicate:

• fire;
• storm;
• missing vessel;
• labor emergency;
• closure;
• attack;
• public assembly.

The meaning depends on rhythm and tower.

Rescue Whistles

Used by:

• Hrafnvik crews;
• Highharbor docks;
• Maritheli rescue houses;
• Veyrskoldic winter patrols.

Signals convey:

• number of victims;
• rescuer in danger;
• rope needed;
• stop movement;
• current or ice danger.

Military Hand Signals

Military systems vary by force.

Knowing Warfare Lore may identify:

• advance;
• halt;
• conceal;
• regroup;
• enemy position;
• spell danger;
• retreat.

A specific unit’s signals may remain restricted.

Marcher Road Marks

Marks placed on:

• gates;
• wells;
• bridges;
• walls;
• mileposts;
• abandoned structures.

They may show:

• safe occupancy;
• recent patrol;
• contamination;
• blocked route;
• hidden refugees;
• military seizure;
• false census warning.

Veyrskold Warning Poles

Poles use:

• angle;
• carved shape;
• cloth;
• reflective material;
• attached tools.

They indicate:

• avalanche risk;
• ice instability;
• shelter status;
• sealed-site boundary;
• geothermal vent;
• road closure.

Ilyrian Stewardship Markers

Markers may indicate:

• permitted use;
• restricted harvesting;
• closed route;
• recovering land;
• sanctuary;
• water contamination;
• current custodian;
• need for a guide.

A marker can be living, carved, woven, planted, or arranged.

Suthrani River Markers

River markers show:

• flood stage;
• safe channel;
• ferry status;
• water-right boundary;
• contamination;
• burial restriction;
• Alamushti release lane.

Caravan Marks

Caravan marks identify:

• route;
• family or company;
• water contribution;
• danger;
• debt warning;
• available shelter;
• missing party;
• false guide.

Reef Markers

Reef markers use:

• shells;
• colored rope;
• carved stone;
• coral placement;
• light;
• current ribbons.

They identify:

• grave site;
• salvage restriction;
• spawning closure;
• safe passage;
• damaged reef;
• submerged residence;
• Reefcourt claim.

Quarantine Flags

Quarantine systems distinguish among:

• suspected exposure;
• confirmed exposure;
• restricted contact;
• medical assistance requested;
• vessel cleared;
• identity review pending.

Aerial Signals

Strix, tengu, dragonets, cliff communities, and watch towers use:

• flight pattern;
• wing position;
• colored streamer;
• height;
• circling direction;
• landing approach.

Underwater Light Patterns

Used in Pearlglass, Drowned Reef, living harbors, and Sirenward patrols.

They communicate:

• approach;
• danger;
• identity request;
• guide needed;
• current shift;
• silence;
• surface assistance.

Codes, Cants, and Restricted Communication

Hidden Lantern Cant

Type: Layered resistance cant.

Base languages: Vorraki, local court languages, household languages, and foreign refuge speech.

Methods:

• omitted names;
• altered kinship terms;
• burial references;
• harmless household phrases assigned operational meaning;
• object placement;
• route songs;
• lamp behavior.

Recognition: Hidden Lantern Lore or direct membership.

Failure consequence: A mistaken interpretation can expose a safe house or send a refugee toward danger.

Blue Lantern Protected-Name Notation

Type: Confidential identity code.

Purpose: Record that a person possesses a protected identity without exposing the original name.

Methods:

• color and number combinations;
• sponsor references;
• sealed cross-index;
• separate public and restricted ledgers.

Users: Blue Lantern staff, approved interpreters, and sanctuary advocates.

Ashen Banner Veteran Signals

Type: Former military recognition system.

Methods:

• uniform placement;
• unit phrases;
• meal arrangement;
• hand signs;
• old route marks.

Some descendants use the signals to identify loyal family networks. Others consider them dangerous.

Black-Thread Warnings

Type: Marcher covert warning code.

Medium: Black thread tied around:

• gate hinge;
• road marker;
• well handle;
• tool;
• message roll.

Possible meanings: Census danger, false patrol, collaborator nearby, unsafe registry, or hidden arrest.

Exact meaning depends on placement.

Exile-Council Correspondence

Type: Political code layered onto formal letters.

Methods:

• obsolete titles;
• seating references;
• festival dates;
• controlled spelling;
• seal orientation;
• references to nonexistent offices.

Farwake Chart Notation

Type: Professional route code.

Purpose: Preserve navigation knowledge while preventing public maps from revealing protected routes.

Methods:

• incomplete coordinates;
• star and current relationships;
• false scale;
• family route names;
• chart layers;
• route keys held separately.

Skills: Sailing Lore, Navigation Lore, Farwake Lore, or Decipher Writing.

Privateer Recognition Codes

Type: Temporary fleet code.

Methods:

• flag order;
• lamp rhythm;
• challenge and answer;
• sail marking;
• weapon position.

