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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Insight" data-source="post: 2233795" data-attributes="member: 11437">I am considering that the kingdoms in Derev are neither homogenous nor terribly nationalistic.  People on the borders are just as likely to speak one language or another.  It becomes more about culture and heritage than what side of the border you find yourself.  It's entirely possible that the area you chose used to be in Lurien and was conquered.  Remember, Lurien and Mitea were at war for a long time (they just agreed to a tenuous peace treaty).The Trade Language is relatively new, but has been spreading wildly since its inception.  The language itself has probably been around less than a century.  Basically, it came about because seafaring merchants needed some way to communicate when visiting foreign ports, and they were too lazy to learn all of the various languages of the region.  Consider it an amalgam of Mitean, Luri, Refeli, Shivenic, and Kurstic.  It is not very representative of any of them, but gets the idea across to people who are familiar with the derived languages.  This is not to say that, for example, a speaker of Kurstic who doesn't know Trade will understand you perfectly, but it helps to alleviate the language barrier.It is not a fully functional language in all regards, but is developing, mostly through the merchants and sailors who use it.  You still have a far better chance getting along in a foreign land (outside of say the port area) if you know the native tongue.  People who typically know the Trade Language are sailors, seafaring merchants, traders who deal with sailors or seafaring merchants, and those who travel on a regular basis for other reasons.  Other folks just don't have any reason to know it, and so they don't.BTW, there is a guild of sorts for seafaring merchants and their associates.  I'm planning to post a list of organizations at some point, so keep an eye out for that if you're interested in joining a guild or anything of that nature.  Those of you interested in Shadowbane should pay particular attention to this information, because you need to join up before taking that PrC.</blockquote>

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