I can't see the logic behind it *in game* though... I like the idea, don't get me wrong, and would love to have one, but why would that be in the world? After all, only the outworlders would need one, right?
Well, maybe the book was written by outworlder (such as myself) for outworlders. I mean who says that Avatars can not be authors of books or dictionaries. The New Britannia is about to be full of 'outworlders' so there is niche market for them I would like to target.
@Bodhbh Deargh Did you know how to read and write from the start, or did someone teach it to you? This could be seen as a simple schoolbook.
No, but I learned my native letters without comparing them to some alien letters first... Runic *is* the defacto script for these people. The fact we get to see normal alphabet when we read books, etc. is a nod to playability...
You know, i totally over looked that. *facepalms* *takes a -1 to intelligence for not using his brains*
I'm not so sure about that. There are places that use runic in-game after all (the Hearth of Britannia sign, maps, etc), so its entirely possible that English is the defacto script, but runic is used for another purpose. I had suggested that runic might be somewhat archaic, but still in use by the government. So a business could only have a runic sign, like the Hearth, if they possess a Royal Warrant. All cartography that is created by officials would also bear runic, while those that we create ourselves would be in English. That solves playability fairly easily.
I totally bought that explanation until Bodhbh rained ruin down upon it Another explanation may be that book was made to help native Novians learn how to understand the chicken scratch of an avatar outlander trying to communicate with them for the first time ...
There's more issues with this part of the lore... When we arrive in our Avatar bodies we somehow automagically speak the native language, translating local names to our Earth equivalents (why would a boar be a "boar" in Novia? Or a sword a "sword"? Why would Novians know of Daedalus, and name their new moon that way?), but why can't we read native runic as if it is an Earth alphabet?... I can understand wanting to use runes to emphasize the alienness of the world, but it just doesn't make sense if you try to rationalize it and make it part of the Avatar lore! So I say, what the heck, put the book in!
Isn't runic simply a more ancient cypher for the "common english" alphabet used in NB? Kind of like the way the ancient Greek and Roman alphabets influenced our modern letters and numbers. So a book like this could form an educational tool for the poorer folk who could not get an education at a young age. I would like to see it fleshed out with a little more contextual lore on how the alphabet evolved and who used the original runic. After all this is a very prominent feature of SotA and so it would make sense to give it a strong grounding in the game's lore.
I think the ability to use both English and Runic fonts in books opens a lot of interesting opportunities. I'd like to see it possible.
I like the idea of being able to toggle between Runic and English fonts when writing. If the system is put in place then someone can write that book... I don't think it should be done by Portalarium. +1 for the idea!
Speaking of schoolbooks... it would be interesting if perhaps there were a "Treatise of Runic in Outlander Common", describing not only what each character corresponds to what "Outlander Common" letter, but the Novian meaning behind the characters (much like each futhark rune has a meaning beyond a simple translatable correspondence). Would be a fantastic bit of flavor text, I think.
Without spoiling the book could someone verify that Runic is the New Britannia reference, Novia is the landmass we are on for Episode 1, and Outlander is what the citizens of the Vale reference everyone "else" as (including other New Britannians, like Novians)
That would make a lot of sense, especially if Words of Power still correspond to each letter like they did in Ultima. Hopefully we can get a listing of the Words of Power and their meanings, so this book can take shape!
