Maj is the third planet in the crystal sphere of Maj Space, which is assumed to be somewhere on the outskirts of the crystal sphere cluster known as the 'Arcane Inner Flow'.
Maj is a world based on 17th Century Earth, with exactly the same geography (so that GMs can re-cycle the maps!), lower gunpowder technology, differently named countries and empires, and without Christianity, Islam or Judaism. Dates are 'C.E.' rather than 'A.D.', but are otherwise just the same. Spelljamming contact occurred about fifty years ago.
The idea is to use the Standard Campaign setting (PHB/DMG), and let GMs say their country or whatever for their home-brew campaign is somewhere on the map, likely in Europe, say the Balklands, Something-or-other-tainia. You could likely drop quite a bit of the smaller-scale bits of Greyhawk into this without too much trouble, if you wanted to.
Again to help the GM, many of the maps of Europe will be usable, as they will show ports, towns, cities and roads, as well as geographical features. GMs that are happy with this may use many of the same town and city names, or possibly look up older versions of the names and use these.
The 17thC is the Age of Empires, with lots of competing countries, but they are still isolated enough that they can be developed independently. The New World States (Vinland/America) can be used, with lots of mostly independent states in a federation.
There are humanoid tribes all over the place, at the edges of civilized areas. Bigger monsters in deep forest, mountains, etc. There are whole non-human civilizations in Stygia (Africa), Vespucia (South America), Melanesia (Australia), etc. Frost Giants in Suomi (Finland), Fire Giants near volcanos, etc.
Spelljamming (SJ) access to Maj is restricted. Etheric vortexes, striking with hurricane force, prevent safe landing anywhere except 'stable points' - typically places where land and a lot of water meet, such as off-shore near a few port towns, or a few mountain tops. Maps of those which lead to SJ aware ports will exist. From a GM point of view this enables most of the world to be SJ unaware, but still have places you can have a SJ ship land.
SJ Helm use on world is restricted, so that in atmosphere all Helms only have SR 1. This means that using SJ ships does not cause a transport revolution, but they are still useful.
GM Option: SJ Helms only operate within a few miles radius of the SJ ports (or other 'stable points'), and away from these start to give less speed, slowly declining to SR 1, then causing the ship to slowly land - they do not work at all more than thirty miles away. This means that spelljamming will have almost no direct effect on the world, outside the SJ ports.
Further, if you take off from this world (leave atmosphere) you take with you an 'etheric charge', which means that it is not safe for that ship, or anyone or anything on board, to land again on the world for one week. This prevents extra-atmosphere hops to rapidly travel anywhere you can safely land. This danger is annoying, but not deadly - when you land you go into a barely visible phantom form, very difficult to harm, needing no sustenance, but stuck in that one place, until the week to allow the charge to drain away passes. There is automatic safe displacement if some 'kind' person leaves a solid object intersecting your phantom form, etc.
GMs will note that a work-around for this is to have a second ship in orbit, and convey a message to them by something like flags or signal lamps (this avoids touching air envelopes) which they then take to the surface.
The timeline is not exactly 17thC Earth, as for example Vinland (North America) has sparsely settled states. There are quite a few countries calling themselves 'empire', or something similar, that have taken an interest in spelljamming. For example Roma, Carthage, and Kemet. It is interesting how many of these are around the Nalta (Mediterranean) Basin.
The Albion Empire includes England, Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and Breton (Brittany and Normandy), each of which has its own nobles and royalty. The empire is in theory ruled from the royal seat, at Bodmin, in the Duchy of Kernow (Cornwall).
The subordinate national kings rule from Shrewsbury, Shropshire (England), Yns Mon, Anglesey (Wales), Fort William (Scotland), Royal Tara, Dublin (Ireland) and Rennes (Breton).
The Council Regnant (Ruling Council) meets bi-annually at Winchester (England). In practice this is the administrative centre of the empire.