Codes change frequently.

Hidden Anchorage Marks

Type: Smuggler and refuge recognition system.

Mediums:

• paint beneath docks;
• carved anchor stones;
• rope knots;
• shell arrangement;
• tide-height marks;
• buoy position.

Salvage Crew Notation

Type: Professional shorthand.

Purpose: Mark searched areas, ownership claim, body recovery, dangerous structure, and disputed find.

False-Manifest Marks

Type: Fraudulent cargo notation.

Methods:

• altered totals;
• duplicate seal;
• intentionally inconsistent handwriting;
• harmless cargo term used for a person or restricted object.

Thievery, Society, Sailing Lore, or Mercantile Lore may identify them.

Sirenward Quarantine Notation

Type: Restricted medical and patrol code.

Purpose: Record exposure, memory instability, voice change, route risk, and observation status without publicizing personal medical details.

Great Seat Court Marks

Type: Authority and status symbols.

They may identify:

• patron;
• tribute status;
• court protection;
• military service;
• permitted route;
• household claim;
• punishment.

A mark may remain valid in one court and be criminal in another.

Iron Tribute Road Marks

Type: Contract and protection code.

They indicate:

• table recognizing the agreement;
• route covered;
• payment status;
• convoy protection;
• well access;
• dispute pending.

Skill House Worker Codes

Type: Covert labor communication.

Methods:

• tool placement;
• production errors;
• altered count marks;
• work songs;
• hidden instructional abbreviations.

Varkul Registry Notation

Type: Death-law code.

It distinguishes:

• body present;
• identity confirmed;
• soul claim pending;
• office inherited;
• household dispute;
• return suspected;
• external jurisdiction involved.

Blackwood Covenant Signs

Type: Stewardship and refuge system.

Mediums:

• living branch arrangement;
• medicine bundle;
• carved root;
• trail alteration;
• scent;
• woven boundary.

Many signs deliberately avoid creating permanent maps.

Brood Signals

Type: Gaping Coast kinship and territorial communication.

Mediums: Body posture, water disturbance, scent, sound, shell, and feeding arrangement.

Temple Sanctuary Marks

Type: Public or restricted sacred protection sign.

A mark may indicate:

• sanctuary claimed;
• sanctuary accepted;
• hearing pending;
• extradition disputed;
• protected child;
• funerary custody;
• medical nonremoval.

White Cord Identity Cords

Type: Funerary and missing-person record.

Cord elements can record:

• person missing;
• body absent;
• return reported;
• identity disputed;
• family witness;
• legal declaration delayed.

Pilgrimage Seals

Type: Travel and sacred-service record.

They may certify:

• route completed;
• temple visited;
• offering delivered;
• traveler sheltered;
• ritual obligation fulfilled.

Guild Marks

Type: Professional recognition.

They can indicate:

• apprenticeship;
• examination;
• current standing;
• authorized work;
• disciplinary restriction.

Healer Notation

Type: Professional shorthand.

Used for:

• dosage;
• preparation;
• contamination;
• allergy;
• observed symptom;
• uncertain diagnosis;
• patient consent;
• treatment restriction.

Archive Abbreviations

Type: Institutional shorthand.

Each archive may use marks for:

• original;
• copy;
• certified copy;
• damaged;
• translated;
• disputed;
• incomplete;
• restricted;
• politically corrected.

Communication Etiquette

Preferred Names

Use the name a person gives in ordinary interaction.

Knowing an older, legal, court, refuge, or hidden name does not grant permission to use it publicly.

Titles

Titles are most important in:

• Crownward courts;
• Saltglass courts;
• Suthrani temples;
• Great Seat households;
• Veyrskoldic oath proceedings;
• Selvarin diplomacy.

A title may identify an office rather than social superiority.

Eye Contact

No universal rule applies.

Examples:

• direct eye contact may be expected in some civic testimony;
• prolonged eye contact may be aggressive in some Kharruk, aquatic, spirit, or animal-associated communities;
• line of sight may be physically impractical in giant–mortal or canopy discussion;
• a speaker may look toward an interpreter rather than the addressed official.

Players should be told relevant expectations before etiquette creates serious consequences.

Silence

Silence can mean:

• refusal;
• mourning;
• consideration;
• consent to continue;
• lack of authority to answer;
• need to listen for environmental danger.

The meaning depends on context.

Repeating a Statement

Repetition can establish:

• witness;
• confirmation;
• oath;
• group responsibility;
• accurate interpretation.

Torin and several Suthrani institutions use deliberate repetition during public procedure.

Speaking Through an Interpreter

Professional interpreters generally speak in the first person:

• “I saw the vessel,” rather than “She says she saw the vessel.”

The interpreter should identify commentary separately.

Aquatic–Surface Conversation

Conversation may require pauses for:

• writing;
• signing;
• resurfacing;
• light repositioning;
• current change;
• interpretation between mediums.

