5 hours ago
Applicable BYOND Key - Turadoot
Character Name - Kikuchi Tsukiko
Request Type - Character Ability
Request Details - TL;DR - I want my character to begin to invent a secret Druid language, using their mutual ability to communicate with plants in order to communicate with each other.
Specific Request - Druids can control plants and animals to a degree, which necessitates some limited form of communication. I feel like that's pretty broadly accepted.
For me, I've latched on to a lore blurb about Doriad; how they can detect and communicate with plants in a 'vague emotional sense'. I call this 'communion', and I've been roleplaying Kikuchi as having studied and become capable of it for OOC years now, despite being a felidae. I feel like this also has been pretty broadly accepted. I've also depicted Communion as being able to take place between Druids and Doriad, using their mutual connection to nature as a means of sensing the emotional state of their Communion partner.
I want to expand the potential of this ability in-universe. Essentially, to allow Druids and Doriad educated in it to use coded sequences of emotions to form the grammatical structure and vocabulary of a primitive language. I am calling this language 'Wildsong'.
The premise is that plants are not generally intelligent enough to communicate in very specific emotions, but Mortals are, thus being able to bypass the 'vagueness' of the emotional sensitivity. By assigning a secondary meaning to extremely specific emotions, they could feasibly form a detailed vocabulary. For example: "Fear of a pack of predators" Could be interpreted to mean 'Danger'. "Ennui over the end of summer" could mean 'North'. "Mistrust of one's reflection" could mean 'Humans'. String all three emotions together in sequence and you get the statement "There are dangerous humans to the north."
Because it relies entirely on a power that's perceived in the mind, Wildsong would not have a written or spoken form at all. In this way, they also help prevent it from being taught to Non-Druids.
Reason why you are making this request - Narratively, this fulfills the fantasy trope of the 'Secret Language of Druids', and aids in my ambition of depicting Druids existing in their own social and political ecosystem completely separate from human society. "Mysterious and Elusive" Are the very first words used in the Druid class description, and I want to help maintain that mystique by creating some of the means by which they keep their activities secret from the prying eyes of civilization. Because it relies on a specific kind of magical ability, those without a connection to nature would struggle to even perceive this language, much less decode it.
Roleplay & Lore supporting your request - I needed to explain the idea of Communion to help explain how Wildsong is intended to work. Thus far, that concept has been pretty broadly accepted. I don't want to make overt claims on his stance, but given Kikuchi has spoken about Communion with some of Dev's characters, and even engaged in Communion with a Doriad character of his (Rao Yue) - I like to think he feels that power is suitable to the setting. Wildsong is a further expansion of it that doesn't actually add new 'powers', just a new way for the characters to interpret what already exists.
Some other notes to help clarify.
Things Wildsong is NOT:
-A means to communicate detailed information with Plants or Animals.
My interpretation is that plants/animals are rarely intelligent enough to comprehend the nuances of language to begin with. They couldn't speak it, even if they could perceive it.
-A means to facilitate instant, long-distance communication.
While I am running with the idea that a message in Wildsong could be composed and passed on through plants who don't understand it's meaning, I'm not running with the idea that this actually happens at the speed of thought. It would be no faster then messenger birds already common to the setting.
-A Language fundamentally understood by all Druids/Doriad
Wildsong is meant to be a recent invention, and furthermore, an atypical method of interpreting pre-existing information. It would need to be taught manually; like learning any new language, with all of the difficulties that implies.
Things Wildsong is intended to do:
-Facilitate leaving secret messages.
While plants definitively could not understand the meaning of Wildsong, given that Druids can already manipulate and communicate with them, I feel it's possible they could ask a given plant to repeat a 'message' under the right stimuli. In this way, Druids would have a secretive way of signalling information to one another, such as a territorial claim, meeting spot, or hidden danger.
-Facilitate mental communication.
It's not intended to be so fast and efficient that it's effectively telepathy or anything, but so long as any onlookers lacked a distinct connection to nature, Wildsong would be impercievable. In this way, allied Druids would be able to communicate in secret.
-Be a power usable by other players.
While my character would be the inventor of Wildsong, a language is useless if only you know it. Once my character teaches it to others, I am knowingly relinquishing control of the narrative concept, as those students could go on to teach others without needing my blessing ICly or OOCly.
