Sunday, May 22, 2011

Swearing and Insults in Teleleli

Since religious oaths run the risk of attracting the wrathful attention of gods or demons, foul language in Teleleli is mostly sexual or scatalogical rather than blasphemous. Statements such as "by Ginnafort" or "by Father" (the latter indicating Father-on-the-Mountain) are not considered impolite.

An exception is the somewhat formal "may the Crone turn the water of your bowels to ice." This is known not to draw the attention of the Crone, goddess of winter and natural death, since it is her nature to act only in her own good time.

Those who swear by the Lady of Charity should be careful to say "by Charity" rather than "by the Lady", for fear of Beautiful Lady Sebastienne, the consort of the God of Unnatural Death.

A common insult is "go hock your box", or "go hock your box at the Cross", referring to a dockside district of the city. It is particularly used for those who have much to say, but are considered wearisome. It indicates that the target has no other way of compelling attention.

1 comment:

  1. Nice bits of detail. This is something that's usually neglected in game-world building.

    ReplyDelete

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