Interrupting this process can be disrespectful or dangerous.

Giant–Mortal Conversation

Shared settlements use:

• matched platforms;
• designated speaking positions;
• controlled volume;
• speaking objects;
• interpreters.

Speaking from physically dominant height during formal negotiation may be treated as coercive.

Oaths in Translation

A translated oath should identify:

• language of original declaration;
• interpreter;
• accepted translation;
• parties who understood each form;
• terms left untranslated.

A translation can be valid without being word-for-word identical.

Witness Language

Some courts permit or require witnesses to testify in the language in which events occurred.

Others prioritize a standardized court language.

Disputes over testimony language can affect credibility and access.

Literacy in Thesalon

Literacy is not one ability possessed equally in all contexts.

Household Literacy

Includes:

• personal letters;
• names;
• recipes;
• household accounts;
• festival lists;
• family records.

Often taught by relatives rather than formal schools.

Commercial Literacy

Includes:

• numbers;
• weights;
• cargo;
• prices;
• debt;
• warehouse marks;
• receipts;
• manifests.

A commercially literate person may not read theology or history comfortably.

Temple Literacy

Includes:

• prayers;
• ritual formulas;
• calendars;
• names;
• sanctuary records;
• funerary records;
• adoption rolls.

Military Literacy

Includes:

• orders;
• unit rolls;
• maps;
• supply counts;
• signal tables;
• watch records.

Shipboard Literacy

Includes:

• manifests;
• watches;
• cargo marks;
• route notes;
• weather;
• maintenance;
• crew shares.

Agricultural Record Literacy

Includes:

• seed measures;
• field boundaries;
• flood levels;
• harvest counts;
• livestock;
• reserve allocation.

Legal Literacy

Includes:

• contracts;
• judgments;
• warrants;
• witness statements;
• title and office;
• appeal procedure.

Legal literacy is not implied by ordinary literacy.

Magical Literacy

Includes:

• formula;
• sigil;
• ritual structure;
• magical notation;
• spellbook conventions;
• planar symbols.

Archive Literacy

Includes:

• citation;
• copy status;
• catalog structure;
• date systems;
• damaged text conventions;
• source comparison.

Scripts, Registers, and Partial Literacy

Partial Literacy Examples

A character may be able to:

• sign their name;
• recognize family names;
• read cargo numbers;
• interpret route marks;
• read temple prayers;
• copy a document without understanding it;
• read one script but not another;
• understand a professional ledger;
• dictate a letter;
• memorize a legal formula;
• identify a seal.

Partial literacy is normally narrative unless a scene depends on the missing ability.

Teaching Institutions

Household Schools

Teach:

• names;
• letters;
• family history;
• household language;
• arithmetic;
• local records.

Temple Schools

Teach:

• reading;
• ritual;
• law;
• record keeping;
• healing;
• adoption and sanctuary procedure.

Shipboard Lessons

Teach:

• manifests;
• watches;
• signals;
• route marks;
• letters;
• numbers.

Guild Apprenticeships

Teach:

• technical notation;
• contracts;
• work records;
• safety signs;
• professional correspondence.

Military Instruction

Teach:

• orders;
• maps;
• signals;
• reports;
• supply records.

Refugee Schools

Teach:

• host language;
• preserved household language;
• identity records;
• work literacy;
• public signs.

International Schools

Teach:

• several languages;
• comparative scripts;
• diplomatic forms;
• translation practice.

Stewardship Instruction

Teach:

• markers;
• ecological records;
• route restrictions;
• witness procedure;
• responsibility terminology.

Oral-Memory Houses

Preserve information through:

• recitation;
• song;
• object arrangement;
• genealogy;
• route memory;
• repeated witness.

Oral preservation is not inherently less accurate than writing. Its reliability depends on procedure, witnesses, repetition, and institutional continuity.

Records and Their Uses

Identity Records

Include:

• birth;
• naming;
• household membership;
• adoption;
• marriage;
• separation;
• death;
• resurrection;
• refuge name;
• citizenship;
• residence;
• sanctuary;
• return status.

Property Records

Include:

• land;
• occupancy;
• stewardship;
• house;
• estate;
• mine;
• ship share;
• salvage;
• inheritance.

Economic Records

Include:

• debt;
• wages;
• cargo;
• contracts;
• insurance;
• remittance;
• market price;
• warehouse custody;
• tribute.

Travel Records

Include:

• ship manifests;
• harbor entry;
• pilot assignment;
• caravan roll;
• pilgrim record;
• gate entry;
• bridge toll;
• military passage;
• quarantine;
• route sponsorship.

Political Records

Include:

• treaty;
• office;
• diplomatic recognition;
• succession;
• oath;
• court ruling;
• public appointment;
• exile;
• amnesty.

Criminal and Enforcement Records

Include:

• warrant;
• arrest;
• sentence;
• fine;
• military accusation;
• extradition;
• protected testimony;
• court restriction.

