Engineer's Cant (ˈɛnʤəˈnɪrz kænt)

Introduction

The sounds made by the massive, mostly metal structures that were the original factories of Hallus were deafening from the outside and often lethal on the inside. To remain both safe and sane, engineers were required to wear massive soundproofing earmuffs and helmets. With everyone unable to hear anything other than their own thoughts, hand gestures became a common method of communication. As the language was formalized it was given the name "Engineer's Cant", short for original, more humerous name of "engineer's can't hear".

Modern Uses

While the great factories of Hallus have gone silent, Engineer's Cant is still in use. The most obvious being the engineers still keeping the world running but also scavengers and vagrants use the language to speak to each other in situations where they must remain silent. All Old Folk are naturally able to understand Engineer's Cant as part of their base programming.

General Information

Related Realm

Hallus

Origin Language

None.

Variant: Engies Kant

While Engineer's Cant is a fully non-verbal language, an alternate language known as Engies Kant was developed to allow the engineers to speak two conversations at once. During conversation, those speaking Engies Kant will make various hand signals to let others know the second meaning behind their words. While this was originally developed to help engineers to group together and unionize in secret it is now mainly used by criminals trying to hide their conversations from the law.