#Hey there’s some good news - I’ve got a new potential approach for TCD that I’m trying. Wish me luck I want it to go well

[tracle0]

hey hi, happy storyteller satursunday! I remember you posting a super neat ramble a while back about TSS and language? among other things you mentioned you were telling the story as a translator! I was wondering if there are any fun language facts you can tell me about how things might differ between original and translation? would there be certain untranslatable concepts? any odd idioms or phrases that pop up that we might not be familiar with? anything that might get lost in translation and require a footnote or two? :P or maybe in general, 'cause you talked about uhhhh potentially having spoken differences between spider and Spider for instance - any other funky little twists like that for how language operates? ok bye have a lovely day xoxoxo

Hi hello! Read this yesterday and went “oh boy” so that’s a good reaction! Sunday now! Hi!

So mmm yeah! The way I approach TSS and TCD is as a translator - but it’s more for convenience than anything? If I were to try to make up new weekdays and units of measurements and swears and numbers constantly, it’d be hard to follow the story because you’re juggling all these essentially useless facts.

Like. Sure, it’s cool to know that “Jyipday” originated as a tribute to the Rabbit for whatever reason, but it’s not necessary to the plot. So to make it easier and to stop myself from going “hey why would they have Thursday without Norse mythology” I just approach the entire story as if I’m translating it into normal English.

I can totally tell you some cool language bits though lmao I have a grand total of four (4) idioms that I’ve come up with since starting this.

First of all, if you were to think someone were lying to you, you might accuse them of “spitting Spiders” on account of the Spider being the god of lying. Not many people believe it’s hugely active in the world they’re wrong but they’re aware of it enough to assume all lies stem back to it.

Example in a sentence: “Can you believe that asshole looked me in the eye and said that? Spitting Spiders the whole time, I’m telling you.”

Second; if someone were to be a bit of a daydreamer or be a bit drifting in terms of attention, you could claim they were “dancing with the Magpie” - also possible as specific forms of dancing, eg: waltzing, tangoing, fukkin,,, rocking, idk, I’m a writer not a dancer. The Magpie is the god of sleep and dreams so. Yeah. Pretty self explanatory.

Example: “Dannels a good kid. Very sharp, very articulate, but he dances with the Magpie a bit too much to be the perfect student.”

Third - if you damage your nail enough that it starts to turn black (either marginally with blood trapped under it or entirely as to fall off) you’d diagnose it was a “Foxes claw” - the Fox is the god of perception, but when it sponsors people, it gives them black nails, just to mark them out really. You do not get magic if you damage your nail. You just get a damaged nail.

Example: “Yeah, the fall was pretty bad, but I’m not too hurt. Bit of a headache and a Foxes claw, nothing to worry about.”

Fourth and finally, if someone were to hyper-fixate in something, be consumed on a new topic or medium or idea to the point of obsession, you could say they were “answering the Salmons lure” (or yknow just diagnose them with ADHD or autism but whatever man). The Salmon is the god of determination, and although it doesn’t sponsor anyone, it’s often assumed that those who work tirelessly on one thing/hyper-fixate are blessed by it.

This mostly came about cause I was like hey why is there rarely if ever any mental illness in fantasy. Fuck that let’s make an idiom

Example: “I’ve not actually seen Nara for about three days. She comes down in the night for food and water, but I think she’s been pulled in by the Salmons lure again”

None of these have come up in story yet, but maybe soon. Maybe maybe.

In terms of how language exists! Re: Spider/spider/liar as different words, I’m. Mm. Settled in most places. I’d like to maybe make up specific swears and curses. I’ve been avoiding using things like “Jesus Christ!” As an exclamation cause that would imply the existence of Christianity and I do not want that.

Oh that’s a tangent actually. Religion! In world, there’s some specificity about what makes up a god - most people may accept that the gods they have are gods, but some disagree. A god has to be all powerful, and the gods they have are not - they’re limited to specific domains like sleep or heat or biology. Therefore, they are not gods. Some decide there is another, higher being above the gods they know that is a true, capital-G God, that gave the other gods their magic. Some assume it means there are no actual gods.

This is the conclusion Andy eventually reaches in TCD. The man really encounters the god of death in person and decides “nah you ain’t shit”

On! The topic of Andy, I’ll mention accents too! Glalis has a very distinct accent that’s mostly informed by the environment - because they live in a cave, there’s a need to keep their voices quiet, to prevent a horrible echo from breaking their ears constantly. The Glalis accent achieves this, hushing the harsh sounds like D or T or CH and keeping the voice soft. I personally am very happy with it

Atlas also has a fun voice but that’s not really any language or accent thing, just a hangover from original Sonder, and tiny tiny me going “well they’re not a girl or a boy, so what kind of voice would they have?” Two voices is apparently the answer, one high, one low, harmonising to make their words. They are an excellent mimic.

Maybe a good time to mention that the main characters names might not… actually be their names?

I mean, the main offender is Atlas tbh. Much like Norse mythology does not exist in TSS, neither does Greek mythology, which is the root of their name, with the titan who holds up the sky. I could brush it aside as “atlas” having another origin as a word…

Or I could be difficult about it!

See I know their name would have to be something map related - specifically because Sam comments on it at one point. I could brush it aside as their name sounding like whatever the god of the planet or earth or fakkin… mapmaking is, but I can’t see the Spider letting one of its servants be named after another god. I could also give “map” a proper translated word, work from there to condense it into a potential name, and then claim I was translating “map” from whatever this word is, and “Atlas” as a result of the similarity.

Or.

I could just.

Let their name be Atlas.

And stop overthinking this so much lmao