Religious Records

Include:

• initiation;
• ordination;
• sanctuary;
• burial;
• saint recognition;
• miracle investigation;
• adoption;
• resurrection review;
• pilgrimage.

Specialist Records

Include:

• weather;
• flood;
• reef health;
• living-land condition;
• seal status;
• medical treatment;
• magical experiment;
• planar anomaly;
• mine support;
• lighthouse maintenance.

Record-Keeping Institutions by Continent

Caerlon

Crownward Archives

Maintain:

• civic records;
• old royal records;
• treaties;
• court judgments;
• regional reports;
• foreign records;
• reconstruction files.

Access: Public, professional, restricted, and sealed collections.

Known problem: Many records survive only as copies, extracts, translations, or references in other documents.

Harbor of Names

Maintains:

• temporary identities;
• returnee records;
• witness statements;
• refuge names;
• shipwreck identities;
• former-prisoner files.

Return Houses

Maintain:

• arrival;
• claimed identity;
• witness chain;
• medical referral;
• family contact;
• unresolved status.

Unreturned Offices

Maintain:

• missing-person files;
• prisoner-list comparisons;
• foreign testimony;
• death and return contradictions;
• search status.

Registry of Closed Names

A Torin-linked institution recording names whose ordinary legal use was suspended by:

• false death;
• duplicate identity;
• missing records;
• closed household;
• unresolved inheritance.

Marcher Occupancy Councils

Maintain:

• present household;
• repaired property;
• community labor;
• militia contribution;
• abandoned claim;
• returned claimant.

Silveredge Archive Holds

Maintain:

• hold membership;
• pass access;
• engineering records;
• seal inspections;
• mine custody;
• guest sponsorship.

Verdant Succession Courts

Maintain:

• household continuity;
• estate stewardship;
• returned heirs;
• resurrected claimants;
• body-continuity records;
• living recognition.

Marithel

Harbor Registries

Maintain:

• vessel arrival;
• crew;
• cargo;
• pilot;
• berth;
• quarantine;
• departure.

Each harbor maintains its own records, and League recognition does not make every form identical.

League Ledgers

Maintain:

• shared convoy;
• rescue contribution;
• lighthouse support;
• interharbor obligation;
• defense;
• compact decisions.

Blue Lantern Registry

Maintains:

• sanctuary status;
• refuge names;
• sponsor;
• hearing stage;
• protected transfer;
• restricted identity cross-index.

False-Name Office

A Windrider institution that records whether a name is:

• chosen;
• temporary;
• translated;
• protected;
• disputed;
• alleged to be fraudulent.

It does not assume every nonbirth name is false.

Ship Manifests

Maintain:

• crew;
• passengers;
• cargo;
• animals;
• dangerous materials;
• destination;
• ship household.

False or incomplete manifests are common enough to be a major investigative tool.

Salvage Exchange

Maintains:

• reported wreck;
• claimant;
• recovered goods;
• bodies;
• protected grave sites;
• disputed ownership.

Lighthouse Orders

Maintain:

• lamp sequence;
• keeper assignments;
• maintenance;
• closure;
• signal authorization;
• false-light incidents.

Farwake Chart Houses

Maintain layered route knowledge with restricted access.

Reefcourt Records

May be:

• written;
• carved;
• witnessed orally;
• marked through reef objects;
• preserved through aquatic memory traditions.

Sirenward Archives

Maintain:

• boundary;
• patrol;
• disappearance;
• return;
• quarantine;
• altered signal;
• survivor testimony.

Suthrane

Grand Temple Records

Maintain:

• ordination;
• sanctuary;
• sacred office;
• temple adoption;
• healing;
• pilgrimage;
• ritual judgment.

River Courts

Maintain:

• water use;
• channel change;
• flood responsibility;
• landing rights;
• ferry authority;
• upstream and downstream claims.

White Cord Houses

Maintain:

• missing;
• unburied;
• body absent;
• death disputed;
• return reported;
• family witness.

House of Two Births

Maintains:

• known birth identity;
• adoptive household;
• temple siblings;
• sponsor;
• adult access preference;
• reunion history.

Pilgrimage Rolls

Maintain:

• traveler;
• route;
• temple;
• offering;
• completion;
• sanctuary events.

Flood Calendars

Maintain:

• river stage;
• planting;
• evacuation;
• levee condition;
• silt;
• channel movement.

Caravan Records

Maintain:

• travelers;
• animals;
• cargo;
• wells;
• route;
• missing parties;
• protection agreements.

Veyrskold

Hold Rolls

Maintain:

• household;
• residence;
• shelter obligation;
• work;
• inheritance;
• guest adoption.

Hearth Records

Maintain:

• available shelter;
• fuel;
• emergency guest;
• food reserve;
• winter responsibility.

Oath-Stone Witnesses

Oaths may be preserved through:

• carving;
• repeated witness;
• object;
• route inspection;
• annual renewal.

