Endu

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Necromancers generally speak Common, but their religious writings are in a language called Endu, many words of which are also used in day to day lexicon. The word tan'nesh for example, roughly translates to "forget" or "ignore", is commonly used to describe people and things which are not part of the necromancer culture. Embu (roughly translated as "thirsty") also sees use in a wide variety of roles. Since necromancers learn a part of the language to complete various religious rights of passage in their youth, all of the swear words are also in common circulation.

Linguistically, Endu is very simple. All words are spelled phonetically and most of the sounds can be made using the Common Alphabet. The necromancers have their own alphabet with 30 characters. About 15 are borrowed from the Common alphabet (indicating a similar root), others appear different but make similar sounds. There are 5 characters denoting glottal stops and a strike-through symbol not considered a letter but that combines two characters to make a different sound.

It is common to find prayer pamphlets and other materials printed using the common alphabet. This is because, officially, for religious reasons, Endu can only be written using human blood. For health and safety reasons this tradition is commonly only upheld with sacred texts, but particularly observant necromancers will refuse to handle any document written in Endu characters but not printed in blood.

There is typically not more than one word for any specific thing. This makes the language easy to interpret but fairly limited in it's prose. For that reason, most necromancer literature(even classic and neoclassic) is written in dialects of Common.

The word tan'nesh can be used as either are descriptive term (as in "that's so tan'nesh") or a noun, calling someone or something a tan'nesh. The term is not inherently derogatory, in most use-cases it simply means "not necromancer"; but it can be used as an insult or slur.

The character ze exclusively refers to any form of ritual bloodletting.

Use in Magic and Ritual

Endu, specifically written Endu, is used extensively throughout the magic of necromancy. The ritual aspects of the magic, the spells specifically, must be written in Endu. Also a necromancer will typically write incantations down to aid in quick recall (as they have to be spoken perfectly in order to work).

For this reason, there is often a distinction drawn between "working Endu" and "spoken Endu". The latter being what most non-magical necromancers use for their prayers, while the former is necessary for the precise ritual elements of raising up souls from the Underworld.

Swear Words

Necromancers have all the common curse words, but they aren't actually particularly offensive in context. The word "Cre'do" is roughly analgous to excrement, but as it is the only word in Endu for excrement, it functions as the technical term and is used in prayers for the anus.

The word nikta means 'to fornicate', and is frequently combined with syntaxes from Common to take the place a similar swear in that language. "Get niktaed!" or "Nikta off" for example. (Note: written Endu has no k and uses a double c to make the k sound). The verb-form of nikta is nika, but necromancers will typically instead keep nikta and add the Common "-er" to the end to make it a verb

A portmantua is "embusnapper", which combines embu (meaning thirsty) and the Common word snapper which typically means "bitch" in a strictly derogatory manner (In Common, bitch can mean 'female dog' or be used as an insult. Snapper is only an insult). In typical parlance "embusnapper" refers to women of loose sexual morals and great appetite, making it roughly analogous to "slut". The use of the term has has a somewhat different meaning within the necromancer community where sexual freedom is more common. When used within that context its refers specifically to a woman who deliberately seeks out as many partners as possible.

Tan'nesh is sometimes used as a slur, particularly against Acolytes. Though not inherently a slur it can take on that connotation with added context. Calling someone a "niktaing tan'nesh" for example, would be quite insulting.

Nic'oi means "to cast out" and is the shortened form of "to cast out of the underworld", meaning to destroy one's soul forever. As it is the closest analogue to "damn" it is frequently adopted in that context. In a related matter, the necromancers have no concept of "hell", but use the concept of a soul being cast out of the Underworld as the worst possible thing that can happen to someone after they die. The word "eboa'an" which means "Cast down" or "thrown down" is a shortened form of this concept and used throughout holy texts to mean this.

"Neru'fuyt" actually comes from early necromancer culture when Endu was the only written and spoken language used. Literally translated the word means "Shepherd of the anus" and was the name given to early proctologists. At the time it was a noble and well-respected profession. While modern necromancers go to modern proctologists, neru'fuyt lives on as a common word for asshole.

"Fuyt'nika" isn't even technically a word in Endu, but is a pormanteau of "fuyt" (which technically means "of the anus" but here is used to just mean "anus") and a shortened for of "nikta" in the form in which it means "fuck". "Fuyt'nika" therefore means "ass-fucker". While this is an offensive enough insult on its own, the word has additional, more sinister meanings within necromancer culture. Anal intercourse is not taboo (and indeed common in sexual rituals), but to refer to a man as a "Fuyt'nika" implies he is specifically desirous off this act and may not consider the willingness of his partners. Therefore "Fuyt'nika" more accurately translates as "ass-raper" and is a very serious obscenity indeed.

"Soseek'enty" the etymology of this one is completely last to time. It is the only legitimate "swear word" in Endu and is used as such in the holy texts. The exact meaning is difficult to pin down as the etymology seems to have already been lost by the time the events depicted in the stories took place. In typical parlance the word can mean either "bastard" or "son of a bitch" with the latter being more common. Tan'nesh linguists who have studdied the ancient texts believe it is a shortened form of a much longer insult that has something to do with dogs, so "son of a dog" would be a more accurate translation. Vague context clues indicate "son of many dogs" or "child of <some number> of dogs" might be the correct interpretation. Soseek'enty can also be used as an exclamation of surprise or anger.

A Note about Necromancer Swearing

An interesting linguistic observation is that necromancers lack swearwords related to genitalia. Even when swearing in good old Common, you will not likely see a necromancer call someone "a dickhead" for example. This is part of the cultural dissonance. Necromancers worship fertility and the ability to bear children as part of their religious ideology. The human sex organs--and very specifically, the female sex organs--are seen as sacred to them. It therefore would not be be viewed as an insult. Scholars who study Necromancer culture have many jokes about how the most widespread use of their holy language is for teenagers to swear, but nobody ever calls anyone a dickhead because the penis is sacred.

Linguistic Drift

Because Endu plays a highly important role in the Necromancer ceremonial functions, it has suffered very little drift over the millenia. Linguists who study Endu find that verb form and sentence structure is very nearly unchanged between the Endu Epics and modern compositions. Since the prayers are often carved into stone on temple walls, it makes sense that there would be little deviation. In a sense, Endu itself is sacred, its unchanging nature being a core value of necromancy.

The spoken form, however, sees quite a lot of modification, changing almost on a generational cycle. During the Ages of the Alliance with the advent of audio recording it was discovered that spoken Endu changed even faster the Common. The words and their meaning remain the same, but way they are pronounced changes dramatically. This phenomenon is theorized to be the product of the way Endu is typically taught. Most Necromancers learn Endu by rote, parroting back the prayers said during temple rituals. Though learning to read Endu is a right of passage, in reality most children simply memorize the scripture without ever bothering to learn what sounds the characters properly make. Since some of those same children later grow up to be priests and chantresses, the same ingrained pronunciations stick.

An interesting experiment involved asking a high priest to recite a well-known prayer, then having him read the same prayer from the pamplet. The resulting recordings were quite different.