Cursing, Cussing and Swears

Lot of ways to learn a new language but if you're looking for a crash course in any of them, pop into one of the kitchens in Ghal Pelor's busiest restaurants during lunch rush, you'll learn all the important words real quick. Everything else is filler.

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All of Tairos' many cultures and people have developed creative ways of expressing stress, anger, and intensity using language. Magic alone is proof enough that words have power but even mundane ones are capable so much. Curse words, cusses, and swears, whatever one chooses to call them, have been with Tairos for as long as languages have been written, probably longer. The earliest examples come from surviving Skyriran texts and are known only to the scant few that can translate them. The Common Tongue is of course riddled with swears, some part of the original Balmoran and others assimilated along the way from other tongues. Similar words have found their ways into the elegant marbled palaces of Melanthris, the grim castles of the Stormlands, and the deep mountain halls of Ghal Ankhar. Some say the Frostmerites's language is held together entirely by swears.
While the full list of swears is truly limitless but its worth examining a few of the most choice examples from each language (translated as best as possible from their original tongue):

River Rider Halflings

While city-dwelling Halflings have more or less moved past their roots and assimilated into larger cultures the River Riders have held onto their old tongue, their old ways, and especially their old swears.
Scaleless - Originating from river fish that are poorly and not worth catching. This term is often used to describe someone that is off-putting, strange, behaving oddly. "That one skulking about over there... scaleless behavior that one. Keep an eye open"
Oar-Breaker- Another obvious reference to a devastating event that can happen on the river. When used to refer to a person it's referencing their clumsy nature and careless mistakes
Ass Shot- Prior to The Queen's Rebuke many of the River Riders favored Galidir The Hunter as their patron. Arrows were scared to this hunting religion and hunters always aimed for their cleanest kill possible. A clean kill was seen as a gift and messy one as an ill omen. Nothing was messier or more unpleasant than having to track down struggling pray that took a poorly aimed arrow to the hind quarters. It's likely that most River Halflings that use the swear now have little context for its origin but they cherish it all the same, deploying it in any situation that has gone as poorly as possible.
Mud Dweller- This is about as derogatory as their swears come, as it refers to someone that isn't capable of life on land or water, someone who can only sit in the most miserable of places between and watch others. Mud Dweller is used to describe someone held in utter contempt, a useless person the world wouldn't miss.
Fishbones- This is the sort of swear one let's loose when they don't wish to swear. It's a child's cuss. A mother's careful swear while in the presence of her babes. It's a sort of catchall curse of the lightest possible caliber that's used to express disappointment with a turn of events.

Ghal Ankharan

Even dwarves that have never visited their mountain homeland are loathe to surrender their cusses, such words have been hammered into them from birth by their parents and the centuries of tradition that loom large.
Promiseless- To the mountain dwarves few things are more sacred than a promise, be it an oath sworn to a clan lord or a simple commitment made to someone they love. Not only is keeping a promise important, but being trusted enough to be offered the opportunity is itself a measure of character. Those who can't be trusted enough to carry a promise are considered utter low-lives and pariahs. Promiseless is a swear levied at anyone seen as a betrayer, untrustworthy, or of no value. "You're a promiseless cancer upon this house and I'll not tolerate you here another moment!"
May you Strike Only Stone - Mountain Dwarves dedicate much of their life and effort toward finding valuable veins of metal or precious gems. Telling someone to Strike Only Stone is a form of wishing them only bad luck, misfortunate, and wasted effort.
May your Anvil Crack and Shatter - Similar to above, dwarven swears often come in the form of "gifting" a wish for misfortune upon someone. Most dwarven homes have an anvil within them, even those who's livlihood doesn't revolving around smithing. It is a symbol of hearth, home, and tradition. Most anvils can trace their origins back to some of the founders of a family line. Wishing for someone's anvil to crack and shatter has deep implications. It's a wish for someone's home to break, their family to crumble, their fortune to faulter, and for that pain to reach back into the hearts of their ancestors and forward into the generations yet to come.
Rust - The word itself is often combined with others or woven into sentences to form derogatory references toward irksome people. Phrases like rust dick, rust touched, rust hearted, rusty lips, ect ect are very common. Just about any insult can be improved upon in their eyes by adding a reference of rust to it.

Melanthrin Elves

It's common knowledge that the high elves of Melanthris believe themselves better than most and they've developed a number of choice curses to help illustrate that fact. Many of their swears revolve around status, station within nobility, and unfulfilled destiny. References to stars are common as well, since Melanthrin elves believe that stars are home to portents of the future and of one's destiny.
Star Cursed - Because of the belief that stars hold such sway over a person's future and fortune, a common swear is to label someone Star Cursed. It is a way of saying their misfortune is ordained by destiny and completely inescapable. This is a particularly common swear among the Melanthrin elves, so much so that it remains in the vernacular of elves across Tairos whether they have ever been to Melanthris or not. "That star cursed tengu! He got me right in the shoulder with that shot!"
Dust - Dust is very frequently used in a derogatory way toward other species, especially humans. It plays upon the longevity of elves and how all other peoples perish from age much quicker, thus turning to dust. Targets of this insult may be referred to as dust or dustlings. Younger Melanthins have recently adopted cobweb in a similar fashion and use terms like cobwebber or cobs.
Thin Blood - Lineage is of the utmost importance to the high elves and attacks on one's connection to nobility are very common. One pervasive insult to to refer to someone as having thin blood, meaning they only have trace connections to any noble background. This is also how they may refer to someone who is born outside of the union between two noble parents. It is their version of calling someone a bastard child.