Stonewake Seal Archives

Maintain:

• seal condition;
• authorized access;
• warning;
• observed change;
• specialist assignment;
• prohibited question.

Rescue Lists

Maintain:

• vessel;
• crew;
• rescued person;
• body recovered;
• rescuer;
• location;
• equipment lost.

Winter Contracts

Maintain:

• employer;
• worker;
• family;
• route;
• wages;
• housing;
• return passage;
• emergency obligation.

Ruin-Camp Records

Maintain:

• personnel;
• artifacts;
• hazards;
• sealed areas;
• work claims;
• foreign sponsors;
• camp births and deaths.

Giant-Road Oath Records

May be written, carved, recited, or physically embodied in roads, platforms, and boundary structures.

Ilyr

Stewardship Testimony

Maintains:

• custodian;
• place;
• responsibility;
• permitted use;
• restoration;
• failure;
• succession.

Guest Platform Records

Maintain:

• sponsor;
• resident;
• instruction completed;
• incident;
• petition for permanent recognition;
• household relationship.

Namarra Patient Archives

Maintain:

• consent;
• symptom;
• treatment;
• response;
• restricted material;
• long-term follow-up.

Patient access and privacy are central concerns.

Mistwell Protected Identities

Maintain:

• guide sponsor;
• public name;
• concealed identity;
• route authorization;
• testimony destination;
• danger assessment.

Living-Land Records

May include:

• written observations;
• growth patterns;
• spirit witness;
• seasonal sign;
• water behavior;
• animal movement;
• living structure response.

Healer Gardens

Maintain:

• seed;
• specimen;
• preparation;
• cultivation right;
• harvest limit;
• treatment use;
• theft or loss.

Vorrak

Tribute Rolls

Maintain:

• household;
• declared capacity;
• obligation;
• payment;
• protection promised;
• punishment;
• court recognition.

Court Marks

Can function as portable records of:

• service;
• protection;
• punishment;
• route permission;
• tribute status;
• patronage.

Skill House Records

Maintain:

• worker;
• family;
• assigned skill;
• production;
• transfer;
• punishment;
• experiment;
• training.

Varkul Death Registries

Maintain:

• death;
• body;
• identity;
• household claim;
• inheritance;
• soul-status assertion;
• return dispute.

Brood Records

May use:

• oral recitation;
• shell;
• body mark;
• feeding order;
• water territory;
• adoption witness.

Fortress and War-Host Rolls

Maintain:

• soldier;
• household;
• equipment;
• service;
• pass assignment;
• death;
• desertion.

Blackwood Covenant Memory

Preserved through:

• living markers;
• oral witness;
• medicine houses;
• boundary trees;
• hidden copies;
• ritual repetition.

Hidden Lantern Copies

Hidden Lantern cells preserve copies of:

• true names;
• prisoner lists;
• burial records;
• court orders;
• family locations;
• execution notices.

No one cell should possess every record.

Selvarin

Municipal Residence Records

Maintain:

• household;
• residence;
• profession;
• local obligation;
• foreign status;
• stateless status.

Treaty Archives

Maintain:

• original language;
• certified translations;
• signatories;
• observers;
• amendments;
• disputes;
• withdrawal.

Diplomatic Recognition Records

Maintain:

• recognized state;
• envoy;
• mission;
• immunity;
• disputed claimant;
• expired authority.

Protected-Witness Records

Maintain:

• concealed identity;
• testimony;
• escort;
• treaty basis;
• threat;
• hearing schedule.

Translation Certifications

Maintain:

• translator;
• languages;
• source text;
• translated text;
• uncertainty;
• seal;
• intended legal use.

Stateless Household Records

Provide municipal recognition when no foreign state accepts responsibility.

Exile-Council Records

Maintain political claims, membership, funds, and claimed representation, but are not automatically neutral evidence.

Scribes, Clerks, Translators, and Witnesses

Public Scribe

Writes:

• letters;
• petitions;
• notices;
• contracts;
• applications.

Training: Household school, guild, temple, or apprenticeship.

Authority: None beyond accurate writing unless also a notary or witness.

Temple Scribe

Writes and maintains:

• ritual;
• sanctuary;
• adoption;
• burial;
• healing;
• pilgrimage.

Harbor Clerk

Maintains:

• vessel;
• cargo;
• crew;
• berth;
• quarantine;
• pilot;
• departure.

Ship Purser

Maintains:

• stores;
• wages;
• shares;
• passenger list;
• cargo;
• household expenses.

Court Recorder

Creates official records of:

• testimony;
• ruling;
• charge;
• objection;
• sentence;
• appeal.

Translator

Transfers meaning between languages.

A translator is not automatically:

• neutral;
• legally certified;
• expert in the subject;
• authorized to speak for a community.

Genealogist

Researches:

• family;
• household;
• marriage;
• adoption;
• succession;
• migration.

