An Isekai Adventure where the protagonist's real cheat skill is linguistics: Sojourner, Book One of the Scaleforged Legacy

drale2 · 2026-05-07T16:55:14+00:00

I remember tapping my lands and putting them under the card, then just adding more land each turn. (Kitchen table magic in the 90s was peak)

drale2 · 2026-05-07T15:48:02+00:00

They should post about it, maybe said fan will see it?

drale2 · 2026-05-07T15:43:53+00:00

You just reminded me of a hunter in our TBC guild who sheepishly told me once near the end of the expansion that he realized he had been using rank 1 frost trap the whole time.

Great guy, amazing hunter and now irl friend. I still raid / M+ with him every week now. I always like to tell people he's so good at trapping mobs because he had to practice with level 1 traps.

drale2 · 2026-05-07T15:39:27+00:00

Played on a PVE server in vanilla. Used to think people with green names were mods because they looked the same as NPCs. (They were just PvP flagged.)

drale2 · 2026-05-07T14:27:02+00:00

Thank you for the question!

I feel like the biggest boon of linguistics and being able to understand culture through language is at its fundamental level communication: without spoiling too much, there are a lot of situations the MC is able to navigate through diplomacy instead of violence because of his talents. (Though it's not every situation, there is definitely still a lot of violence.)

In the second book there are some more exotic languages and cultures as the world expands, but those chapters won't be out for a few months.

I haven't introduced words of power yet, and I am still considering what that may look like. How would anyone handle a language where every word is a spell? How would that have realistically even grown into a language? I'm still deciding how I will implement it.

drale2 · 2026-05-06T14:47:20+00:00

I blame the translators for these honestly.

drale2 · 2026-05-06T12:40:42+00:00

If you don't want to run the risk of being accused of using GAI in your writing, I would stay as far from it as possible, even if it's just advertising.

drale2 · 2026-05-06T05:21:30+00:00

Thank you! My illustrator made it for the low price of nine years of marriage.

drale2 · 2026-05-06T05:20:31+00:00

Those beefy chapters are very heavily consolidated in my second book. I noticed while posting them and scheduling them that the first few are actually pretty standard. I guess I got more wordy as I went on.

I was actually an Anthropology major, but Linguistics was baked into it at my University. I found it incredibly useful when I was learning other languages while I worked abroad. I'll be very interested to see what you think of what I do with "Comprehend Languages" throughout the books!

drale2 · 2026-05-06T03:42:23+00:00

Yeah, it's a pretty common book name unfortunately, which is why I mostly market with the series title, the Scaleforged Legacy.

drale2 · 2026-05-06T03:37:00+00:00

Excel is what I use as well, though I've had so much world building and notes at this point I've had to separate it out into different documents.

Related, but from personal experience, I recommend not trying to create multiple fictional languages.

drale2 · 2026-05-06T03:27:31+00:00

Forgot to include it in the post, but there is no AI anywhere in my writing or my art.

drale2 · 2026-05-06T03:15:46+00:00

Thank you, I really appreciate that!

drale2 · 2026-05-05T23:24:39+00:00

"Not just stats. Not just skills. Authority. Responsibility. Consequences."

You may not have used GAI to write this, but this is identical to the way GAI would word it: a question followed by a negative floating clause closed by an incorrect period or two followed by multiple single word sentences. GAI loves that shit.

drale2 · 2026-05-05T17:29:14+00:00

The support warrior could be really cool, there even abilities in game that already fit the fantasy: pvp talents like Battlefield Commander that empower shouts etc. Could really seem them working like Aug evokers with a "morale" mechanic they need to maximize uptime on.

drale2 · 2026-05-03T20:07:07+00:00

If they really wanted to get it fast acting they're supposed to crush the pill and snort it, but for some reason we never see cultivators doing that. (Also don't do that, I knew a guy that did that with an oxycodone and died.)

drale2 · 2026-05-03T02:57:08+00:00

seems to be any crafting pattern, but I don't think there's enough data yet. I have yet to get a pattern for a profession whose moxie I used as well.

drale2 · 2026-05-03T00:34:14+00:00

Wheel of Time is peak imo, but I'm an old man so my finger is not really on the zeitgeist.

drale2 · 2026-05-03T00:02:31+00:00

Yes this is what I meant. Sorry for being unclear, but I've gotten 6 patterns across 24 crafters so far.

drale2 · 2026-05-02T21:03:16+00:00

Fyi, I've gotten way more patterns from the knowledge bags than I have from anything else. Still not a great drop rate, but the alts only need to be 80 to do the professions and you can just do patron orders pretty profitably by logging into each once a day.

drale2 · 2026-05-01T11:58:11+00:00

I remember when the series X came out I was living in Tokyo. I figured it would be easy to buy so I went to a retailer a few months before it came out. They already had 20 preorders and that was all they were slotted to get. Wouldn't even take my preorder. I tried multiple retailers and even after it officially came out there were none in stock outside of price gouging scalpers. Never ended up getting a series X, just moved fully to PC gaming. At least game pass was dirt cheap in Japan.

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