I am building a Thyr character now that they are legal for society play. I tried to figure out if they have a language of their own, as far as I can tell they don’t.
Based on what happened in scenario #1-29 Honorbound Emissaries we know at least some of them live on Saaruq 5. Still having trouble finding what languages are spoken there.
Does anyone have some good sources for background information on Thyr? I would rather not have mine come from the Scoured Stars, which is why I was looking at Saaruq 5 as a possible homeworld. I would consider other locations, but would like someplace with a little background. Seems many of them are in the Kreiholm Freehold which is why I was looking there.
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I'd imagine they originally had their own language before joining the Kreiholm Freehold, which may or may not still be in common use. The Kreiholm Freehold might have its own common language since it's a group made of several species, but on Saaruq 5 whatever common language the Kreiholm Freehold might have could be heavily influenced by the native Syngnathrix.
Thyr seem to be very adaptable at dealing with other languages. I can see that talking two forms either they quickly learn every language they come in contact with (limited by the game mechanics) or they quickly learn and adapt to the common language around them.
According to the Starfinderwiki the population of Saaruq 5 is a mix of syngnathrixes (46%), nelentus (39%), and thyrs (2%). So nelentus could be another language or language influence. Note Nelentus are the result of a mutualistic symbiosis between the entu and the neleks, so the nelentus might have additional language influences.
Other than the info in Honorbound Emissaries I can't find any other info online about Saaruq 5
I'd imagine they originally had their own language before joining the Kreiholm Freehold, which may or may not still be in common use.
Given their telepathy, any original language may have been lost. Language is just a way to express a concept, and since Thyr are written as strongly preferring telepathic communication I can see them slowly dropping their own language as they found others with the concepts they needed. Easier to insert one or two new concepts into a language than to cause others to adopt some other language.
The Kreiholm Freehold might have its own common language since it's a group made of several species, but on Saaruq 5 whatever common language the Kreiholm Freehold might have could be heavily influenced by the native Syngnathrix.
I thought there was at least one other scenario that dealt with the Kreiholm Freehold, but can’t find it at the moment.
Note Nelentus are the result of a mutualistic symbiosis between the entu and the neleks, so the nelentus might have additional language influences.
Only the Entu are intelligent, the neleks are described as animals. I think only the Entu would bring a language to the symbiosis.
Thanks Thurston, I will look forward to it. Doesn’t help with my question of the moment, but I always look forward to seeing how the lore gets built out.
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I'd imagine they originally had their own language before joining the Kreiholm Freehold, which may or may not still be in common use.Given their telepathy, any original language may have been lost. Language is just a way to express a concept, and since Thyr are written as strongly preferring telepathic communication I can see them slowly dropping their own language as they found others with the concepts they needed. Easier to insert one or two new concepts into a language than to cause others to adopt some other language.
The Kreiholm Freehold might have its own common language since it's a group made of several species, but on Saaruq 5 whatever common language the Kreiholm Freehold might have could be heavily influenced by the native Syngnathrix.I thought there was at least one other scenario that dealt with the Kreiholm Freehold, but can’t find it at the moment.
Note Nelentus are the result of a mutualistic symbiosis between the entu and the neleks, so the nelentus might have additional language influences.Only the Entu are intelligent, the neleks are described as animals. I think only the Entu would bring a language to the symbiosis.
With the Thyr's original language being telepathic communication, I wonder how that would affect their written language. Likely a symbols-based language rather than one using letters to represent sounds. that may be true of other telepathic species as well. If the Thyr's originally only communicated telepathically, I wonder how good their hearing is at distinguishing sounds in verbal communication. This also makes me wonder how species relying on telepathy would influence music.
The neleks likely don't influence the language verbally as much but might add concepts to it. For example, an uplifted dog might have much more granular concepts of emotions and smells than other languages.
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Okay, a quick rundown:
So far, all lore on the modern Kreiholm Freehold comes from two scenarios:
1-29: Honorbound Emissaries
1-39: The Herald's War
Neither of these scenarios names the Freehold's language, but the scenario that introduces the Freehold does make it clear that they don't speak Common (which they shouldn't, since the Freehold is historically isolationist and this is close to a first contact encounter). That scenario circumvents the language barrier via a handful of locals who learned Vesk during an isolated prior event, and a thyr, who is presented as being fully telepathic and a natural interpreter. (This last part has since been retconned in a way that still functions for their original appearances. Or maybe NPC thyrs are still fully telepathic, since we've only seen PC traits.)
And as far as languages go that's all we know!
So now I'll dive into headcanon. Keep in mind that Ports of Call and a very recent Starfinder Society scenario currently have me suspecting that some of this is going to be retconned in the Scoured Stars AP, so YMMV.
Here goes!
The Kreiholm Freehold is comprised of five sapient species. It's entirely possible, even likely, that each of those species has its own native language.
However, the Freehold is also a tightly knit, highly integrated society, so it's almost certain that the Freehold has some kind of "Common" language. In my campaign, I call it Freetongue. I could swear I pulled that from somewhere, but if so I can't find the source.
Three of the Freehold's sapient species were originally native to the Scoured Stars, while two are native to the Saaruq-Ruaan system. (The retcon I think I'm seeing in the new material is that the two native species seem to now be presented as having been from the Scoured Stars as well. But it's vague. I dunno.)
According to the history given in the original two scenarios, the two species native to the Saaruq system (specifically, matohs from Saaruq-3 and syngathrixes from Saaruq-5) were antagonistic to each other until the Freehold newcomers united the whole system into one big, peaceful, democratic society.
Thyrs were presented as telepathic (free of language barriers), and the third species from the Scoured Stars, tekians, has biological reasons to remain at arm's length from the other species. So in my head, Freetongue is primarily rooted in Entu, the nelentu language, blended into a mixed language drawing freely from Matoh, Syngathrix, and Tekian. (In my headcanon, the original Kreiholm, the founder for whom the Freehold was named, was also a nelentu, or at least an entu symbiote).
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I thought there was a second scenario! Thanks for letting me know what it was John.
Nice summary of what is known. Given the entry in Ports of Call, I think it is all Thyr that have the once a day magical language abilities. Given the short appearance in Honorbound Emissaries, that would still work.
Guess I will have to wait a little longer to find out of there is an official language in the Freehold and adapt after that. I’ll just take Vesk as my regional language and invest in Culture once it is defined.