Death Registrar

Records death status, body identity, burial, and disputed return.

Resurrection Examiner

Compares:

• testimony;
• magical evidence;
• body continuity;
• memory;
• household recognition;
• earlier records.

No examiner can establish every spiritual truth.

Name Witness

Testifies that a person used, received, chose, or was recognized under a particular name.

Charter Clerk

Maintains:

• guild;
• company;
• harbor;
• town;
• political compact;
• work association.

Route Recorder

Maintains:

• road;
• well;
• caravan;
• pilotage;
• closure;
• danger.

Map Copyist

Copies maps while preserving:

• scale;
• orientation;
• source;
• revision;
• restricted information.

Archive Restorer

Repairs:

• burned text;
• water damage;
• mold;
• torn documents;
• overwritten records;
• broken bindings.

Seal Reader

Identifies:

• issuer;
• date;
• authority;
• alteration;
• invalidation;
• copied seal.

Contract Advocate

Explains obligations and represents a party in negotiation or dispute.

Oral Historian

Preserves structured testimony through repetition, performance, and witnessed correction.

Memory Keeper

Maintains community knowledge that may be unsafe or inappropriate to write.

Web Recorder

Uses anadi web patterns for:

• route;
• history;
• family;
• warning;
• ownership;
• artistic memory.

Reef Marker

Maintains underwater and surface records through reef-safe physical systems.

Stewardship Witness

Records and testifies about relationship between people and place.

Forgery, Lost Records, and Conflicting Evidence

Original and Copy

An original may carry greater authority, but a surviving copy can be more accurate than a damaged or altered original.

Certified Copy

A certified copy identifies:

• source;
• copyist;
• certifying institution;
• date;
• omissions;
• translation status.

Oral Witness and Written Record

Neither automatically defeats the other.

Questions include:

• When was the record created?
• Was the witness present?
• Was the record coerced?
• Does the witness have reason to remember?
• Is the institution reliable?
• Was the text copied?
• Who benefited?

Temple and Civic Conflict

A temple may recognize:

• adoption;
• sanctuary;
• marriage;
• death;
• resurrection.

A civic authority may reject or limit that recognition.

Ship Log and Harbor Registry Conflict

A ship log may list a passenger omitted from the harbor registry.

Possible explanations include:

• error;
• smuggling;
• death at sea;
• false identity;
• transfer before docking;
• official concealment.

Foreign Translation

A translation should be examined for:

• omitted term;
• collapsed distinction;
• altered title;
• changed name order;
• legal concept without equivalent;
• interpreter annotation.

Magical Verification

Magic may confirm:

• age;
• aura;
• authorship under particular conditions;
• presence of alteration;
• truthfulness of a statement;
• identity recognized by a specific effect.

It does not automatically establish universal legal or historical truth.

Living Records

A living marker may:

• grow;
• die;
• move;
• reject a custodian;
• be altered by environment;
• be manipulated.

Politically Corrected Records

Authorities may alter records to:

• remove a person;
• rename a place;
• change a title;
• conceal defeat;
• support succession;
• erase a settlement;
• redefine a refugee as a criminal.

Duplicate Identity

Two people may possess:

• same name;
• same registry number;
• same family claim;
• copied memories;
• resurrection continuity;
• reflection relationship.

The conflict requires investigation rather than assuming one must be false.

Coerced Records

A record created under imprisonment, threat, debt, military order, or magical compulsion may remain factually useful while lacking legitimate consent.

Body and Soul Conflict

One record may identify the body while another recognizes:

• soul;
• memory;
• household;
• office;
• chosen identity.

No single standard governs all Thesalon.

Pathfinder 2e Communication Procedures

Recall Knowledge: Dialect, Signal, or Institution

Use:

• Society;
• relevant Lore;
• Arcana;
• Nature;
• Occultism;
• Religion.

Critical Success: Identify the communication system and an additional implication, such as likely issuer, intended audience, or required response.

Success: Identify the basic meaning and context.

Failure: Unable to interpret confidently.

Critical Failure: Draw a plausible but incorrect conclusion.

Decipher Writing

Use for:

• archaic texts;
• technical records;
• damaged writing;
• unfamiliar historical register;
• esoteric passages;
• encoded documents.

Suggested skill by record

Record	Skill
Civic or historical	Society
Legal	Society or Legal Lore
Arcane	Arcana
Religious or funerary	Religion
Occult or shadow-related	Occultism
Stewardship or primal	Nature
Ship chart	Sailing Lore
Medical	Medicine
Commercial ledger	Mercantile Lore
Structural or craft record	Crafting or relevant Lore
Varkul death registry	Varkul Law Lore, Religion, or Society
Sealed-site archive	Arcana, Occultism, Crafting, or Seal Lore

Direct magical translation may reveal literal words without resolving codes, technical meaning, or esoteric context.

