A New Life: Kathalan
Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2022 3:25 pm
TIMESTAMP: Searing 45 to End, 122
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NOTES: -
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The keystone to life in the Gelerian Imperium, arguably, was learning the language, Kathalan. While many spoke Common here, relying on it was very frowned upon, for one. And for another, if they were to work with the Inquisition, everything would be in Kathalan. At the very least, learning to read and write it would be required, clear pronunciation and speech could be sidetracked to the latter portions of their education for the sake of speed and efficiency, as much of a functional hindrance as this can often be.
Both vampyres weren't horrible at it, though Hector would appear to excel; of the two, he was naturally more inclined to the intricacies of linguistics on top of simply having more free time in general. They worked under a tutor for this as opposed to a broader classroom setting like their other lessons and such a thing allowed for the instructor to work with each man at his own pace. That isn't to say there weren't tandem exercises, however– it was helpful for Hector to step back a bit and reinforce older concepts by assisting Vergil as he learned them.
The language barrier was a major nuisance for Vergil, especially because he had less time to spend studying it than his companion. Due to what other professional expertise he did possess, he had started working in the Southside General Hospital almost right away– but as one would imagine, all of the documentation, paperwork and so on were in Kathalan. As a result, he had to actively work with an interpreter which, as one would also imagine, slowed things down due to having to constantly translate information back and forth.
Because of this, he, for the most part, worked in tandem with other doctors and spent most of his time in diagnostics alongside his interpreter. One might foolishly imagine he'd be perfectly capable of surgery as he had been before, but then one must remember that surgery is a group effort. When one's nurses and other aides do not speak Common well and you yourself do not properly speak Kathalan, miscommunication in critical moments could cost somebody their life, and this was a risk that the hospital itself did not want to take. However, for extremely simple or rote tasks that he could take care of with ease or little to no assistance, he did still operate.
At first, many at the hospital did not like having somebody on staff that couldn't properly communicate with them. Over time, however, many softened this opinion as they realized that he was more than capable of doing his job, he just needed time to learn and adjust. Unfortunately, this was not the case with everyone, as bias can leave some with a much more long lasting bitter taste in their mouths. Vergil found the latter party to be, in large part, insufferable because it isn't as if he even asked to be in this situation– he was, quite literally, here because his home blew up, so would it kill them to treat him with some modicum of due respect? For even despite that fact, he still did his job well on top of actively being in the process of learning to communicate. He wasn't given the job due to some bizarre nepotism or other falsity, either, he was more than qualified.
That, and of those who were privy to his status as skilled Vitalitasi, they regarded him with respect and for some, those who knew yet were not mages of that vein themselves, fear. There were few other blood mages operating in the city's medical field and regardless of their actual, objective skill, the magic still performed veritable miracles leaving many in awe. And for the mages, this garnered them quite a bit of respect.
On Vergil's end, he ended up gravitating towards their company above others because he could be both candid about his abilities in addition to bouncing ideas and techniques between what small number of them existed. And, thankfully, long lived as they were, all of the fellow Vitalitasi with which he mingled had the time to have learned at least some Common over the course of their lives, allowing for easier clarification should he fail to follow their Kathalan. Which most were happy to do, too, because the majority of that little group were also wanderers or defectors from the Cult of Mending and thus did not share many of the Imperium's disdain for the foreign tongue.
Hector, however, had a much different experience in large part due to the fact that he was not immediately thrown into a professional, working environment. For him, he still had to deal with the general annoyance of peoples' condescension regarding his lack of fluency, but the situations wherein this would happen were far more casual. This, nonetheless, did not fail to annoy him greatly as he viewed the treatment as obnoxious or, quite often, a massive waste of his time.
As a result of such ample vexation, his solution was twofold. For one, he often found himself donning his Inquisitorial raiment just so people would shut their insufferable mouths on the subject. Would an average citizen hazard to disrespect even the lowest ranking of the Inquisition for something so very, very petty? No. Quite simply, the answer was no. He could still tell which folks cared, quite easily, in fact, because he could almost feel them seethe at his status despite being not much more than a waifish foreigner on the surface. Then, on top of those, were some of the shopkeepers and the like who'd treated him poorly at first only for him to come back in uniform, resulting in a really rather prompt change in attitude.
Secondarily, he legitimately tried very hard to learn the language with speed. As somebody who was fluent in more than one language since he was a child, his mind was naturally more predisposed to learning additional tongues than somebody who'd only ever spoken one. But even in doing so, Hector is a spiteful little thing. For those he remembered being annoyed at his lack of Kathalan, he would often feign it being worse than it was purely to annoy them and waste their time. Yet, if somebody else were to enter the interaction, to them he would switch gears and speak notably better since he bore them no ill will. Little, obnoxious things like this were quite common for him to do in large part because of his spite, but also due in part to his natural penchant for mischief. Who better to mess with, then, than petty xenophobes?
And while both men learned at different paces and often under different circumstances, both obtained a reasonable amount of understanding by the time the season of Searing would hear its curtain call and draw to a close. Thankfully, their tutor was more than satisfied with the progress each of the two vampyres achieved, and thus, neither had much to worry about going forward provided they did not abruptly stop trying or something else odd. Objectively, the Inquisition had somewhat rushed standards compared to what one would really expect a standard person to manage. This was, however, not unexpected, since the Inquisition, by default, expected excellence from those within their employ.
Even so, it was always a relief for both parties to be in the private company of themselves, because then there was no expectation to sit there and translate their thoughts to something so new to them. Outside of periods of study, they would default to Common between one another. The two of them imagined it would be exceptionally irritating should either have arrived alone and thus not had another party with which there was such ease of communication, on top of everything else either vampyre had to deal with regarding their new lives.