Character Name - Kikuchi Tsukiko
Request Type - Character Ability
Request Details - TL;DR - I want my character to begin to invent a secret Druid language, using their mutual ability to communicate with plants in order to communicate with each other.
Specific Request - Druids can control plants and animals to a degree, which necessitates some limited form of communication. I feel like that's pretty broadly accepted.
For me, I've latched on to a lore blurb about Doriad; how they can detect and communicate with plants in a 'vague emotional sense'. I call this 'communion', and I've been roleplaying Kikuchi as having studied and become capable of it for OOC years now, despite being a felidae. I feel like this also has been pretty broadly accepted. I've also depicted Communion as being able to take place between Druids and Doriad, using their mutual connection to nature as a means of sensing the emotional state of their Communion partner.
I want to expand the potential of this ability in-universe. Essentially, to allow Druids and Doriad educated in it to use coded sequences of emotions to form the grammatical structure and vocabulary of a primitive language. I am calling this language 'Wildsong'.
The premise is that plants are not generally intelligent enough to communicate in very specific emotions, but Mortals are, thus being able to bypass the 'vagueness' of the emotional sensitivity. By assigning a secondary meaning to extremely specific emotions, they could feasibly form a detailed vocabulary. For example: "Fear of a pack of predators" Could be interpreted to mean 'Danger'. "Ennui over the end of summer" could mean 'North'. "Mistrust of one's reflection" could mean 'Humans'. String all three emotions together in sequence and you get the statement "There are dangerous humans to the north."
Because it relies entirely on a power that's perceived in the mind, Wildsong would not have a written or spoken form at all. In this way, they also help prevent it from being taught to Non-Druids.
Reason why you are making this request - Narratively, this fulfills the fantasy trope of the 'Secret Language of Druids', and aids in my ambition of depicting Druids existing in their own social and political ecosystem completely separate from human society. "Mysterious and Elusive" Are the very first words used in the Druid class description, and I want to help maintain that mystique by creating some of the means by which they keep their activities secret from the prying eyes of civilization. Because it relies on a specific kind of magical ability, those without a connection to nature would struggle to even perceive this language, much less decode it.
Roleplay & Lore supporting your request - I needed to explain the idea of Communion to help explain how Wildsong is intended to work. Thus far, that concept has been pretty broadly accepted. I don't want to make overt claims on his stance, but given Kikuchi has spoken about Communion with some of Dev's characters, and even engaged in Communion with a Doriad character of his (Rao Yue) - I like to think he feels that power is suitable to the setting. Wildsong is a further expansion of it that doesn't actually add new 'powers', just a new way for the characters to interpret what already exists.
Some other notes to help clarify.
Things Wildsong is NOT:
-A means to communicate detailed information with Plants or Animals.
My interpretation is that plants/animals are rarely intelligent enough to comprehend the nuances of language to begin with. They couldn't speak it, even if they could perceive it.
-A means to facilitate instant, long-distance communication.
While I am running with the idea that a message in Wildsong could be composed and passed on through plants who don't understand it's meaning, I'm not running with the idea that this actually happens at the speed of thought. It would be no faster then messenger birds already common to the setting.
-A Language fundamentally understood by all Druids/Doriad
Wildsong is meant to be a recent invention, and furthermore, an atypical method of interpreting pre-existing information. It would need to be taught manually; like learning any new language, with all of the difficulties that implies.
Things Wildsong is intended to do:
-Facilitate leaving secret messages.
While plants definitively could not understand the meaning of Wildsong, given that Druids can already manipulate and communicate with them, I feel it's possible they could ask a given plant to repeat a 'message' under the right stimuli. In this way, Druids would have a secretive way of signalling information to one another, such as a territorial claim, meeting spot, or hidden danger.
-Facilitate mental communication.
It's not intended to be so fast and efficient that it's effectively telepathy or anything, but so long as any onlookers lacked a distinct connection to nature, Wildsong would be impercievable. In this way, allied Druids would be able to communicate in secret.
-Be a power usable by other players.
While my character would be the inventor of Wildsong, a language is useless if only you know it. Once my character teaches it to others, I am knowingly relinquishing control of the narrative concept, as those students could go on to teach others without needing my blessing ICly or OOCly.
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