Celectric, the Voice of Ascension
"Vindaris alle tif onik!" Beliana hissed through the pain of the gnoll spear slipping by her halberd's guard, equal parts prayer as she felt the head of her own blood soaking her side, and equal parts profanity, spit with venom at the beast. Her holy symbol lit up, the heat of the sun itself feeling as if it flowed over her body as her whole form flashed with the radiance of sunfire, bringing howls of rage and squealing whimpers from the foul beastmen near her. A simple prayer, perhaps the only such simple bit of scripture of power that Vosana provided. Righteousness blinds hatred. A simple saying, belief, philosophy in the hands of those whom are of divinity. In the hands of the faithful however, a call to action, a call to violence, a prayer for aid. Simple, but effective and in the case of the goddess of the sun, no mere turn of phrase, not when her clergy or templars utter it so."
Phonology
Celetric is in some ways the progenitor language for most of the Ascended mortal tongues. Its alphabet is complex, containing nearly fifty characters, which encompass all characters used by the various mortal races, some of which naturally have overlap in those tongues, even if they represent different things in each langauge. In structure it is equal parts rhythmic and sharp, sudden, yet subtle. In spoken word it is almost as if listening to a pulse of sorts, the pumping rhythm of creation itself. This is tied to the nature of divinity, of celestial beings and the celestial realms itself, as well as the Ascended. For they were, if legends and myths to be believed, born of a great gift, that of some small amount of purity of Creation Aetherwylle and thus it would stand to reason that the language they would birth amongs their realms, their 'heavens' if you will and their creations in the Celestial Realms would honor that heritage.
Morphology
Celetric as it is spoken and translated amongst mortal kind is limited in both how it is understood and how it is used, as well as whom can speak it. It is the divine scriptures, those prayers, hymns and passages that actually call upon divinity and allow the most faithful to wield the powers, in some small fashion, of their diety and that diety's spheres of influence. Yet in structure, amusingly enough these bits of scripture that survive are not as one might expect, true prayer and high praise. They are prayers do not confuse the issue, yet the most 'holy' and 'worship' like prayers are written in the mortal tongues not in Celetric.
No those bits of scripture are, perhaps in some twisted delivery of education, or as a divine sense of humor, what can only be described as bits of philosphical musings, some idioms and odd sayings, and of course, what can only be described as, in any other context or in the mortal tongues, arguably, blasphemies.
The Ascended might have become gods you see, but one cannot say they lost their mortal sense of humor. It merely evolved., elevated if you will.
No those bits of scripture are, perhaps in some twisted delivery of education, or as a divine sense of humor, what can only be described as bits of philosphical musings, some idioms and odd sayings, and of course, what can only be described as, in any other context or in the mortal tongues, arguably, blasphemies.
The Ascended might have become gods you see, but one cannot say they lost their mortal sense of humor. It merely evolved., elevated if you will.
Vocabulary
The vocabulary of Celetric is perhaps the biggest reason the language is not well studied or spoken, and though select few amongst clergies and templar orders can muddle their way through, the sheer Vastness of the vocabulary is beyond easy comprehension. However it was said best by Anton Donahue, a noted theologian and published author.
One could study Celetric for multiple lifetimes and perhaps if they measure lifetimes in centuries like the dwarfkin or elves, they might just master its vocabulary and structure. For the true difficulty of Celetric is that every word has not tenses as we use in most mortal tongues, tied to a loose sense of time, no. Nor gendered words, nor any other such construct. Its few connecting words like 'the, is, are, of' and others are tied to rhythm structure and have different words based on tempo of the sentence and the spelling of the words, not the words themselves, around it. Similarly each major word, things like nouns, verbage, descriptive terms like adjectives, have different words that mean the same thing in translation based not on tense or gender or any rules tied to the structure itself. No each word is tied to a position in the tempo of the sentence almost as if sheet music. To say 'running' at the front of a sentence is a different word than it is if its the second or third or fourth and so on. Some words only have five such terms, with anything after fifth position being the same word. Others have dozens. This more than anything is the great difficulty of truly ever learning Celetric the way it would be spoken amongst the Celestial Realms, and thus any such attempt by even the most scholarly, even if they summon and converse with celestial entities, is at best crude. The efforts of a child speaking their first words, to such an entity.
Anton's description of the Celetric langauge in his noted and acclaimed book, the 'Voices of the Heavens' a discussion of the theology, history and myth surrounding the celestial tongue.
Common Phrases
An common example from each faith and its translation
| Diety/Faith | Phrase/prayer in Celetric | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Sir Kartheart | Maver dil temptori, distor dil Borda | Move as Lightning, Strike as Thunder |
| Boran the Bloodhound | Vanis nir decas | Worth less than carrion |
| Talia, Lady of the Leaves | Viserie il Aether insalvis | Tainted beyond return to Creation. |
| Cormaq Thunderhand | Ilv valis gori matheri | Worth less than the scrap |
| Feyheart | Istal oberin til entolis | Could get lost on a bridge |
| Vosana Falconhand | Ivil denaris verit, lumis uristas | What darkness rejects, radiance purges |
| Captain Black Jeremiah | Tilen ilssh naveri hivari ophen. | Even the sea would cough you back up |
| Varis Tomain | Ifn yviol redis eme isalin ifn il testoin | Stacking the deck merely heightens the challenge |
| Deat-Kra | Neteri ill vonis, mori hivi il oris | Lies are but poison, may they choke you the same |
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