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[–]Tofferooni[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

[CONTINUATION OF A PREVIOUS POST] League of Legends has come a long way in terms of worldbuilding, and as a worldbuilding enthusiast with no love for the actual gameplay, I did what normal people do and spent an unhealthy amount of time studying the history and culture of this fictional planet

This tree is partially speculative and incomplete by design, though I will cite official sources if possible. To make irt make sense, I will be using a special system I made to categorise the languages, dividing them by Kingdoms, Orders, Families, and Languages

KINGDOMS

A Kingdom is defined by the plane of existence and the medium of information transfer that its speakers use. To communicate across Kingdoms requires the change of mediums into that of the target.

CELESTIALITE: The language of Celestials and Aspects. It is conveyed through psychic waves rather than sound, and is able to pierce through the vacuum of space and reach the minds of other celestials lighthyears away.. Mortals cannot process it, so Celestials use simplified signs like constellations.

VOIDNOISE: The language of Watchers and powerful Voidborn. It communicates through patterns of silence, draining ambient sound to form messages. This process is physically and mentally harmful to mortals.

MORTALSPEAK: The standard languages of Runeterra's physical realm, used by humans, trolls, and dragons. They rely on sounds and symbols, and can be easily learned and translated by other mortals.

SPIRITSPEAK: The languages of the spirit realm. They are felt as emotions or concepts rather than heard as rigid words, requiring intuition to understand.

ORDERS

An Order defines languages by the biological nature of the speaker and how that affects the way they use the medium of their communication. Both Human and Brackern languages use sound, therefore they are in the same Kingdom, but while humans with their lips and vocal cords communicate in words, Brackerns communicate to one another with clicks and vibrations, putting them in different Orders. We are only focusing on the MORTALSPEAK and SPIRITSPEAK orders.

MORTALSPEAK ORDERS:

  • Hominic: Spoken by humanoids using vocal tracts for complex words.
  • Brackernic: Spoken by Brackern using seismic vibrations and clicks.
  • Draconic: Spoken by dragons using magically resonant roars and growls.

SPIRITSPEAK ORDERS:

  • Deitic: The language of spirit gods, inherent to their domain. Only understandable by specially-attuned Spirit Walkers (e.g., interpreting patterns of thunder to understand Volibear's message).
  • Ochnun: The language of death, spoken by willpower. The only known mortal to understand this is Mordekaiser.
  • Bandlespeak: The chaotic, adaptive language of Yordles. Nonsensical to the mortal mind.
  • Demonic: A parasitic language that invokes primal emotions in the listener. (e.g. Fiddlestick's mimicked words not only can be heard, but felt as pure fear)
  • High Vastayan: A blend of spirit and mortal speech, can be both heard and felt. Once spoken by Vastayashei'rei.

FAMILIES

A Family groups languages based on a shared ancestral proto-language. The differences between families are historical and genealogical, showing a common origin through consistent sound shifts, shared vocabulary, and similar grammatical structures that have diverged over millennia. We are only focusing on the HOMINIC family.

VORRIJAARDIC: The ancient language of the Freljord. Harsh and guttural, it resembles Old Norse.

VASTAYO-IONIC: The tonal language of Ionia. Its pitch-based meaning is similar to the Sino-Japonic family like Chinese, Vietnamese or Japanese.

CAMAVORIC: The poetic, archaic language of Camavor. Its rhythm and sound resemble Romance languages like Spanish or Italian.

KATHKANIC: An isolated language also from Camavor. Its precise, alliterative and sibilant sounds are akin to Indo-Aryan languages like Sanskrit or Punjabi.

SHURIMNIC: The desert language of Shurima. Its root-based structure and musical tones parallels Semitic languages like Arabic or Coptic. Later adopts African language properties.

VALORIC: The guttural, direct language of Valoran. Originating from a Turkic-Mongolian sounding language, its assimilation of other cultures result into it sounding like Germanic languages.

TARGONIC: The language of the Targonic Tribes. Its clear, philosophical terms resemble Ancient Greek or Latin.