Both vampyres weren't horrible at it, though Hector would appear to excel; of the two, he was naturally more inclined to the intricacies of linguistics on top of simply having more free time in general. They worked under a tutor for this as opposed to a broader classroom setting like their other lessons and such a thing allowed for the instructor to work with each man at his own pace. That isn't to say there weren't tandem exercises, however– it was helpful for Hector to step back a bit and reinforce older concepts by assisting Vergil as he learned them.
The language barrier was a major nuisance for Vergil, especially because he had less time to spend studying it than his companion. Due to what other professional expertise he did possess, he had started working in the Southside General Hospital almost right away– but as one would imagine, all of the documentation, paperwork and so on were in Kathalan. As a result, he had to actively work with an interpreter which, as one would also imagine, slowed things down due to having to constantly translate information back and forth.
Because of this, he, for the most part, worked in tandem with other doctors and spent most of his time in diagnostics alongside his interpreter. One might foolishly imagine he'd be perfectly capable of surgery as he had been before, but then one must remember that surgery is a group effort. When one's nurses and other aides do not speak Common well and you yourself do not properly speak Kathalan, miscommunication in critical moments could cost somebody their life, and this was a risk that the hospital itself did not want to take. However, for extremely simple or rote tasks that he could take care of with ease or little to no assistance, he did still operate.
At first, many at the hospital did not like having somebody on staff that couldn't properly communicate with them. Over time, however, many softened this opinion as they realized that he was more than capable of doing his job, he just needed time to learn and adjust. Unfortunately, this was not the case with everyone, as bias can leave some with a much more long lasting bitter taste in their mouths. Vergil found the latter party to be, in large part, insufferable because it isn't as if he even asked to be in this situation– he was, quite literally, here because his home blew up, so would it kill them to treat him with some modicum of due respect? For even despite that fact, he still did his job well on top of actively being in the process of learning to communicate. He wasn't given the job due to some bizarre nepotism or other falsity, either, he was more than qualified.
That, and of those who were privy to his status as skilled Vitalitasi, they regarded him with respect and for some, those who knew yet were not mages of that vein themselves, fear. There were few other blood mages operating in the city's medical field and regardless of their actual, objective skill, the magic still performed veritable miracles leaving many in awe. And for the mages, this garnered them quite a bit of respect.
On Vergil's end, he ended up gravitating towards their company above others because he could be both candid about his abilities in addition to bouncing ideas and techniques between what small number of them existed. And, thankfully, long lived as they were, all of the fellow Vitalitasi with which he mingled had the time to have learned at least some Common over the course of their lives, allowing for easier clarification should he fail to follow their Kathalan. Which most were happy to do, too, because the majority of that little group were also wanderers or defectors from the Cult of Mending and thus did not share many of the Imperium's disdain for the foreign tongue.
Hector, however, had a much different experience in large part due to the fact that he was not immediately thrown into a professional, working environment. For him, he still had to deal with the general annoyance of peoples' condescension regarding his lack of fluency, but the situations wherein this would happen were far more casual. This, nonetheless, did not fail to annoy him greatly as he viewed the treatment as obnoxious or, quite often, a massive waste of his time.
As a result of such ample vexation, his solution was twofold. For one, he often found himself donning his Inquisitorial raiment just so people would shut their insufferable mouths on the subject. Would an average citizen hazard to disrespect even the lowest ranking of the Inquisition for something so very, very petty? No. Quite simply, the answer was no. He could still tell which folks cared, quite easily, in fact, because he could almost feel them seethe at his status despite being not much more than a waifish foreigner on the surface. Then, on top of those, were some of the shopkeepers and the like who'd treated him poorly at first only for him to come back in uniform, resulting in a really rather prompt change in attitude.
Secondarily, he legitimately tried very hard to learn the language with speed. As somebody who was fluent in more than one language since he was a child, his mind was naturally more predisposed to learning additional tongues than somebody who'd only ever spoken one. But even in doing so, Hector is a spiteful little thing. For those he remembered being annoyed at his lack of Kathalan, he would often feign it being worse than it was purely to annoy them and waste their time. Yet, if somebody else were to enter the interaction, to them he would switch gears and speak notably better since he bore them no ill will. Little, obnoxious things like this were quite common for him to do in large part because of his spite, but also due in part to his natural penchant for mischief. Who better to mess with, then, than petty xenophobes?
And while both men learned at different paces and often under different circumstances, both obtained a reasonable amount of understanding by the time the season of Searing would hear its curtain call and draw to a close. Thankfully, their tutor was more than satisfied with the progress each of the two vampyres achieved, and thus, neither had much to worry about going forward provided they did not abruptly stop trying or something else odd. Objectively, the Inquisition had somewhat rushed standards compared to what one would really expect a standard person to manage. This was, however, not unexpected, since the Inquisition, by default, expected excellence from those within their employ.
Even so, it was always a relief for both parties to be in the private company of themselves, because then there was no expectation to sit there and translate their thoughts to something so new to them. Outside of periods of study, they would default to Common between one another. The two of them imagined it would be exceptionally irritating should either have arrived alone and thus not had another party with which there was such ease of communication, on top of everything else either vampyre had to deal with regarding their new lives.
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Aidolon Speech
'Thoughts'
"Kathalan Tongue/Speech"
"Vallenor Tongue/Speech"
"Common Tongue/Speech"
"Mythrasi Tongue/Speech"