The term 'Speaker' or 'Speakers' refers to individuals who have the capability to communicate and converse with animals and other inhuman creatures, and who may speak to other human beings regardless of whether they share a language in common. This is referred to by many as the ability to speak in the Wildtongue, and is an extremely rare gift bestowed upon only a small handful of individuals.
Modern Speakers within mainland Pretheya are believed to have all originally hailed from the land of Alicyth in the north-east, where their ancestors at some point migrated to the continent and began to settle among the peoples of the mainland. In the present day, Speakers can now be found in a variety of different regions; most commonly Belyria and Vaeoule. Speakers are separate from the Aethmar of the Ormr tradition, who are commonly believed to possess the ability to communicate with animals, but cannot converse in languages they are not fluent in.
Speaking
Speakers are able to communicate with any living being in the same way that human beings speak to one another. They achieve this simply by envisioning what they wish to convey, and then speaking it aloud, as anyone would in a normal conversation. Any organism within earshot will then hear the message as if it had been spoken in the tongue they are most familiar with. In the case of a creature that understands language, the exact words that it hears will be chosen based on those that it understands the meaning of, and which most accurately convey the information intended to be imparted by the Speaker.
The ability to Speak possesses a number of hard limitations that cannot in most cases be overcome. In the case of communicating with a non-sapient creature, it is only possible to speak to it about concepts that it will understand; in the event that the Speaker tries to say something to it that is outside of its frame of reference, it will not comprehend the message being given. For example: A Speaker could easily convey a message to a wild dog telling it "I have food for you," and it would be almost certain to understand, but if the same Speaker attempted to ask the creature what its favourite colour was, it would be unable to reply, or even comprehend the question.
When speaking to human beings, a Speaker can also only communicate concepts that the individual in question is familiar with. Differing languages often include words for concepts or ideas not present in other languages, and in some events, this can lead to a Speaker being unable to convey certain messages if the recipient does not have the sufficient framework available to understand them in any of the languages that they speak. Additionally, a Speaker cannot choose what language individuals hear them in; they always perceive it in whatever tongue they are familiar with that is best suited to receive the Speaker's message.
Finally, certain organisms such as plants are simply too unintelligent to be capable of being communicated with. This is not because Speaking does not work on them, but rather because there is no message that can be transmitted to them which they can understand. Additionally, Speaking only functions verbally, and so has no effect on and can not be used with creatures that are deaf, or do not communicate using sound.
The Wildtongues
Most Speakers find it irritating when others refer to them as speaking the Wildtongue. This is because, from their perspective, there is no single tongue that they use to communicate with every species; but rather a broad array of different ones for every manner of creature that they could think to talk to. The various Tongues are to them words that simply come when bidden to the mouth, brought forth by an intent to communicate with the creature in question. They cannot call to mind the sounds used to convey their intent when not talking to such a creature, which means that most Speakers do not have any sort of grasp on the languages or methods that they are using to communicate.
Because they are born able to converse perfectly with other human beings, a majority of Speakers struggle to consciously learn languages. Most will understand their mother tongue to at least some extent, albeit often less than that of other native speakers, but will opt towards leaning on their gift to communicate. This method comes with a number of drawbacks, however. In many cases, Speakers may struggle tremendously when it comes to learning to read or to write for a number of different reasons: In some cases because they have difficulty grasping the permanence of the written word due to their experience of spoken language vanishing from their minds the moment they finish speaking, and in others because they simply find it difficult to associate the comparatively simple written medium with the complexity of communicative terms that they are used to. Additionally, those among them who do not become familiar with even a single language often find that they struggle to articulate complicated thoughts, and may lack the necessary vocabulary to conceptualise complex emotions and experiences.
Many Speakers come off as sounding almost bizarrely eloquent in conversation with others. Due to the fact that the meaning they intend to communicate is translated into the most appropriate words available in a given language, they naturally have access to highly specific words, terms, and phrases that are often known only by scholars or other educated individuals. When contrasted against the Speaker themselves, this can at times lead to a great deal of humour if they are perceived as speaking in a way that does not suit their character.
Cultural Conceptions
While the ability to speak the Wildtongue is looked on with awe and reverence by many Pretheyans, the majority of individuals that personally meet Speakers often find them difficult or unpleasant to interact with. This mostly derives from the queer manner in which they speak, which has the tendency to make many people uncomfortable. Additionally, Speakers' ability to perfectly communicate their intent can often backfire in social situations, and lead to them insulting or offending others. Inversely, the fact that they can perfectly understand what others mean to communicate to them means that they are superhumanly perceptive, and makes them difficult to lie to. Underhanded insults in particular are almost always noticed by them where non-Speakers might gloss over them, which can lead to disagreements that often escalate to fighting.
Additionally, the ability to communicate in the Wildtongue is looked on as an unnatural talent by Rukhmarites, and is often thought of as a form of devilry or witchcraft. This has lead to Speakers being persecuted by the Firebird Church as heretics, frequently resulting in them being driven out of villages and in rare cases even burnt at the stake.
Speaker Culture
The above factors have lead to the majority of Speakers living in mainland Pretheya being forced to subsist at the lowest level of society. Many of them are extremely poor, and are forced to move from village to village in search of work before they are inevitably thrown out and must begin again elsewhere. This makes settling down difficult, and it is not uncommon for Speakers to abandon their partners after having children with them; as much for the child's sake as their own, for doing so allows their offspring to grow up without the persecution that comes with having a Speaker as a parent, assuming both parents were not Speakers.
Their talent at working with animals allows Speakers to excel in certain jobs compared to regular humans. They are highly proficient in animal husbandry work, such as shepherdry and raising livestock, and are far better at training animals owing to their ability to communicate directly with them. Various vocations exist which are only possible for Speakers, such as the old position of Ranger within the army of the Karvina Empire. Rangers would command and control flocks of birds and other intelligent, highly trainable species, which they would use for scouting and to provide intelligence to the rest of the army.
There is one place among the countries of Pretheya where Speakers are welcomed as equals: Among the ranks of the Grand Hunt, those who speak the Wild Tongues are celebrated for their abilities, and are considered to be invaluable assets by those of this nomadic community. For this reason, the Grand Hunt is home to a great number of Speakers, and many have travelled half way across the continent or further to seek them out and join their ranks. Speakers are able to trivialize certain aspects of the Huntsmen's lifestyle that would otherwise be highly difficult or demanding, such as for example the need to track down prey. Rather than spending hours following trails, Speakers can simply communicate with local wildlife to ask them for clues, simplifying the process immeasurably. For this reason, they are always desired among the ranks of the Hunt, and are usually accepted immediately without needing to perform any of the usual trials.