At its limit the Roma Empire covered most of Albion, but the Celts kept the bits of Roma culture that they wanted, and then kicked them out. Invasions by the Norse and the Franks have also left their mark on Albion, but it is still basically Celtic, with the remnants of the Picts and the Scots mostly pushed to the far North.
Albion is noted for having a particularly good navy, both water and wildspace, and is very enthusiastic about the empire-building possibilities of spelljamming.
The people of Albion worship the Celtic gods, and the older gods such as the Horned Man, the Green Man, Wayland the Smith, and the Triple Goddess. There is also some worship of the Norse gods, and a little of the Roma (Greek) ones. It is the job of bards to travel the lands carrying news and teaching the ancient tales and the newer lore. In some cases Albion priests can be referred to as 'druids', which can cause confusion to visitors from other lands.
The SJ ports of Albion are Brigstowe (Bristol), Scouse (Liverpool) and Nova Albion (San Francisco; when it is not Iberian). Albion also has a city-state, Emaina ('Moonland'), on Selene.
Suffering from lack of Spelljamming ports, this power has decreased in strength over the last century. Historically significant it covers Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Southern Germany and Southern Poland.
These peoples worship the Germanic versions of the Norse gods and the Roma/Greek gods.
There are currently no SJ ports owned by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Just to the South of the Austro-Hungarian Empire this area includes what was once Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and possibly Moldavia. This area is not further detailed, as it is intended for GMs to place their own campaigns, using the 'standard campaign' setting.
The Balklands have been fought over by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Greek City States, Roma, Muscovy and Parthia, and are a fragmented and turbulent collection of states. It might be noted that they include Wallachia and the Transylvanian Alps...
Strange things happen in the Balklands, and it is believed that the strange hysteria which on occasion sweeps over the peoples there, causing unusual beliefs, may have something to do with dimension slippages, briefly connecting the Balklands to other worlds, where things are very different. This justifies the GM in having just about anything they like happen here, including whole areas (such as their existing campaign) moved from one world to another, with history being 'patched' so that things more or less fit together. This uncertainty may be one thing driving characters to leave the area, for the hopefully more stable larger world of Maj.
The peoples can worship the Germanic versions of the Norse gods, the Roma/Greek gods, the Persian gods, or any of the 'standard' D&D gods.
There are currently no known SJ ports in the Balklands; the nearest are Byzantium (Istanbul) and Minos (Crete).
Carthage still has a small empire, mostly on the North-western Stygian (African) shore. Present day Morocco, Northern Algeria and Tunisia. Spelljamming has given this faltering empire a new lease of life.
Notable is that Carthage was founded by a Queen Elishat (also known as 'Dido', Elissa to the Greeks). Carthage at one point had many colonies, and was on an equal footing to Roma, with whom they vied for southern Iberia.
The people of Carthage are decended from Phoenicians and worship the city god Melqart (with both solar and sea aspects, who might be the Greek Herakles), Ba'al (Lord) Hammon (possibly the same god as the Greek Cronus or Roman Saturn), Tanit (who may be related to Astarte (accepted by the Greeks as Aphrodite, Venus to the Romans)) and other Phoenician deities. Their enemies claim that they burn children in sacrifice to Hammon, but if this was ever done the practice stopped long ago.
The SJ port is Carthage (Tunis).
In addition to their known oceanic SJ port of Kowloon (Hong Kong) the Cathay Empire (China/The Middle Kingdom) also has a secret mountainous SJ port of Tai Shan, considered a sacred mountain. Making sure other countries do not find out about this is a major concern, and tricks like illusions and invisibility are used to throw people off the scent. Cathay would like to have the SJ port of Rasa (Lhassa/Tibet), but so far the fact that Hindos does not want Cathay any nearer to them has prevented this.
While Cathay is such an immense country speaking several different languages the same pictographic written language is used throughout it.
The people of Cathay worship the Chinese gods, and also the Buddha; they are also said to have various strange beliefs which are not quite a religion.
The SJ ports of Cathay are Kowloon (Hong Kong) and Tai Shan (which is secret).
