Languages of Experience

Languages of Experience

In the times of Kcymaerxthaere, there were many languages, human and otherwise, spoken by the péra/gavoar¥ (PAY-rezh-ga-voar-‘kt). These are the conversational creatures of the xthaere such as rabansg, xthaedra, and others—including humans. But, of all the tongues, some of the most powerful were the Languages of Experience.

With these languages, the building blocks—the words—were not sounds or texts or shapes, but actual things and experiences. For example, the word for “happiness” was an actual, physical mountain, spoken into existence. (In written form, the name of the experience is contained within brackets, e.g. [mountain].) So, in speaking [falling star], one of the more common Languages of Experience, to say “happiness” one had to actually manifest and create a mountain. Naturally, different kinds of mountains meant different kinds of happiness—depending on the dialect as well. Interestingly, their word for “mountain” was [the buzzing of honeybees in the afternoon]—which meant that when that word was spoken, even at night, the time of day would change and soft light would suffuse the fields. Beautiful and abrupt could be the landscapes left behind from such conversations and monologues.

One of the most well known words of these languages is [the feeling of being sheltered but quite exposed to a high wind], which is the name of one of the fundamentals of Kcymaerxthaere itself, a quality of existence as distinct as Space, Time, Ferylemt, or any of the others. A speaker might manifest a cave, a crevasse or even something like this structure to give that experience. It has long been claimed that Culev Larsze herself spoke such a word in this exact place.

Sitting here, you are protected even on a blustery day. That sensation, of the frontier between the insisting, roaring energy of the wind and the walls’ safe harbor, is the word itself. And this word, with all its physical precision, stands for the countless unique dimensions barely glimpsed in our linear world and from which is woven the very fabric of the xthaere so many cherish. Speakers of the Languages of Experience are rare, and interpreters seldom seen, but for those who think they known not a word, it is often the fully present body that apprehends more clearly that the mind.