Truly "secret" languages?

[Asmor]

What should arguably be one of the most arcane, difficult languages to master, Draconic, the very language of Dragons and of magic itself, is known by every Tom, Dick & Harry with a 12+ intelligence score. In fact, aside from druidic and things like that, there's really no languages which are more difficult to master than any others.

I'm curious if anyone has any special languages in their campaign, and how they handle them? I've got a language called Alakari (same name as the race who used it) which is ancient and not known by anyone in the current time. I allow Knowledge (Arcana) checks to try and figure out the general gist of a message ("It seems to be a warning...") but I don't currently and I probably won't in the future allow anyone to actually learn the language. I'm actually thinking I might change the associated checks to Knowledge (History) now that I think about it. The Alakari had incredible magical capabilities, but their language isn't very important to magic itself.

 

[Rystil Arden]

In my world, there is a language used by an incredibly ancient race of highly magical creator-beings, and they discovered (and then used as their tongue) the language of magic and creation itself. The language itself is so intrinsic to language that it is immune to common modern magical attempts to affect it, so Comprehend Languages is of no use. Because of this, I probably have the only game in the history of D&D where a PC picked Epic Skill Focus [Decipher Script] as their first ever epic feat, when my first PC went epic in a 1-21 game. She took that feat because I set the DCs really high on some of the things written, but each and every one of them was hugely valuable if deciphered.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

I'm curious if anyone has any special languages in their campaign, and how they handle them?

I like to use racial languages that restrict use by outsiders or create customs that forbid others to learn a language.
Examples
*Vykarins-speak a language that is rather like Bushman(I know they're called something else now I don't care) in flavor with lots of clicks, whistles, etc. So most other races don't learn it but if they do they're still at a penalty to make themselves understood. Based on complexity of the topic and decipher script skill but at a +4DC penalty.
*Eeeee-other races don't even realize they have a spoken language, they believe all Eeeee communicate with each other by racial telepathy. But that's only because they can't hear the ultra high pitched sounds of the bat-like Eeeee tongue. Instead Eeee learn the languages of others.
*Aeulum-these are a reclusive and primitive race and have intense cultural proscriptions on certain things. Not only won't they teach ANYONE their native language they try to avoid speaking it extensively in the presence of outsiders and have a secret name that is never used except with blood kin.

*Draconic is pretty much the equivalent of english in scientific circles, it's the spellcaster's universal language and the language in which arcane magic is discussed and written, but not the most common outside those circles which is a trade language. This is because dragons were the first to actually discover and set down the nature of magic in this homebrew and is specially suited to discuss such things.
*Actual spell casting is not done in Draconic, instead I invented a new language Aleph. These are the primeval words of power through which magic actually works, it can't be uttered or written without creating the spell effects. A literal use of "Word as Power" based on the idea of re-naming. Because of this magic is studied, researched, written, and discussed in Draconic which can adequately describe magic without causing it to happen like Aleph.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What should arguably be one of the most arcane, difficult languages to master, Draconic, the very language of Dragons and of magic itself, is known by every Tom, Dick & Harry with a 12+ intelligence score. In fact, aside from druidic and things like that, there's really no languages which are more difficult to master than any others.

BoVD and BoED have languages that require a feat to use even a portion of them.

 

[Asmor]

*Actual spell casting is not done in Draconic, instead I invented a new language Aleph. These are the primeval words of power through which magic actually works, it can't be uttered or written without creating the spell effects. A literal use of "Word as Power" based on the idea of re-naming. Because of this magic is studied, researched, written, and discussed in Draconic which can adequately describe magic without causing it to happen like Aleph.

That's actually really, really cool flavor. Kudos! I love the idea of Draconic being the language used to discuss magic simply because it's the only way to that won't invoke the power of the magic... Kind of like writing about a chemical reaction on paper, as opposed to actually tossing the potassium into the bath.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Isn't Aleph from the College of Wizardry 2E supplement?

 

[Moon-Lancer]

What should arguably be one of the most arcane, difficult languages to master, Draconic, the very language of Dragons and of magic itself, is known by every Tom, Dick & Harry with a 12+ intelligence score. In fact, aside from druidic and things like that, there's really no languages which are more difficult to master than any others.

by tom dick an harry, do you mean, Humans, Elves, Gnomes and HalfElves? Halflings, Dwarves, and HalfOrcs don't get draconic as a bonus language.

4/7ths is still alot, so why not make it have a int requirement of 14 or 16?

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

Isn't Aleph from the College of Wizardry 2E supplement?

Never had that supplement so I don't know what was in it. I derived my usage of Aleph from the following source.

In a section of an older greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures it states that when the renegade angels rebelled against the Throne of Heaven in response God respoke the "First Utterance" which was of such power it cast them from Heaven and created what Christianity calls Hell in a single instant of power. The character used to represent this "First Utterance" was the first letter of the Greek alphabet which was known as Aleph for translation and transliteration purposes.

 

[lazarus1020]

I have altered Draconic into three different forms. The lowest form is that spoken by kobolds, elves, etc. The middle version is more complicated version used in aracane magic. The last form is the true version of draconic and is spoken by dragons. A person who speaks the lowest form can understand some of the words in the middle verion such as nouns and verbs but not usually whole sentences. The highest version is only understood by people speaking the lowest form if it is a delibertly simple statement such as "Danger." I am a big fan of dragons and my party knows that it is about to get crazy when they see one. It bugged me to think that kobolds spoke the same language.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Thieve's cant.