Languages in Reisa

Languages in Reisa: What Actually Matters

Tier 1: Core Campaign Languages (High Priority)

These come up constantly. Taking at least one is strongly recommended.

Reisan (Common) (Romani)
The language of roads, contracts, the Pale Lodge, mercenaries, and daily survival. Everyone speaks it, but accents matter.

Harudjin (Trade Tongue)
A rough, practical pidgin used across the Petal Kingdoms.
If you want to haggle, bribe, negotiate passage, or misunderstand someone slightly but usefully, this is the language.
Harudjin is how deals happen when nobody trusts anyone.

Hobgoblin
The most important humanoid tongue in the southern valleys.
Used by the Red Measure and other organized warbands. Also understood by many gnolls and orcs who deal with them.

Goblin (Snow Goblin dialect included)
Vital for ambushes, warnings, insults, threats, and overheard chatter.
Snow goblins, kobolds, and many lesser humanoids default to Goblin even when they know something else.

Tier 2: Cultural and Regional Languages (Medium Priority)

Useful, but situational. Strong choices for background-driven characters.

Velkari (Tibetan)
Native language of the Velkari Valley and its people.
Not required, but speaking it opens doors and softens suspicion in that region.

Sanskrit (Ritual / Scholastic)
Used in inscriptions, relics, mandala doctrine, and Church records.
Rarely spoken casually. Extremely important for understanding why something exists rather than how to stab it.

Orcish
Common among raiders, slavers, and warbands.
Less subtle than Hobgoblin, but widespread and useful in hostile negotiations.

Gnoll
Harsh, direct, and often shouted.
If you deal with hunting packs or border violence, this matters.

Dwarvish
Engineering terms, stonework, old fortifications, and northern trade.
More useful for understanding places than people.

Elvish
Older routes, forgotten watchposts, and Northern warders.
Often appears in warnings rather than conversations.

Halfling
Local trade, caravans, and river routes.
Rarely critical, but occasionally very helpful.

Tier 3: Situational or Dangerous Languages (Low Priority)

These matter only if you go looking for trouble or secrets.

Dragon
Important if you survive long enough to regret knowing it.
Used in threats, bargains, and names of power.

Ogre
Crude but expressive. Useful if you’re negotiating food, tribute, or directions.

Kobold
Redundant if you know Goblin, but helpful for traps and internal chatter.

Lizard Man (Troglodyte / Ghar-Drath related)
Alien, emotional, and difficult.
Knowing it marks you as strange, not friendly.

Harpy, Bugbear, Minotaur
Rare, region-specific, and usually heard too late to matter.

Medusa, Gargoyle, Pixie
Lore languages. Mostly written, whispered, or engraved.

Human Dialects
Flavorful, rarely essential. Accents matter more than fluency.

In the real world, the relationship between these languages is uneven but historically fascinating. Romani, which underlies Reisan, is an Indo-Aryan language that ultimately descends from Sanskrit through Middle Indo-Aryan languages such as Prakrit. Linguistic evidence shows that the ancestors of the Romani people migrated out of the Indian subcontinent roughly a thousand years ago, carrying a language that preserved clear Sanskrit roots in vocabulary and grammar. Over centuries in Europe, Romani absorbed Greek, Slavic, and other influences, but its deep structure still reveals its Indo-Aryan origin.

By contrast, Tibetan (Velkari) belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family and is not genetically related to Sanskrit or Romani. However, Tibetan Buddhist culture borrowed heavily from Sanskrit for religious, philosophical, and liturgical vocabulary due to the transmission of Buddhism from India into Tibet. So while Romani and Sanskrit are distant linguistic cousins, Tibetan stands outside that family tree, connected not by ancestry but by religious and cultural exchange.

Reisan (Romani-inspired Common)
Velkari (Tibetan)
Sanskrit (Ritual / Scholastic)

1. “Where is the nearest mandala city?”

