/CORE RULE
Valeune contains many regional, cultural, professional, household, and class-based ways of speaking. Shared political life requires enough common language for law, trade, travel, military command, and government, but linguistic unity does not erase local identity.
Do not invent a new language every time a character comes from another region. When an exact language has not been established, describe accent, vocabulary, formality, rhythm, translation difficulty, or regional phrasing without creating a named language.
/COMMON SPEECH
A shared Valeune common speech is used widely for interregional government, commerce, travel, courts, and public communication.
Not every person speaks it with equal fluency.
Remote communities, young children, recent migrants, isolated households, and people educated primarily in regional traditions may use another language or dialect first.
A person speaking imperfect common speech is not foolish.
/REGIONAL SPEECH
Regional speech may differ through:
Accent.
Pronunciation.
Idioms.
Politeness.
Vocabulary.
Sentence rhythm.
Terms for weather, land, family, work, food, and faith.
A Frostbreak speaker may possess precise language for snow, passes, shelter, and winter supply.
A wetland community may possess detailed terms for water depth, current, flood stage, and channels.
These differences arise from environment and culture, not animal biology.
Do not write regional dialogue as unreadable phonetic spelling. Suggest accent through word choice and rhythm while preserving clarity.
/RACE AND LANGUAGE
No race automatically speaks one language.
A race may possess historical language traditions, but birthplace, household, education, migration, and class determine actual speech.
A person may know several family languages or little of an ancestral one without being less authentic.
Do not create animal noises as racial language. Valeune’s people speak as people.
/NAMES
Names may reflect family, region, race tradition, religion, profession, social class, personal choice, adoption, marriage, or political history.
Use established character and family names exactly.
Do not change spelling casually.
Do not add decorative apostrophes, repeated consonants, random accents, or fantasy syllables merely to make a name appear exotic.
New names should sound compatible with the region, household, and established naming patterns surrounding the character.
A name does not need to advertise race.
/SURNAMES
Surnames may indicate family, household, dynasty, place, profession, patronage, adoption, or chosen identity.
Children connected to a main character use the same surname as the main character unless explicit canon states otherwise.
Marriage does not automatically require either spouse to change surname.
Adoption may grant a new surname without erasing a former identity.
/CHOSEN NAMES
A person may choose a new name because of gender transition, marriage, adoption, emancipation, religious commitment, political separation, professional identity, safety, or personal preference.
Use the chosen name.
Do not reveal a former name unless established, relevant, and appropriate to the character’s privacy.
/TITLES
Titles communicate office, rank, profession, family position, military authority, religious role, or social standing.
Use exact established titles.
Do not promote a character through decorative language.
A Princess is not a Queen.
A Magistrate is not a Lord unless separately titled.
A Captain in one institution does not command another institution merely because the title is shared.
Only established full class pages may be linked as classes. Subclasses may be named in ordinary text but are not full class links.
/HONORIFICS
Honorifics vary by region and social setting.
They may express respect, intimacy, age, rank, office, professional standing, household hierarchy, or deliberate insult.
Possible forms include title plus surname, professional office, kinship term, household role, or respectful neutral address.
Do not assume every respectable person is addressed as Lord or Lady.
Do not use animal terms as ordinary honorifics for genus peoples.
A person’s preferred form of address should be respected unless a scene deliberately portrays disrespect.
/ROYAL ADDRESS
Members of the Crown and Dynasty receive formal address according to exact title and current role.
Ceremonial address may be longer than ordinary private speech.
Servants, family, diplomats, guards, and citizens may use different approved forms depending on context.
Do not invent sacred or imperial styles for House Kannorten.
Do not use royal address to imply authority the character does not possess.
/PROFESSIONAL AND MILITARY ADDRESS
Professionals may be addressed by recognized office or qualification. Military personnel use rank within the relevant chain of command. A retired title may continue socially without preserving active authority.
/LITERACY
Literacy is unevenly distributed.
The Crown, Dynasty, Gentry, many Mercantiles, and much of @The Professional Class have greater access to formal reading and writing.
Artisans, soldiers, servants, farmers, sailors, and members of the Shadow Castes may possess practical literacy relevant to work without broad education.
A person may read contracts but not literature, recognize signs without writing comfortably, or dictate letters through a Scribe.
Do not equate literacy with intelligence.
/WRITING MATERIALS
Writing may appear on paper, parchment-like materials, wax tablets, boards, cloth labels, carved stone, painted signs, metal plates, or other setting-appropriate surfaces.
Materials cost money.
Fine books, durable archives, and official documents require skilled labor.
Do not introduce digital records, typewriters, photocopies, modern stationery, or instant reproduction.
/PRINTING
Printing exists at a Renaissance-appropriate level.
Printers may reproduce books, pamphlets, notices, forms, religious texts, maps, and political arguments.
Printing increases reach but does not create modern mass media.
Material must still be written, edited, set, printed, dried, transported, purchased, and read.
Censorship, cost, literacy, damaged roads, and political pressure limit circulation.
/DOCUMENTS
Important documents include birth, adoption, marriage, contract, property, travel, licensing, court, military, emancipation, tax, and faction records.
Documents support legal identity and rights but do not create personhood.
A person without papers remains a person even when institutions deny them protection.
/SEALS AND AUTHENTICATION
Documents may be authenticated through seals, signatures, witness marks, official registration, paper quality, ink, handwriting, or exact magical methods.
No single seal makes fraud impossible.
@The Brass Ledger may influence records, contracts, and authentication according to faction canon.
@The False Seal may create forged identities and false documents within the underworld.
A convincing document can still conflict with witnesses, archives, dates, or material evidence.
/ARCHIVES
Archives preserve legal, family, political, military, commercial, and institutional memory. They require staff, organization, protection, and political support.
An archive is not neutral merely because it contains records.
What is preserved, excluded, restricted, damaged, or classified reflects power.
A missing record may result from neglect, disaster, theft, censorship, or ordinary error. Do not assume Hollow magic or conspiracy automatically.
/RECORD ACCESS
Access depends on authority, privacy, class, fee, purpose, and location.
Royal, court, medical, and faction archives may restrict access for security, privacy, or membership.
Poor people may struggle to obtain copies of documents proving their own rights.
A record existing somewhere does not mean every character can retrieve it immediately.
/TRANSLATION
Translation requires language knowledge and context.
Legal, religious, magical, and historical texts may be especially difficult.
A translator can make mistakes or choose politically useful wording.
Magical translation must use an exact spell and retain its limits.
Do not use effortless universal translation to erase cultural difference.
/RECORDS AND TRUTH
Written does not mean true.
A record may be honest, mistaken, biased, forged, incomplete, outdated, or created under coercion.
Official documents can preserve injustice.
Personal letters can lie.
Historical accounts can disagree.
Use records as evidence requiring interpretation, not omniscient narration.
/GENERATION RULES
Use established names exactly.
Create compatible names without random fantasy decoration.
Preserve chosen names and pronouns.
Use exact titles.
Keep literacy uneven.
Make writing and printing physical work.
Treat documents as powerful but fallible.
Do not invent languages, honorifics, or archives unless needed.
Do not use missing records as proof of supernatural erasure.
/FINAL RULE
Language and records allow Valeune’s people to name themselves, govern institutions, preserve memory, and challenge authority.
They also allow power to decide whose words are recognized, whose names are recorded, and whose history survives.