Dark Tongue

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Tzeentchian variant of Dark Tongue

The Dark Tongues are languages spoken by the mortal followers and daemons of Chaos. These languages first came to the Mortal Realms through the machinations of Tzeentch and his daemons.[3a] Some champions and warlords of Chaos scream oaths of fealty to the Dark Gods using this language.[1a][2a]

History

Age of Myth

The Dark Tongue of Chaos first entered into the Mortal Realms in the Age of Myth, as Sigmar's first civilizations began to rise. Overworked scribes across the Realms unknowingly hear the whispers of Tzeentch's daemons, it is through these whispers that words of the profane tongue find their way into esoteric grimoires. These tomes in turn whisper in at night, planting the notion of forging pacts with entities of Chaos in the minds of ambitious mortals.[3a]

Scholarly brotherhoods in the Realm of Hysh turn to research obscure languages, the Dark Tongue proves especially popular and it is spoken for the simple thrill of it. The fact that those that speak the tongue begin bleeding from their mouths only heightens the allure of the language among these eccentric scholars.[3a]

In the Nasroan Catacombs, one of these cabals attempts to unlock hidden power by chanting this tongue in secret. Their experiment thins the veil between realities and the will of Tzeentch infects each of them. In silence the infected scholars each head to a different nation, to spread unclean truths to hundreds of nations across the Realms.[3a]

Usage

The runes of this vile tongue are etched into the armour of Chaos Warriors, the runes serve to bolster the wearer's stamina in battle and ward off blows from enemy combatants.[4a] Spells such as Spite-Tongue Curse are spoken in the Dark Tongue and can be used to invoke the power of the Dark Gods.[4b]

Alphabets and Scripts

A Tzeentchian variant of Dark Tongue

In addition to the known Dark Tongue scripts, the Khorne Bloodbound use a unique runic logography that appears to be unrelated. Each Bloodbound rune has eight variations, which makes them useful as kill-tallies in addition to their symbolic meanings.[7a][8a]

Variations

As the Dark Tongue spread across the Mortal Realms, and the Realm of Chaos, it has diverged into at least a thousand different variations.[5a][6a]

  • The versions of Dark Tongue spoken by Slaaneshi daemons are known to be sibilant. Mortal followers of Slaanesh will often slice their tongues into six forks, to better speak the language.[5a]
  • Followers of Tzeentch often use a variant of the Dark Tongue with a flowing script - more suited for writing on scrolls than carving on armour.[9a]
  • The Chaos Furies of the Allpoints speak a garbled form of the Dark Tongue.[2a]

Sources

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