From: lwl@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 1995 14:54:02 -0400
The Concilium (the Covenant of the Deadfire Saga) has a bit of a problem: Many of its members lack a common language, and as part of its adventures, members are having to do quite a bit of traveling to areas where no one speaks the language.
What we're looking for is an area-of-effect translation spell, i.e. anyone standing near the caster (or, preferably, near the target of the spell) can understand everyone else near the caster, regardless of language being spoken.
The question then becomes, "What Technique, Form, and Level?"
InMe 25 gets you, "Thoughts Within Babble", which is personal to the caster (Body/Touch in range), and Concentration in duration. This allows the caster to understand speech or writing of anything; boosting it with vis allows those touching the caster to gain similar understanding. This is "general ideas", with Perception or Communication rolls required for more.
Would making this level 30 or 35 be reasonable for the desired effect, or would it still need the vis boost?
One wonders if Muto Mentem (change the minds of people in some way so they're temporarily able to speak a language?) or Muto Imagonem (change the sounds that people make?) would be workable, as well? The difficulty here comes with the fact that the caster wouldn't know all the languages that would have to be comprehended (an Intellego requisite?)
-- Lydia
Hmm. One might as well ask "What is language?" 8)
How about a RegMen 30 Conc/Sun/Ring spell? The spell controls the ability of the castee(s) to understand each other, and forces them to comprehend whatever tongue they hear as their own. That way all the work is really being done by the castee's own mind, so the mage doesn't have to know the language.
Another thought: you could try mimicking a Faerie's (possible) approach to the problem -- grow a second set of ears on the castee's head to hear a different language. For instance, if I wanted to understand the language of rabbits I would grow a set of rabbit ears. If I wanted to understand Bulgarian, I'd grow a set of Bulgarian ears. 8^)
Just a couple of thoughts...
Ingrid
I would say InMe 40/45-ish "Rebuilding the Tower of Babel" (where according to Biblical reference everyone spoke the same language) gives you a circle of about 5 paces' radius where everyone understands one another. This may at times cause problems, as attempts to speak indirectly or tactfully get directly and/or bluntly translated (the intent of the spell is to facilitate communication after all). This side-effect won't necessarily be obvious to the magi at first...
Also, certain groups may look on this as blasphemous. God decreed the fall of the Tower of Babel and the sundering of the tongues of Man, and attempts to undo His work, even temporarily, are more than typically heinous magic. In some troupes it may even be impossible to circumvent the directly enacted Will of God in this fashion (akin to, though on a smaller scale than, trying to undo God's original "Fiat Lux.")
With a Rego req, I'd say:
MuMe 25 - allow target to speak any language(s) that the caster can
speak.
MuMe 35 - As above, area of effect, multiple targets.
MuMe 45 - As above, but a 3rd party (not necessarily the caster or one
of the targets) can provide language(s).
MuIm 25 - change the sounds coming out of a speaker's mouth into words in any language spoken by the caster. InMe req, or the caster must also speak the original language. The caster is essentially being a magical translator/conduit, so it doesn't scale upwards well. Perhaps a magic item with a "maintains concentration" advantage, taken as many times as there may be speakers translated...? So it wouldn't actually be "area of effect", quite. Languages spoken by the wielder could be translated, but only any two at a time (+1 for every degree of concentration not used on multiple speakers?) Off the top of my head... it seems a little... "off" somehow.
The MuIm would definitely sound odd to people. Those unfamiliar with the magi and this mode of communication would probably run screaming.
MuMe (Rego req) would also be detected by people, but wouldn't seem quite so odd (at least at first; later, when they realized someone was messing about inside their mind, put something in & took it out again... well, they burn witches for a LOT less than that!)
All in all, I'd say InMe would be the best. It deals directly with information (Intellego) and intent (mentem), and for another 5 or 10 levels, the subjects MIGHT not even note anything unusual!
We are running into this problem in the Covenant of the Novus Deim. We all speak a variety of languages, so we can get a chain going of language translation, but one goes in the ear of one grog, might be quite different than what comes out at the other end of the chain.
Cullum, a Jerbiton magus, is going to teach all of the grogs and champions Latin. Of course, in one season they will not be experts, but they will be able to understand what is being told them.
BTW, the last time we played, we tried to get this 'chain' effect by actually whispering the message to the person who knows that language and letting that person tell the next. This way, each character could attach his style to the message. It worked out very well (and was also very fun).
Just some thoughts....
Frosty
I like the ear growing spell, but it is silly -- definitely a faerie solution unlikely to be popular in village squares.
ReMe is good for moving thoughts, so I supose, you might be able to shift thoughts from one person to the next. I think InMe is must more the Form and Tech. A ring duration is a good idea.
Question: are thoughts in the normal language or are they in the language from before the fall of the Tower of Babel? (What an excellent precedent for a Universal Language.)
Gint.