The Common Babble

The Common Babble is a semi-magical language ubiquitous across Durath. It is the Divine Gift of Quortus.
An individual's knack for speaking the Babble is partly ancestral and partly personal. Those cultures and lineages that pay great respect to knowledge are inclined to speak the Babble with the greatest fluidity and depth, while societies that hold little reverence for the preservation of knowledge tend to have limited capacity to communicate this way.
However, the qualities of the individual will alter their capacity. A "monstrous" being, such as a goblin, showing a desire to attain and preserve knowledge, will develop fluidity and vocabulary for the Babble, even without ever studying it. Likewise, even the most higborn elf who might trace their ancestry directly to Praetoria will lose sharpness of their tongue if they show disrespect for the seeking and passing on knowledge.

While little is understood about the linguistic creation of the Babble, its dispersion across the world is relatively well documented. Some years since the fall of Praetoria , the pre-divine Quortus and their adherents had compiled a great library, attempting to record and catalogue the knowledge that was slipping away in that time. However, the disparate peoples of the world struggled to share their knowledge, limited as they where by the barriers of the ancestral tongues. Frustrated, Quortus set about creating a language unique from all those that were known, and yet blending elements of them.
As rumours of the library spread, enemies of the fallen Protean civilisation began to assail the efforts of Quortus and their followers. Work began on a great tower, open to all that came in peace and yet bewildering to those with ill intent. The tower grew ever taller, and eventually was made to take flight so as to better avoid the predations of their foes.
Upon the time that the Babble was completed, Quortus enacted an attempt to spread knowledge of it across all the peoples of the world. For days and nights on end, Quortus and their adherents spoke from the top of the tower. This spurred action from their enemies, who began to assault the tower ever more fiecely. Quortus was able to complete the ritual, and in doing so ascended to divinity, but the great tower was destroyed. It fell to Durath, crumbling and scattering much of its contents as it did so. Fragments of its former glory have been found and are considered holy sites - some have been housed in temples. Others still are buried deep in the ground, often overrun by the foul things of the deep world. Legend says that some large fragment of the tower survived the fall, but it has never been located.

Geographical Distribution

Global - cultural uptake varies by attitudes towards knowledge.