The Tongue of Elarae

In C’Naelia, many common idioms, rituals, and ceremonial phrases trace their origins to Elarae, an ancient tongue believed to have been the first spoken language of the unified peoples before the Great Devastation. It is said to predate kingdoms, predating even the Aetheri Citadel itself.

Elarae was not tied to a single people or land - it was a shared root spoken in fragments across early tribes and nomadic groups. The Scarnathi have even been known still speak fragments of the language. Its cadence is rhythmic, almost song-like, marked by soft syllables, long vowels, and compound meanings that rely heavily on metaphor.

Though the language is no longer spoken fluently in any living culture, many idioms persist in daily use across the Southern Kingdoms and even among some Northern enclaves. These phrases are often uttered with no knowledge of their deeper origin.

Some examples include:

• “To drink with empty hands.” – meaning to offer nothing but expect everything. Still used today to describe a selfish or arrogant person.
• “The wind remembers.” – a quiet warning that secrets or cruel acts may one day return to haunt you.
• “To walk the edge of the river.” – to live dangerously or make risky decisions, evoking the image of one step between life and drowning.
• “Blood in the sun.” – often used to describe betrayal in plain sight or a crime committed without shame.
• "His brain’s still drying by the fire.” - meaning: he’s a bit slow, or not quite clever yet. (Said of someone naive or silly, often in jest.)
• “He's carving soup again.” - meaning: he’s attempting the impossible or wasting his time. (Said of someone overcomplicating something simple.)
• “Even your shadow walks away from you.” – A cutting remark for someone disliked by all.
• “As bright as a drowned torch.” – A dry insult for someone spectacularly dim-witted.
• “You chase clouds with a net.” - Said of someone hopelessly optimistic or impractically ambitious. Often followed by a sigh and an eye-roll.
• “She’s counting stars in daylight.” - Meaning someone is overthinking, worrying about things that don’t exist, or being overly romantic.

Scholars of the Aetheri Citadel and the Convents of the Nine have attempted to reconstruct Elarae from scattered inscriptions found in ruins, old temple records, and preserved chants used in rare religious rites. However, the grammar remains poorly understood, and its full vocabulary has largely faded from memory.

Interestingly, Elarae is still used in fragments during ancient magic rituals. Certain incantations spoken in Elarae are said to resonate more deeply with the Ethereal Vortex, as if the language itself holds a memory of the old magic.

Today, Elarae survives more as poetry than practicality. It lives in idioms, names, chants, and curses, subtly binding C’Naelia’s cultures with invisible threads that few notice but many speak.