Heraldspeak

The Language of Gods

Heraldspeak is a divine language, spoken only by Prophets and Gods. No mortal can truly speak it without divine connection, and not even prophets know it well. It is also known as "the celestial tongue", "the heavenly voice", or "Godjargon" (the latter being mostly by detractors of the Gods, such as Demons).

A Divine Dialect

Heraldspeak is a language that is only spoken when prophets are speaking to their God.

Shegi the Pious by Jarhed

While it crosses the mouths of the prophets, they do not know the language. They can only channel its words when conversing with the divine voices in their minds. Others will hear the words they say, describing the tongue as sharp, consisting mostly of consonants and plosives, and know they are saying something unintelligible.
Trying to decode the words can be difficult. The prophets will remember what they said in their own language, thinking they did not use another dialect at all, while those that hear them are unsure what they said.
Language is power, words are weapons and tools, and each phrase carries a magic in it no matter the tongue. Yet each dialect in the world holds a different weight, a different power.
The common tongue is one that holds a miniscule amount of power, since it is spoken by most folks in the world and is spoken constantly. All power it could have had has turned into the normal state of things. Ancient Draconic, on the other hand, is a magical language created by the enchanted Dragon Lords to change the world, and so it has immense power.
The power of Heraldspeak is twofold.
The first power is simple. All words that are said in it communicate directly with the Gods, which is why it is a power granted only to prophets, who do this already. A God can observe the entire world as they please, but speaking Heraldspeak is the only way to guarantee one gets the eye of heaven upon them. The few that have learned Heraldspeak have used it to this extent, making certain the Gods watch them as they go about their business.

The First Prophet

The Orcish priest of Fortuna, Shegi the Pious is the first prophet in recorded history.
While many assume there were prophets in the The Giant Kingdom, no known record exists, and prophets were sought out and killed in Camor under the reign of Mimir and Satanael. As for prophets in early Draconian society, there are dissenting accounts on if anyone could hear the gods.
Only in the -1700s did a figure arise, an Orc known as Shegi the Pious, or Shegi the Radical by some, who discovered her connection to Fortuna from a deck of cards on the ground.
Shegi had heard voices in her head for quite some time, but only then did they coalesce into Fortuna's voice, exclaiming the great luck that the two met this way, and detailing the next steps Shegi needed to take if she wanted to spread the word of Fortuna's fortune.
Shegi was considered crazy and radical by many, which has some of its roots in the deep misogyny of the time, but most believed her when she said she could hear the voice of a Goddess. For this, she was considered the first true prophet, even if she was discredited by many.
She normalized the idea of a prophet, allowing for many others in the future, such as the Divine Heroes Dhurnas Blackmane and Entropy.

The second power is a strange one, more of a theory than a confirmed fact. It is believed that, as these are the words of the Gods who created the world and its people, the words of Heraldspeak have an effect on those that hear it. Someone can be convinced of something they would otherwise not do because they hear it in Heraldspeak. Figures who would otherwise not amass a following can instead find themselves leading a global cause, and those with strong arguments can find them turning into facts for those that hear their Heraldspeak.

The Mighty Herald by Jarhed

This also affects the planet itself, if enough power is put into Heraldspeak and the right words are said. After all, the Gods (particularly Hadur, God of Creation) made the world with their words and magic, so their words can change it as well.

Inability to Learn

The greatest issue with Heraldspeak as a common tongue is how mortals are unable to grasp its meaning.
The characters and words associated with Heraldspeak are seemingly infused with heavenly power. Most mortals cannot handle this power, and so may only learn one or two words (such as Pteethtack, which may or may not be Heraldspeak).
Attempting to learn more can cause great pain in the nerves, as the body must begin to take in the power of the Gods through the mouth, storing it in their brains which are meant not for the affairs and powers of the divine. Unless the mortal doing so has a tolerance for pain, magic, and other such things, but such a tolerance is only found in the strongest Totania has to offer, not an average person.

The Two Heralds

The only mortals to ever speak seemingly fluent, conscious Heraldspeak were Amukk and the Mighty Herald, neither of which were prophets.

Amukk by Jarhed

Amukk's fluency came from arduous study and time spent with all prophets of his age, burning it into his body as he trained himself to become a God. The Mighty Herald is said to have learned it using the upper limits of Mind Magic to scan the brains of the gods themselves, so that he could convince people that any mortal could reach divinity. Amukk is beloved for this, while the Mighty Herald is vilified for using the tools of the gods to trick people into believing in his cult.
Some view the two as two sides of a coin, while others consider them opposites not worth speaking of in the same sentence. Either way, the fact that they were able to sustain both learning and speaking in Heraldspeak is a feat that proves their power in some way or another, even if their divinity is still called into question.
Other mortals have tried, but none have been able to handle the extent that these two did. For this, these two are seen at least as heralds of something, be it their faiths or a new era of the world itself. If there was to be someone else who learned Heraldspeak, there would be little doubt that they are on the level of these two towering figures of magical and religious history.