These are independent tribal states based in the countries of Angola, Zaire, Zambia, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. No centralised authority exists, although the City of Nairobi is growing in influence due to its vicinity to Mt. Kilimanjaro (the Holy Mountain). There is a tacit agreement between Kemet and the Zam Federation to leave these unstable dangerous peoples undisturbed, for now, as a buffer between the two major powers.
These people worship their tribal gods.
There are currently no known SJ ports in Darkest Stygia.
The Franks are based upon a broad confederation which rules most of France, Belgium, Netherlands, Northern Germany and Northern Poland. They also have colonies on the West coast of Stygia, from Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, down to the Congo.
While once strong, and still very wealthy, this federation is far less unified these days, and only the strong bureaucracy holds things together, as individual states fight to each go their own way. The two SJ ports of Randstad (Rotterdam) and Massalia (Marseille) are putting a great deal of tension on the Franks, as they are at two nearly opposite ends of their territories. The idea of a foreign war, out in wildspace, might prove quite attractive to distract the populace from troubles far nearer home.
The Frankish peoples follow a mixture of the Norse gods (Germanic versions - Woden for Odin, Donner for Thor, etc.), the Roman/Greek gods and the Celtic gods.
The Frankish SJ ports are Randstad (Rotterdam) and Massalia (Marseille).
The Greek City States are based around the major cities of Athens, Sparta, Thrace, Thebes and Thessalonika and also include the remaining parts of the Minoan civilisation, centred at Knossos in Crete. These independent states were never conquered by Roma. Crete may be the highest point on sunken Naltia (Atlantis)!
Greek scholars and traders, though regarded as decadent by many, are taking a considerable interest in the possibilities of travel through wildspace, and this has been proving healthy for the Greek civilization.
Strangely enough the Greeks worship the Greek gods; Athena is the patron goddess of Athens for example.
The SJ port is Minos (on Crete; there may be something special about this port).
Hindos is the immense land which is modern day India, Pakistan, and (in theory) Afghanistan.
This is a land of many kingdoms, and there will be some sort of disagreement going on somewhere in the land at almost all times. Spelljamming and the discovery that Mumbai (Bombay) is a SJ port initially caused a great deal of trouble, but proved to be a unifying force, and the kingdoms are part of an 'empire', in which the individual kings elect an emperor for a seven-year period (only one term of office is allowed), who presides over international relations and national armed forces contributed by all the kingdoms, and has limited powers of taxation of imports and exports.
While the initial emperors were weak, more recent ones have proved cunning, and a small but effective imperial bureaucracy has been set up. The formation of a national court has proved popular among the people, and the recent prosecution and imprisonment of a royal heir who while very nasty considered himself above the law has made a lot more people consider it to be credible.
The Indian gods are worshipped here, as is the Buddha.
The SJ port is Mumbai (Bombay).
Tarraco (Barcelona), Empire of Iberia (Spain). Topography and history have set Iberia apart from the rest of Europe. Isolated by the Pyrenees. Consists of modern day Spain and Portugal. For further details see Iberia.
The gods officially worshiped in Iberia are:
Mithras (Lord of Light, God of Truth, Savior from Death, Victorious Warrior, Son of the Sun, God of War, Lord of the Sky), Greater Deity. Chaotic/Good
Cybele (Magda Mater, the Great Mother), Greater Deity. Goddess of nature, fertility, and creation. Neutral
The SJ port is Tarraco (Barcelona), and there is a city state Piedra de la Luna Municipalidad, or Moonstone City, on Selene.
The Vespucian (South American) SJ Port is owned by the Incas, and their empire extends along much of the Eastern coast, all the way into Southern Vinland (Mexico/North America). The port is on the site of Machu Pichu, well isolated and built high into the mountains. It is said that the Incas were the second peoples contacted by the Arcane, and they quickly realised how useful spelljamming could be to them. Assuming the GM Option of banning SJ Helms from working at all on Maj is not used, assume that the Incas use Helms to fly their large ships around, to help deal with the Iberian (Spanish) invaders.
