Eredun

[Aphetoros]

So. While reading the Alliance and Horde Compendium (along with other books provided by Nostra) I came across something rather interesting.

Automatic Languages: Common and Thallassian.

Bonus Languages: Darnassian, Dwarven, Eredun, Goblin, Kalimag, Kalimdoran, and orc.

This is found under the blood elf section. Now here is my question, I have two to be honest.

I was once told that speaking Eredun would make the elf go insane, and WoWwiki considers Eredun to be Demonic and vice-versa. I once spoke Eredun and was told I wasn't allowed to for the above mentioned reason about insanity, but then, why would this manual for the warcraft game say that a blood elf can speak Eredun, then? Wouldn't all elves that could speak it be insane? Correct me if I am wrong at any point...and also, why would a blood elf know how to speak Kalimag and Kalimdoran?

[Piroska]

Kalimdoran is known to individuals (including blood elves) who reside or have spent a considerable amount of time in Kalimdor. I have a sneaky suspicion that it may be a variation of or an amalgamation with one of the elven languages (Darnassian, Thalassian, Nazja, and the unnamed fourth language), which would be why high elves and blood elves could probably easily learn it.

Learned scholars may learn the language of the elementals. I assume that this would potentially include blood elves who have dedicated time to studying them and trying to communicate with them. Sin'dorei are a culture of people who have embraced the pursuit of knowledge (usually arcane) and have the lifespan to really indulge that proclivity.

And as for Eredun:

Eredun, the speech of the Burning Legion, is all but eradicated on Azeroth. It lives in the minds of cultists and those few brave enough to study it. It has a life of its own — its words writhe in the minds of those that know it, eating away sanity and morality. The demonic language of Eredun seemingly wants to be understood, while linguists tear their hair out trying to parse the inhumanoid grammar and the circular references of Titan.

Blood elves can be cultists. Those who serve the Legion may learn it. And insanity may be a subjective term; becoming increasingly more immoral and then serving the Burning Legion would probably be considered pretty crazy by most people. This may also indicate an increasing lack of control as a player became more bound to the Burning Legion.

I don't think that Bonus Languages are languages that all blood elves know. Bonus languages (in most roleplaying games) are potential languages that a player's character may speak in addition to racial and class languages. They are usually reliant on some sort of stat-check (Intelligence?); if you don't have the requisite requirement, your character can't learn them. A good, well-rounded player would probably have some sort of justification for selecting any of these languages.

Using Eredun would probably indicate some kind of link to the Burning Legion, since it is the primary language used by its members. This may be part of the reason why you were informed that your character couldn't speak it; players are not allowed to be members of the Burning Legion according to the wiki character creation guidelines.

[waffenbaum]

A Bonus Language does not mean that your character (or any blood elf for that matter) would automatically know any of them. It simply means that a blood elf could -potentially- learn them. But like Piroska said, it's the internal language of the Burning Legion and outsiders have absolutely no business speaking it.

[Aphetoros]

Ah I see, I was confused on that point as well because I've never played D&D (want to though) and wasn't sure what it meant by bonus language. Thanks for the clarification. And wouldn't it make sense though, for some curses and the like, to be Eredun words or phrases? One wouldn't necessarily need to be fluent in Eredun to say them. And now I'm interested in something else: if Eredun is the language of the Eredar, isn't it also the language of the Draenei, who were formerly Eredar? And I can't seem to find information on it, but what exactly is the Draenei Retcon. (I know it has something to do with Sargeras.)

[Piroska]

I would believe that knowing how to say a phrase that causes specific results would be very different from knowing a language. It would be like knowing that I can say "I'm sorry" in Spanish by saying "lo siento", but it doesn't literally mean "I'm sorry". So you could parrot the phrase and know kind of what it means, but not necessarily the actual translation.

The retcon was mostly about Sargeras and the Eredar. The eredar were originally displayed as a demonic race; Sargeras encountered them and then destroyed them after they had already caused the destruction of a number of worlds. This conflict caused him to slowly go insane. He then formed the Burning Legion.

The new version is that Sargeras has formed the Burning Crusade by the time he encountered the eredar. He then convinced a large portion of the eredar to join him. The ones that didn't join fled, calling themselves by a new name: "Draenei". Yays.

The language that the draenei use is different from the ones that the eredar used. I've heard supposition that it's a language that has evolved over the millennia and that it may have been influenced by the worlds that the draenei visited -- including Draenor and orcish.

[Bovel]

All draenei old enough to remember Argus can speak eredun, some probably do it too. Those born shortly after also speak it, it is their native tongue. Demonic is based on eredun and some even believe they are the exact same thing.


Before retcon; Eredar were the bad guys who corrupted Sargeras.
After retcon; Eredar were one of the first to join Sargeras.