Royal Tongue

Royal Tongue (•)

 * Requires Hopeful, Sworn or Shikigami

Your character knows how to produce the Royal Tongue. She can use it to enhance her Charms, or to sway a crowd of mortals.

As languages go the Royal Tongue is unique, it is quite possibly the densest language there is. Meaning is conveyed not just by words but also tone and the placement of stresses, two different words could be completely identical except for where it's grammatically acceptable to use them. A monosyllabic prefix or suffix can completely change a word within its conceptual space; the Royal Tongue has over a thousand words for friend, (and just as many for lover or sister or brother) each defines the exact details of the relationship and not only do they all come from the same root word, they all sound like that root word.

The hardest thing to do with the Royal Tongue is speak a straight sentence. Between the grammatical rules and the enormous amount of information in every word a simple sentence like "thank you for helping" would, if translated into English, look like two paragraphs of flowery purple prose about the inherent virtue of teamwork. When asked how such a language came about the Queen of Hearts implies that it was deliberate, the Queen of Spades bursts into laughter and the Queen of Diamonds (who's fluent in, and prefers, most Earthly languages) gives a put upon sigh.

Mundane characters can hear the Royal Tongue but they cannot understand it. Many Princesses swear blind that the Royal Tongue uses magic as well as sound waves as a carrier to pack even more information into each word. The cost of this is that only the Light-touched can understand the Royal Tongue. Beacons can't even speak it. To anyone else it sounds like someone singing in an unknown melodic language. The Royal Tongue can't be recorded either - a Princess who hears a recording of the Royal Tongue catches at best the occasional word, it sounds as though someone has removed 40% of the syllables and all the grammar. This is considerably more confusing than it would be in a normal language.

The most useful aspect of the Royal Tongue is to enhance a Princess' Charms (though some Troubadours insist its use in lyrics and poetry is more useful … Deep purple prose is an acquired taste.) If your character spends a turn speaking the Royal Tongue, declaring that she will use a Charm on a target, and forcing the qualia, the experience and feeling of what she is about to do, into the musical speech, her activation roll for the power gains the 9-again quality.

In dire situations, an appeal to the Light for aid or a declaration of resolve, when spoken in the Royal Tongue, can strengthen a Hopeful heart. When a Noble draws on Inner Strength, she may add the 9-again quality to her roll by pouring out her heart in the Royal Tongue.

Use of the Royal Tongue is a supernatural ability, and can be detected as such.