The Inca Empire also includes what was the Toltec and the Aztec Empires, who have become much less prone to human sacrifice under Inca rule, though it likely still takes place in secret and in isolated places. In the battles with the Iberians the Incas have lost control of the northern Aztec lands (North Mexico).
Lake Titicaca, on the Altiplano along the border between Peru and Bolivia, is the second Inca SJ port. This is the highest large navigable lake in the world. It lies in a watershed that has no outlet to the ocean. The lake covers an area of about 8,300 sq km (about 3,200 sq miles). Its surface lies 3,800 m (12,500 ft) above sea level.
The SJ ports are Machu Pichu and Lake Titicaca (there is something strange about this second port).
Kemet (Egypt) is a power unto itself, backed by the Egyptian Gods. Most of Northern Stygia (Africa) belongs to them, in a band ranging from Mauritania, through Chad, Niger, Sudan and Ethiopia, as well as modern day Egypt, Southern Libya and Algeria.
The SJ port is Alexandria, its capital.
Melanesia (Australia), whilst still largely unexplored and known only to the indigenous Aboriginal peoples, is home to an Albion Empire penal colony at Botany Bay. For further Aboriginal details see Dreamtime.
There are currently no known SJ ports on Melanesia (Ayers Rock is an unknown one).
Muscovy, also known as the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and the Rus people are ruled by a powerful bureaucracy, though nominally by the ruler under the recent title of 'tsar'. The Romanov Dynasty has recently started, after the terrible Time of Troubles, and the various tsar pretenders, and Muscovy is at least temporarily not at war with anyone, on Maj at least.
Another great power, it covers the countries of Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan and the old USSR states as far East as the Ural Mountains. The Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) are dependencies with their own ruling families.
Muscovy claims everything up to the borders of Finland, Poland and probably Rumania going West, though Moldavia is such a mess it is effectively a buffer state with the Balklands. South as far as the Caucasian Mountains, with Georgia and Azerbijan effectively as buffer states with Persia, and Afghanistan as a buffer state with Hindos. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are claimed, but they, and everything East of the Ural Mountains, are really Terra Incognita.
While the area to the East of the line between Lake Onega along the river and lake systems, via (Gorki), (Kuybyshev), to (Rostov), is less settled, there are Rus there, all the way to the Urals. They are spread pretty thin though... There could almost anything, including witch's huts that walk around on giant chicken legs, there, so wise heroes would find out where to obtain blue roses...
Muscovy seized the new possibilities of spelljamming as that most useful of political tools, foreign wars to distract the populace. While the city state founded on Selene is useful, attempts elsewhere in the inner parts of the Maj Space system have not gone too well, so Muscovy is looking to the moons of Dagda and Chronos, and maybe even further out. Gold from wildspace!
One department added to the bureaucracy in recent decades is the Department of Arcane Affairs, which is supposed to stop magical meddling, whether arcane or divine, in matters of government. It was this department that revealed the various tsar pretenders as magically transformed or magical constructs. The dreaded Cossack Nightwalkers operate out of this department, to the great frustration of the Department of State Security, and are supposed to be injured soldiers, traditionally Cossacks, who have been 'improved' by various secret magical arts.
Muscovy is not to happy that their spelljamming port is Mt. Elbrus in the Caucasus Mountains, and the need to defend that area has prevented much military expansion they might otherwise have done. Note that on Maj, Georgia became part of Muscovy far earlier than on Earth.
The peoples of Muscovy worship the Persian gods, with some backwoods worship of the old Rus gods.
The SJ port is Mt. Elbrus. Muscovy also has a city-state, Novaya Moscovy, on Selene.
The islands of modern day Japan and the Korea peninsula are the Nihon Empire. With hereditary twin god-emperors they are insular and xenophobic. They have a very low level of basic education, except for the ruling houses.