Gather Information

Use Diplomacy to locate:

• interpreter;
• scribe;
• archive;
• code expert;
• witness;
• teacher;
• reliable copy;
• person who knows a local signal.

A success should identify a useful person, place, price, obligation, or next step.

Make an Impression

Use Diplomacy normally.

Language and etiquette can affect:

• starting attitude;
• access;
• DC;
• available approaches;
• whether an intermediary is required.

Helpful circumstances may include:

• preferred language;
• correct title;
• trusted interpreter;
• community introduction;
• accurate name.

Difficult circumstances may include:

• hostile dialect association;
• wrong formal register;
• public use of a hidden name;
• distrusted interpreter;
• refusal to follow testimony procedure.

Request

Use Request to ask someone to:

• translate sensitive testimony;
• reveal a restricted mark;
• certify a document;
• sponsor archive access;
• teach an uncommon system;
• provide witness;
• share protected records.

Lie or Impersonate

Use Deception when a character:

• claims a false identity;
• pretends to belong to a speech community;
• supplies a knowingly false translation;
• imitates official language;
• uses a code without authority.

Knowing the correct language or dialect provides necessary plausibility but does not remove the check.

Sense Motive

Use Sense Motive to determine:

• whether an interpreter is withholding meaning;
• whether a speaker understands more than they claim;
• whether a mistranslation appears deliberate;
• whether an official is relying on rehearsed language;
• whether a witness is distressed by a name or term.

It does not translate unknown language.

Forging a Document

A forgery may require:

• Thievery to reproduce signatures, seals, or alteration methods;
• Crafting to reproduce material, ink, mechanism, or physical form;
• Society or relevant Lore to make content plausible;
• Deception when presenting the document.

A complex forgery can be a group effort.

Forging a Signal

A forged signal may require:

• knowledge of the system;
• Deception for believable use;
• Crafting or Thievery to alter equipment;
• Sailing Lore, Warfare Lore, or relevant Lore to select the correct message.

Research Subsystem

Use Research for sustained investigation across several sources.

Appropriate subjects include:

• destroyed town registry;
• false ship manifests;
• prisoner records;
• resurrected heir;
• sealed-site archive;
• flood-calendar manipulation;
• diaspora genealogy;
• treaty history;
• missing-person network.

Do not use the subsystem for a single ordinary letter.

Aid

A translator, scribe, archivist, local speaker, or technical specialist can Aid when their assistance directly supports another character’s check.

Suggested DC Treatment

Use normal level-based DCs and adjustments.

Adjust for:

• common public system;
• specialized profession;
• restricted institution;
• old or damaged material;
• deliberate concealment;
• rare language;
• direct community familiarity;
• excellent reference tools.

Communication Complications and Consequences

Failure should change the situation rather than halt it.

Possible consequences include:

• partial translation;
• delayed response;
• wrong official contacted;
• misunderstood obligation;
• patrol investigation;
• invalid document;
• offended household;
• signal seen by an enemy;
• missing clause;
• need for a second witness;
• payment or favor required;
• archive access restricted;
• identity exposed.

Character Creation Communication Worksheet

1. Choose the Character’s Ordinary Languages

Use the rules and guidance in languages-of-thesalon.md.

2. Choose a Communication Environment

Select one:

• household;
• harbor;
• ship;
• temple;
• court;
• caravan;
• military company;
• refugee district;
• stewardship community;
• mine;
• forge;
• archive;
• diplomatic household;
• hidden network.

3. Choose a Familiar Dialect

Examples:

• Windrider Freeport;
• Highharbor Port;
• Marcher Reconstruction;
• New Ivrath;
• Northfire Camp;
• Aelora Canopy;
• Osseran Caravan;
• Dromgard Giant-Road;
• Hidden Lantern camp-descendant speech.

This familiarity does not grant another language. It may justify information without a check or access to relevant Lore.

4. Choose a Familiar Register

Examples:

• harbor operations;
• temple ritual;
• court etiquette;
• military command;
• trade ledgers;
• healing terminology;
• route signs;
• funerary records;
• stewardship law;
• ship manifests;
• construction warnings.

5. Choose a Nonverbal System

The character may know:

• Harbor Sign;
• Crownward Civic Sign;
• River Sign;
• Canopy Sign;
• Cliff Sign;
• Deepwork Sign;
• public ship signals;
• local route marks.

A full signed language should normally be selected or granted as a language. Familiarity with a limited operational system can come from background and training.

6. Choose a Communication Contact

• interpreter;
• public scribe;
• harbor clerk;
• ship purser;
• temple registrar;
• chart reader;
• refugee advocate;
• signal keeper;
• archive restorer;
• court recorder;
• healer interpreter;
• stewardship witness.

7. Choose a Communication Complication

• speaks but cannot read a household language;
• reads an old form but speaks poorly;
• uses a stigmatized dialect;
• possesses a refuge name;
• knows a restricted code;
• is mistaken for a military or court insider;
• has conflicting identity records;
• is expected to interpret for relatives;
• learned a language during captivity;
• knows the literal words but not the cultural meaning.

