Glossary
Here I'll provide a short list of terms that are frequently used. These are also defined in the system itself, in various places, but it's handy to have a quick reference.
Coursing Blood: This dialect contains lexica that concern life, bodies, and growth. It is especially effective against mindless creatures, but is useless against nonliving creatures that lack a metabolism to affect.
Dialect: A group of lexica that are bound together by tradition and certain commonalities in what they are able to accomplish. Each dialect has strengths and weaknesses that set it apart from the others, and many truespeakers choose to specialize in one to the exclusion of others.
Length: Each utterance is of a certain length. The shortest length is a Phonema, followed by a Syllable, Word, and finally, a Sentence. Recitations are their own category of length, and don't fit into the standard progression.
Lexicon: A group of utterances that have similar effects. Each lexicon contains an utterance of each length, plus reversed utterances. Each dialect of Truespeech contains several lexica.
Manifest Ideal: This dialect contains utterances that produce their own targets. You don't need an existing legal target in order to use one, since it creates its own targets, but the target can't be created in a way that breaks other rules, such as the rules describing which squares creatures can occupy.
Personal Truename: The truename unique to a particular creature or object that describes perfectly that exact instance of it. These require research to uncover, and are rarely used due to their limited applicability, but they can be powerful additions to many utterances, and can even be useful to non-truespeakers.
Perfected Tool: This dialect contains utterances that are used to affect equipment and objects. These utterances can be very effective tools when dealing with constructs and undead, but cannot affect incorporeal creatures that lack a physical body to affect.
Polarity: A term describing whether or not an utterance is spoken in the standard fashion, or if it is reversed.
Recitation: A recitation is a brief mantra that takes 1 minute of meditation to activate, and which can have a variety of effects thereafter. A recitation requires the target's personal truename in order to work, but can ignore several of the normal restrictions on using an utterance. All recitations are utterances that do not belong to a particular lexicon, but each is part of a particular dialect.
Reversed Utterance: Utterances may be spoken in reverse, which causes effects in opposition to the utterance's normal use. These are the same length as the original utterance, so a reversed Word is still a Word. Technically, it's impossible to tell which utterance of any given pair is reversed; while truespeakers debate the topic endlessly, we use the most common standard here.
Sentence: A complete sentence in the True Tongue, these utterances take a round to speak. Like a spell with the same casting time, they take a full round action to speak, and take effect at the beginning of your next turn, when you finish speaking.
Phonema: The shortest possible utterance, these require such precision that they still require more training than a syllable, but can be used as an immediate action.
Speaker Level: Your speaker level is equal to your ranks in Truespeech, but it can never exceed your character level.
Subject: A creature, object, or location that you specify while speaking an utterance, but do not target. Utterances have subjects when the target has a special interaction with a creature, object, or location that it doesn't have with others. Subjects are not targets of an utterance - they just serve to clarify the specifics of its effect.
Syllable: A quick utterance that, nevertheless, takes some concentration, which can be used as a swift action.
Transcendent Mind: This dialect contains lexica that are used to affect a creature's mind or spirit. It is especially effective against incorporeal creatures, but is useless against mindless creatures that lack a mind to affect.
Truename: A word that describes a noun in the fundamental language of the universe. While every object or creature has a personal truename, virtually all truespeech is done using general, descriptive terms, as a matter of practicality. Thus, a truespeaker will typically use a truename that translates roughly as “that dragon” instead of the dragon's own personal truename.
Truespeaker: Any character capable of using Truespeech to speak utterances. Not to be confused with the truenamer class.
Truespeech: The act of speaking in the True Tongue, the fundamental language that permeates the universe's very laws, is the Truespeech skill.
Undrawn Map: This dialect contains lexica that are used to affect areas and very large objects. You choose a favored terrain when you first learn a lexicon from this dialect, which is a type of area whose characteristic descriptions in the True Tongue you are most familiar with. It is easier for you to use an utterance that targets your favored terrain.
Unshaped Matter: This dialect contains lexica that can affect objects, creatures, or areas. While versatile, this dialect is not particularly effective at dealing with any particular category and does not deal in the specific traits of either.
Utterance: Any use of truespeech that invokes the language's power to affect the universe. While it is possible to speak the language in a manner designed to rob it of its intrinsic power, it is merely considered another language and has no special rules; this system deals instead with truespeech imbued with primordial strength, and all such words and phrases are utterances. An utterance has a particular length that describes how long it takes to speak it.
Word: A full word in the True Tongue that takes 1 standard action, and tends to be the most common use of Truespeech.