Reisan:
Kaj si o najpašutno mandala-foro?

Velkari:
དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ཉེ་ཤོས་ག་པར་ཡོད།
(Kyilkhor drongkhyer nyeshö gaper yö?)

Sanskrit:
निकटतमं मण्डलपुरं कुत्र अस्ति?
(Nikaṭatamaṁ maṇḍalapuraṁ kutra asti?)

2. “How far is it to the Spine Road?”

Reisan:
Savo dur si dži ko Dumo Drom?

Velkari:
གཞུང་ལམ་ལ་རིང་ཐུང་ག་ཚོད་ཡིན།
(Zhunglam la ringtung gatsö yin?)

Sanskrit:
मुख्यमार्गपर्यन्तं कियत् दूरम्?
(Mukhyamārgaparyantaṁ kiyat dūram?)

3. “Are there demons in these woods?”

Reisan:
Si e demonja ande kada veš?

Velkari:
ནག་པོའི་གདོན་འདིའི་ནགས་ན་ཡོད་པས།
(Nagpö dön di ngak na yö pe?)

Sanskrit:
अस्मिन् वने राक्षसाः सन्ति किम्?
(Asmin vane rākṣasāḥ santi kim?)

4. “We seek a relic.”

Reisan:
Amen rodel jekh relik.

Velkari:
ང་ཚོས་རྟེན་བཙལ་བཞིན་ཡོད།
(Ngatsö ten tsal zhin yö.)

Sanskrit:
वयं धातुं अन्विष्यामः।
(Vayaṁ dhātuṁ anviṣyāmaḥ.)

5. “Can you guide us through the pass?”

Reisan:
Šaj tu džanes amen ande o dar?

Velkari:
ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་ང་ཚོ་ལ་རི་སྒོ་བརྒྱུད་ནས་ཁྲིད་ཐུབ་བམ།
(Khyé kyi ngatsö la ri-go gyü né tri thub bam?)

Sanskrit:
भवान् अस्मान् गिरिद्वारम् नेतुं शक्नोति किम्?
(Bhavān asmān giridvāram netuṁ śaknoti kim?)

6. “What happened to this village?”

Reisan:
So si kerdo kada gavake?

Velkari:
འདིའི་གྲོང་པ་ལ་ཅི་བྱུང་སོང་།
(Di drongpa la chi jung song?)

Sanskrit:
अस्य ग्रामस्य किम् अभवत्?
(Asya grāmasya kim abhavat?)

7. “The cold is unnatural.”

Reisan:
O šil na si naturako.

Velkari:
གྲང་བ་འདི་རང་བཞིན་མ་ཡིན།
(Drangwa di rangzhin ma yin.)

Sanskrit:
अयं शीतः स्वाभाविकः नास्ति।
(Ayaṁ śītaḥ svābhāvikaḥ nāsti.)

8. “We will defend the mandala.”

Reisan:
Amen rakhavaha o mandala.

Velkari:
ང་ཚོས་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་སྲུང་གི་ཡིན།
(Ngatsö kyilkhor sung gi yin.)

Sanskrit:
वयं मण्डलं रक्षिष्यामः।
(Vayaṁ maṇḍalaṁ rakṣiṣyāmaḥ.)

9. “Do you serve the Sangha?”

Reisan:
Tu služis la Sanghake?

Velkari:
ཁྱེད་སངྒ་ལ་ཞབས་ཞུ་བྱེད་པས།
(Khyé Sangha la zhabszhu jé pe?)

Sanskrit:
भवान् संघस्य सेवकः अस्ति किम्?
(Bhavān saṅghasya sevakaḥ asti kim?)

10. “Something is wrong with the relic.”

Reisan:
Vareso na lačho si la relikake.

Velkari:
རྟེན་ལ་ནོར་བ་ཡོད།
(Ten la norwa yö.)

Sanskrit:
धातौ दोषः अस्ति।
(Dhātau doṣaḥ asti.)