The Nihon Empire has a mutual non-aggression pact with Cathay, even though they not-so-cordially hate each other. Historically it may be worth noting that the Mongol invasion of the 13thC was repelled, though this took the combined efforts of the whole nation, and in the longer run greatly helped national unity. Assume that the Tokugawa shogunate and the 'closed country' policy was never adopted in the Japanaese part of Nihon, in part due to Osaka being a SJ port.
Even though xenophobic there was some trade with the Iberia in the 16thC, and this probably opened some people's eyes as to the wealth to be made from trade, which has made the warrior caste rather unhappy about the new power gained by the merchant caste.
The people of Nihon worship the Shinto gods (kami), which are related to the gods of Cathay, and also the Buddha.
The SJ port is Osaka.
The Norse Federation (Scandinavia) includes Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and (grudgingly) Suomi (Finland). They have colonies in Vinland (North America); after all they were the most recent peoples from over the sea to the East of Vinland to find it!
The Norse, quite reasonably, worship the Norse Gods, except for the Finnish who worship their own.
The SJ port is New Amstelredam (New York/Vinland).
The Parthians, also known as the Persian Empire, were never destroyed by the Romans, and are particularly noted for the scholarly city of Rhodes. Their empire is vast, extending as far North-West as Byzantium, East to the border of Afghanistan and South to the Arabian Sea.
Zorastrianism is their religion, and the Buddha is worshipped.
The SJ port is Byzantium (Constantinople/Istanbul).
The Roma Empire is just Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania. For further details see Roma.
Romans still worship their Roman (Greek) Gods, and use the Roma and Greek names for them pretty interchangeably. The main god worshipped is Mercurius Adeptus.
The SJ port is Neapolis (Naples), and there is a thriving city-state, 'Nova Roma', on Selene.
All lands East of the Urals and North of Mongolia/Manchuria are essentially unexplored and considered very dangerous - full of monsters and strange phenomena.
Also the West Coast and inland of Vespucia (South America), most of Melanesia, Indonesia, and the Pacific Islands fall into this category.
There are currently no known SJ ports in Terra Incognita.
This land is often called the "Roof of the World", and is effectively a buffer state between Cathay and Hindos. While Cathay would like to add it to its empire, and in fact claims that it has always been part of Cathay, Hindos much prefers to keep things as they are, and its assistance has so far repelled Cathay.
The people worship the Buddha.
The SJ port is Rasa (Lhassa).
These sparsely settled states are mostly in Eastern Vinland (North America), some a little more central, and a few on the West Coast. There is also the Star State, of native people, in what would be Colorado. There are plenty of native tribes around, and plenty of humanoid tribes, with monsters in the more isolated parts.
There are only a few (coastal) cites of any significant size, one being the SJ port city New Amstelredam (New York), one being Nova Albion (San Francisco), and one being New Crescent (New Orleans). The Vinland or New World States are not really an empire, as they are only a loose federation, but some think they show great promise for the future.
The native peoples worship their various native gods, the colonists the gods of the lands of which they are colonies. For further details see Vinland.
The SJ ports are New Amstelredam (New York), Star Mountain (Pike's Peak/Denver), New Crescent (New Orleans) and Nova Albion (San Francisco).
Based in Southern Stygia, all lands South of the Zambezi River including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana and Namibia. Colonies around (Cape Town), (Port Elizabeth) and (Durban) were formed 200 years ago by malcontents from the Frankish Empire, who hold the native populations in contempt and virtual slavery. Although nominally part of the Zam Federation they hold the native leaders as being sub-human and look more to a European way of life.
There are currently no known SJ ports in the Zam Federation.
The following are known 'stable points', which allow spelljamming vessels to freely come and go to the surface of Maj, over an area several miles across. Where this is near water the safe area is actually off-shore, just out of sight of land, where this is a mountain it is the highest point, which can be quite dangerous if clouds cover the summit. It is recommended that there not be initially more than about two dozen known points, and GMs may reduce these to about a dozen if they wish.