8. Choose a Record Connection

The character possesses, seeks, or fears:

• birth record;
• ship manifest;
• debt contract;
• adoption record;
• death registry;
• return document;
• map;
• treaty copy;
• guild charter;
• protected testimony;
• family correspondence;
• missing-person file.

Communication-Focused Character Options

Existing Pathfinder options can support these concepts.

Examples include:

• Multilingual for additional languages;
• Read Shibboleths for reading social information from speech;
• Additional Lore for a regional, professional, or institutional Lore;
• Streetwise for urban information networks;
• Courtly Graces for noble and court conventions;
• Bargain Hunter for market communication;
• Experienced Professional for occupational expertise.

These are useful options, not mandatory costs for participating in the setting.

Quick Reference Tables

Dialect Tasks

Task	Default treatment
Ordinary known dialect	No check
Ordinary unfamiliar dialect	Usually no check
Identify region from accent	Society or regional Lore
Understand dense local slang	Society or local Lore
Understand technical register	Relevant Lore or associated skill
Detect imitated dialect	Society, Lore, or Perception against Deception
Read archaic dialect	Decipher Writing
Understand mixed camp speech	Society or community Lore

Interpreter Tasks

Task	Treatment
Routine conversation	No check for competent interpreter
Legal testimony	Society or Legal Lore
Technical testimony	Relevant skill or Lore
Hostile mediation	Diplomacy
Deliberate mistranslation	Deception
Detect withheld meaning	Sense Motive
Find specialist interpreter	Gather Information
Convince interpreter to risk involvement	Request

Signal Tasks

Task	Treatment
Familiar public signal	No check
Identify unfamiliar signal	Recall Knowledge
Understand restricted code	Relevant Lore
Forge message	Deception plus relevant technical skill
Alter signal device	Crafting or Thievery
Notice distant or concealed signal	Perception
Determine if signal is authentic	Society, Lore, Crafting, or Thievery

Record Tasks

Task	Treatment
Read ordinary known text	No check
Read damaged text	Decipher Writing
Identify issuing institution	Society or relevant Lore
Verify seal	Society, Crafting, Thievery, or institutional Lore
Compare contradictory records	Society, Lore, or Research
Create routine document	No check with training and time
Create persuasive petition	Diplomacy, Society, or Legal Lore
Forge document	Thievery or Crafting, often with Society or Lore
Search a major archive	Research subsystem
Find the correct clerk	Gather Information

Major Communication Institutions

Need	Likely institution
International translation	Selvarin Translator Guild
Maritime translation	Windrider harbor interpreters
Refuge testimony	Blue Lantern interpreters
Returned prisoner identity	Highharbor Return Houses
Funerary translation	White Cord Houses
Aquatic communication	Pearlglass interpreters
Protected testimony	Mistwell or Selvarin witness houses
Vorrakian dialects	Lantern House East or defector communities
Sealed-site language	Stonewake or Silveredge
Medical interpretation	Namarra
Old Caerlish records	Crownward archives
Ship and cargo records	Harbor registry or ship purser

What Most People Know

Most people in Thesalon know that speaking the same language does not guarantee agreement or complete understanding.

They recognize that:

• dialects reveal upbringing but do not prove ancestry;
• technical speech can hide obligations inside familiar words;
• interpreters have power and responsibilities;
• signals can save or endanger entire settlements;
• literacy takes several forms;
• a ship log, temple record, court judgment, and family witness may disagree;
• an official document can be valid in one jurisdiction and meaningless in another;
• no archive contains every truth;
• no magical method settles every identity dispute;
• a copied record may preserve what an original authority tried to erase;
• oral testimony can be structured and reliable;
• a refuge name is not automatically a lie;
• a secret cant can protect people or conceal wrongdoing.

For player characters, communication creates opportunities to:

• identify where someone learned to speak;
• discover hidden communities;
• prevent a false harbor closure;
• translate a disputed treaty;
• expose forged records;
• locate a missing family;
• impersonate an official;
• decode a resistance message;
• prove that two archives were deliberately altered;
• mediate between surface and aquatic communities;
• reconstruct a lost route;
• establish that an institution recognizes a person whom a government denies.

Communication is not background decoration.

It is infrastructure, law, culture, memory, and power.

Related Pages

• Languages of Thesalon
• Culture Is Not Ancestry
• Ancestries and Species
• Peoples and Cultural Identity
• Diaspora and Mixed Communities
• Refugees, Exiles, and Displaced Peoples
• Names, Identity, and Belonging
• Migration, Exile, and Reconstruction
• Historical Knowledge and Disagreement
• Nations and Polities
• Temples, Saints, Cults, and Religious Law
• Planes, Demiplanes, and Planar Powers