So a bunch of theater professionals know Azlanti... what's up with that?

[FedoraFerret]

Currently in a Council of Thieves game with some friends, and while discussing the Linguistics skill it came up that Azlanti is considered the deadest of dead languages. Our GM looked at us funny, double checked her book, and then informed us that the director, stage manager, and diva in the play we're doing all know Azlanti. So, uh... yeah. Why? For that matter, how? I did some extra research and from what I can tell, Azlanti's so completely dead that no one's even 100% sure anyone speaks it anymore.

[Kobold Catgirl]

Bigger concern: Your GM has all your coworkers statted up. This is a cause for some alarm. Get them before they get you!

[FedoraFerret]

It's apparently the languages they came with.

She did, however, rebuild literally every NPC we've encountered. This isn't an uncommon occurrence for us in NPC-interaction-heavy games, I've done the same for Skull and Shackles.

[Kalindlara]

I can't remember the exact source, but I believe a lot of Chelaxians go out of their way to learn Azlanti. It's sort of a narcissistic thing; it's not uncommon for a Chelaxian to believe that she has a strong Azlanti bloodline.

Additionally, in Westcrown specifically, Azlanti might be more common because of its status as the site of Aroden's return.

That said, a more appropriate language might have been Jistka (which is essentially the Latin of Golarion, as far as I can tell). It's another language of a dead empire - one that once existed in those lands - and is specifically still in use by scholars and well-educated nobles.

[Kalindlara]

FedoraFerret wrote:

It's apparently the languages they came with.

She did, however, rebuild literally every NPC we've encountered. This isn't an uncommon occurrence for us in NPC-interaction-heavy games, I've done the same for Skull and Shackles.

I do the exact same thing in all my campaigns. ^_^

[Fabius Maximus]

Another reason could be that a lot of the operas are written and performed in Azlanti

[David Neilson]

The reason is that Chelish High Opera is performed in Azlanti. It is also important to remember that until the death of Aroden it was also the liturgical language of his church. Which means it is probably much closer to being the Latin equivalent. So while it is a dead language it is twitching fairly heavily.

Not sure of the best real world equivalent for Jistikan though, I think you could argue something like Greek or maybe Etruscan, the Hellknights are much more likely to speak that though due to their explicitly modelling their own organization after the Jistikan military.

[Turin the Mad]

With Jistkan incorporating Roman numerals = Latin. Azlanti equates to Greek or something similar.

i.e., inverting OTL where instead of Latin 'overrunning' Ancient Greek, the reverse happens.

[Aviana]

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

Bigger concern: Your GM has all your coworkers statted up. This is a cause for some alarm. Get them before they get you!

I would be the above referenced GM, and I appreciate your sense of fear!

In all seriousness, even when the NPCs don't come up with stats, I do usually like to give them sheets just in case something stupid comes up and they need a skill check, they piss off a PC too hard, etc. Better safe than sorry.