Alexandria (Kemet/Egypt)
Brigstowe (Bristol/Albion)
Byzantium (Constantinople/Istanbul/Persians)
Carthage (Tunis)
Kowloon (Hong Kong/Cathay/China)
Lake Titicaca (Vespucia/S. America)
Machu Pichu (Vespucia/S. America)
Massalia (Marseille/Franks)
Minos (Crete)
Mt. Elbrus (Caucasus Mountains/Muscovy)
Mumbai (Hindos/India)
Neapolis (Naples/Roma)
New Amstelredam (New York/Vinland)
New Crescent (New Orleans/Vinland)
Nova Albion (San Francisco/Vinland)
Osaka (Nihon/Japan)
Randstad (Rotterdam/Franks)
Rasa (Lhassa/Tibet)
Scouse (Liverpool/Albion)
Star Mountain (Pike's Peak/Denver/Vinland)
Tai Shan (Cathay/China - secret)
Tarraco (Barcelona/Iberia)
The finding of places which might allow new ports is possible. The following unknown 'stable points' might be considered by GMs. It is recommended that there be no more than about a dozen unknown such points.
North Magnetic Pole
Taimyr Peninsula
Bering Strait
Mount Olympus
Kilimanjaro
Cape Agulhas
Phoenix Islands
Ayers Rock (Melanesia/Australia)
Perth (Melanesia/Australia)
South Magnetic Pole
Something which has discouraged random attempts to find new ports was the loss of the Albion Spelljammer "Intrepid" in an attempt to land near Hamilton, Bermuda.
Norse Sea (North Sea)
Baltic Sea
Atlantian Sea (Atlantic Ocean)
Nalta Sea (Mediterranian Sea)
Swarzee (Black Sea)
Mazandaran Sea (Caspian Sea)
Red Sea
Hindos Sea (Indian Ocean)
Pacific Sea (Pacific Ocean)
Artic Sea (Artic Ocean)
The tech level is in some respects lower than 17thC Earth, with much less gunpowder (smokepowder) and cannon being about as good as you get - flintlocks would be high tech. Smokepowder is subject to Dispel Magic.
GM Option: is to have powered technology, i.e. technology that does more than store power mechanically for later release; tend to break down, unless carefully supervised. That helps prevent, for example, the domination of Steam, but still permits things like complex mechanical orrerys, which are particularly useful to spelljammers. Windmills and watermills would still work effectively, as would compressed air, but things that rely on stored chemical energy would not. The only way to stabilise for example stored chemical energy is to use magic, hence, for example, gunpowder becomes magical smokepowder.
On Maj much of the slave trade which on Earth was done to provide a workforce has been replaced by some use of magic. GMs may choose to ignore this, as they wish to concentrate on the adventuring part of the game, or they may wish to have a less 'plain bread' campaign. GM options are included for the use of magic in work via Undead, Construct, and Utilergist. The details of these are in separate specs.
In 1570 C.E. (Civilized Era, or Celtic Era, depending on who you ask) the Navaho shaman Red Dawn took his star canoe on a 'vision quest' and reaching the crystal shell, he passed through into the Flow, alerting the Arcane to spelljamming activity in this crystal sphere, and then returned to Maj. Shortly after his return the Arcane arrived, on Star Mountain (Pike's Peak, Denver/Colorado), and many native peoples sent delegations to meet them, and formed what became Star City.
Over the next few years the Arcane also visited various other lands and peoples, including Albion, the Franks, the Inca, the Iberians, and Carthage. They sold spelljamming helms, and the places they contacted quickly became spelljamming ports, though frequently this was kept at least partially secret from the peoples of these lands, and reference was just made to the new 'flying ships'.
In the fifty years since the Arcane first arrived there has been travel and exploration of the Maj Space system, though little contact with anywhere beyond. A number of city states now exist on Maj's moon, and in one or two other places in the system. Finding quite a lot of other peoples living on the planets in Maj Space was a shock for many of the explorers from Maj, and this probably slowed their expansion. The date is now 1620 C.E.