Frostmerites

The Frostmerite language diverged from what would become Balmoran many ages ago, when the tribes of human split between those seeking to unite in the plains and those wanting to isolate in the north. It is no surprise than that Frostmerite swears would be so different from those in Balmoral, and perhaps give the smallest glimpse into the curse words used by the original tribal humans.
Ice's Edge - While is is more of an exasperation then true swear it helps illustrate how Frostmerites form their curse words and phrases. Frostmerites choose to live where they live, the isolation and beauty of the north is without compare to them. Thus, the regions that border their nation where the ice gives way to warmer lands, these places are viewed with trepidation. So when something particularly surprising happens its very common to hear someone exclaim Ice's Edge.
Grandfather's Claw - Similar to above, this is another utterance used in times of surprise or duress though this one is generally seen as a more serious one. It refers to the chief totem spirit of the Frostmerite people, Grandfather Bear, and his legendary claws. Many Frostmerite clans have their own patron totem as well and a similar convention might be used in place of Grandfather's Claw that reflects their chosen spirit. Examples include Elk's Grace, Wolf's Hour, Whale's Breach, or Hawk's Claw.
Soft Skin - Frostmerites think themselves to be build differently from other humans, hardier in fact. While they often do have more scars than the average southern they certainly don't have the ice-hard skin they pretend to. None the less, a very popular insult is Soft Skin. It refers to southerners usually or those among their own kind that are particularly vulnerable.

Tengu

Songspeech isn't a language with words and phrases like those of native Tairosians but instead something comprised of tone, rhythm and pitch. For Tengu, a swear in Songspeech takes the form of sudden, unexpected, and even aggressive improvisations to an otherwise predictable song. Outsiders listening in on Tengu conversing can assume any sudden chirp, screech, or twill, is some kind of swear. If other Tengu join in and mimic the jarring improvisation then the swear is agreed upon or even welcome. If new jarring improvisations with no mimicry follow, then likely the swear is being rebukes with other harsh swears.
It should be noted that when non-Tengu attempt Songspeech it often sounds comes across as bordering on vulgarity to actual Tengu. Non-Tengu have to be particularly skilled vocalizers and song smiths in order to stumble their way through Songspeech without offense. Even then, most humanoid brains are not built to process song as a language, at best they are only capable of parroting.

Balmoran

The human empire of Balmoran became so prevalent and expansive within Tairos that their language became The Common Tongue. That language would of course evolve and assimilate based on the different corners of the continent it spread to but largely anyone who spoke it could understand most of what someone else was saying. Including the cusses. Many common swears heard in taverns and around campfires, those about copulation, genitals, and similar vulgarities) owe their origin to Balmoran, or at least their refinement. However; a number of popular curses from the original Balmoran are still used today, even if the meaning has been lost to the users.
Brittle - The word itself had a negative connotation in old Balmoral, being rarely used outside of insults. This is because of the metal at the core of their culture, Adamantite. It was how they made their superior Steel Weapons and Armor but if not prepared properly it could become very brittle. Brittle Adamantite was a particularly shameful product to make or own. Being said on its own could serve as a mild swear but it is often combined with other words and phrases to make particularly sharp insults. "Nothing but brittle-thoughts in that head of yours huh?" or "that brittle-dicked moron is going to cost us this deal! Keep him quiet".
Tarnished - Similar to brittle, tarnished is another word that was rarely used outside of an attempt at insult toward someone. In Balmoral, heritage and purity were particularly important and any implication of imperfection regarding one's personal or family honor was met with harsh retaliation. While this word is known and sometimes still used in the common tongue for insult, it should be of no surprise that it is particularly popular in Lockland and to a lesser extent @Fr. This insult was aimed firmly at someone's character during the golden age of Balmoral, but today it is something of a racial insult used almost entirely by humans and suggests a rather bigoted world-view by the user.
Dawnblighter and Dawnblighted - The primary god of old Balmoral was Sandor, the god of light and the sun. Dawn and the rising of sun were particularly holy and welcome moments of the day. Thus, it is of no surprise that the idea of being able to ruin such a precious moment would become a popular swear. A situation can be so bad, or become bad unexpectedly, that it might be deemed Dawnblighted. A person can be such a miserable presence that they can be called a Dawnblighter. This is generally taken as mild to medium cuss at best. It's rarely taken as heavily insulting and even sometimes thrown about playfully by friends. A slightly more offensive version of this is Gloomstain or Gloomstained.

Primary Related Location

Tairos