Rellanic (Elven) & Davek (Dwarven) fonts

Guyanthalas · Dec 3, 2008

Forked from: Iokharic Script Font

I decided it should be its own thread, because not many will look at Iokharic if they want Rellanic. If you are looking for Iokharic (Draconic), please follow the forked link at the top.

This is my version 1.2 of the font files. I have added punctuation marks and they seem to work fine (unlike my last time :blush:

). I'm not 100% happy with the punctuation, so anyone feel free to modify them as nessisary, but please post a copy so I can take a look at them.

[sblock=Font Demonstration

[/sblock]

For font junkies, this is what I did:
Both fonts are ripped straight out of the PHB.
Elven a-z fonts are included in the PDF, so to make A-Z I increased the glyph size by 25%
Dwarven A-Z fonts are included in the PDF, so to make a-z I decreased the glyph size by 25%

The punctuation marks are not home brew, they have been ripped out of other various assortments of "Fantasy" style fonts. As I said, I'd love someone to make there own versions of the punctuation that would perhaps be a better fit.

Instructions:
Unzip fonts.
Copy and past into your font directory (on most windows systems this is C:\windows\fonts)

yarnperson · Feb 6, 2010

D&D Abyssal/Primordial/Barazhad Script Font

Well, the other guy who put his up apparently took it down on the same day. Going off of the jpg Lord Winter posted(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...zhadscript.jpg), I made this. It only took around twelve hours. Not bad for a first try.
This is not a direct rip, as I am to understand some of the other fonts out there are, it's more of a hand made copy. So it's not exact, and it's missing the hand drawn feel that Wizards tries to put in their fonts, but it's still quite accurate, I think... The non-letter characters, such as asterisk and questions marks are the ones used in Siberys' Dragonic font. Why fix it if it ain't broke?
In closeing, I hope you enjoy, please don't sue.

D&D Abyssal Barazhad Script Font.zip
If that link doesn't work, check the reply on Siberys' Iokharic post.
D&D Abyssal Barazhad Script Font.zip

Kzach · Feb 6, 2010

Sweet, thanks!

Zinovia · Feb 7, 2010

Nice work on the fonts. As a calligrapher who has done a great deal of research on medieval scripts, I'd recommend not using modern punctuation marks if you want a more authentic look. I find the modern punctuation marks rather jarring in the sample scripts, although it's good of you to include them in the fonts.

Medieval books didn't use nearly as much punctuation as we do currently. The oldest books and scrolls often didn't even have spaces between the words. Those are typically majuscule scripts - ones that consist of all "upper case" letters. Punctuation arose out of the need to be able to read something out loud with proper emphasis and pauses, but is less necessary in written information that isn't going to be read aloud.

What I would recommend for your D&D scripts usage is to change around the symbols used for punctuation. For a period, try using a short dash or a colon. A mid-minim height (middle of the lower case letter) dot would be ideal for a period, but I'm not sure you can get that symbol easily. Eliminate commas altogether. Try a slash instead of a question mark, or just use a period as well - or you could use the symbol for the letter "q". For the runic scripts, definitely minimize the punctuation as much as possible, and I'd go with a colon in place of a period, if you use anything at all. It's fits better, IMHO.

To clarify, I'm not suggesting changing the fonts - those are great, and thanks for the effort. The recommendations are for those using the fonts.

UnseiligheSidhe · Jan 24, 2011

I... LOVE you!

No, really, I LOVE you for this. Countless, ineffable thanks!

tkwickham · May 31, 2011

Design Nerd here: THANK YOU!

SN0WRAVEN · Jan 5, 2012

Thx a million!!!

I've been scouring the internet looking for these!! Thanks so much for the hard work!

tuxgeo · Jan 5, 2012

Zinovia said:
Nice work on the fonts. As a calligrapher who has done a great deal of research on medieval scripts, I'd recommend not using modern punctuation marks if you want a more authentic look. I find the modern punctuation marks rather jarring in the sample scripts, although it's good of you to include them in the fonts.

Medieval books didn't use nearly as much punctuation as we do currently. The oldest books and scrolls often didn't even have spaces between the words. Those are typically majuscule scripts - ones that consist of all "upper case" letters. Punctuation arose out of the need to be able to read something out loud with proper emphasis and pauses, but is less necessary in written information that isn't going to be read aloud.

What I would recommend for your D&D scripts usage is to change around the symbols used for punctuation. For a period, try using a short dash or a colon. A mid-minim height (middle of the lower case letter) dot would be ideal for a period, but I'm not sure you can get that symbol easily. Eliminate commas altogether. Try a slash instead of a question mark, or just use a period as well - or you could use the symbol for the letter "q". For the runic scripts, definitely minimize the punctuation as much as possible, and I'd go with a colon in place of a period, if you use anything at all. It's fits better, IMHO.

To clarify, I'm not suggesting changing the fonts - those are great, and thanks for the effort. The recommendations are for those using the fonts.

Regarding the bolded part above (emphasis added by me):

Right. Question Marks aren't very medieval.
One thought that occurred to me about marking questions would be to add words that indicate a questioning tone. You might want to consider adopting an introductory word such as the Farsi "Aya" and a terminal word such as the ~~Nipponese~~ Nihon-go "ne" to frame a question without needing a question mark.
For example: "Aya I can haz cheezeburger ne."

(Different languages could have different framing words, of course.)

ppaladin123 · Jan 5, 2012

tuxgeo said:
Regarding the bolded part above (emphasis added by me):

Right. Question Marks aren't very medieval.
One thought that occurred to me about marking questions would be to add words that indicate a questioning tone. You might want to consider adopting an introductory word such as the Farsi "Aya" and a terminal word such as the Nipponese "ne" to frame a question without needing a question mark.
For example: "Aya I can haz cheezeburger ne."

(Different languages could have different framing words, of course.)

In formal Japanese all questions end with kana, "ka" and no punctuation mark. So yes, some languages designate questions with a phonetic symbol rather than a non-pronounceable marker.