Ancient History
This sphere moves on a cycle in and out of the phlogiston rivers. It has just spent a period in excess of ten thousand years beyond easy access via a phlogiston river, quite possibly twice that long. Contact only became easy, again, no more than five hundred years ago. It seems likely that contact will be easy for several thousand years at least.
This is obviously a gross simplification, and after religion language is one of the main things people argue about, and use as a means to tell who is 'us', and who is 'other', but this might still be of some use. Common, while widely used, is nearly unknown if you go far enough away from anywhere that has any contact with spelljamming, or at least frequent far-travelling traders.
Language (Real World) Alphabet (Real World) Typical Speakers Albionian (Gaelic) Albionian (Gaelic) Albion Empire Austron (Austrian) Austron (Austrian) Austro-Hungry Empire Balklandis *1 Balkland Territories Carthago (Carthage) Carthago (Carthage) Empire of Carthage Cathan (Mandarin) Cathan (Mandarin) Empire of Cathay Frankish (French) Frankish (French) Land of the Franks Greek (Greek) Greek (Greek) Greek City-States Hindos (Hindustani) Hindos (Hindustani) Hindos Empire Iberian (Spanish) Iberian (Spanish) Empire of Iberia Incan (Incan) Incan Hieroglyphs Empire of the Incas Kemet (Egyptian) Kemet Hieroglyphs Empire of Kemet Melanesian *2 Aboriginals of Melanesia Nihonese (Japanese) Nihonese (Japanese) Empire of Nihon Norse (Norwegian) Norse Runes (Runic) Norse Territories Roman (Latin) Roman (Latin) Empire of Roma Parthia (Persian) Parthian (Persian) Empire of Parthia Rus (Russian) Rus (Russian) Muscovy Empire Thibetan (Tibetan) Thibetan (Tibetan) Thibet Lands Trade (Common) Trade (Common) Maj and most of Maj Space Stygian *2 Tribes of Darkest Stygia Vinlandian *3 *4 Iroquois (NE) Cherokee (SE) Dakota-Sioux (NC) Cheyenne (SSN) Comanche (SC) Navajo (pueblo villages/SW) Nez Perce (Pacific NW) Eskimo/Inuit (FNP) Zaman (Swahili) Zaman (Swahili) Zam Federation
(*1) Varies per GM of country's languages.
(*2) Languages and dialects vary per tribe.
(*3) Native languages of the various Vinlandian tribes varies per region.
(*4) There are various dialects per region as well. What they all have in common is the native Vinlandian sign language they use when meeting other tribes.
NC - North Central, SC - South Central, FNP - Far North Polar, SSN - Star State Nation.
Common Tongue: The Arcane who first visited Maj both used and taught the spell Learn Common Tongue. 'Common' seems to be a language with lots of words about trading and bargaining, so it is often called 'Trade Tongue'. This language is also noted for not having a word for 'enemy', or 'stranger', and the closest that can be got is 'not-yet-friend'; the language also jars badly if loan words are used from other languages, except for names of things. This has resulted in the Common Tongue being in widespread use across Maj, and most of Maj Space.
Learn ~ Tongue: is a spell which needs to be re-researched for each new language that it's to work for, by a master of that language. Each of these spells is then treated in almost all respects as a separate spell. The spell allows those that it is cast on, on a daily basis, to fluently speak, and (if literate in any language), read and write this new language for the rest of the day, and multiplies the rate of learning that language by ten. This means that six month's language learning takes about two weeks; a week can be assumed to be enough for basic proficiency, two weeks for full proficiency (some may learn even quicker). Languages learned by means of this spell do not normally count against any maximum language total.
Level: 2nd (arcane/divine).
Learn Common Tongue: this is the spell Learn ~ Tongue, which has been researched for the language 'Common'.
Level: 2nd (arcane/divine).
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