Languages

MythCraft does not officially track languages, but assumes that any humanoid can find some way of accurately communicating very basic ideas and simple conversations with other humanoids, either via translator or nonverbal cues. If you want to add a little more complexity to your games, you can use one or more of the following models for adding languages to your game.

Lineage Languages

This model approaches languages through the lens of lineages. Each sapient lineage has its own tongue, and there is a common language shared by all. This model is usually human-centric, assuming that the human tongue is the common language, so you can maintain this trope or invert it and, for example, choose that Halfling is the common tongue.

If you use this model, then in character creation, each hero gets to know two languages: the common tongue and their own lineage language. If a lineage’s own tongue is considered the common tongue, then a hero of that lineage knows any one additional language of the character’s choice.

Learning Languages

As an optional rule if you use languages in your game, you might allow heroes to learn 1 additional language for every 2 points of INT that they have.

Alternatively, you might introduce a special Languages skill with the INT and Knowledge tags. Heroes could make Languages checks in order to decipher the intent of a creature speaking a language that they don’t know. Additionally, for every 4 skill points a hero has in this skill, you could allow them to learn another language.

If your world has a very large number of languages, you might consider allowing your heroes to learn another language for every 1 point of INT that they have, or for every 2-3 points of the Languages skill, or both.

In addition to the languages spoken by individual lineages, you might introduce languages associated with the Five Sources of Magic or with the various pantheons. You might also introduce languages spoken by humanoid creatures in the Creature Compendium, such as Centaurs and Clikkiri.

A few MythCraft lineages would likely share the same languages, and this is reflected in the table below. You can use this table or modify it to suit your own campaign.

Language	Creatures that Speak it
Arcanic	Arcane
Avadrian	Avadri, Raedeen, Remnants
Caninian	Hondu
Celestial	Celestials, Divine
Clikkiri	Insectoid Humanoids
Common	Halflings, Humans
Critterine	Kleppins
Draconic	Dragons, Dragonfolk, Dracani, Wyrms, Wyverns
Dwarvish	Dwarves
Eldritch	Occult
Elvish	Elves
Faetongue	Centaurs, Fae, Minotaurs
Felinese	Kettek, Sphinxes
Infernal	Fiends, Fiendbloods
Primordial	Elementals
Trolltongue	Bhrunai, Trollkin
Ursone	Urkou